Customer Reviews

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This has to have been one of the most eagerly-awaited books for animation pros and fans in a long while....and although Canemaker usually does a terrific job writing and editing animation tomes, he's done a frankly poor job here. Considering that Mary Blair is justly famous for her brilliant(in more ways than one)use of color, the reproductions are not good at all. The text is not only rehashed from Canemaker's much superior "Before the Animation Begins"(which has a chapter on Blair), it's awkwardly shortened here. As a matter of fact, the book itself-text and pictures-is ridiculously slim, given the sale price, and the fact that this will probably stand as the only book about the subject.

As another reviewer mentioned, Mary Blair did much more work than is represented here, particularly her children's illustration. It's mystifying as to why the author didn't include or couldn't find many, many more worthy examples of Blair's work to include, when in any month on Ebay, one can bid on some eye-popping merchandise(scarves, for one!), magazine illustration, greeting cards-and even original work-that has no representation here. It appears he merely asked two or three collector friends he knows for permission to publish what they owned, but that's it. A real shame and a pity. Still, diehards will have to have it(as I do)on their shelves-but this artist deserved a LOT more than this lazy, slapdash volume.

Having seen some of Mary Blair's original masterworks firsthand, and having been a Disney fan all of My Baby Boomer life, I was thrilled to hear that the wonderful writer and historian- animator, John Canemaker was at long last going to write "the definitive study" about the remarkable Mrs.Blair. My anticipation was instantly dashed when I opened the book, and saw the consistantly murky, greyed and even out of focus reproductions of Blair's incomparable work. For instance, a Blair bedroom set design for an unrealized Duke Ellington Broadway stage musical was changed so much by the inept color separation/printing that all of the very vibrant pinks, hot yellows and vivid lime greens were not at all in evidence, and the image is instead seen as if through a deep grey filter.. The essay also deserved MANY more illustrations of her actual work, and fewer of snapshots of persons boarding airplanes for South America, images of her fellow workers or repetitive (and even poorly scanned/ moire pattern laden) images for Pall Mall cigarettes. HER TRUE ART SEEMS TO BE MISSING HERE! Blair's great genius in her conceptual art for Disney, was being able with her incomparable understanding of COLOR and emotion to convey excitement and cinematic wonderment. This slim, somewhat repetitive and empty (BUT WELL WRITTEN!) book should be redesigned, rethought and certainly republished to emphasise the true colors of the rainbow minded Mrs.Blair. She deserves a better tribute, one that is more true to her spirit and verve.

the reviewer who states this book is a disappointment is dead on. i'm a fan of blair and eagerly awaited this book's arrival. i'm astounded at the amount of work not represented here, especially considering the price. blair was an AMAZING colorist and the poor reproductions don't do her work justice.

Well, after a few of the reviews below I fully expected this to be a big disappointment, but, as one of the negative reviewers put it, the book had to be owned. I'm a big fan of Mary Blair's work.

OK, book arrives in the mail (thanks Amazon) and lo and behold it's just swell. Problems with color reproductions?--well, if the same high standards were applied to about 70% of the art books sold here online--the ones that run UNDER $100--then few would pass muster. Heck, it took me most of last year to scrounge a long-out-of-print copy of a Max Ernst book that was the ONLY one I'd ever encountered where the color was even remotely right. Honestly, the color quality in this Mary Blair book is just fine--a tiny bit muted here and there is about the worst I can say, and no different than a lot of books that feature production art, including some published by Disney.

Otherwise, I had no problem with the text (heck, if another reviewer hadn't pointed out that it was largely pulled from something else Canemaker had written about her, I never would have known--and why should the guy rewrite what he's already written anyway?) and the background info, along with production photos are very informative. I'm sure there were problems with rights to some things some of these reviewers wanted to see but maybe they also had evaporated. Heck, I did plenty of concept work that I never saw again and might be hanging on the wall of some project manager or something. Who knows? This isn't art gallery work.

So, more perfect book? Sure! A 300 page Mary Blair complete would suit me just fine and I'd find the $100 to pay for it. I'd also like to see ANY extensive Winsor McCay Little Nemo just stay in print for fives minutes and the world hasn't seen a decent Gluyas Williams or Rowland Emett book in nearly 50 years (an if you don't know who either of those guys are it's because there hasn't been a decent book in print for way too long--not having a big and modern Rowland Emett is just plain criminal!). While I'm at it, how about any Arthur Rackham repro that's even a vague ghost of the originals! Ah, for a perfect world!

I have to say, considering the influence and role of Mary Blair at Disney this book is a real disservice to her and her legacy. At 110 pages it barely skims the surface of her artwork. This is the reason I am giving this book 3 stars.

The book is cloth hardback with a dust cover and the pages are a nice paper stock and no printing issues that I detect, except that sometimes I get the impression the color isn't as vibrant as it should be. However, no pixilation.

The book is divided into the following chapters:

Mary's World (introduction)
Watercolor Years
South of the Border
Surprise Packages
The Big Three: Cinderella, Alice & Peter
Freelancing
Small World and Beyond

The text is minimal in this Canemaker title and sometimes I wish the images were larger (especially murals) in many instances.

If you are a fan of Mary Blair's then you should pick this up as it is the only book on her artwork. I'm hoping that one day someone does justice to Ms. Blair's life and work and produces a large and beautifully printed coffee table book.

She's one of the legendary artists at Disney, still influential even to this day. I just wish there are even more images in this book. I don't buy the book to read, I buy it because I want to see her art.. She's an artist, let her artwork speak. I'm giving it a four star because this is practically the only book about her that I can find. If anyone else wants to find more of her work in Disney, try scouring the Disney art-of books for some color keys, and character designs.

Beautiful and unique look into the life and developed portfolio of a retro animator. This book is nostalgic, child-like awe packaged. Wonderfully whimsical images.

If you're interesting in Blair's work, this is a nice book, but it's not worth the sudden massive price jump it's taken. (I can only guess it's gone out of print) $45, yes. But these $90+ prices, no.

I stupidly delayed buying this book based on reviews from people who have been lucky enough to see Blair's work in person. The thing is, printers can only do so much. They have a total of 4 colors to work with, and can never ever perfectly recreate a painting's true brightness and color. There's a reason people go to museums to see paintings in person. The print quality is frankly, just fine. Nothing sticks out as horribly off or awkward. It has far more content in it that you could ever hope to find just looking online, so I certainly don't regret this purchase.

The NYU Animation Professor and Academy Award Winning Animator John Canemaker has an easy job creating a great book when the subject matter is Mary Blair. Luckily, he chose to create the sort of animation porn we are looking for when it comes to the Disney master. The book is full of gorgeous plates interspersed with well-researched writing. This books walks the line between being a great academic book about an often overlooked Disney master and a gorgeous coffee table book. Buy the book for any reason, you won't be disappointed!

This book is a must for any student of Disney. I am certain a bigger book of Mary Blair could be produced, but you cannot pass this up.

The only thing that weighs on me is the story of the end of her life. Pages 98-100 are absolutely heartbreaking. I shutter to imagine what her family's homelife was like. A woman with this spirit and lively vision deserved a better end.

As much joy as this book brings to me... it carries an bittersweet edge that stays with me.