UNITED STATES AUTHOR · ART · EXHIBITIONS
James Johnson Sweeney
Marc Chagall: poet, dreamer, exotic apparition.
— from Marc Chagall, 1993
Most acclaimed
Marc Chagall
1993
Ce livre présente un aspect moins connu de l'œuvre de Marc Chagall : ses estampes. Chagall na commencé à pratiquer la gravure quà l'âge de trente-cinq ans, mais sy est, dès lors, adonné régulièrement avec passion et assiduité, créant un œuvre imprimé considérable, tant par sa qualité que par sa quantité. C'est en peintre qu'il aborde les procédés d'impression, soucieux de transposer ses peintures sur le papier, tout en goûtant les possibilités plastiques offertes par la gravure et la lithographie. Les thèmes qu'il traite dans ces œuvres se retrouvent en peinture et inversement : les éléments autobiographiques se mêlent aux références bibliques dans des compositions oniriques. Chagall devient conteur en images dans des cycles d'estampes mémorables qui ont marqué l'histoire de cet art au xxe siècle. This book presents one of the lesser known aspects of the œuvre of Marc Chagall: his prints. Chagall only took up engraving at the age of 35 but, from that time on, he practised it regularly and assiduously, creating a considerable body of work in terms of both quantity and quality. He approached the printing technique as a painter attentive to the transposition of his paintings onto paper, appreciative of the plastic possibilities offered by engraving and lithography, and his prints are characterised by the same themes of autobiographical elements and biblical references in dreamlike compositions seen in his paintings. Chagall became a storyteller in images in outstanding cycles of prints that marked the history of twentieth-century art. Exhibition: Palais Lumière, Evian-les-Bains, France (28.06.-02.11.2014).
Antoni Gaudi
"There is little question that Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) was one of the finest and most innovative architects of his age, and his sensuous, curving, almost surreal buildings are among Barcelona's most popular tourist attractions. But this was not always the case; in 1982, when Ignasi de Sola-Morales first wrote this in-depth study of the architect's work, Gaudi was still misunderstood and underappreciated. This new edition of Antoni Gaudi, which features spectacular photographs taken by Rafael Vargas especially for this publication, revives the essay that was largely responsible for bringing critical acclaim to this visionary architect." "Gaudi designed a large body of works, including apartment houses, private residences, park complexes, and religious and secular institutions, most of which were erected in or around Barcelona. His crowning work, which occupied him from 1884 until the day of his death, was the bizarrely beautiful Church of the Sagrada Familia. With only the Portal of the Nativity actually completed, this monumental fragment is one of the architectural wonders of our age - a sculptural edifice that encapsulates Gaudi's creative theories." "Gaudi's organic structures - undulating tiled roofs, pinnacles and towers that rise like plants or tentacles, chimneys that take on phantasmagoric shapes and colors - are all illustrated here, accompanied by plans and drawings that provide a clear picture of Gaudi's structural innovations. Sola-Morales places the architect's work within the context of Catalan and wider European developments of the time, but he also describes the extremely personal mystical impetus that was at the core of Gaudi's invention."--Jacket.
Stuart Davis
1966
Accompanying the only American showing of an exhibition devoted to the painter Stuart Davis (1892-1964) at Washington's National Museum of American Art during the summer of 1998, this publication offers a fresh look at the quintessential American painter of the early modern period. An aficionado of jazz who experimented with improvisational composition, Davis created, in the 1920s and 1930s, a spirited American variant of Picasso's and Braque's synthetic cubism and anticipated key elements of pop art. Essayists include leading American scholars of Davis's work and jazz critic Ben Sidran.