Customer Reviews

Kent Williams: Amalgam

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Kent Williams, Amalgam: Paintings & Drawings, 1992-2007, with text by Edward Lucie-Smith and Julia Morton, is the most comprehensive collection of Williams' work to date. From 1983-1985, Williams was a regular contributor to Marvel Comics' Epic Illustrated. Williams was the regular cover artist for Vertigo's Hellblazer in 1990-1991. This always fascinating artist has incorporated the best of both worlds of illustration and fine painting, drawing from the extremes of imagination usually the purview of the graphic novel illustrator and then blending those dream states or nightmares into luxuriant color and formal compositions that find his paintings growing in influence and frequent exhibitions throughout the country.

Williams paints with a keen eye on the subject of each painting - usually a human form and then usually a nude female form - refining his observations of anatomy very well, allowing him to spread his wilder pigment approaches to the periphery or setting for his image. His canvases are luxuriously rich in color and motion: nothing is still for a moment without the eyes traveling to try to organize the matrix as keenly as the artist has rendered his observed model. At times his subjects become surreal, splitting in fragments with broad swipes of thick impasto paint. He often references older painters in this works, artists such as Rodin, Egon Schiele, Odd Nerdrum and other contemporary painters in the range of Jenny Saville or Cecily Brown and Yongbo Zhao who deal with the figure in dark, erotic ways. He is an artist who once seen becomes unforgettable and this book is an especially fine monograph, especially with Edward Lucie-Smith's always enlightening essays. Grady Harp, May 11

I bought this book for my son who is majoring in Animation in college. He was looking for a design book with illustrations and beautiful, inspiring artwork. He really enjoys it and says many of his fellow students own the same book because it is considered to be a classic in his visual arts college.

what makes the artist is the background you learn to what the inspiration is or was when making the art. well made book, great pictures and insightful. look forward to more. thanks

I had always hoped someone would publish a book on this fine artist. Williams is a wonderful painter and this book portrays his work nicely.
If you happen to be a fan of Kent Williams, buy this book. You won't be disappointed.