From Library Journal
Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
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.
