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Title: The Art of Arts: Rediscovering Painting
ISBN: 0520229649
Author:
Anita Albus
Publicate Date: 2001-10-01
Publish: 2001-10-01
List Price: $21.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.94
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.55
Amazon Merchant Price: $21.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: a Baroque pearl
Reed: No question, this is an interesting book for us Eyckians and lovers/conservators of old pigments. But for us non-academics/editorialists, it's tough love. It is laborious because of the over-ornamentation with trivia, digressions, and references that physically intrude on, and insinuate the text. It's hard to tell someone far more-educated than I to take a writing course, but there it is. Maybe the exhaustive Teutonic method, exhausting nonetheless.
The real value for me, ever-trying to portray the ethereal in this dysfunctional digital/photographic world, is the nearly-unique collection of clues and views about how and why the [Flemish Primitives] were able to put us in undiminishing communion with their subjects, to help us backtrack and do the same for ours. As the gangrenous/social/spiritual/artistic wounds of the last century slowly heal, works like Albus's can help artists and artlovers mirror, maybe catalyze, another age of deep empathy for others. So buy this book, put on your best red turban, nibble some Flemish chocolate, and start with your self-portrait, taking the Niederlanders' enormous care to appreciate the beauty of the image, and thus the person, in front of us. This time with just the hint of a smile as the warmth of dawn flows into the studio...
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2: Laborious read!
This is a book that is required reading for my Renaissance art history class. As such, I approached the book with enthusiasm after initially thumbing through the pages. Visually, it is beautiful. There are many full page color illustrations and interesting typeface. However, I was soon disappointed by her disjointed writing style and over 700 footnotes. I labored through this one, only to find out in the end that she finds contemporary art soul-less and lacking. Her conclusion is disappointing!
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3: Traditional painters and Van Eyck fans will love this book!
I have recommended this book to several people and now it is available in paperback! It contains many nuggests of information a traditional oil painter will treasure. For example, the lapis lazuli-based pigment used by Van Eyck in his paintings contained tiny flecks of stone which added richness and sparkle to the paint. It was also irregularly ground and refracts light differently than the modern homogeneous synthetic "ultramarine blue" pigment available today. It was precious in Van Eyck's time, but today lapis lazuli ultramarine is more costly than gold per ounce. Albus devotes much of the book to historical pigments and shares recipes for making them.
My complaint with the book is that it is a strangely-shaped volume (it is extremely narrow and tall) and is uncomfortable to hold. Still, the early chapters on Van Eyck's paintings and the historical pigments will entice painters interested in effects not possible with modern pigments.
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