Painting Today is a comprehensive overview of the last 30 years of painting, presenting work by celebrated figures like Gerhard Richter and Neo Rauch alongside emerging artists like Jumaldi Alfi and Ingrid Calame. Photo-realism, landscape, still-life, portraiture, neo-expressionism, installation painting and the Leipzig school are just some of the areas of this thriving art medium explored by Tony Godfrey. Organized by themes, Painting Today showcases the broad range of styles, materials and methods that comprise contemporary painting. Insightful and accessible, Painting Today?s approach will appeal to scholars and newcomers to the subject alike.
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"Recommended?nearly eye-bogglingly global view of the medium in all styles."
–Roberta Smith, The New York Times
"Impeccably curated and exhaustively annotated?Painting Today is another Phaidon tour de force of scholarship and sumptuous pictorialism. Powerful and eye-dazzling."
–National Public Radio
–Roberta Smith, The New York Times
"Impeccably curated and exhaustively annotated?Painting Today is another Phaidon tour de force of scholarship and sumptuous pictorialism. Powerful and eye-dazzling."
–National Public Radio
About the Author
Tony Godfrey is Director of Research at Sotheby?s Institute of Art. He studied at Leeds University and has taught in various art schools in England. He has worked at Sotheby?s Institute since 1989, and since 2006 he has also been a Professor of Fine Art at Plymouth University. An expert in the field of contemporary art, his publications include The New Image: Painting in the Eighties (1986), Drawing Today (1990), and Conceptual Art (1998, also published by Phaidon).
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Hunter Rauso
Format:Hardcover
I've gotten through about half of Painting Today so far, and I'm terribly impressed. It's difficult to balance breadth with depth, but Godfrey succeeds at this quite well. Painting Today covers most of the relevant figures while weaving the right amount of detail and description into the text. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in understanding the scope of contemporary painting, as well as what the future holds for art.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
-First of all in my opinion, I think I did a good investment. The quality of the book is excellent, as is usual with books produced by Phaidon. It has lots of pictures and each one has an explanation of the work or the artist who created it. The selection of artists and works pleasantly surprised me. The way in which the author classified the issues can perhaps be seen as it was not the best, but to some extent helps to more easily find the type of image you might want to review at any time without having to go page by page. I see it more as an encyclopedia makes an overall reading of gender to the author that have been treated pictorially since 1970 until today. Occasionally tells certain stories or anecdotes that we do not always come to know (and can even be fun). It has no pretensions of being a book that focuses too much on theories of aesthetics. Does not follow a specific order (even in regard to follow a chronological order), but even this "apparent" disorder makes it hard to read. Personally I do believe that is the kind of books that deserve to be part of the collection. It's worth having it.
-En primer lugar en mi opinión, creo que hice una buena inversión. La calidad del libro es excelente, como es lo usual con los libros que produce Phaidon. Tiene gran cantidad imágenes y cada una tiene una explicación acerca de la obra o del artista que la creó. La selección de los artistas y de las obras me sorprendió gratamente. La forma en la que el autor clasificó los temas puede talvez percibirse como que no fue la más adecuada, pero hasta cierto punto ayuda a encontrar más fácilmente el tipo de imagen que podrías querer revisar en cualquier otro momento sin tener que ir página por página.... Read more ›
-En primer lugar en mi opinión, creo que hice una buena inversión. La calidad del libro es excelente, como es lo usual con los libros que produce Phaidon. Tiene gran cantidad imágenes y cada una tiene una explicación acerca de la obra o del artista que la creó. La selección de los artistas y de las obras me sorprendió gratamente. La forma en la que el autor clasificó los temas puede talvez percibirse como que no fue la más adecuada, pero hasta cierto punto ayuda a encontrar más fácilmente el tipo de imagen que podrías querer revisar en cualquier otro momento sin tener que ir página por página.... Read more ›
12 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An interesting collection of paintings, well printed, organized into useful categories. The text varies from being obscure to being useful, hopefully accurate. No great insights. I must confess that I am a beginner with little tolerance for art-speak. I gather that at this time it must be particularly difficult to look over the current painting scene and make much sense out of it much less write a history of the last twenty years. But the collection of paintings is definitely worth the effort to seek out this book. For me it was more interesting than "Vitamin P"
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Katie
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A seminal work for the serious art student interested in contemporary art in its many manifestations. Also an excellent resource for the self-taught artist.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Artist Mom
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've just started poring over the immense tome Painting Today - wow! The scope of work covered is breathtaking.
I have barely skimmed the text, but have already been inspired by the comprehensive selection of paintings reproduced, their organization into categories such as "Painting Space" and "Installation", and the breadth of techniques, content and scale. Even without words, this would be an excellent review of the state of contemporary painting. There is something for anyone who paints, is thinking about painting, or looking at contemporary art. Painting is definitely not dead!
I plan to construct a syllabus for a painting course partly based on ideas gleaned from the images and essays in this book. There is something here to inspire every young artist.
Highly recommended!
I have barely skimmed the text, but have already been inspired by the comprehensive selection of paintings reproduced, their organization into categories such as "Painting Space" and "Installation", and the breadth of techniques, content and scale. Even without words, this would be an excellent review of the state of contemporary painting. There is something for anyone who paints, is thinking about painting, or looking at contemporary art. Painting is definitely not dead!
I plan to construct a syllabus for a painting course partly based on ideas gleaned from the images and essays in this book. There is something here to inspire every young artist.
Highly recommended!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By BH
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a painter I'm happy to read that painting is alive and well. The commentary on the various categories of work is insightful and helps frame current painting practice and display. I had mixed feelings however. On the one hand, I'm pleased to read an account of painting's endurance. It makes me feel confident that my own studio practice could (one day?) be part of a contemporary dialog. On the other, I wonder if I'm gaining confidence in the medium through a somewhat corrupted source. Considering the author is affiliated with Sotheby's doesn't he have a vested interest in arguing for a medium that is easily commodified. Am I overthinking it?
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