Customer Reviews

Clyfford Still

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I am a painter who has largely avoided Clifford Still but this book has turned me into a great admirer. Particulary influential was the contribution by David Anfam, the art historian who was responsible for the magnificent, award-winning Mark Rothko catalogue raisonne. Anfam's essay is insightful, far-reaching, beautifully written with poetic underpinnings, a pleasure to read. All you'll ever need to know about Clifford Still, his work, and his place in art history is covered in this essay. The color plates are also wonderful and, even as reproductions, offer a great chance to appreciate the paintings.

An excellent catalogue written by leading authorities on a great artist whose unique body of works has remained hidden in the estate (only about 150 paintings are scattered in public and private collections), and who, as a consequence has been neglected by the general public. It is the only such publication on Clyfford Still to be published since the late 1980's and I strongly recommend it to any art lover interested in the Ab-Ex movement.

A few of my favorite painters are contemporaries of Still, so I saw it as my duty to see the Hirschhorn exhibition. Well, I picked a dead day and had the show to myself and simply put I am now a fan. The book is great and David Anfam's addition to the book is especially enlightening about the work of Still.

Published in 2001, this book is a catalogue of a show that took place at the Hirshorn Museum. The focus of the exhibition is a sixteen year period between 1944 and 1960 when Clyfford Still burst forth upon the American art scene with his bold canvases painted on a truly heroic scale. Together with his peers, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Barnett Newman, they created what became known as the New York School or the Abstract Expressionists.

Although one of the great painters of the Twentieth Century, Still's work is not well known due to severe restrictions he placed upon the exhibition of his work. The Hirshorn Museum show brought together a large collection of paintings from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as well as works from private collectors. At the time, it was the largest collection of his work ever exhibited in one place. The resulting catalogue is the best book published to date on Clyfford Still. The book is beautifully published and is a real joy to look at and read.

In 2004, the City of Denver won the competition to house the Clyfford Still archive in a new museum. Ground breaking is scheduled to begin in 2009. Once the museum is open, it will house 2,400 artworks or 94% of Still's entire creative output. When the museum is finally opened, the general public will for the first time be able to see the full range of Still's genius. One can hardly wait to see the beautiful paintings and read the great book that will one day be published.