Art Book - Half-Life of A Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art

Remembered to pick it up yesterday when we visited again. It's a companion catalogue to last year's exhibition at the SFMOMA. Haven't had a chance to read through it yet, but the few paragraphs I did glance at really ticked me off - somewhat pretentious and patronizing. Will reserve final judgment for later. I bought it mainly to get pictures of the works I really liked. Don't like that so many of the pics are so tiny, and that many descriptions are lined vertically. Trying so hard to be different or contemporary. Oh puul-eeeaze.

Cover - nice hard-bound padded.

From Daily Meanderings

From Daily Meanderings

Yang Shaobin's Untitled 1999, oil on linen

From Daily Meanderings

Liu Wei's Two Drunk Painters, 1990, oil on canvas

From Daily Meanderings

Zeng Fanzhi, Mask Series No. 10, 1998, oil on canvas.

From Daily Meanderings

Yan Lei, Super Lights-Dog Year New York, 2006, oil on canvas. Still can't figure out if I like this or not, but it really disturbs me, so it's notable.

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Art Book - Paintings of The Prado, Bulfinch Press, 1994

Another review I kept meaning to publish. I'd scoured this book and had made a list for when I made my visit to the Prado. I was ecstatic when I finally got to stand in front of one of my favorite works of all time, Las Meninas, by Diego Velázquez. To sustain the memories, I studied this book some more when I returned, remembering works that I'd originally skipped over in the book but bowled me over in person. Very cool.

Beautiful, typical Bulfinch hardcover art book. Some of the works span two-page or four-page fold-outs. Translated from the original Spanish, and organized by the various schools - Spanish first, then Italian, Flemish and Dutch, etc. Each section has an overview of the salient characteristics of the schools and periods, then each work has a short but interesting description, oftentimes with historical tidbits thrown in. Crappier shots than usual, but then I'm not shooting professionally, you get the picture, LOL.

The cover. Of course we saw both of them, clothed and nude.

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Las Meninas, Diego Velázquez. The sheer size of this painting was impressive. It's one thing to imagine how huge it is, but quite another to stand in front of it. I'd also done a huge paper on this, all complete bullshit, of course.

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Witches Sabbath, or The Great Goat, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. This collection really made an impression on Hubby. He really loved this room. Besides the four-page spread, there's also several details on following pages. The ruler is 18" long.

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The Triumph of Death, Pieter Bruegel The Elder. No-one who sees this painting can be unmoved. It still holds such unimaginable horror even in this day and age.

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Art Book - Egyptian Wall Painting, Francesco Tiradritti

Bought this back in February, and kept meaning to review it. Haven't submitted one to Amazon yet, but I can blurb about it here.

Physical attributes: This is a beautiful, oversized book. There's tons of excellent color plates, many fully double-paged. The full paged works are printed on a rough matte surface that is as pleasurable to feel as it is to look.

The contents: First off, this wasn't my area of study. I'm a dilettante on the subject. That disclaimer in place, it seemed to be comprehensive coverage on Egyptian Wall Painting, well organized and explained. The author's authority on the subject is unquestionable. There's a very professorial lecture-ish tone to the writing, which I enjoyed, but I can see could bore the average person.

It's encased in a hard slipcase.

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Beautiful cover (left), and the slipcover (right).

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Pages 214-15, Women's banquest, painted plaster, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, tomb of Rekhmira (TT 100), north wall of the longitudinal hall, second half 15th century BC. (The ruler is 18" long).

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Pages 222-23, Decorative panel with marsh landscape, painted plaster, height 39 3/4 in. (101 cm), width 63 in (160 cm). Tell el-Amarna, Maruaten, "Aquatic Courtyard" floor, 1350-1333 BC, Cairo, Egyptian Museum.

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Page 224, Banquet (detail): pair of banqueters, limestone bas-relief, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, tomb of Ramose (TT 55), hypostyle hall, east wall, 1350-1333 BC. It was so perfectly shot I could see every single edge in the relief, and I kept touching it because I forgot it was only paper.

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Art Book - Hiroshige, 100 Famous Views of Edo

WSJ recommendation, but doesn't detract. Definitely a 'coffee table book' even though this isn't going anywhere near the coffee table, as it would be under threat from kitty nails. Had ordered it before Bubby passed, so when it came, I didn't bother opening it for a while. Love it so much, even made my first Amazon review. LOL.

"Gorgeous, stunning large-scale book, and an excellent addition to any art book collection - or for the coffee table. Perfect reference companion for reading with other in-depth Hiroshige books. Softcover with traditional rope binding. Protected in a silk hardcover folding case fastened by faux ivory clasps. My pics hopefully show better than my description. The detailing - binding, paper quality, plates - is exquisite. Colors and images are precise. Complete collection of FULL-PLATE UNCROPPED prints with museum-like blurbs, succinct but fairly informative, (and a wee bit snarky in places) on the opposite page in English, German, and French. Brief introductory overview with zoomed-in detailing of selected prints. Brings back nice memories for us, having seen some of these prints on display during our visit to the Ota Memorial Museum in Nov 2008."

From Daily Meanderings

From Daily Meanderings

From Daily Meanderings

From Daily Meanderings

From Daily Meanderings

Visited The Legion, Had Some Fish

After a miserable Christmas, Hubby insisted we go out. Mainly to distract me, and maybe lift our spirits a little. Fine, we dropped by the Legion. Always nice to see the ocean, and the museum grounds. Spent a little time inside, couldn't enjoy anything. Did see my 2 favorite pieces, and picked up a few art books.

Afterwards had an early dinner at the fish place around the corner. Good, cozy family-like ambiance, but subpar food.


Masterworks of European Painting In The California Palace of The Legion of Honor.














Legion of Honor: Selected Works