Customer Reviews

Bay Area Figurative Art: 1950-1965

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I had the opportunity to see this show in Philadelphia and it absolutely blew me away. Not only does it include Richard Diebenkorn's best work, but it also includes work by Paul Wonner, Elmer Bischoff, Manuel Neri, Nathan Oliveira and David Park (among others). I have drawn endless inspiration from this book and you most likely will too.

Take my advice from one artist to another... this book has impact. It has added so much to my understanding of what I do, and how I view abstracted figurative art in general. I recommend this book to all artists who work in figures. The reproductions in this book are full of color and there is very little to complain about. For those who are not artists, but enjoy reading about the subject, this book fulfills. You read about the artists struggles, success, personal lives and how they came to be THE Bay Area Figurative Artists. Their art, timeless... and this book lends them the respect they deserve but rarely get.

Michael Aldana
www.michaelaldana.com

Bay Area Figurative Art: 1950-1965

This is a wonderful book with a specific emphasis on the bay area figurative scene circa 50's & 60's. It vignettes several artists from the heavily enriched San Francisco Bay Area. I found it a good place to discover some lesser-known artists that played a part of the emerging figurative art movement. This book presents the last stirrings of abstract expressionism into the birth of a newly re-discovered figure. If you enjoy the works of Richard Diebenkorn , David Parks, Paul Wonner, Joan Brown, Elmer Bischoff, you may find a few other artist in this book to investigate further.

Caroline Jones has done a stunning job, in her book 'Bay Area Figurative Art', of defining and chronicaling the counter movement, to abstract expressionism, of representational, figurative art, in California, from 1950-1965. The book was originally published as the catalogue for the 1989-1990 exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
For the student as well as the established artist, this book is indispensible as a reference in understanding the dynamics and art of David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bishoff and James Weeks and the others who followed. The color illustrations are excellent. It's a shame the book is not in hard-cover; with that and in a larger format, it would be ideal for the art officiando as an interesting/informative library addition. The Chronolgy and Notes sections are extensive and add to the informational whole.

I was fortunate to attend this exhibit when it opened at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. After hours upon hours of looking at the nagnificent works of art, I rushed to the Museum store to purchase a copy. This book clearly identifies 3 generations of Bay Area figurative painters, starting w/ Hasel Smith and David Park, and finishing with Manuel Neri and Joan Brown. The book has many photos on each of the artists works, and bios, and a little history how this movement came about. I still look at this book all the time, and that alone is a tribute to its lasting qualities.

American art can lay claim to many of the roots of art history changes but no group of artists has had such a lasting impact than the group now labeled the Bay Area Figurative Artists. The period of 1950 - 1965 is covered carefully in this very well produced and written book, filled with rich color images and drawings of those who comprised this inner sanctum that changed abstract expressionism to Figurative Expressionism. The members of his conclave include David Park, Theophilus Brown, Elmer Bishoff, Richard Diebenkorn, James Weeks, Paul Wonner, Nathan Oliveira, Wayne Thiebaud and their disciples Bruce McGaw, Manuel Neri, Joan Brown, Raimonds Staprans - a group that continues today with artists such as Christopher Brown and Ursula O'Farrell.

The drive among these artists was to find an emptiness in nonobjective painting and instead return to the figure and the landscape, employing many of the technical strokes and approaches as the abstract expressionists, but adding a sense of the strange light that is found in the Bay Area. Both the writing by Caroline Jones and the magnificent color reproductions make this the definitive volume on this important artist group whose impact on the art of America is still being felt. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, March 11

I am an artist who works with watercolor crayon. An artist friend of mine recently told me about the West Coast figurative abstraction movement. I knew very little of it, so I ordered this book. I've only read a little of the text (I don't have much interest in critical essays on art).

The painting reproductions profoundly impacted my work. I studied them quite a bit, and they continue to influence me. I particularly liked David Park's and Elmer Bischoff's work. I'm very happy I got this book. It helped invigorate my creative process and clarify for me where I'm wanting to move in my work.

This book is a wonderful addition to the library of all figurative painters. The quality of the images is excellent. A lively and educational text makes reading the book as satisfying as looking at the pictures.

This book is the best, most complete view of the Wast Coast Figurative School. Great color plates.