Customer Reviews

Asaro: A New Romanticism

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

 

 

This books contains the work of John Asaro, who follows and clearly imitates the technique and style, even the compositions, of the painter Joaquin Sorolla.

He takes a step forward, using the color technique introduced by Pierre Bonnard both in oils and watercolours, together with interesting construction of tonality using planes instead of the traditional "sfumatto".

The result is excellent, extremely interesting for those concerned with tonality and colour theory, with good illustrations in size and quality. For sure, those who like Sorolla will find a nice surprise in this book. I highly recommend it.

The paintings are marvelous. I just wish there were some technical information.

I opened the first few pages and was really excited about reading the biography part and thought the whole book would be helpful for explaining techniques. The rest were paintings. There was no information on why or what was special about the paintings. So I was a little disappointed. The paintings were exceptional. So anyone who can't visit museums should buy this book.

I opened the first few pages and was really excited about reading the biography part and thought the whole book would be helpful for explaining techniques. The rest were paintings. There was no information on why or what was special about the paintings. So I was a little disappointed. The paintings were exceptional. So anyone who can't visit museums should buy this book.

Asaro's juicy-colorful painting style calls to mind spanish painter Juaquin Sorolla.

This book is OK, reproductions are fine, but a review of a book of this sort ends up being a review of the artist's work. The guy does some nice color studies, kind of analytically. I suspect he works from photos because a lot of the paintings have a traced look (but with, as I said, very studiously scientific color transitions), and the one charcoal drawing from life they print is downright awful (terrible proportions and no volumn). He's obviously imitating Sorolla, a contemporary of Sargent's who is really good, even to the kids on the beach subject matter. Sorolla's scenes look real, Asaro's look artificial, mainly due to the over-saturated candy colors, but there is also a contrived, impersonal quality to the work, as though he is demonstrating color theory. Most painters have a copy of this book on their shelves, though, and Asaro is considered instructive.