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Sister Wendy's American Collection
 
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Sister Wendy's American Collection [Hardcover]

Wendy Beckett (Author), Associates Toby Eady (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Book Description

October 24, 2000

Sister Wendy Beckett has been dubbed a "pop star" by the New York Times and "a phenomenon" by the Washington Post. She is certainly one of the world's best-known and best-loved art critics, familiar to millions from her wildly popular art series on PBS.

In Sister Wendy's American Collection, she visits six of America's most prestigious museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, Massachusetts), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In each, Sister Wendy chooses a wide variety of artpaintings, sculpture, porcelain figures-and draws attention to the small details of the work, revealing hidden meanings and symbolism. She relates the background of the artist and explains the techniques and the histories behind each work in a straightforward language that speaks to all with humor and insight.

More than 250 full-color illustrations illuminate Sister Wendy's text. Sister Wendy's American Collection is a wonderful tour of six great American museums -- it is also the equivalent of taking a personal tour with Sister Wendy, studying and enjoying her favorite pieces of art, chosen from across the whole breadth of history to the present. It is a fascinating journey, one that can be taken again and again. Sister Wendy's American Collection is soon to be a PBS miniseries.


Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Sister Wendy - The Complete Collection (Story of Painting / Grand Tour / Odyssey / Pains of Glass) $50.49

Sister Wendy's American Collection + Sister Wendy - The Complete Collection (Story of Painting / Grand Tour / Odyssey / Pains of Glass)


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sister Wendy's catholic view of art is as rare as her insightful view of Western religious painting. The work she admires is startlingly diverse, embracing Paul Revere's silver and a bodhisattva from Pakistan, an Issey Miyake metallic polyester dress and a Mayan vase, not to mention paintings by artists as remote in style and vision as John Singer Sargent and Joan Mitchell. Sister Wendy's American Collection is a highly selective tour through six major U.S. museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. To frequent museumgoers, her choices initially can seem charmingly arbitrary--until they begin to inspire the urge to check out those galleries again.

With a page or two allotted to each art work (short essays in large type and 250-odd modestly sized illustrations), this is a friendly book to curl up with, as unpretentious as Sister Wendy herself. Anyone looking for detailed art historical information will be disappointed by her tendency to coast on a thimbleful of facts, yet her gift for plainspoken rapture about art remains intact on the page.

When she singles out from the Met's vast collections an Ottoman sultan's elegant logo with its "small paradise" of painted flowers, when she peers at the tense body of the young cheat in Caravaggio's The Cardsharps at the Kimbell, or ambles along the length of a Sung dynasty landscape painting at the Cleveland museum, that's when Sister Wendy proves the value of close, patient looking as a contemplative act. --Cathy Curtis

From Library Journal

Sister Wendy Beckett strikes again with this discussion of works in six of America's renowned art museums, singing high praise for her choices. The enthusiastic art critic includes a variety of media paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, armor, and other art objects and the individual works originate from a dizzying array of time periods and several countries. The main criterion Sister Wendy uses for selection (a daunting task since most of the museums possess over half a million pieces) is how the particular work moves her. She allots two pages to each piece, giving tidbits of information regarding its history and technique, some fun insights, and brief biographies of the artists. The text is readable and enjoyable. This entertaining introduction to some of the country's best museum holdings serves well as art appreciation and as a guide to the featured museums; the PBS series this spring will also increase interest. Recommended for public libraries. Jennifer Mayer, Univ. of Wyoming Libs., Laramie
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (October 24, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060195568
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060195564
  • Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Your heart will soar!, November 22, 2000
By 
J. Sansoni (Merced, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Sister Wendy's American Collection (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful, wonderful book showcasing fine art from museums all across America, in exquisite full-color detail, with fabulous insight from one of the most intelligent minds of our time--Sister Wendy Beckett. If you have seen her PBS specials, you will know just what a treasure she is to the art world. She has a well-cultivated eye for detail, yet instead of being just another critic, is able to convey to people of all ages and backgrounds just what it is that she finds so special about great art masterpieces. And through her words, you can learn what it means to truly appreciate art. This is a fantastic addition to any collection and an excellent gift choice for the holidays ahead.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, October 18, 2001
By 
This review is from: Sister Wendy's American Collection (Hardcover)
First- the positive: This is a fresh look at art works that run the gamut from silver bowls to statues to paintings and more.

I particularly like the little side squares giving a little big of information about the artist. It might be a story, some facutal information, or information about other art made by this person.

In very limited space (one to two pages) Sister Windy is able to convey to the reader what it is she likes about each particular piece of art she included in her book. The brief history she gives about the painting only adds to the understanding of each artwork.

I also liked the fact that she didn't spend a lot of time analyzing the paint strokes, chisel marks etc. She didn't spend a lot of time discussing what the artist was trying to say or the political ramifications of each piece. She wrote clear, concise explanations about what she liked about each piece, what each piece was about, a short history of the time and the artist and the art work and left it at that. There are other books that you can buy about each artist, their work, their genre of work etc. if you want a more in depth look and more information that you will never remember.

Her enthusiasm for each piece she chose to place in this book is wonderful.

The pictures are glorious.

The negative: Proofreading. Two or three times I'd take a second look at the picture of the art because what was said in the text didn't match the words. (For example, in one she talks of the lady pulling the man's beard and as far as I can see it's his hair!)

Overall, this is a wonderful book. I found it very educational and enhlightening.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A HEAVENLY, ARTFUL APPROACH, January 24, 2002
By 
Alan W. Petrucelli (THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT (ALAN W. PETRUCELLI)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Sister Wendy's American Collection (Hardcover)
She's getting to be a habit with us, this Sister Wendy Beckett, renowned daughter of Christ, art historian and hostess of a widely-acclaimed small-screen series. Her heavenly philosophy - that there is something for everyone to love when it comes to art - is what has allowed her to become an icon for the great unwashed masses who don't know their beans about Goya. This thick tome, the companion volume to the upcoming PBS series of the same name, focuses on six American museums (including New York City's Metropolitan and Boston's MFA), from whose collections Sister Wendy has judiciously culled her own "American collection." Here, she shares her keen knowledge and indomitable enthusiasm and humor, demystifying art history while educating about style and technique. Quite the artful angel
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