This extensive dictionary of painters, sculptors, printmakers, and stage designers covers a vast time in varying depth; there appears to be no book in English of comparable scope or currency. Entries range from one line to several pages, with stage designers getting the most detailed treatment. Very brief analyses of individual works are given within larger biographies "to help identify artists' styles and characteristics." Bibliographies are included in most entries, although references are frequently to materials that are uncommon. The 20-page introductory essay is a breathless tour of half a millennium's development, but this will be an excellent addition to the reference shelf, particularly for lesser-known artists in a field of increasing interest.
Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
This handsome biographical dictionary was compiled by Milner, head of the Department of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and author of Russian Revolutionary Art and Vladimir Tatlin and the Russian Avant-Garde. Particularly felicitous is the 18-page illustrated account of Russian art from early icons and folk art down to the present day, which serves as the introduction to the volume.
Some 5,000 alphabetically arranged entries for artists and organizations range in length from a phrase (Mazel, Ruvim Moiseevich 18901967Turkmen painter) to 1,000- to 3,500-word entries for Chagall, Malevich, Bakst, and Tatlin. A complete entry begins with the artist's dates and an identifier (painter, architect, graphic artist, theater designer) and continues with an essay, a description of selected works, citations to literature by and about the artist, and a list of collections that feature the artist's work.
The essays provide some personal information such as places of birth and death, education, and travels abroad, but the emphasis is on the individual's career and importance to art. Stylistic experiments, professional and political affiliations, ideology, exhibitions, international recognition, influence, and prizes and honors are detailed. A selection of drawings, paintings, or pieces of sculpture are then discussed to help identify artists' styles and characteristics. Citations to literature by and about the artist include title in the original language, year and place of publication, but rarely publisher. Nearly 400 illustrations (many full-page) of the artists' work, 110 of which are in color, enhance the essays. A number have expansive explanatory captions. They are appropriately placed or their location noted by cross-references at the end of entries. Milner's cross-reference network for personal names is accurate and effective.
Unfortunately, criteria for inclusion are nowhere stated. A random sample of biographies in Russian and Soviet Painting, the catalog of a 1977 cultural exchange exhibition from the museums of the USSR, found 4 out of 20 missing from Milner. The choice of works illustrated and the often incomplete documentation may be related to the London collectors and galleries which generously provided photographs. In addition, source material used is not described except that Milner provides this caveat: Whilst every effort has been made to verify information, a book of this kind inevitably draws upon a multitude of sources some of which cannot be cross-checked fully.
Despite these complaints, Milner has provided a unique English-language resource that is eminently readable and can be recommended for purchase by academic and large public libraries.
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