Customer Reviews

Gullah Images: The Art of Jonathan Green

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...and captures the spirit of a people of African descent. Having seen Mr. Green's original canvasses, I can attest to the accuracy and quality of the color reproductions in this book - it is a true feast for the eyes as well as the soul. Every time I open this book (and I do often) it lifts my mood and fills my heart, and always, always, makes me smile - broadly. It is a must have book to have and hold and to gift to others.

a beautiful book of green's work
if you are a fan of his artwork--this book is an excellent compilation in both presentation and accompanying text

This is a perfect coffee table book. It is educational as well as asthetically pleasing.

Growing up in the North, my grandmother often took my sister and I back to South Carolina to experience our "roots". The flavors of the Gullah tradition (custome, food, language, religion) come alive in Jonathan Green's work.

It is given to particular artists to do the impossible. Claude Monet paints light. Andrew Wyeth paints time passing. You can hear Jonathan Green's paintings. In "Bessie Mae", he paints not only the singer, the song itself springs from the canvas. "Silence With The Birds" transfixes the mind, making common imagery so new that you may as well have just been born. Green belongs with those rare artists whose work leaves you seeing and feeling the world in a new way. You can spend an hour with this book, go for a walk and see fresh grace in the movement of the human body, sense something new in your step. All that and more, you will find in this book. There is in every painting the identifiable signature and the present quest - something that goes to your belly, and makes you whole. This is world-class art, visionary, accomplished, redemptive. Green's work expresses the spirit of a people who endured hundreds of years of brutal oppression, created the greatest religious songs in the language and fought a revolution without guns. Here is love, made visible. As in Rilke's poem about Apollo: 'You must change your life."

Conroy has done a splendid job of putting together the works of Jonathan Green. Not only does the book show Green's unique style to best advantage, but includes great information about the Gullah people and the artist. A must have book for anyone interested in the Gullahs or Jonathan Green.

of color and of life. His vivid paintings make you feel glad to be alive

...and captures the spirit of a people of African descent. Having seen Mr. Green's original canvasses, I can attest to the accuracy and quality of the color reproductions in this book - it is a true feast for the eyes as well as the soul. Every time I open this book (and I do often) it lifts my mood and fills my heart, and always, always, makes me smile - broadly. It is a must have book to have and hold and to gift to others.

Jonathan Green is a living icon in the Low Country (Charleston) community. His art work documents the disappearing Gullah community, the community that he grew up in, brought up by his grandmother and aunties. In this book, beautiful color reproductions of daily life, simple everyday events are shown in gorgeous color and detail, a simple palette really. like colors of the rainbow. A heartfelt and personal introduction by Pat Conroy(a nother South Carolina icon) adds meaningful context to this volume.

Jonathan Green is an artist ahead of his time. I especially enjoyed the assortment of skin tones in all of his images. He reminds me of several real life situations and causes me to reflect on past experiences. I hope the set designer for Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls used some of his images. I will look for them when I view the film.

I purchased the book "The Art of Jonathan Green' with the desire to capture and keep some of the southern charm felt and beauty witnessed on a recent visit to Charleston, South Carolina. The book is simply amazing from cover to cover. It is one to be displayed so that all can be captured by the beautiful imagery that reaches from beyond and through each page and touches the soul.