Customer Reviews

Art of the 20th Century (Midi S.)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This art book is the most complete description, most detailed analysis, most distinguished book of its kind. It has almost every painter of the twentieth century (and some impressionists of the 19th as well) with his/her's most important works and some not so very well known that show the great variety some painters have. This book is full of color photographs of painters (book 1) and of sculptors (book 2). You've never seen Picasso, Pollock, Kline, Lissitsky, Moholy - Nagy, Dali, Vasarely, and hundreds of other so well before ! At the very end of the second book you have a short biography of EACH AND EVERYONE of the painters and sculptors in the book. This is THE MUST BOOK for every art lover in the world.

any book that attempts to cover western 20th century art deserves to be reviewed with a large dose of charity -- the task is huge and perhaps impossible. however, this two volume set (one volume in the paperback edition) seems to go out of its way to make things harder than they have to be.

as with any taschen publication, the printing standards are exceptionally high. there is a wealth of beautiful and often canonical color images of major works by many artists ... the binding is solid and the text crisply printed. as a visual browse the book is a delight. the concluding biographical "who's who" of artists is a useful resource -- the book is probably worth having for these merits alone.

unfortunately the coverage of artists and movements is alarmingly spotty. there is no coherent, clear exposition of the guiding principles or characteristics of surrealism, abstract expressionism or modernism (e.g., greenberg and fried), l'art informel, arte povera, etc.; no mention of the evolving and interdependent influences of art, art criticism, art markets, intellectual trends and social causes. everything is broken up into discussions of individual artists, which is obstructive because there is no subject index. and artists of the calibre of joan mitchell, andy goldsworthy, lucien freud or john marin (!) are omitted entirely.

worst, the text is larded with fuzzy, inane or fatuous commentary that illuminates or documents nothing and very often fails to connect ideas to the illustrated examples. of frida kahlo: "The moving paintings of this long-suffering artist are socially critical without being aggressive." (the illustrated painting is a self portrait.) of joseph beuys: "Beuys devoted his entire life and energy as an artist to propagating his own inner convictions. It would simply not have occurred to him to put his message up on a sign above his front door." well, what's your point? of valerie export: "The Austrian artist Valerie Export devoted herself in her feminist Actions to historical manifestations of female body language (ill. right)." the illustration referred to shows export wearing a box; what is not explained is that this permits men to grope her bared breasts in public. of chris burden: "Chris Burden set out on a voyage of self-discovery via his own body (ill. below left)." what does that mean? the illustration referred to shows two video captures of burden's face and two figures, one pointing a rifle at the other; what is unexplained is that burden is having himself shot in the arm, or why that is interesting. and on and on ...

it is not all that difficult to select representative or important works of art from the 20th century -- auction prices and critical reputation can guide the way. on that criterion these two volumes are well done. it's quite another thing to illuminate, explain, contextualize and connect the enormously rich history of art over the past 100 years, and that is where this overview is a serious disappointment.

I have several art history textbooks that I had to read for school. I generally like Taschen's books because they are attractive and inexpensive. This book is pretty good, it doesn't put you to sleep when you read it like most books like this. Most books that try to cover painting, sculpture, photography and film over a 100 years or so can be very dry. I would reccommend this book over H.H. Arnason's book that I had to read at the Art Inst. of Chicago. I would recommend this book with Stokstad's Art History text. Stokstad taught a friend of mine at Kansas and I found her book to be a good reference. This book, I think, is written by a European...so, it might be good to have an American and European's view of the same subjects.

A work that attempts as much as *Art in the 20th Century* always gives itself up to the criticism of incompletion, that it left this or that important work or artist out, either through partisanship or ignorance. Lets face it--you simply cannot compile a record of an entire century of art--painting, sculpture, photography--especially not of a century of artists as diverse and prolific and as numerous as those of the 20th without omissions, oversights, or differences of opinion as to who deserves mention, and who doesn't. With that caveat in mind, *Art of the 20th Century* makes a credible attempt at an impossible task. What the authors succeed in doing best is provide a coherent narrative of the major movements in 20th century art and--in their view--it's most representative and groundbreaking practitioners.

For the most part, the text is clearly written although not without bias and the occasional gratuitously dismissive comment. The subjective nature of art criticism in general is never so apparent as when you see critics investing enormous quantities of their own intellectual energy and enthusiasm to "discover" encyclopedic volumes of encoded significance in a black paint blob of a painter they like and barely glancing seriously at a similar black blob of an artist they don't like. Art is rather like responding to a Rorschach test--one's judgments often say more about the critic than the artist. And cultural tastes, as evidenced by the rise and decline in the valuation of artists over time, are likewise very often the measure of the psychology of an age.

Oh well--it's impossible, I suppose, to remain entirely objective in a history of this sort, or to always check your passion when discussing art at any length, in any depth, if you're moved by it at all, but this survey is weakest when the authors' personal opinions get the better of them. The text itself is occasionally awkward and/or convoluted; the paintings weren't always easy to find in the places on the pages indicated, and the typeface is tiny--but the color plates of the art itself are generous and varied. Even a museum has to be selective and ultimately reflects the taste of its curator. And so it is with *Art in the 20th Century.*

All in all, my visit through this particular museum of 20th century art from Manet and the birth of Impressionism to the mid 1990s, from early photography and sculpture to the video age was enjoyable and enlightening--and well worth both the time it took to tour and the price of admission. If I give this book four stars instead of five its only because I can imagine a better book might be written on the subject--but I have to admit that at present I don't know of one.

This is far from the "be-all, end-all guide to art of the past 100 years." In fact, while it does cover a huge number of artists superficially, it leaves out an equally huge number of extremely important 20th century artists, particularly 3-dimensional artists. Where is Ernest Trova? Claude & Francois Lalanne? Chihuly? Where, in God's name, is Duane Hanson, the first and best 3-dimensional Hyperrealist? If you want a superficial and not particularly daring look at 20th century art, this is a decent choice. It is not, however, anything approaching "be-all" or "end-all."

Taschen does it again. This comprehensive guide covers an extrodinary amount of 20th century art beginning with impressionism to the 1990's. Everything from sculpture, painting and photography is gone over here, as well as the movements that changed and influenced them. Full color photos and artist bios included. A little gem of a book. Well fairly large gem, hell, lets call it a 10 pound stone. wonderful good value for the money