The A-Z of Art: The World's Greatest and Most Popular Artists and Their Works [Hardcover]

Nicola Hodge (Author), Libby Anson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

This indispensable art book is a comprehesive guide to 386 of the world's best-known artists from medieval times to the present day.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hodge is a contemporary artist. Her illustration and cartoon work has been published widely, and she is currently researching a book on contemporary women artists.

Anson is an art critic and lecturer in visual studies. She is a regular contributor to Contemporary Art Magazine, Untitled, Artist's and Illustrator's Magazine, Women's Art Magazine and Art Monthly.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Thunder Bay Pr (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571450351
• ISBN-13: 978-1571450357
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,945,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an exellent reference, superb coverage of artists., September 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The A-Z of Art: The World's Greatest and Most Popular Artists and Their Works (Hardcover)

This book is being used by a group of women artists who are studying a wide range of painting styles. There is an incredible range of artists and their techniques to be seen and studied in this book. The bibligraphies are conicse and very informative. Not only does it wett the appetite of the young and old, but it encourages them to delve into and study the artists who interest them and opens up a new world of art hisotry, thus educating even more. A wonderful resource and text book. The reproduction of the paintings are very good and the book is a credit to the two authors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars check the printing quality, January 19, 2011

By 

Benjamin (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The A-Z of Art: The World's Greatest and Most Popular Artists and Their Works (Paperback)

The flyleaf claims: "This stunning art book provides a guide to 360 of the world's greatest artists . . . from medieval times to the present day". Off course any such claim as to who are the greatest is open to debate, but I did not detect any glaring omissions, but I might question some of the inclusions; however that is a minor point as there are bigger problems with this book.

The book is arranged alphabetically, although this make it very easy to find a particular artists with a book such as this it might have been more instructive to have it arrange chronically. The page layout is consistent throughout: each artist allocated a page and a painting, alongside each artist's name are his/her date and place of birth/death, and at the bottom of the page about 150 words by way of description along with a short list of "Other Masterpieces".

With 360 artists that means 360 illustrations, all in full colour, but herein lies the big let down of the book, the quality of reproduction is poor. Ye, the colours are rich and intense, but I would say too intense with the red area of the spectrum particularly being too strong, add to that the problem that the colours are flat, with the dark areas completely lacking in detail this gives a false impression of the artwork. In addition the page design is rather intrusive and detracts from the paintings.

This is should be an ideal book for someone who is looking for an introduction to art, but I find it hard to recommend due to the poor quality of the printing.

NOTE: this review is for the edition: THE A-Z OF ART. THE WORLD`S GREATEST AND MOST POPULAR ARTISTS AND THEIR WORK., I do not know if other editions are as bad as this as regards the printing quality.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I beatiful book, I would recomend for any serious art lover!, June 24, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The A-Z of Art: The World's Greatest and Most Popular Artists and Their Works (Paperback)

This book was a beatiful tribute to some oof the worlds most talented artists! I greatly enjoyed thumbing through it, and the small paragraphs on each page were a quick informative summary of the artists life and work. I adore this book!