Customer Reviews

Mikhail Vrubel: The Artist of the Eves (Great Painters Series) (Great Painters Series)

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_Mikhail Vrubel_, published by Aurora Arts, Leningrad, is an impressive 9 1/2" by 13", 259-page folio. It offers a comprehensive coverage of Vrubel's works, and could serve as an excellent introduction of this remarkable, yet little known Russian artist to the Western arts connoisseur. A few major drawbacks, however, prevent the book from accomplishing this purpose. The introduction, authored by a distinguished art historian, Dr. Mikhail Guerman, would be unintelligible to anyone who is not conversant in Russian art and literature, as it overflows with cultural references. Yet more alarming is the obscenely poor quality of the reproductions, as anyone who has ever had a chance to view the originals would immediately know. This poor quality prevents one from appreciating Vrubel's most remarkable feature: his obsession with detail, the almost mosaic quality of his paintings. Needless to say, those already familiar with Vrubel's work would also want to avoid this unjustifiably highly-priced volume.