Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere (Modern Library Paperbacks) (Paperback)

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"One can only speak properly about paintings in front of paintings," Paul Cézanne once said. It is usually, though, critics who speak in front of paintings, not artists. With an eye toward rectifying that situation, Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic of the New York Times, constructed Portraits. He invited individual artists to meet him at museums, then tagged along on their peregrinations through various galleries--sometimes the most unlikely ones. At New York's Metropolitan Museum, the late Roy Lichtenstein, papa of pop, stopped to praise some frou-frou Fragonards. Who knew? "Clearly there's something wrong with me," Lichtenstein said.

Kimmelman's knowledge of art is astonishingly broad, and he has a way with questions that ignite each artist's memories, reflections, and opinions. Otherwise, he inserts himself only to offer enough biographical data or physical description to bring a reader up-to-date and up close. For the most part, he simply listens. Closely. The result is a series of interviews so cozy readers may feel they're eavesdropping. Few readers will ever make another foray through the Metropolitan or the Museum of Modern Art or London's National Gallery completely alone. After devouring these "portraits"--most of which appeared originally as articles in the Times's art pages--they will be accompanied forevermore by the lively, eccentric, thoughtful, unguarded voices of Jacob Lawrence, Kiki Smith, Wayne Thibaud, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Elizabeth Murray, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Leon Golub and Nancy Spero, Brice Marden, Hans Haacke, and Chuck Close. --Peggy Moorman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"During the eighties," writes New York Times chief art critic Kimmelman, "art as a journalistic subject became nearly synonymous with the money that poured into it." In stark contrast, these 16 interviews with 18 artists (two couples), extensively revised and expanded from versions that ran in the Times, wonderfully recover influence, practice and jargon-free theory as points of exchange with artists. Kimmelman's method is to place his subjects?literally?among their artistic forebears. Meeting at major museums, interviewer and interviewee seek out specific works (usually of the artist's choosing) and simply turn the tape recorder on. This is not a new conceit, but it functions brilliantly here as an entree into the work and views of a diverse crowd of working artists. A midnight visit with Lucian Freud to London's National Gallery yields invaluably intimate looks at Chardin, Velasquez and Rembrandt. Parodic photographer Cindy Sherman comes off as a not quite faux naif at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, while much heralded portraitist Chuck Close winningly displays his deep knowledge and love of formalism. German-born Hans Haacke shows us the economic ghosts lurking in the Met's aesthetic machine. Kiki Smith, Brice Marden, Richard Serra and married couple Susan Rothenberg and Bruce Nauman are some of the other prominent Americans; Balthus and Henri Cartier-Bresson round out the European contingent, along with Francis Bacon. Although Kimmelman is rarely heard talking back to his subjects, he has shaped the pieces decisively, explaining or expanding on references made by the artists, contextualizing their work and describing, in a quietly opinionated fashion, their persons, manners and the incidentals of the excursions. If his choice of artists is somewhat predictable, what they actually say rarely is, and Kimmelman's no-nonsense presentation highlights their insights. The result is immensely satisfying object lessons in looking at art, both contemporary and inherited. 135 b&w photos throughout, not seen by PW. Editor: Ann Godoff; agent: Suzanne Gluck.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library; illustrated edition edition (October 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375754830
• ISBN-13: 978-0375754838
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #796,883 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Artists On Art, June 5, 2000

By	Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre, and Elsewhere (Hardcover)

What could be better than going through art museums with artists and listening to their comments about the art on display and the artists who created that art? Michael Kimmelman, a distinguished art critic, had the great good fortune to do just that, and he wisely put himself in the background and let some very articulate people express themselves concerning things that they have thought about their whole lives. These are people who are passionate about art and who know all about making art. Some of the comments are educational and some are funny and, depending on the artists you like or dislike, some you might find irritating. For example, here is Chuck Close at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC: "About some of the other artists he passes along the way he is dismissive. Renoir is "Italian restaurant painting and unless you're having pizza you wouldn't want to look at it." He doesn't care much for Titian or Tintoretto either." But before you dismiss this as a comment by somebody saying something to be outrageous, you should know that at the age of 48 Mr. Close had a spinal artery collapse, which left him what is called an incomplete quadriplegic. He had to relearn to paint, with brushes strapped to his hands. (An irony, not mentioned by Mr. Kimmelman, is that in his later years, due to very bad arthritis, Renoir also had to have brushes strapped to his hands!) Listen to Mr. Close again, talking about a trip to The Met after his disability had struck him down: "So I went to look at the Petrus Christuses and Holbeins and realized that everything I loved in the history of painting, and portrait painting in particular, is small and tight and the product of fine motor control, which I had lost. I was depressed for days, but then I ended up with a cathartic experience because I found myself in my studio feeling so happy just to be working again that I was literally whistling while I painted and at the same time tears were streaming down my cheeks." My heart sank when I read that paragraph! Another artist expresses his opinion that the greatest artist of the 20th century was not Picasso and not Matisse, but rather Pierre Bonnard. A very large statement to make! What I found especially interesting was that 3 or 4 of the artists, with different styles, all agreed on the greatness of Ingres and all were angered by the commonly held opinion that although he was a master of line, Ingres was not a very good colorist. These artists felt that Ingres was not only a good colorist but that he was a great colorist! Even better, they tell you why they feel he was a great colorist. This is a wonderful book and I wish I could have been a mouse in the corner when Mr. Kimmelman was walking and talking with these artists!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quote from Robert Hughes of Time Magazine, May 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre, and Elsewhere (Hardcover)

"Michael Kimmelman is the most acute American art critic of his generation, and Portraits, his first book, is a fine debut. Patiently, inquisitively and with remarkable insight, he coaxes from artists a whole range of responses to art that take us, in their own words, to the heart of their own work. A valuable book and a great read."--Robert Hughes

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb reading....a real joy, October 23, 1998

By	John Campbell "John Campbell" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre, and Elsewhere (Hardcover)

Tuck this book into your weekend bag and stow away to some cozy spot, then dive in and enjoy. This one's a huge treat. As the editor of a new art series from Abrams and as someone who does not know Mr. Kimmelman personally, other than as an anonymous admirer of his work, I rejoiced when I read this book, because it teaches, it refreshes, it challenges, and, more than all else, it inspires. Bravo!