Customer Reviews

The Graphic Works of Odilon Redon

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

 

 

I'm a new admirer of Redon. I was truly excited to get this book so I could pour over the many bizarre and beautiful images I would find within it's pages. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am with the poor quality of reproductions. It's a cheap book, I get it---but wow. The image quality is about as good a 10 cent black and white copy you'd get from the library copy machine. The delicacy is missing. The luminous quality which makes his work so stunning, brilliant, and unearthly is completely absent. I guess what was most disappointing is how vacant and lifeless the work appears. I really can't believe it.

Even though there aren't a lot of books available on Redon, but I'm pretty certain this particular one will be returned. I find no joy looking through it. I should have known better than to purchase a $15 art book. I have ordered, but have yet to receive, the Redon book "As In Dream" and here's hoping it's not a let down, too.

Odilon Redon's graphic works are eerie yet beautiful. Many are in the public domain and you may have seen some already (think hot air balloon with an eyeball searching upward). His artistry is a combination of a lonely childhood filled with enormous rooms and heavy drapery, and a desire to draw what the Romantics were writing about. His work is dark but joyful. Many references to the saints and Christianity, but that was the world he lived in. Overall, a treasure to own, occasionally peruse and learn from. If you like smiling spiders this book is for you.