SELF-PORTRAIT: ERIK BLEGVAD

by Erik Blegvad ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1979

Erik Blegvad's self-portrait is a far more conventional likeness than its predecessor in this series, Margot Zemach's story of myself. He came, he demonstrates, from an artistic family; he also had artistic models--like Ib Andersen--and an artist friend, N. M. Bodecker; and examples of all their work give the book considerable visual variety and interest. Then, too, he grew up in the picture-worthy land of Denmark, moved to Paris and lived in New York; and there are renderings of all those places done in different styles at different dates. But there's no internal life here, and no sense of a personality. What is reflected, dispassionately, is the growth of a career. Budding artists will find that some of Blegvad's ""favorite"" illustrations are included (without, however, any indication of why he prizes them), along with some of his preliminary sketches (which ""often have a freshness I tend to lose in the finished drawings""). But altogether this belongs in the 700s while the Zemach book could felicitously fill any lingering autobiography assignments.

Pub Date: April 15, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION