December 2023 MBR The Art Shelf

The Art Shelf

Art Unpacked: 50 Works of Art: Uncovered, Explored, Explained
Matthew Wilson
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500025673, $39.95, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Unpacked-Uncovered-Explored-Explained/dp/0500025673

Synopsis: For beginners, art history might seem a daunting subject with complex rules and impenetrable technical language. Even for more seasoned art lovers the question of how to think about art is a perennial riddle. With the publication of "Art Unpacked: 50 Works of Art: Uncovered, Explored, Explained", art historian Matthew Wilson has created the perfect resource for both audiences: an engaging, visual primer for the general reader and educators. Designed like an instruction manual, fifty key artworks from around the world are deconstructed with explanations, diagrams, and close-ups in order to reveal the elements that comprise a masterpiece.

Dating from the earliest times to the present, the artworks under analysis are drawn from many cultures and cover all forms of visual media, including drawing, illustration, photography, prints, and sculpture. Wilson's simple approach, using established art historical methods, enables the reader to discover the fundamentals of art history, from considerations of function, historical context, iconography, and artists' experience to broader issues of identity, including feminism, gender, and postcolonialism.

Whether it's the mask of Tutankhamun or Dorothea Lange's photograph Migrant Mother, Katsushika Hokusai's GreatWave or Kara Walker's Gone, each image is dissected on the page in a no-nonsense style, with explanatory notes detailing artists' sources of inspiration, associated styles and movements, plus any relevant quotes, related visuals, and other contextual and issue-led information with keywords for handy cross-referencing. The resulting book is a dynamic visual resource that will inspire and spark enjoyment of art in all its forms.

Critique: Visually enhanced with some 850 color illustrations, "Art Unpacked: 50 Works of Art: Uncovered, Explored, Explained" this a large format (9.2 x 1 x 10.8 inches) hard cover edition from Thames & Huson also features an Introduction (How Art Works), a two page listing of the Illustrations, a two page index of Artists, and two pages of Notes. Exceptionally well written and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentations, "Art Unpacked: 50 Works of Art: Uncovered, Explored, Explained" is a complete studies course in one magnificent volume, making it especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Art Appreciation & History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Matthew Wilson (https://www.matthewwilson.uk) is an art historian, educator, and writer. He has written for numerous publications and media on art and culture and is an examination specialist in art history. He is also the author of "Symbols in Art and The Hidden Language of Symbols".

Abstract Painting: Contemporary Painters
Amber Creswell Bell
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9781760763633, $50.00, HC, 272pp

https://www.amazon.com/Abstract-Painting-Amber-Creswell-Bell/dp/1760763632

Synopsis: There is no single neat definition of abstract art. It makes no attempt to represent reality; instead, it has its own ever evolving visual language using shape, color, and form with no rules. An explosion of creative expression and gestural force, "Abstract Painting: Contemporary Painters" by Amber Creswell Bell informatively explores the constantly evolving genre and how it offers unparalleled artistic freedom, inviting deeply personal connection and interpretation from both artist and viewer. Works often straddle a midpoint between recognition and the sensed experience through the materiality of paint encompassing a pastiche of styles.

Drawing on extensive interviews, "Abstract Painting: Contemporary Painters" examines the diverse practices of more than forty contemporary abstract painters, documenting a repertoire of styles, subjects, visions, and philosophies. Some compare abstract art to music, particularly jazz; others are inspired by nature, science, and geometry; and some simply relish the opportunity to express complex emotions in a way words cannot. What unites these extraordinary artists, however, is the conviction that this form of expression chose them.

Critique: This large format (9.3 x 1.2 x 11.6 inches, $3.9 pounds) hardcover edition of "Abstract Painting: Contemporary Painters" from Thames & Hudson is impressively and visually enhanced with 233 color illustrations and images of the artists and their artworks. Exceptional in both organized and presentation, this impressive volume of instruction, insight, and information by Amber Creswell Bell is ideal as a Memorial Fund acquisition and recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Art History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Amber Creswell Bell (https://www.ambercreswell.com) is a Sydney-based arts, design, and lifestyle writer and curator. With a passion for art, Amber champions emerging and unrepresented artists, curating exhibitions both independently and in collaboration with well-established commercial galleries. She is currently the director of emerging art for Michael Reid galleries. Her previous books include Clay and Still Life.

Art in Detail: 100 Masterpieces
Susie Hodge
Thames & Hudson, Inc.
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
9780500296417, $34.95, PB, 432pp

https://www.amazon.com/Art-in-Detail/dp/0500296413

Synopsis: Great paintings cannot be fully understood in a single encounter; there is always more to be derived from them. Art lovers may revisit and reconsider the masterpieces throughout their lives, but a deeper understanding can only be gained by analyzing the painting in detail, be it the placement of the subject, the lighting, the style of brushstrokes, or the themes.

With the publication of "Art in Detail: 100 Masterpieces" art historian and journalist Susie Hodge examines one hundred iconic paintings from the Western canon and spotlights the finer points a quick glance will almost certainly fail to reveal. These include subtle internal details, such as hidden symbols and artistic tricks employed by the painter to achieve particular effects.

In addition, Hodge writes intelligently about external influences on the artist -- everything from the socioeconomic context in which he or she flourished, to smaller local difficulties, such as the level of air pollution at the time the painting was created. And she treats each of her subjects not only, to quote the English poet Matthew Arnold, "as in itself it really is," but also as part of a tradition that links the oldest painting to the most recent, as artists pass a metaphorical baton down through the ages.

Critique: This large format ( 8.7 x 1.4 x 9.3 inches, 3.57 pounds) paperback edition of "Art in Detail: 100 Masterpieces" from Thames & Hudson is visually enhanced for the reader with 700 color illustrations. Impressively informative, exceptionally well organized and presented, "Art in Detail: 100 Masterpieces" is an ideal, fascinating, instructive, thought- provoking, and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Art History & Criticism collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Susie Hodge (https://www.susiehodge.com) is an art historian, author, artist, and journalist with more than one hundred books to her name. She has an MA in the history of art from Birkbeck, University of London, and is a fellow of the RSA. She has twice been named the No. 1 art writer by the Independent.

The Sporting Art of C. D. Clarke
C. D. Clarke, author
Stackpole Books
www.stackpolebooks.com
9780811772440, $85.00, HC, 232pp

https://www.amazon.com/Sporting-Art-C-D-Clarke/dp/0811772446

Synopsis: C. D. Clarke maintains that he was born to paint and fish and hunt. He has done just that over the course of his lifetime, capturing images of memorable times on the water and in the field on canvas with an artist's eye -- and finessing that passion and pastime into a laudable career, inspired by the work of wildlife artists Ogden Pleissner, Chet Reneson, Thomas Aquinas Daly, and John Swan

"The Sporting Art of C. D. Clarke" is magnificently presented volume of his work and features nearly 200 paintings, tableaux of color, light, motion, and possibility, created over the course of forty years fishing and hunting in the world's most coveted destinations. Clarke prefers to work "en plein air" where he paints studies and fills sketchbooks with scenes that inspire the oils and watercolors he later refines in his New Jersey Highlands studio.

Clarke's work is frequently exhibited at the most prestigious wildlife art shows and festivals and is regularly featured in top wildlife and sporting publications.

Critique: Comprised of beautifully with rendered full page, fully colored copies of his work, "The Sporting Art of C. D. Clarke" offers an inherently fascinating and informatively captioned tour of truly memorable paintings that will hold intense interest for fans of landscape, seascape, plant and animal painted and museum quality art. Simply stated, a 'must' for the legions of C.D. Clarke fans, "The Sporting Art of C. D. Clarke" is a welcome and unreservedly recommended pick for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Contemporary American Art collections.

Editorial Note: C. D. Clarke has maintained a lifelong, continuous global sporting and painting tour - traveling the world with clients, friends, and alone to fish, hunt, and paint in destinations the rest of us dream about: Alaska, the Bahamas, Britain's chalk streams, Scotland, the Seychelles, Tierra del Fuego, the Andes, Labrador, Cuba, British Columbia, Iceland, and all over the U.S. from Georgia to Montana and Texas to New England. His work has been shown in the most prestigious galleries, shows, and museums, including the American Museum of Fly Fishing, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Birds in Art Show, the Thomasville Wildlife Arts Festival (for twenty-three years), the Easton Waterfowl Festival, and the National Sporting Library and Museum.

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