Clown Paintings [Hardcover]

Diane Keaton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

The world needs its clowns. It's the clowns of society who make us laugh—sometimes—and who help us view our lives with greater clarity and perspective. Bigger than life, with their exaggerated features and makeup, dressed in their gaudily mismatched and hilariously oversized outfits, clowns refuse to be overlooked. And yet, the portrait of the clown has been all but ignored. Trained to respond respectfully to serious portraiture, we try to read meaning into their big mouths, prosthetic noses, and unruly tufts of hair. Ultimately, the paintings are mysteries: what did amateur artists, who lavished so much time on these iconic images, hope to capture and accomplish?

Clown Paintings is a twisty little illustrated book that showcases 65 outrageous and compelling clown portraits, painted by amateurs and selected by actor-director Diane Keaton. By turns hilarious and heartfelt, joyful and mortifying, these artworks were collected over the years by Keaton, who found herself as mesmerized by their mute eloquence as she was by their bad taste. It's easy to see what drew Keaton to them. They embody contradiction; they're fabulous and horrible, hysterical and dignified, generic yet absolutely specific. And above all—in the grand clown tradition—way out there. The clowns, from whom we expect mischievous, out-of-control behavior, are painted as solemn and decorous subjects to contemplate. Instead of distracting us with brooms, squawking horns, rubber mallets, and slapstick humor, we get the chance to look at them carefully—and to consider how they not only make us laugh, but how they allow us to look more closely at ourselves. And to contemplate the abyss.

PLUS! Clown Paintings includes commentary and observations from America's to comedians and clowns: Woody Allen, Carrol Burnett, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, Eric Idle, Lida Kudrow, Jay Leno, Jerry Lewis, Penny Marshall, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Ben Stiller, Dick Van Dyke, Robin Williams, and more!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This odd book is as much a look into the dark heart of Hollywood narcissism and juice as it is an excellent introduction to a grim, fascinating artistic subgenre. Keaton writes in her introduction that she came across a Don Barclay clown painting at a Pasadena Rose Bowl Swap Meet and "had an epiphany.... All of us have begged for attention and cried out in loneliness. Each and every one of us has been surprised and hurt, over, and over, and over, again and again, just like the exhausting, repeated shock that is the life of a clown." She has been collecting clown paintings ever since, and has become a proselytizer for the unsung genre. Here Keaton has collected 66 wrenching, full-color reproductions along with the responses of fellow thespians to her collection (and the collection of L.A. gallery-owner Robert Berman), since clowns and actors have "all gone for the laugh, sold out on occasion, dressed for effect, and paraded our hearts on our sleeves." Beginning with Woody Allen, Dan Aykroyd and Roseanne Cherri Barr, Keaton's book includes reflections from Ben Stiller ("When someone says `be funny' to me, I immediately want to hide, or punch that person in the mouth"), Steve Martin ("The Sex Life of Clowns") and Lisa Kudrow ("As a performer, I'm mostly associated with `witless' characters. Maybe the disdain is for myself") among many other high-wattage names. This unlikely combination of clown paintings and 33 texts by mostly comedic actors yields irony levels reaching the heights of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm (many comedians hate their close cousins the clowns, and particularly clown paintings)-and is every bit as entertaining and affecting. This "monstrous and hideous" (as David calls it in his contribution) collection should prove a surprise hit and justify Keaton's pounding the pavement in search of these much maligned painted faces.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Diane Keaton is one of Hollywood's leading ladies. Since her screen debut in Lovers and Other Strangers, Keaton has proven to be an extremely versatile actress, director and producer. Her acting career spans three decades, having appeared in over 25 films, including The Godfather trilogy, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Annie Hall (for which she received an Academy Award for best actress), Father of the Bride, and The First Wives Club. Keaton also received Academy Award nomination for her roles in the films Reds and Marvin's Room. She is the director of a number of films including Heaven, Unstrung Heroes, and Hanging Up. Keaton most recently directed, as well as executive produced (along with Columbia Tri-Star and Brad Grey Entertainment) the TV pilot Pasadena. She is the acclaimed author of Mr. Salesman (Twin Palms), Local News (D.A.P.), Still Life (Calloway), and Reservations (Knopf). Keaton lives and works in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: powerHouse Books; 1 edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576871487
• ISBN-13: 978-1576871485
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 0.7 x 11.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #597,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Demi - Gods Of The Sawdust, April 28, 2003

By 

J. E. Barnes - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clown Paintings (Hardcover)

With Clown Paintings (2002), idiosyncratic actor, author, and director Diane Keaton has produced the kind of offbeat creative work that is sorely lacking in American culture today. Clown Paintings is just what is appears to be: a slim compendium of presumably amatuer clown paintings which were happily discovered at swap meets, jumble sales, bargain bins, and thrift stores. What makes Clown Paintings surprising is that Keaton treats the sixty - six paintings as oddball if serious pieces of work, and pointedly avoids treating them as banal, ironic objects of kitsch or high or low camp. Created roughly over a period of thirty years, all of the paintings were made by unknown artists, and many are unsigned, further obscuring their etiology.

Keaton and Los Angeles gallery owner Robert Berman each contribute a brief but fascinating essay. Keaton, a well - known comedian herself, perceives clowns as perpetually bright - eyed innocents and eternally hopeful beings that are easily wounded but fundamentally incapable of learning from negative experience or their own mistakes. Noting that clowns were acceptable enough subjects for Picasso, Beckmann, and Matisse, Keaton believes that clowns images "expose the human experience at its most transcendent on one hand, and on the other, its most tragic." Berman, who thinks "one clown painting alone may look like a silly indulgence," dreams "of a gallery full of clowns, floor to ceiling, walls of clowns - so powerful that the viewers would be overwhelmed."

Keaton has asked a broad range of mostly - American comedians to comment on the subject, including Woody Allen, Don Knotts, Phyllis Diller, Carol Burnett, Ben Stiller, Chevy Chase, Sandra Bernhard, and Jerry Lewis. Not surprisingly, most of those solicited find both clowns and their painted images appalling, frightening, repulsive, or subtle metaphors for psychopathology. With few exceptions, these short commentaries are insightful and touching rather than merely glib or clever. Based on the written selections, it appears clowns are rarely if ever a neutral subject. Like garden gnomes, clowns seem to be "loved by millions, and loathed by millions more."

What Clown Paintings only barely touches upon is the clown as an archetypal trickster figure, a psychopomp, a mythical straddler of at least two conflicting states, a figure perpetually at the crossroads, a subversive, borderland creature who manifests in dreams, childhood memories, literature, popular entertainment, consumerism, world history, and in the gray area of symbol and metaphor. Clowns are and have been everywhere and nowhere at once throughout history, like witches. As with all numinous images, they both reveal and conceal simultaneously. Are clowns predominantly good or predominantly evil? Trustworthy or innately figures of suspicion? Well - intended or conspicuously devious? Social outcasts or masters of their fates? Where does the man end, and the clown artifice begin? Are clowns partially transvestite figures? Or gussied - up memento moris? Like glamorized, inverted modern Medusas, clowns and clown images are capable of eliciting at least a brief fit of paralysis in their audience or viewer.

Despite their apparent obviousness and bluntness, these paintings, which underscore several American traditions, proudly maintain their mystery, even when their dignity seems to be faltering. Regardless of the viewer's discipline or angle of approach, their secrets remain inscrutable and thus safe forever. Curious readers willing to give these pieces their time will be adequately rewarded, for, ultimately, Clown Paintings is an eccentric, funhouse - mirror meditation on the strangeness of being human.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The clowns ability to show feelings and emotion., February 20, 2006

By 

Clown Artist (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clown Paintings (Hardcover)

I love this book. I'm always looking for clown or circus books. As a Clown lover, I share the same passion as Diane Keaton. This book is a great addition to my personal Clown collection. It feels like this book was published just for me. Being a Clown myself and a Clown artist of fine paintings and sculptures,(www.clownartist.com), I appreciate the works by the different artists and what they communicated. These Clowns evoke a myriad of emotional feelings.
I agree with Diane Keaton about how much we have in common with a clown. We have all felt the emotions that we see on a Clowns face.....CLOWN'S EYES SEE TRUST AND ACCEPTANCE. A WORLD OF FRIENDSHIP...GIVEN AND RECEIVED. A CLOWN'S VIEW IS DIRECT...LIFE IS SIMPLE, UNENCUMBERED...SOMETHING HURTS, HE CRIES, SOMETHING PLEASES HIM, HE LAUGHTS, SOMETHING PUZZLES HIM, HE FROWNS, SOMETHING TOUCHES HIM, HE RESPONDS. LIFE CAN BE THAT SIMPLE...FOR A MOMENT.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A special book in my life, November 21, 2002

By 

MarkH_1974 (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clown Paintings (Hardcover)

This book has changed my life for the better! For many years I have had a fear of clowns, in itself an emotional wall put up to deal with my inability to embrace the inner child. My girlfriend on the other hand loves clowns and has been begging me to come to terms with my emotional problems. I used to hide behind the hunstmans rifle in a misplaced attempt to deal with my emotional shortcomings but now things are getting better, and in no small part thanks to this book.

Diane Keaton is familiar to all as a talented Hollywood actress but few will know that she is also a patron of the arts. This book showcases her collection of clown paintings and they are accompanied by the comments and stories from many famous celebrities. The pictures distressed me at first but somehow the warm words of Diane Keaton and the humourous comments of the celebs made me keep coming back. Before long I recognised these paintings for what they truly are, an insight into the very essence of the clown. I see that often behind the greasepaint and oversized shoes there often lies a fragile and passionate soul. In particular a picture in the book entitled 'Let Down' moved me and provided my breakthru moment. It features a clown with his unicycle backstage, just about ready to enter the big top. But his wheel is flat and he cannot go on. A small tear gently rolls down his cheek, making the white and red makeup run a little, as he casts a heartfelt glance at his clown comrades running into the arena. A beautiful, poignant picture which the famous director Alan Smithee summed up as 'moving beyond belief'.

Buy this book and you will not regret it. Beautiful pictures appreciated by beautiful people.