An excellent introduction to a 20th-century sculptor who deserves to be better known.
An art historian chronicles the career of a celebrated sculptor.
Two decades ago, Italian sculptor Fabro (1936-2007) asked curator Rowell if she “would edit an anthology in English of his lectures and writings.” Rowell agreed to participate but felt it would have been better “to write an illustrated book that prioritized his sculpture, at the same time shedding light on the thinking behind it.” Before the project got going, Fabro died. To honor his achievement, Rowell has produced this volume, in which she draws from the many interviews Fabro granted to her and others to “clarify the mysterious beauties and infinite complexities of Fabro’s art.” In this amply illustrated coffee-table book, Rowell charts Fabro’s career, from formative influences such as the writings of Locke and Rousseau to his two-year 1960s “moment” as an adherent of Arte Povera, characterized by “a drive to oppose the currents of consumerism and industrialization.” Subsequent decades included a period in which he incorporated Wittgenstein’s definition of tautology into works involving “commonplace things that engage the senses directly”; his series of Piedi (Feet) 1968-73, “among his best-known sculptures, singled out for their unclassifiable grotesquery” and intended “to reinvent the traditional premises of sculpture by attacking its own conventions”; and later experiments such as “hanging stone sculptures in the air, setting them on a pitched diagonal suggesting imminent fall, or even sliding down stairways, accentuating a precariousness and the loss of sculpture’s generic stability.” Rowell, a passionate guide, provides relatively little analysis but describes Fabro’s works and influences in considerable detail. She writes that Fabro’s work demonstrated “a range of diversity and complexity rarely seen in a single artist.” Readers of this handsome volume will understand why.
An excellent introduction to a 20th-century sculptor who deserves to be better known.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781580936118
Page Count: 248
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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