An import of an entry in a British series on famous artists, this book is part biography, part art history, and part study guide for budding artists. Each spread, in fact, covers all bases, recounting a segment of CÇzanne's life, analyzing his painting during that period, studying one specific painting, and suggesting an exercise for a student to practice a particular painterly technique. As one would expect, the result is a cluttered layout and a muddled sense of who the artist was. CÇzanne is rather simplistically reduced to an antisocial genius who was lucky enough to be independently wealthy and an ally of the Impressionists, who was more interested in arranging shapes than in conveying emotion. Crowded as the layouts are, the reproductions of CÇzanne's paintings are sufficiently good to show some of his effects. But the book seems to cater to an audience of young people already devoted to fine art and knowledgeable about it, rather than to readers just beginning to fall under its spell. The flat-footed prose and confusing presentation do nothing to convey the magic of a great artist's work—let's hope the paintings speak for themselves. (Nonfiction. 7+)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8120-6459-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Barron's
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
Categories: ART & PHOTOGRAPHY
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BOOK REVIEW
Photographer and author Stanton returns with a companion volume to Humans of New York (2013), this one with similarly affecting photographs of New Yorkers but also with some tales from his subjects’ mouths.
Readers of the first volume—and followers of the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human zoo: folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. He includes one running feature—“Today in Microfashion,” which shows images of little children dressed up in various arresting ways. He also provides some juxtapositions, images and/or stories that are related somehow. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear to homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. The “stories” range from single-sentence comments and quips and complaints to more lengthy tales (none longer than a couple of pages). People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants (a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonly), and the children often provide the most (often unintended) humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us toward hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again.
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-05890-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An oversized album compiled in response to the recent omission by the Oxford Junior Dictionary of many natural-science words, including several common European bird, plant, and animal species, in favor of more current technological terms.
In his introduction, Macfarlane laments this loss, announcing his intention to create “a spellbook for conjuring back these lost words.” Each lost word is afforded three double-page spreads. First, the letters of each lost word are sprinkled randomly among other letters and an impressionistic sketch in a visual puzzle. This is followed by an acrostic poem or riddle describing essential qualities of the object, accompanied by a close-up view. A two-page spread depicting the object in context follows. Morris’ strong, dynamic watercolors are a pleasure to look at, accurate in every detail, vibrant and full of life. The book is beautifully produced and executed, but anyone looking for definitions of the “lost words” will be disappointed. The acrostic poems are subjective, sophisticated impressions of the birds and animals depicted, redolent with alliteration and wordplay, perhaps more appropriate for creative writing prompts than for science exploration. This book is firmly rooted in the English countryside, celebrating such words as “conker,” “bramble,” and “starling” (invasive in North America), but many will cross over for North American readers. A free “Explorer’s Guide” is available online.
A sumptuous, nostalgic ode to a disappearing landscape . (Picture book/poetry. 10-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4870-0538-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Anansi Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
Categories: NATURE | ART & PHOTOGRAPHY
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