Customer Reviews

Modern Art 1851-1929: Capitalism and Representation (Oxford History of Art)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This review concerns the quality of the Kindle Edition of this book which I purchased in August 2011. The digital transfer is extremely poor quality and the book is difficult to read on a Kindle and on Kindle for PC.

The only positive thing I can say about the transfer is that any typographical errors from the scanning process have been corrected. Word and letter spacing are consistent and numbers and letters are not confused.

The formatting of the table of contents is strange and choppy and the text formatting is no better. Headlines are displayed in an enormous font size which does not change and the text font size is larger than any other of my other Kindle books at the same font size setting. When I read this title, I have to set the font size smaller than I normally would, then switch back to my preferred setting when reading other titles.

Also, the footnotes are not hyperlinked. The notes are in a chapter at the end of the book and if you want to check a note while reading, you must leave your page and manually page through the notes chapter to find the relevant note.

Worst of all, the product page on Amazon advertises 73 color illustrations which do not exist in the Kindle Edition. Every photo is scanned in grayscale. In contrast, a Kindle Edition of another Oxford History of Art title which I own has many color illustrations viewable when reading the book on Kindle for PC or Mac. There is no reason that this title could not also have the promised color illustrations.

In fact, there is no reason that this digital transfer should be so awful. It completely eliminates any convenience of a Kindle book. If I had known it was this poor, I would never have purchased the Kindle Edition.

Brettell gives us an excellent - and highly readable - objective view of the economic and social forces behind modern art, and includes unexpected influences such as the invention of the photograph, the rise of the museum, and the power of the bourgeoisie. I recommend reading this along Julian Bell's What is Painting?: Representation and Modern Art as the perfect complement. The latter, written by a painter, gives a very thorough, very even-handed, and well thought-out history of modern painting from a formal point of view - essentially, he explains what artists were trying to achieve in painting from the late 19th century to the end of the 20th. Reading both these books will give you a satisfyingly well-rounded education on modern art.

The preview sample of this book shows illustrations in colour. The kindle version downloaded with black and white illustrations, which is disappointing for a book on this subject! I think I've been had.

One cannot own all the art books available but this one is close to being number one. The approach is refreshing, the text clear and interesting, the images fascinating, and include some paintings that I have not found in other books. However, as usual this book's cannon includes women artists, namely Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keefe and Imogen Cunningham but no mention of other important women artists, such as Paula Modersohn-Becker, who in my view should be included in any book about Modern Art.

This text was required for my class, and I dont think i would have bought it at all otherwise. This sort of material is not my thing, but that is not the reason Im giving it two stars. I want the world to know just how scatterbrained the text of this book is, and how utterly unenlightening it has been about the very subject it tries to teach. The entire book feels like the author is writing about inside jokes meant only to be understood by his fellow "modern art" critics. There are several places where i caught a distinct whiff of bias (and not supported by anything other than the author's statement:" Well, we all know why this art is s**t, so its not really worth discussing!" (summed up, of course. This author refuses to use any language a normal person could understand by just reading it once). I really, really hate how snotty this book is; this guy should seriously not be selling his books for this much money, or he should at least have someone do a much better editing job.

This book was used as a text for a graduate class I took. The lecturer of my class was a student of Brettell's. I presume the relationship determined the choice of text, because this book is not a book to be chosen on merit. Editorial choices (including at least one image published upside down) do not help the author's lack of brilliance (to be kind). Buy anything else. Only if you have a 300-tome collection of books on modern art should you even consider this book--and then I know you'll want to use it to light your fireplace.

I bought this book from a seller called keep your smile books, and I am happy to report that I did indeed. Two days after I ordered the book, I received it in the mail, making this order the fastest transaction I've ever had with Amazon. Thank you, keep your smile for your awesome response time!

and exactly what I needed. Super fast shipping. I would definitely order from again. Thank you.

dry reading
condition fine