A welcome appreciation of the greatest painter of German Romanticism.
An art historian documents the achievement of one of Germany’s most important painters.
Historian Illies writes in this admiring biography that Friedrich (1774-1840) was “the most famous German painter of the nineteenth century” yet suffered an inexplicable “descent into oblivion.” Many factors influenced that decline in interest in this painter of allegorical landscapes who “inhaled nature to exhale it again as art.” Illies alternates between stories of Friedrich’s personal life and the creation of his works. He divides the book into sections dedicated to the four classical elements—fire, water, earth, and air—that inspired Friedrich’s paintings or affected their fate, as when a blaze at the home of Princess Mathilde of Saxony destroyed two inherited Friedrichs, Morning in the Mountains and Mountain Scene in Evening Light. The book shows the influence Friedrich had on other artists, from Samuel Beckett, who had a “prototypical experience” that inspired Waiting for Godot after he viewed Friedrich’s landscapes, to Kurt Vonnegut, who was in prison during the Dresden bombing of World War II and later had his character Billy Pilgrim describe “the sunsets over the destroyed city as if they were skies by Caspar David Friedrich” in Slaughterhouse-Five. Sometimes, Illies sledgehammers square pegs into round holes and forces events to fit this arrangement, as when, in the water section, he writes of the Nazis’ efforts to embrace Friedrich as “a stout, seaworthy Teuton who would stand in the bow during their misguided expeditions to come.” Most of the book, however, is more restrained. Sprinkled throughout are amusing if unnerving anecdotes, such as the one about Walt Disney’s 1935 trip to Munich to see a compilation of his work titled In the Realm of Mickey Mouse. “The Nazis allowed the glorification of other rulers,” Illies writes, “as long as they were mice.”
A welcome appreciation of the greatest painter of German Romanticism.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781509567546
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Polity
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A beautifully produced, engaging homage.
Celebrating a beloved artist.
Published to coincide with a major exhibition of works by British-born artist David Hockney (b. 1937) at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, this lushly illustrated volume offers a detailed overview of the artist’s life and work, along with chapters focused on his various styles and subject matter, a chronology, and a glossary of the many techniques he employed in his art, including camera lucida, computer, and video. Contributors of essays include noted art historians and curators, such as Norman Rosenthal, who edited the volume; Simon Schama; Anne Lyles; James Cahill; and François Michaud. Growing up in the north of England, Hockney was drawn to the light and sparkle that he found in Hollywood movies. When he finally arrived in Los Angeles, the sunlit landscapes inspired him, and his new sense of artistic freedom concurred with sexual freedom: As a gay man, he felt liberated from the constraints that had weighed on him in Britain, even in the “relative Bohemia” of the Royal College of Art. Essayists reflect on his artistic interests, such as landscapes, portraiture, flowers, and the opera—for which he created boldly exuberant sets—as well as on his influences and experimentation. Michaud examines the impact on Hockney of a visit to Paris in the 1970s, where he became familiar with Henri Matisse and his contemporaries from museum exhibitions. In the 1990s, visiting his mother and friends in Yorkshire, Hockney painted both outdoors and in the studio, experimenting with various media—including the photocopier and fax machine—as he worked to render the woodsy landscape. As a companion to the exhibition, the volume offers stunning reproductions of Hockney’s prolific works. Enormously popular with museumgoers, Hockney, Rosenthal exults, “transforms the ordinary and the everyday into the remarkable.”
A beautifully produced, engaging homage.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780500029527
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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