Jack Vettriano [Hardcover]

Anthony Quinn (Author), Jack Vettriano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

In December 2003 the painter Jack Vettriano, a coalminer's son, met his parents off the train from Scotland on his way to collect an OBE. Over the last few years Vettriano has had a meteoric rise to fame -- emerging from the unlikely background of the Scottish coalfields, unknown and untutored, he has become Scotland's most successful and controversial contemporary artist. Appearing on posters and cards, mugs and umbrellas, prints of his work outsell Van Gogh, Dali and Monet and his paintings have been acquired by celebrities around the world. 'The Singing Butler', Britain's most reproduced painting, fetched a record GBP744,800 at auction in April 2004. Vettriano's images have an often mysterious narrative and are a gateway to an alluring yet sinister world. Daylight scenes of heady optimism, painted against backdrops of beaches and racetracks, are counterbalanced by more disquieting canvases of complex night-time liaisons in bars and clubs, bedrooms and ballrooms. Both sexes are clearly styled -- the men hard-edged and mysterious, the women seductive and enigmatic. Yet beneath the confident posturing, Vettriano recognizes our inherent human frailty, that there is no victor in the struggle between duplicity and desire. Men and women are ultimately trapped by the machinations of intense love and passion with little control over their destiny. 'Jack Vettriano' presents about thirty new images, as well as some recently surfaced works, plus the best of the paintings previously published in 'Lovers and Other Strangers' and 'Fallen Angels', also by Pavilion. In March 2004 Melvin Bragg's The South Bank Show broadcast a programme dedicated to Jack entitled Jack Vettriano: The People's Painter. Reissued in smaller user-friendly format.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The aura of his alluring paintings is delectably noirish… high–gloss fantasies that gift wrap heartache.” -- Booklist, for Lovers and Other Strangers

From the Publisher

Jack Vettriano emerged from the coal fields of Scotland, unknown and untutored, to become Scotland’s most successful contemporary artist. Prints of his work outsell those of Van Gogh, Dali, and Monet, and his paintings have been acquired by celebrities around the world. For its cover piece on Vettriano, BOOKLIST wrote: “Each of his sexy canvases is like a movie still, freezing a moment of seduction or confrontation. Elegant men and women, armed with cigarettes and cocktails, enact ritualized scenarios in which no amount of exposed flesh can inspire genuine intimacy.” This gorgeous monograph presents more than 30 new images, some earlier work never before seen, and a selection of the finest of Vettriano’s previously published paintings.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 191 pages
• Publisher: Pavilion (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1862056463
• ISBN-13: 978-1862056466
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,585,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Justice for Vettriano, August 16, 2005

By 

Celia Rose (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jack Vettriano (Hardcover)

This covers a broad range of his work, I'm very pleased with the size and content. There is barely any text in this book, other than titles of his work and short intros to chapters, the images speak for themselves.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sumptuous volume, January 14, 2008

By 

Benjamin (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Jack Vettriano (Hardcover)

The introduction and subsequent text is very brief, and provides a glimpse into the artist's background and rise to success. The text makes little if any critical comment about the artist's work, perhaps leaving the paintings to speak for themselves. The book concludes with a list of the artist's paintings and exhibitions. The book really is all about the pictures.

There are about 160 full colour reproductions of Vettriano's paintings of which about half dozen are small images illustrating the text, there are over thirty full page bleed pictures many of which in fact amount to a page and a half and include one double page spread (the best in the book?). However the bulk of the illustrations range from almost full page images to those which occupy about half a page or occasionally less. The quality of the reproduction is excellent, and the varied and attractive layout suits the images well, bold yet without detracting from the work.

For those of us who are perhaps used to seeing Vettriano's paintings merely as small reproductions adorning cards and the like, it is a revelation to see them produced so well and to a good size. Seeing them so it is easy to label his technique as commercial and slick; but there is no denying the immediate appeal and impact. Whether or not you are a fan of this Scottish artist this is a book worth having, it shows the range of his work, from the dark and sensual to some very appealing high key paintings. Altogether it is a most sumptuous volume.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art that's easy to enjoy, May 13, 2008

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Jack Vettriano (Hardcover)

You may well have seen Vettriano's "The Singing Butler," or other of his elegant paintings - but that doesn't mean you've heard of him. This book takes care of that. It covers eighteen years of his career, 1987 to 2004. It shows what you missed, and probably a few images you saw but never connected to the others.

Vettriano's images go beyond Hopper's. They have much of the same graphic quality but, where Hopper so often addressed solitude or loneliness, Vettriano frequently depicts depicts desperation under a cracking veneer of elegance. Many of these paintings capture some moment in a story of intimacy for sale, or of intimacy between the wrong people - the moment that culminates the story so far, and that sets the direction of the story to come. In those pictures, the underlying cheapness of motiviation contrasts sharply with the graciously dressed (or graciously undressed) actors moving their roles forward. The anachronism of ballroom grace and mid-twentieth-century fashion gives the modern viewer enough distance to see the glossy finish as well as tawdry underside. Without asking forgiveness, Vettriano explains how beauty and a moment of passion can lead people down paths that they'll later regret.

Not all of the imagery carries that dark edge, though. Vettriano does equally well with sunny couples in happy, if adult kinds of love. In many cases, only the painting's title tells the viewer whether or not to approve - and somehow, that makes disapproval that much harder. Vettriano's work has been called "populist" and "undemanding." So be it. Holding wide appeal isn't such a bad thing, and neither is work that easily yields its meaning.

-- wiredweird