Painting People: Figure Painting Today (Hardcover)

by Lucian Freud (Author), John Currin (Author), Chuck Close (Author), Mika Kato (Author), Philip Akkerman (Author), Margherita Manzelli (Author), Jenny Saville (Author), Cecily Brown (Author), Lisa Yuskavage (Author), Yan Pei-Ming (Author), Barnaby Furnas (Author), Jules De Balincourt (Author), Martin Maloney (Author), Eric Fischl (Author), Elizabeth Peyton (Author), Charlotte Mullins (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Well documented with artists' biographies, a selected bibliography, a list of illustrations, and an index, this superbly conceived book makes the art of figure painting understandable to diverse audiences. It belongs in most academic, special, and public libraries that have art book collections. Strongly recommended.-Cheryl Ann Lajos, Free Lib. of Philadelphia (Cheryl Ann Lajos Library Journal )

Product Description
From CHOICE:

London art historian and critic Mullins has brought together a study of contemporary artists who paint the human figure. Included are 200 color reproductions by 85 artists from around the world. Some artists, such as Lucien Freud and Chuck Close, are well known, but many are still developing their reputations. Mullins chose artists who paint people interacting with the world and, in doing so, explore themes of modern times. Her chapters are arranged by these themes: ""The Figure Unravelled,"" ""The Urban Condition,"" ""Other Worlds"" (which explores themes of romanticism), ""Folk Tales"" (the telling of unique and well-known stories), and ""Past Deconstructed"" (focusing on the use of photography by these artists). Many of the works reflect on the isolation of the people portrayed, some are disturbing, and some emphasize the newest technology that these artists employ, including the use of photography in their work. This valuable collection of modern art includes excellent bibliographies for each artist. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through professionals. -- N. M. Lambert, University of South Carolina Upstate"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.; First Printing edition (September 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933045388
• ISBN-13: 978-1933045382
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #457,964 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting selection., December 5, 2006

By	Brian Asquith - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

London art historian and critic, Charlotte Mullins', extensive selection indicates just how strong the art of portraiture and the figure are in contemporary art. Particularly in light of how much drawing, and the figure in general, fell out of favour during the 20th Century.

All the big players are here: Close, Freud, Borremans, Richter, Nara etc. alongside the lesser known. The works of 80+ artists are featured, typically with two, sometimes more, representative pieces per artist, in full-colour.

The collection centres around works created in the last six years, with the artists grouped together by various themes:
The Figure Unravelled - Close, Freud, Akkerman etc.
The Urban Condition - Eggerer, Evans, Fischl...
Other Worlds - Mutu, Doig, Takano...
Folk Tales - Condo, Schutz, Howard...
The Past Deconstructed - Borremans, Brown, Xiaogang...
with all styles represented from photorealists, Neo-Expressionists, Comic-Inspired, self portraits etc.

On the copy I have the index pages appear to have shifted slightly during printing leading to the text being ghosted. However that doesn't appear to have occured elsewhere, although I'm not 100% sure about that. Also I would have preferred the details of art media, dimensions etc to have be placed alongside the piece as opposed to being collected in an appendix.

It's an interesting selection accompanied by insightful text from Mullins. It certainly provides a good foundation from which to explore the world of contemporary figure/portraiture. Although I am left with the question "Is this really the best of what's out there?" as a number of works I didn't care for. Each to their own :-)

Recommended.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good survey of new figurative work, November 20, 2006

By	J. Landau (Orinda, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a good overview of contemporary figure painting focusing particularly on new and emerging artists in addition to established, well known painters who are acknowledged masters of figurative work. While Close, Currin and Fischl are included, much of the book focuses on newer artists such as Anna Bjerger and Jocelyn Hobbie. The emergence of Chinese painters is not ignored, with a few also represented.

Some 68 contemporary painters are featured, divided into five categories. Additional painters are discussed in the narrative at the beginning of each style category, each with their works shown in color.

Each of the featured artists is given two pages for reproductions, all in color, and a few sentences about their work. There is also a section of biographies for each artist at the end of the book, including -- importantly -- dealer contact information. The reproductions are high quality and although they vary in size, many are full page.

While well known figurative painters such as Peyton, Yuskavage, Tuymans or Cecily Brown are included, the wide variety of figurative styles featured means that most of the book focuses on work by younger and/or lesser known artists such as Jun Hasegawa or Ridley Howard and also a carefully edited group of relative "unknowns" (but largely represented by meaningful galleries), at least to those of us who aren't able to crawl Chelsea every Saturday.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good start could be better, June 10, 2007

By	S. Livingston "Art Goddess" (Champaign, Il) - See all my reviews

In one sense I really like this book. It has oodles of high quality images of very contemporary artists work, and lets be honest, it's hard to find good images of contemporary artists work a lot of the time. I also liked the text that prefaced each section of the book, it was well written and interesting. However, many of the artists featurerd I felt were a little sub par- that is to say, I've seen better contemporary figure painters. Some are great; Freud, Saville, Yuskagvich, Currins, but many were just not up to the level of some of the great painters featured. Plus, the text about each individual artist was very brief. Over all, i'm glad I have it, but I feel it could be a better overview of figurative painting today.