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ART
Does art imitate life, or is it the other way around? Three captivating new books may not answer that age-old question, but they'll certainly keep art lovers entertained. |
Museum-quality reading
for art's sake
REVIEWS BY ALISON HOOD Wood, a self-styled bohemian who lived briefly in Paris before returning to his Iowan roots, painted "American Gothic" in 1930, creating an indelible image "born in controversy." The artist posed his couple, a Cedar Rapids dentist and Wood's own sister, Nan, separately for the portrait, which he intended would portray a farmer and his wife standing solemnly in front of their rural home. Biel's narrative reveals a quixotic portrait of 20th-century America, as reflected in the social and critical interpretations of "American Gothic," from iconoclasm and satire in the 1930s, to reverential iconic status in the war-torn 1940s; then, to the slings of the 1950s postmodernists and the camp hilarity of parody in the 1960s. It is remarkable, as Biel's painting shows, how the truest meaning in a work of art is found, indeed, in the eye of the beholder.
By Steven Biel Norton, $21.95 216 pages ISBN 039305912X
Artist Henri Matisse once observed that "creativity requires courage." That insight is proved true in noted biographer Jeffrey Meyers' refreshing quadruple portrait, Impressionist Quartet: The Intimate Genius of Manet and Morisot, Degas and Cassatt. With an acute eye, Meyers offers us an unusual glimpse into these four artists' intertwined lives and tumultuous careers in 19th-century Paris. Both Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, the two leading lights of the controversial Impressionist movement, cultivated close ties with two gifted women painters: Manet, with Berthe Morisot; Degas with American-born Mary Cassatt. These relationships, Meyers writes, "inspired and influenced each other's work; they shared models, patrons, dealers, and vital information on how to conduct the business of art." In a courageous departure from the norm of art criticism, Meyers' Quartet employs his own "fresh look at the art . . . [describing] exactly what I see . . . within the context of the artist's life and time, what's happening in the paintings, and what they mean." Though this might be an ingenuous approach—one that risks a banality of language in the attempt to interpret the elusive nuances of brushstrokes and subject matter—Meyers' focus works nicely, reinforced as it is by his revelations about each artist's life, and their thematic and relational influences upon one another.
By Jeffrey Meyers Harcourt, $26 368 pages ISBN 0151010765
Edward Dolnick's The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece is a romp of a read: it's as fast-paced as the best suspense thriller, with vividly drawn characters and a lively lick of humor throughout. Starring the brilliant and irascible Scotland Yard art detective Charley Hill, this astonishing true-crime story details his daring rescue of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" after it was stolen from Norway's National Art Museum in Oslo in 1994. Even more amazing than its recovery, however, was the appalling ease with which the deed was done: all it took was two clumsy men, a ladder, a hammer and a pair of wire snips. Forget the flash and glam of The Thomas Crown Affair. Former Boston Globe journalist Dolnick, through the voice of the hard-boiled but erudite Hill, sets the world straight about the real-life thugs and loonies that people the world of big-time art crime, their motivations for high-class thievery and the almost comical lack of security measures in the world's finest art museums and private collections. In riveting style, Dolnick tells the primary tale, the theft of "The Scream," in increments, interpolating the rising action with other escapades from Charley Hill's real-life dossier. An additional bonus is a peek into the tortured life of artist Edvard Munch, a haunted man who wrote of his art, "[It] is rooted in a single reflection: Why am I not as others are? Why was there a curse on my cradle?"
By Edward Dolnick HarperCollins, $25.95 288 pages ISBN 0060531177
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One
of the most recognizable paintings on the planet, Grant Wood's "American
Gothic" has elicited considerable shares of angst, intrigue and amusement
over the years. Cultural historian Steven Biel minutely examines Wood's
iconic double portrait in a lively new book, American Gothic: A Life
of America's Most Famous Painting. Biel's insightful, humorous and
well-researched discussion touches on the lives of the artist and his
sister, the genesis of "Gothic" and society's responses to this enigmatic
work of art.
Support your 
Portraits of the artists
Makes you wanna 'Scream'