Customer Reviews

Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing (Themes)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a book that when you first open it up and flip through a couple of pages you will be saying to yourself that you have to sit down with it for a long considered look. Myself, I just looked at the care that Phaidon press took while publishing this, from its rough artistic pages to the in-depth look at contemporary drawing and knew instantly that this was a survey book that I would be opening time and again for years to come.

The artists that are covered here are not neccisarily unknown. Pettibon, Peyton, and other long standing luminaries stand along side scores of other artists that I had never heard of. What it is, is a survey of non-illustration/often conceptualy based drawing that is occuring today be the artist known or obscure.

If you are into drawing, this is a must have book. One thing to keep in mind is that the format presented here is pretty much along the lines of Vitamin P and the three 'Cream' books. I think all four of these ranged from good to great, if you disagree with this sentiment, you might not like 'Vitamin D.'

As an art teacher, artist and scholar I buyed the book for it's very interesting overview of contemporary drawing, a fiew of the artists I already knew. Maybe because of the thick matte paper used in printing, a lot of the drawings loose their sharpness and overall colourfulness and clarity. In comparing reproductions in other publications (e.g. "Drawings" Michaël Borremans, edit. Walther König, Köln) one can only ascertain that the loss of quality is in fact unacceptable for such an ambitious publication like "Vitamin D". Moreover the bigger part of the art works are printed in a too small size for allowing a good viewing.

Vitamin D is an outstanding publication of drawings from contemporary artists which shows great depth in both subjectivity and theme, the one overwhelming issue seems to be the quality of the reproductions within. Context gives us the reason for this.. in that these are works by CONTEMPORARY artists and as such have not been digitized as throughly as say the often if not OVER reproduced imagery of Leonardo or Michelangelo, so yes some of the reproductions are less stunning however they are more than adequate and what is more important, they are reproduced well enough to spark interest in seeing the original. Artwork can never truly be reproduced, you must experience the original to truly appreciate the pieces. However Vitamin D does what it was designed to, as did it's predecessor Vitamin P, giving a contemporary overview of works and the artists who create them which have yet to be studied. These books are history in the making and that alone gives them more merit than most art publications. This series is more than worth owning and will prove to be volumes you will return to again and again.

Then you will absolutely fall in love with this book. This book is full of images from a wide range of media and artists. The short bios on the artists are short but informative and don't take up much space (more room for pictures). If you're something of an artist yourself then you can certainly pull lots of ideas from this book. I definitely am glad I bought this book.

If you are interested in a wide range of edgy drawings..this book is terrific. It is inspiring, informative and current...not a "how-to" but a survey of all the wonderful and strange drawings being done today.

Beautifully bound and a pleasure to hold...what a book is all about vs the digital stuff.
Two small niggles....first; the larger drafted works when reduced for the book become virtually unreadible (maybe they could have got a page each?) and second; the dust cover while beautiful and reflecting the texture and aesthetics of the book is virtually useless for it's purpose as it is too easily torn.
I gave it 5 because I'm prejudiced!

I am disappointed with the quality of the images. They are the quality of an ink jet printer set at draft quality. Most of the images are so faded it is difficult to see at all. I have returned this book, which is something I do once every 1000 books I order, and it is the first art book I have ever returned in my life.

this book was almost pristine when i got it. thanks for taking care of it and for getting it to me so quickly.

Came very quickly, as promised, and with free shipping. On time for xmas and in pretty good shape. Only issue was a bent corner but it's all good. Good good good.
We have VitaminP as well! Great books for fun and reference.

The book was destroyed by delivery. Badly protected. Sad coz the book is really inspiring. My hand is hungry now after seeing so much goodness in one place.