Divided Portraits: Identity and Disability (Hardcover)

by Hilary Cooper (Author), VSA Arts (Author), Jean Kennedy Smith (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"She brings a keen painter's eye to bear. . . . The result is often striking: how the subject exists as well as looks."-James Salter

"Whether focused on a landscape or the human features, the result is an enchantment."-George Plimpton

Beautiful and inspiring portraits create a new image and identity for disability, showing grace, beauty, strength, and resolve. In portraiture, as in most human interactions, the head-indeed the eyes-are the first thing noticed. But confronted by a person in a wheelchair, the viewer's focus shifts to the chair. This work challenges any assumption of difference, illuminating Christopher Reeve's protest after his accident-"I am still me!"-and emphasizing that able-bodied or disabled, humanity is innate to us all. The book accompanies a traveling exhibition of the paintings, drawings, and sculptures.

A New York-based fine artist specializing in portraiture and landscape, Hilary Cooper has been featured in numerous exhibitions and collections, as well as editorials in The New Yorker and Art News. Among her commissioned works are portraits for Erica Jong, Ed Koch, Kimberly Rockefeller, and Patricia Hearst Shaw.

Jean Kennedy Smith, founder of VSA arts, was the US ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998, and has received numerous awards for her many contributions to the issue of disabilities.

Roxana Robinson is a noted writer, the author of the acclaimed biography of Georgia O'Keefe and five other books, including four New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

About the Author
Hilary Cooper is a New York-based artist specializing in portraiture and landscape. She has been in numerous shows, including 1992's Paris Review and the 2004 HERE Arts Center. She has also been featured in numerous collections, editorials, and commissioned works, including commissions for Erica Jong, Kimberly Rockefeller, and Patricia Hearst Shaw, and editorials in the New Yorker.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Umbrage Editions; 1 edition (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884167640
• ISBN-13: 978-1884167645
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,107,659 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very special book, July 10, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Hilary Cooper is an obviously gifted, professionally accomplished, and artistically elegant portrait painter that has included among her subjects such celebrities as Matheissen, Salter, George Plimpton, Patti Hearst and former New York Mayor Ed Koch. When Hilary was in an accident that left her a quadriplegic for life she battled hard to regain enough use of her limbs to embark on making a series of portraits of people with disabilities in order to counter the perception that the disabled are somehow fundamentally different from everyone else. "Divided Portraits: Identity And Disability" is the result of her project. Enhanced with an introduction by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith and a particularly thoughtful essay by Roxana Robinson, "Divided Portraits" combines brief biographical sketches of Hilary's selected subjects along with her full color portraits of them. A very special book, "Divided Portraits" would make an excellent addition to academic library American Art History shelves, and an especially appropriate Memorial Fund collection for community libraries.