Customer Reviews

Fred Otnes Collage Paintings

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book includes about 9-pages-worth of narrative covering Otnes biography, career, and evolution as an artist. Although brief, the narrative is engaging and informative. A 2-page list of awards, exhibits, commissions, articles and reviews rounds out the text. There are 126 plates spanning about a decade, from 1992 to 2003. No explanation is provided for the selection of works and their order; as such, both appear random.

Otnes' work is sophisticated, elegant, and often, quite sumptuous; each composition tells its own story, full of both real and metaphorical layers. There's an old-world feel to many of his works, with classsical composition, images, texture, and mood. The ghosts of others are often felt: della Francesco, Rembrandt, Picasso, Miro, Rivers. Although Otnes painting, printmaking and assemblage skills are all masterful, his drawing is at the heart of everything, something he readily admits. You can't help but feel it, and its wonderful.

For work that's so freighted with history and depth, one would expect a high quality book. Unfortunately, the Jill Bossert imprint and Madison Square Press is disappointing. The images are serviceable but better photographic precision is needed to faithfully render the layers and textures of collage. Plus, the book binding is so shoddy it's separating from the leaves. And on a practical level, a Table of Contents and Index are both lacking; locating a known work is frustrating. I can't shake the feeling this was a cheaply and hastily produced book. Given the $50 price tag, I expected more and better.

Having said this, I'd still encourage any art lover, student or practicing collage/multimedia artist to buy this book. (better yet, put it on your gift list) Otnes is an artist worth knowing and knowing well. There's enough visual fuel here to send anyone into the stratosphere.

Even though you may not of heard of Fred Otnes, this is a beautiful book that any artist and especially artists that use collage should enjoy and derive inspiration from. Mr. Otnes, an award winning illustrator, has made a masterful leap into the fine art world and we view this development with work from the mid 70's to the present.The reproductions are large and very well done so that we can fully appreciate his unique vision.

I have followed Fred Otnes' career for years, beginning with his work as an illustrator throughout the 70s. He eventually transitioned into fine art collage, and his work never fails to inspire and thrill me. Having seen a definitive exhibit of his work, I can understand the difficulties involved in achieving good reproductions of his subtle and layered collages for this volume. On balance, I think the publisher has done a credible job, and hopefully this book will entice many devotees of mixed media and collage to seek out Otnes' work for themselves. For any artist who has ever struggled with the issue of how to achieve a strong "signature" without an ounce of "formula" -- Mr. Fred Otnes is a master. A "must have" for anyone interested in collage.

Probably one of the few art books I have had from Amazon that I would not recommend. Not a lot of substance here.