Customer Reviews

Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here it is - the coffee-table book of eye-twisters!

Don't misunderstand, here - it's not the complete works of Escher, with all the best Dali and a couple of others thrown in. This volume contains only a very few examples of the most powerful works of a handful of major mindtwisting visual artists.

No, it's not just a gallery. Instead, what we have are explanations - the "why?" of Escher, the "what?" of Dali, and the "how the -?" of modern shadow-sculptures. (The sailing-ship of scissors on the back must be seen.) The origins and evolution of the school of illusion are described in detail, but in such a way that the reading is far from dry.

Buy it. You won't regret it.

This is a beautiful and amazing book. Twenty artists are represented. They are not only superb artists but also Leonardo da Vincis in their cleverness. A piece of complete junk, when looked at from another angle, turns out to be a miniature grand piano. You will spend hours on not only the art but on the brilliantly clever images.And the book directs you to web sites for further exploration. The most enchanting art book I have ever seen--and at the price, it is a steal. BUY IT!!!

The other reviewers are on the mark but there are 2 regrettable omissions:
1. The Art of Bev Doolittle.(???) In my opinion her work easily outshines several of the artists in the all male lineup chosen for the book. What was he thinking?
2. A CD containing moving pictures. After the book was published the author created this web site:
http://neuro.caltech.edu/~seckel/mod/
Where he explains:
"There are a number of incredible artistic works featured in Masters of Deception, which require movement to appreciate their full impact. Additionally, I had in my possession various interviews with some of the book's featured artists that I wanted to share with my readership. Unfortunately, the publisher was unwilling to produce a CD to accompany the book. I have created this web site, therefore, to augment and enhance the reader's experience by presenting those works and interviews that I could not present in book form."
Don't miss this web site.

Length:: 0:35 Mins

This book is a delightful treat to anyone who loves optical illusion.

Here's a quote from the author, Al Seckel, in the introduction:

<quote start>

In researching and presenting optical illusions to wide audiences, I have found that their effect on people is very primal. It does not matter how old they are, how artistic they are, how intelligent they are, what their background or culture is; people just love optical illusions and enjoy being deceived in a delightful and surprising way.

<quote end>

He has done a terrific job at research on the subject, collecting over hundreds of paintings all the way back from the 16th century. Many of the optical illusions found on the Internet are just extensions or interpretation of these masterpieces.

There are 20 artists featured in the book. Every one comes with a well written introduction and a gallery of their best work. While the book can't print all the art work for each artist, it has packed enough to entertain for hours. Each is also captioned to explain the idea and inspiration behind.

There's an incredible array of artistic style used in creating optical illusions. There's Escher who plays with perspective, Shigeo Fukuda who works with light and shadow and many more.

This is a very entertaining book.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

Overall this is a fascinating book, interesting to read and fun to look through the pictures. My only complaint is with a few of the images which are too small to appreciate. 2 x 4 inches is not sufficient to enjoy Escher's detailed graphics, and I found myself using a magnifying glass at times. Thankfully this is the exception, and many images are almost full-page size. Even if you know nothing about art, this is an enjoyable book, because you will find yourself amazed by the clever images.

Buying Masters of Deception was the best $25 investment I have made in years! I wish all my investments gave me as much knowledge and pleasure as this book did. C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S to Al Seckel!!!
I, like the author, have been fascinated with illusions ever since I was a child. In fact, I have been studying illusions for the past 20 years as a scientist in visual perception. Thus, I was familiar with most of the artists, but the value of the book is that, in addition to the well known ones, it has a remarkably wide range of other top artists, and great illustrations. (I am also a big fan of Douglas Hofstadter, and I enjoyed his Foreword.)

Wow - I chose this based on the chorus of 5 star reviews, submitted by others who seem much more knowledgeable in this field than I, and I am NOT disappointed! This is a great looking book - big, hardcover, suitable for your coffee table. As stated in other reviews, the book has a nice sampling of well known artists, plus an array of fun illusions, and EXPLANATIONS, which is something I had not seen in other books of illusions. This is just a very nice book, meeting the hype, and worthy of your coffee table or anybody else's for that matter .. definitely gift-worthy.

Not quite what I was expecting from other reviewers.But still well worth 5 stars plus.

For a start it is not a coffee book with pictures to be leafed through when bored. The writing is central to the book; explaining that vision itself is deception before considering deception in art (which is all , in turn, deception by definition).

Then the author makes no attempt at an exhaustive history of optical illusions in art. He gives us a delightful cameo of Giuseppe Arcimboldo whose paintings of faces made of fruit can be seen in Vienna, I think. Then its pretty well a leap straight to the 20th century with Dali, Escher and several living artists.

I was never really a fan of Dali , an opinion based on the single big canvas to be seen in most galleries.But some of the Dalis in this book such as hand painted twin stereoscopic images are stunningly clever. And the other artists are often even more clever;just astoundingly so! Just what imagination and skills do you need to make sculptures of impossible 3 dimensional figures?

Theres no attempt to give an exhaustive list of op artists and everyone will quibble about one or two artists covered, but the overall theme of the book is excellent.

By the way, the book is outstanding value on Amazon and has a back-up web site which I must visit soon!

Quibbles? Well some time serious artistic works are going to have to more than tip their caps to Magic Eye programmes for achieving what Psychology text books said was completely impossible: 3D images in colour from one single 'picture'.

I teach high school freshmen, and I keep this book on my shelf for students to look through on their own time. It is easily one of the most popular books, and after only three years the wear is beginning to prove this. I don't know how many times I have dropped it off at a student's table because they were bored, and dared them to not find something interesting in the book. Without fail, a students will be engrossed in the book within minutes.

One of the best features about this book compared to other books of its kind is that it contains dozens of examples of dozens of various types of art. Beyond the typical optical illusions, it features trompe d'loeil murals, artwork created with hair or chocolate syrup, artwork that can only be viewed with a reflective cylinder, and much more. As I mentioned before, nearly everyone will find something fascinating in this book.

Boy!,Al Seckel and Steling Publishing have really produced a first class book here.This is an oversized book which introduces us to 20 artists who have created some of the most startling art imaginable.Although several of the artists are often seen in books on optical illusions,we now see many more ,and many for the first time for me.
It's hard to pick a favorite,and really there's no reason to;but I was particularly taken by the work of Ken Kowlton.His mosaics using seashells,Braille,dice,spools of thread,pentominoes,symbols from decks of cards,etc., are fantastic.One real imaginative piece uses 32 sets of Tangrams to create Jerry Slocum,the leading authority and collector of mechanical puzzles.
If you enjoy puzzles,art,optical illusions,graphics,etc.,you'll love this book.I have never come across such a collection of this artwork in one book.
This book was produced by Sterling Publishing,and in my opinion the premier publishers of puzzle books.It should become the definitive book covering optical illusions.
Included are the e-mail addresses and web sites of several of the artists.In addition to this is a list of selected reading.
On behalf of all those who enjoy optical illusions and related artwork,I'd like to thank Seckel and Sterling for producing this excellent book.