Painted Bodies: By Forty-Five Chilean Artists [Hardcover]

Roberto Edwards (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English
Original Language: Spanish

Product Details

• Hardcover: 335 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; 1st English-language ed edition (November 4, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789202689
• ISBN-13: 978-0789202680
• Product Dimensions: 14.3 x 11.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,721,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-have coffe table book for body painting lovers, May 2, 2000

By 

Angel Lee "Liocorno Amethyst Moonstone" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Painted Bodies: By Forty-Five Chilean Artists (Hardcover)

This is a must have coffee table book for anyone even remotely interested in body painting. The book itself is huge and packed with spectacular photographs on glossy paper. There is a 4-page layout in the middle.

Each of the 45 artists has done one body painting, then posed the model in several positions. Both nude females & males, as well as all races are used. Biographies of all the artists are in the back.

It is truly amazing how imaginative and talented the artists are. One woman in painted white on the front & black on her back. Asian style characters are written on both sides in the opposite color.

One of my favorites is a woman with a paitned on corset. Other females have eyes or faces painted on their chests. I also fell in love with the golden metallic man & woman.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Design, Painting, Models, Posing, Performance and Photos, January 4, 2002

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Painted Bodies: By Forty-Five Chilean Artists (Hardcover)

Caution: This book primarily contains images of female and male models, including one pregnant woman, who are mostly adorned only with paint. If such exposure offends you, avoid this book.

If you buy only one photography book this year, you would probably be very pleased with this one!

Painted Bodies is a unique art book in my experience. The vision began with the photographer, Roberto Edwards, who persuaded 45 Chilean artists to paint human models in honor of Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492, where he found Native Americans wearing body paint. But the heritage of painting bodies goes back much earlier than that.

Skin, hair, and human protuberances accept paint in ways much different from canvas. Some of the artists sought to create a canvas-like experience, while others built on the uniqueness of the human base. The designs were everything from literal internal body parts to faces, to literal objects (including simulated clothing), to calligraphy, to various abstractions. In some cases, props were added to transform the model into a magical being only remotely related to a human. Some designs sought to obliterate and obscure the body, while others used parts of the body as a visual pun (turning a nipple into a nose). In some cases, the body became a sculpture. In other cases, the body was a dancing performer, caught in poses like what a strobe light potrays of motion.

Some of the models have unusual bodies which become part of the artistic appearance. In other cases, the models are remarkably beautiful and are transformed into idealist creations and concepts. Some models have personalities that burst forth from beneath the paint, and add an important note of acting ability in other instances. For example, many of the models are portrayed as mimes . . . and are shown in the characteristic poses of mimes.

To all of this variety, the photographer added another important layer of art. He has arranged the images starkly against large white and black negative spaces to help focus your attention on the creation. The models are usually followed through for at least 5 pages, and sometimes as much as 8 pages to show a flow of the artistic expression. The order, angle, and superimposition of images are quite interesting of themselves. So there's also the design of the book's layout to enjoy and consider.

What is most impressive is that all of these layers of art are well done, culminating in very fine paper and reproduction quality for the images.

This show originally appeared in 1991, and was remounted as a series of large murals. Traveling in the latter form, over one and a half million people had seen the show by 1996 when this third edition was created.

The essays could have been stronger, but the images speak so eloquently that not much introduction is needed. So just glide onto enjoying the images!

I thought that all but four of the artists did a remarkable job. Many really impressed me including the work by Roberto Geisse, Francisco de la Puente, Jose Basso, Lucia Wiser, Benito Rojo, Ricardo Maffei, Cristian Abelli, Paulina Humeres, Eduardo Garcia de la Sierra, Gracia Barrios, Gonzalo Mezza, and Carmen Aldunate. If you are like me, you will be interested in learning more about their work. The book contains brief biographies of each artist.

I also came away very impressed with the quality and variety of art that was represented by these artists from Chile. I felt encouraged to visit Chile so that I might see more of that country's art, which is seldom included in shows that I visit in the United States, Canada, or Europe.

How else can the arts interact with one another to create additional levels of refinement? I came away wondering what could be done with a video version of this concept, to include original music as well.

See the full potential of creativity around and within you!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular, August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Painted Bodies: By Forty-Five Chilean Artists (Hardcover)

With 45 artists, there are bound to be a few misses, but in this case there are _very_ few... the painting is first-rate, the models varied and expressive, and the photography captures it all perfectly. Body art is unique in that painter, model, and photographer are (or should be) all artists, and the collaboration is not easy (witness failures like Buis' "Body Painting".) The combination is very well done throughout, and as a bonus, there's a lot of it - this is a good, hefty bit of work. My only complaint is the relative lack of text (after a short initial essay, there isn't any.) It would have been worth brushing up on my Spanish to be able to read some of the thoughts of the individual artists about their work.