Customer Reviews

Irene Hardwicke Olivieri : Paintings

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Can you gratify the senses while you nourish the soul? In this wonderful book of recent paintings by the contemporary artist, Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, it becomes evident that it would be impossible to do otherwise.

The artfully presented reproductions offer an intimate look at the artist's work over the last several years, drawing us into a rich world of desire and possibilities where the sensual and the spiritual are inextricably intertwined - did we ever really believe the centuries of dogma that insists they are mutually exclusive?

Turning the pages of this book is like rediscovering the contents of a long lost jewelry box. Olivieri's images pin our hearts to the incomprehensible beauty of our fantasmagoric world, sewing them together into a mythology that is, at once, entirely original and peculiarly familiar.

To quote from David Pagel's excellent introduction, "Olivieri's pictures... re-write the story of the Garden of Eden."

For those of us who cannot indulge in the pleasures of purchasing several of the artist's paintings, this book can be a very satisfying substitute

As we often ask of inventors or contortionists, How do they DO that? so we could ask the same of Irene Hardwicke Olivieri about her imagination-snagging paintings. These works awe the eye, tickle the spirit, call into question the viewer's preconceived notions about love, good and evil, perspective, and perhaps most of all--the relationship of all animate life. Olivieri puts a raccoon under a nude's arm, then writes an encyclopaedic definition of the animal's habits down the figure's midrift. Startling titles and amazing scriptography on Olivieri's figures make us wonder why other artists have been too timid or impoverished to use the Blakean technique. Olivieri's art is enticing, riveting, challenging--and downright delightful. You will not look at these pictures without participating!

I first encountered her work in SF just last year. I really wanted to buy one of her pieces similar to the first painting you see on the first page of her website. Since someone else bought the piece I was contemplating, I ended up with her book instead. I really love the paintings, writings, and most of all the symbolism. Irene is a very unique painter and has a very lovely spirit (we have exchanged a few emails). The book is full of delightful images and poetry and one cannot help getting lost in her fantasy-like gardens. I highly recommend this wonderful book for yourself or as a gift to a loved one.

Lavish full color book of paintings full of poetry and beauty. Images of nature and personages intertwined.

This evening I met Irene Hardwicke Olivieri at a lecture she gave in Washington, CT. She showed slides of her work and I examined this book. Her work is so extraordinary, that I came home and had to buy the book, which is a lavish and beautifully done catalogue of her work. I only wish there were three hundred pages instead of sixty. Wonderful, really wonderful.