Customer Reviews

All Creatures Great and Small (Gesellschaft, Geschichte, Gegenwart)

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

 

 

This hardback is small for an art book (measures 6 in. wide by 8 in. long), but it is packed with full-color plates of Smith's work. The book seems to have been published in connection with an exhibition at the Kestner Gesellschaft in Germany. The plates include details and installation shots from what appears to have been a large and fairly comprehensive one-person show.

Smith's work is elegant and direct, wide-ranging in subject but closely related in meaning. In his essay, Carsten Ahrens states "Kiki Smith has ....continually hinted at the close proximity between art and the ideas of Catholicism, which are similar in their belief in the spiritual potential of the physical." Though I found most of the essay difficult to digest, I consider that statement a gem. To me, Smith's art is about the frail, feeling, physical world and the force of life itself.

The back of the book features a selection of Smith's iris prints. I was delighted to discover these, as I was unaware that Smith does work in photography. I think they are quite nice, and I am impressed that she is able to work in such a range of mediums.

Though I do not consider the book a substitute for a monograph, it is an excellent resource. One star deducted for photo quality--well-composed but occasionally fuzzy.

Kiki Smith's work may seem impossible to document in book form but this book does a terrific job of conveying the power and delicacy of her art. The reproductions are gorgeous, and the essay is extremely readable. A must for any contemporary art book collection!

Prolific and out on her own sense of self Kiki Smith is jaunting into areas both powerful and perplexing. She's not who you think she is.