Customer Reviews

The Nabis

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This book "focuses on the watercolors, drawings, and prints by a group of young artists known as the Nabis (a name derived from the Hebrew word for prophet) who banded together in 1889. Inspired by the ideas of Gauguin," the Nabis included Bonnard, Vuillard, K-X Roussel, Maurice Denis, Aristide Maillol, Felix Valloton, Georges LaCombe, H-G. Ibels, James Pitcairn Knowles, and Josef Rippl-Ronai.

This book contains a wide variety of the Nabi work, including some previously unpublished images that show how this group of artist, despite their ideological differences "were united in their determination to find a new artistic vocabulary capable of expressing inner meanings, independent of optical reality."

Hardback with dustjacket, 197 pp, red cloth over hardback boards with a sewn binding. 2.5 pounds. 194 illustrations, about 25% of them in color. Two long essays (totaling about 45 pp.) Chronology, catalogue, index, and about 10 pp of bibliographic information.

This book is to be praised because it provides coverage of an entire artistic movement.

There are certainly larger and lusher books which showcase works by Bonnard and Vuillard; however, this book -- particularly in the very welcome essay "From Symbolism to Modernism" -- features the lesser-known artists. It also puts the Nabi work within the context of all of the exciting things that were happening in the French avant-garde in the late 19th century. There's a lot of coverage of the graphic Nabi work, including book illustrations and posters. There are even some amazing lampshade designs by Denis.

Thus, while not spectacular, this book brings an intelligent and welcome balance between text and image.