Customer Reviews

Big Eye Art: Resurrected & Transformed

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

 

 

Was really hoping for a fuller collection of all the many talented big eye artists out there, but sadly, just a sad collection of fantasy fairy art and paintings of blythe dolls. The technique and skill of most of the artists is very crude and naive, and is reads more like a "best of" of a high school Fairy art.

There could have been SO many amazing artists included in here that weren't; was very disappointed in the curation of the artists involved. No Audrey Kawasaki, no Camilla D'Errico, no Mark Ryden. These are artists that should have been front and foremost featured in this book, and yet, nary a mention! I also wanted a larger retrospective collection of the original big eye artists; Keane and such were mentioned, but I would have appreciated a fuller history and gallery of their art to contrast the contemporary pieces to.

Was really wanting to like this book; I was so happy to see it arrive as a present, but now considering exchanging it for a book like Hunt/Gather or something more selective from Juxtapoz.

I bought this book because I became interested in the big eye art due to the fact that I have been making dolls, and I was curious what other artist have been doing with this art style. I even started to draw a big eye drawing and I freaked myself out because it seemed creepy like those baby pageants with the two to five year old girls in the provocative clothing, make-up and wigs, and I came to ask myself is this the type of art work a pedophile is attracted to? Some of the art work is abstract enough the subject matter does not really look like children so I did not find it offensive, but some, especially jasmine Becket-Griffith's art look so child like and so provocatively posed it almost smacks of child porn, and yet she seems so popular. I think she paints beautifully, but is this art work pandering to pedophiles? As for Kelly Haigh, whats with the dead animals as subject matter. Art work an animal lover would hate. Isn't there enough animal suffering in the world, you have to put it in your paintings too, sicko. As for the rest of the artist not so bad, some I actually like, a lot.

From an art perspective particularly self taught artists, the images are beautiful in detail and colour, and perfect as a reference for anyone wanting to learn and practise this lovely artform.

This is a great book for big-eye-fantasy art lovers. The book has a good amount of pages and has mostly artwork. It has multiple artists and a quick overview of who they are followed by some of their art work.

The 1950s fostered a new movement in mass-produced art, known as 'big eye', with artists from Margaret Keane to Mark Gleason producing wide-eyed characters to capture hearts and imaginations. Over a hundred works by over twenty fantasy artists, with new and seasoned, are featured in a survey of the emergence and trends of fantasy art, BIG EYE ART RESURRECTED & TRANSFORMED. Any serious college-level art library needs this.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch