Customer Reviews

Douglas Tilden

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I agree wholeheartedly with Amazon.com's previous outstanding review of this book. As a mother of a Deaf youngster who, has seen first-hand Tilden's magnificent sculpture - along with the latter being accorded landmark status in the CA Bay area especially - it doesn't get any better than this. Also, Tilden's deafness issue becomes truly inconsequential insofar as his art. Like many gifted artists who are deaf, it is the masterpieces that speak for themselves - not what a cuture or society would deem a so-called disabiity as "abnormal." And, of course, as the superb author, lecturer, teacher, and business woman - Temple Grandin - might say (paraphrasing straight out of her wonderful book, "Thinking In Picutres"): Genius, after all, is in fact an abnormality because it is often outside the scope of what society usually considers "normal." This book is one of the most rare and collectible works of art ever released in this century. It has brought us more joy than we could ever describe in words.

This volume is beautifully illustrated, printed on thick smooth stock, and written in a brilliant style by the author. Her subject, Tilden, was indeed a master sculptor, and despite being deaf, and having a difficult personal life later in his career, Tilden managed to give the bay area some of it's greatest public works. He was also master of the male form and crafted his heroes in postures that accentuated their attitudes, as much as their physiques. Among his finest works is the "Mechanics Monument" which is a magnificent bronze at the corner of Bush and Market Streets in San Francisco. That work is 100 years old and still turns heads on the boulevard.