John Updike: Just Looking: Essays on Art
by John Updike
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Book Summary Information
Author: John UpdikeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-02-15
ISBN: 0878465774
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: MFA Publications
Book Reviews of John Updike: Just Looking: Essays on Art
Book Review: A Delightful and Beautiful Book
Summary: 5 Stars
In the 23 essays in JUST LOOKING: ESSAYS ON ART, John Updike is a delightful guide and insightful companion as he reviews art across the centuries. Throughout, Updike's voice is totally engaging, informed but never pedantic, respectful but not reverential. Here is a sample:
o "From his art, we might imagine him [Renoir] a plump, rosy, placid man, but in fact, he was bony-faced, nervous, reactionary, and restless."
o "This painting of Wertheimer tells us what we have been missing in even the more admirable of Sargent's portraits: an at-ease emotional possession of the subject that enables him to concentrate on making a painting. Where no warming familiarity exists, a certain distancing finesse takes over."
o "In 1944, Robert Motherwell wrote of his friend Jackson Pollock, `His principal problem is to discover what his true subject is. And since painting is his thought's medium, the resolution must grow out of the process of his painting itself.' Three years later, in sudden full stride, Pollock could state, `When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing.' Pollock painting is the subject of Pollock's paintings."
o "[Modigliani] ...drank while he painted and liked to complete a canvas in one sitting."
o "As his eyes increasingly dimmed, Degas perforce experimented with roughness of execution, never losing his underlying integrity of drawing."
o "Faces gave [Fairfield] Porter a lot of trouble and his paint thickens as he worries over them."
JUST LOOKING: ESSAYS ON ART is also beautiful book with great reproductions. These tie seamlessly to Updike's commentary and enable the reader to fully appreciate his wonderful insights.
If you can't get to your local museum to visit the Vermeers (thank you, New York), this book is a superb alternative.
Summary of John Updike: Just Looking: Essays on Art
Artwork by John Updike.Art History Books
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