John Arthur (2) (1939–)

According to the dust jacket flyleaf this is a "survey of some of the most beautiful and lyrical paintings created in recent decades (demonstrating) that American realism remains a strong constant link in American art." The book includes notes to the text, a bibliography, but no index.

The text, which in part is based on interviews and correspondence with many of the artists, looks at contemporary painting and in relation to the 19th century tradition of such artists as Frederick Church.

The artists featured here include: Hogue, Homer, Hopper, Parrish, Hartley, O'Keeffe, Avery, Andrew Wyeth, Diebenkorn, Porter, Pearlstein, Bishoff, Welliver, Katz, Downes, Estes, Butler, Ligare, Kahn, Uttech to name just a few.

There are 75 full colour plates and a further 20 or so black and white, virtually all shown one to a page, the pictures are well captioned, and show to a good size on the page, the landscape format of the book favouring the majority of them.

This is a well illustrated book, the quality of reproduction is good if not great, but the lack of an index is a little frustrating.… (más)

Based on interviews and correspondence with the artist John Arthur writes about Theophilus Brown and discusses his work under the following headings: Theophilus Brown and Bay Area Figurative Painting, Quite Beaches and Other Reveries, Urban and Industrial Landscapes, Portraits and Self Portraits, Chance and Confluence, and finally Drawings. The author considers Brown's work as grouped in each chapter, selecting a few of the paintings that follow to highlight points, always in very accessible prose. A short Epilogue includes an essay by William Inge. The book concludes with a couple of pages listing biographical data and selected exhibitions. There is no index.

In addition The Prologue provides a brief overview of the artist's life, and at times reads almost like a who's who of Twentieth Century figures in the world of art and music. Sadly this seems only to scratch the surface of what sounds to be a fascinating life, but as the author states "Theophilus Brown . . . deserves a full and carefully researched biography, and endeavour outside the parameters of a monograph . . .". An idea I would thoroughly endorse, one wonders what sort of character the artist is that he his welcomed into such revered circles!

The book is beautifully illustrated, there are 127 full colour images, the majority of them full page in size - or as near as the format will allow - there are also a few monochrome pictures some of which are photographs of the artist. Altogether a splendid volume.… (más)