De Kooning: A Retrospective
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.68 (843 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0870707973 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 504 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-12-10 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Read the Book If You Buy It" according to Amazon Customer. I hesitated to buy this expensive book - I could find most of the pictures on the web and much of the bulk of the volume is writing, which you're supposed to read if you buy the book. Well, pictures in the book are printed better than those you find on the web AND the color is more faithful to that of the originals at the MOMA than you find in less expensive books After all, MOMA published the book.So, what about reading the writing? Well, in the early pages there's the usual back scratching among academics et al, but once you get past that the. PG said Exemplary!. Exemplary! This is all that a retrospective catalog can and should be! The reproductions are mostly really good; the text informative and sophisticated, with Elderfield's intro possibly at his best. The structure is clear and logical -- of course de Kooning's work lends itself to structuring the presentation into clear periods. Differently colored pages in each of the chronological sections, minutely explicate the materials he used -- a wonderful and valuable feature! real kudos for that! -- and are appropriately accompanied by reproductions of. de Kooning: A Retrospective hrpandora Although there is some "filler" with the same information being presented in different formats(time-lines, periods) the overall content of the survey is outstanding, if a bit overly wordy. The plates are great and numerous and well done. However, they cannot realistically (nor could they be expected to) offer the experience of seeing the works firsthand; the size and scale of most of the works is too large. In sum, if you were unable to get to the show, this book provides an excellent resource in which to appreciate the scope of de Kooning's wo
In his idiosyncratic syntax, de Kooning once described himself as a "slipping glimpser," referring to his preference for the incomplete or provisional information that a dynamic viewpoint affords, and this teeming book aptly provides slipping glimpses of one of the giants of 20th-century painting. Subsequent essays by Elderfield, Mahony, and Jennifer Field offer erudite studies of everything from the WPA works and the "Woman" series to de Kooning's "full arm" "urban landscapes" and the torqued ribbons of his late canvases. (S. (Peter Schjeldahl The New Yorker)The Museum of Modern Art's generous, even prodigal De Kooning retrospective is the most ambitious show New York has seen in
His early figurative painting slowly gained attention, and his black-and-white abstractions of the late 1940s made him a leader among the New York Abstract Expressionists; but the early 1950s Woman paintings made him famous for the violence of their depiction. With lavish, full-color documentation, this landmark publication is the most complete account of de Kooning's artistic career to date.Willem de Kooning was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1904, and moved to the United States in 1926. Sections devoted to particular areas of the artist's oeuvre provide an illustrated chronology of the period and a brief introduction, as well as detailed entries