Customer Reviews

The Berlin Years

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

 

 

I've seen 3 of these second editions, and the quality of the reproductions is excellent. I mean, I'm not going to be giving my copy of this set to the Frick Collection with the rest of my estate, but they're certainly frame-able. Lovely to look at. Delightful to hold.

I think that I got the maligned second edition of this book. I found that the prints were just fine. I was not expecting these prints to be on par with what would come out of a printing press at an artists studio, so I was not dissapointed. The prints were not off colored or cropped poorly. Shoot, I would have paid the $42 for just a copy of one of my favorite Dzama drawings where some naked ladies in a pool are sketching a sea monster. All the rest was gravy for me. And quite a lot of gravy it is.

Not only do you get around three dozen high quality copies, but you also get an interesting small sketchbook. Dzama and the Royal Art Lodge have been producing several artist style books over the last few years, they are all fun, and this one is just another of the same. I enjoy collecting and playing with Dzamas books and this is one of the more interesting ones.

Perfect. Absurd. Totally irrelevant. Lovely to look at (an ponder-let your mind wander).

This boxed set is an amazing piece and would stand as an amazing gift too. You'll not go wrong here. Especially with the discount that amazon is offering.

Marcel is one of the premier artists of our time. His work will last and haunt you for years to come.

I'm going to venture that the other two reviewers below received probably the few copies that are bound to have a printing error or two. My copy is perfect and flawless. The prints have a weight to them and are totally suitable for framing.

I think people should review Marcel's work. Not the state of their copy. What they did by giving his work one star is discredit his work. What they need to do is return the copy as damaged and get a new copy and properly review that. It's not Dzama's fault or an inconsistency in his work itself that they are feeling negative about, it was clearly a printing issue with their copy. Giving this book one star is wrong. Fix the problem before you write about it.

Let me preface this review by saying that I love the work of Marcel Dzama -- The Berlin Years included. I already own the first edition but decided to buy another copy. However, this re-edition is not up to the same famed printing standards as the original edition. When the first edition was released in 2003, Dave Eggers famously bragged that it was virtually impossible to distinguish between the originals and the reproductions. However, with this re-edition, that is no longer the case. Many of the prints have bands of pink ink running down the margins of the prints and in at least one of the prints the image is printed incompletely -- Dzama's figures cut off mid-body. Poor quality printing. Completely unacceptable for fine art prints. Avoid these prints until McSweeneys get this problem taken care of.

This package containes a) 32 individual, loose-leaf, full-size, high-quality reproductions of Dzama's work, suitable for framing; b) a 32-page Dzama scrapbook, very strange, rare and revelatory; and c)an introduction and interview by Sarah Vowell.