Lives of the Artists
by Calvin Tomkins
List Price:
Our Price: $5.99
You Save: $20.01 (77%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Calvin TomkinsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-28
ISBN: 0805088725
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Book Reviews of Lives of the Artists
Book Review: A portrait of the motives and minds of some great artists
Summary: 5 Stars
In an instant gratification society where 15 minutes seems to be a long time and an hour devoted to one subject is almost a career, Tomkins explains how 10 of today's artists became great.
In brief -- it takes decades of devotion to a central alluring ideal. No artist sets out to do an instant $100,000 or $ 1 million work of art; instead, they create to explain the world as they see it. When they succeed, we lesser mortals call them great and pay them their due.
James Turrell is an example; he's worked since 1974 to turn an extinct volcano just west of Arizaona's Painted Desert into an innovative celestial observatory. Most people have heard of Stonehenge; his Roden Crater is the first innovative celestial artwork in 4,000 years.
Four thousand years from now, people will view his art and, if imagination is still riotous and ridiculous, they'll create legends of how it was built by Merlin and the Druids, or by Navajo medicine men and Coyotes. Terell may be a Trickster for a far distant future.
To start, he built and lived in a tiny log cabin for 19 months to study the crater's light and landscape. Sculpting the landscape is an ancient North American craft, as shown by the Moundbuilders. Watson Brake, in northeast Louisiana, was built 2,500 years before the great Egyptian pyramids, about 3,500 years before Stonehenge.
Egyptians built pyramids, as did the Maya and Aztec. Europeans built henges. In North America, the landscape is an inspiration from the Hudson River School to the Group of Seven to the Sedona buttes in the background of Krazy Kat cartoons and to Monument Valley where John Ford filmed his most notable westerns. Terrell continues a proud legacy.
The genius is not in the landscape; Tomkins explains how artists such as Terrell see something that slips invisibly past the vision of us mere mortals. He does a beautiful job of piecing together the artistry, dedication, skill and labour required to draw out a new vision from old familiar surroundings.
Art has an interesting evolution. For the Pharaohs, it was a sign of permanence. A painting of people baking bread meant the occupant of a tomb would have bread for eternity. Gradually, art evolved into picturesque and decorative.
Today's art explains things we cannot otherwise understand, such as Terell and his look into the universe. Tomkins makes it real for the average reader who cannot otherwise take part in such creativity, deftly explaining 10 significant modern artists.
All in all, a superb book about a usually unfathomable subject.
Artists, A-Z Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Artists, A-Z Books
Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintingsby Gary Schwartz
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1991-11-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $48.50
Life with Lowryby Tilly Marshall
Hutchinson; Published: 1981-02-16; Hardcover; Book
Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Lifeby Richard Meryman
Harper; Published: 1996-10-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.96
Price in other shops:
Georg Baselitz: Paintings 1964-67 [exhibition: May 1-31, 1985]by Georg Baselitz
Anthony d'Offay Gallery; Paperback; Book
Florence and Its Beauty: A Practical Guidebook to the Town and Its Monuments with 350 Illustrations and a Plan of the Principal Places of Interestby Sandra Orienti
G. Ramella - Florence, Italy; Published: 1956; Unknown Binding; Book
Lord of the Rings Sketchbookby Alan Lee
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2008-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Picassoby Patrick O'Brian
Harvill; Published: 1994; Paperback; Book
The Art of Adventureby Galen Rowell
Collins Pub San Francisco; Published: 1989-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.92
Price in other shops:
Calder JewelryOther Distribution; Published: 2007-12-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $359.99
POPism: The Warhol Sixtiesby Andy Warhol, Pat Hackett
Mariner Books; Published: 2006-09-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.29
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the New York Art Worldby Marcia Tucker
University of California Press; Published: 2008-10-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.40
Price in other shops:
My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholicby Charles Saatchi
Phaidon Press; Published: 2009-11-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.97
An Object of Beauty: A Novelby Steve Martin
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2010-11-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.67
Price in other shops:
Seven Days in the Art Worldby Sarah Thornton
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2008-11-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops:
Leo and His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelliby Annie Cohen-Solal
Knopf; Published: 2010-05-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.26
Price in other shops:
ART/ WORK: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Careerby Heather Darcy Bhandari, Jonathan Melber
Free Press; Published: 2009-03-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.76
Price in other shops:
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Artby Don Thompson
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2010-04-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.39
Price in other shops:
Seven Days in the Art Worldby Sarah Thornton
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2009-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.27
Price in other shops:
Living Well Is the Best Revenge (Modern Library)by Calvin Tomkins
Modern Library; Published: 1998-11-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $157.18
Off the Wall: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenbergby Calvin Tomkins
Picador; Published: 2005-11-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.71
Price in other shops: