Art
Book Reviews
cont.,
Lotte Laserstein was a prolific artist. She was born in Berlin but because of her Jewish heritage she left she had her burgeoning and well respected career in Germany smashed beginning in 1935. After exhibiting in Sweden her plight was recognized by the museum directors who sent her an invitation to return in 1937 and she was able to get most of her artwork out of Germany. Mostly this work has been exhibited and written about but the Moderna Museet exhibition and this book, Lotte Laserstein: A Divided Life, look at her whole career - mainly as a portraitist but also with some striking landscapes over her 50 year career.
Arne Jacobsen is a well-known architect from Denmark known around the world yet he is even more well-known, in some respects for his furniture and industrial design - basically Designing Denmark and beyond as this exhibition book points out. Jacobsen was a painter in his youth and continued to keep sketchbooks over his career often painting in watercolour. The first page I opened was a beautiful watercolour spread over two pages for Jacobsen's Industriens Hus design. In the 1940s he put his studies of nature to use and collaborated with his future wife to design textiles and wallpapers. The designs are fantastic.
Dr. Susan Evans is a former curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her knowledge of drawing as a medium is amazing and I'm enjoyed her brand new book The Story of Drawing - An Alternative History of Art. I actually started the book towards the end. I was interested in how artists used drawing in modern art more as an end product rather than a means to an end. I also covered some of the history of drawing throughout my years studying art history however it is worth the renewal and also to read what wasn't taught as drawing was always seen as inferior to painting or sculpture. I also particularly liked the glossary describing different media and supports for drawing. I'm a nerd like that.
Hubby has been mining the new books section of the Toronto Public Library and including books I might like and he picked well. Pen and Ink Drawing Techniques was a great pick on his part. Even the usual "supplies" section in these types of books have drawn images rather than photographs. The ideas for mark making are traditional in a sense like cross-hatching but it feels like a fresh approach.
Along the same lines of Harrison's book is Neil Whitehead's Line and Wash in the Urban Landscape. Whitehead's approach is even more loose and sometimes spare, leaving a lot of white space, and I find it fascinating. The artist tends to use the continuous line approach to his drawings. It is definitely a quicker technique.
I took Albert Kiefer's Domestika course in the past. I love his loose line drawing combined with his "washes". In his case his washes are marker based but my usual watercolour or ink could be used. What you really take away from House Sketching is the expressive use of line in his work. There are also QR codes in the book in case you want to watch a tutorial rather than read about it - so great for visual learners. Kiefer frees you from stuffy architectural drawings - exaggerating line to emphasize certain things including not being forced into true perspective.
This is a lovely book to leaf through even if you've never been to Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn Storefronts is right up my alley (I've done photo series of shopfronts and watercolours as well). I love old, creative storefronts and so many of them are disappearing. This is a combo of old treasures and some new places. The history of each is researched by David Dodge with accompanying watercolours by Joel Holland.
Photographer Christoph Irrgang was inspired by the Impressionists' works in the Barberini Museum and wondered what the places that the artists painted would look like now 150 years on. Impressionist Places: Revealed in Paintings and Photographs is the result of this journey. The paintings appear alongside the photos with text about the locations themselves then and now and how they affected the paintings. Surprisingly many look very like they did when the artist painted the scene en plein air.
This book is the Courtauld Gallery's book for the Peter Doig exhibition in 2023. The gallery's permanent collection was something that the student Doig visited while studying at Saint Martin's art school. The collection's works by Manet, Gaugain and Van Gogh were very influential on the young painter. After years spent living abroad in Trinidad, Doing has returned to London. His time in Trinidad also had a huge influence on his subject matter. The book has an interview with the artist and essays alongside beautiful reproductions of his work.
If you've read through all of the book reviews above you will note that I love books featuring other artists' sketchbooks. I love having a peek inside and Drawn In is another such book. It features artist from North America and Europe with images of pages from their sketchbooks and answering interview questions about their practice. Fascinating as usual.
Yet another great pick! So you started with Pen and Ink but want to explore watercolour. Well here's your second book Pen and Wash by John Harrison. Harrison has a very light touch and lovely way with colour. He takes you through his setup with supplies, how he approaches composition and perspective.
I don't tend to use acrylics anymore except with gelli plate printing. But this is a very handy volume for the beginner or intermediate. The Acrylics Companion really covers some things that beginner books don't like the many mediums you can add to the paint for texture, slowing down the drying process (something that puts people off who have switched from oils), or building up the paint or thinning it down (it is best NOT to use water). Then there are examples of ways to use mark making including without brushes. It's a great little book.
Martin Gayford's latest book How Painting Happens is basically a conversation with major artists of our time including David Hockney who he has closely worked with over decades. It delves really into the process of artists and their approach to painting and art making as well as artists' views on other artists like Van Gogh on Rembrandt or Constable on Titian. Of course it is so well illustrated. It's a treat of a book.