American Figurative Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts
This scholarly volume interprets American taste and aesthetics in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Described here are 171 sculptures from the MFA's collection, in marble, bronze, plaster, and other materials. Biographies of the sculptors - including such legendary figures as Horatio Greenough, Hiram Powers, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens - detail the artists' origins and careers, while an appendix provides a groundbreaking technical analysis of the bronzes.
Art of the Real Nine American Figurative Painters
This book takes a look at none different artists all who focused on realist figurative painting.
Bay Area Figurative Art: 1950-1965
During the 1950s a few painters in the San Francisco Bay Area began to stage personal, dramatic defections from the prevailing style of Abstract Expressionism, creating what would come to be known as Bay Area Figurative Art. In 1949 David Park destroyed many of his nonobjective canvases and began a new style of consciously naive figuration. Soon Elmer Bischoff and Richard Diebenkorn joined Park and other painters such as Nathan Oliveira, Theophilus Brown, James Weeks, and Paul Wonner in the move away from abstraction and toward figurative subject matter. When artists such as Bruce McGaw, Manuel Neri, and Joan Brown emerged as a second generation of figurative artists, the momentum grew for a powerful new development in American painting.
British Figurative Art: Painting, the Human Figure
An exhibition in book form. It is a survey of current figurative artwork. The curatorial edge and essay enhance the images.
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The Battle for Realism: Figurative Art in Britain during the Cold War, 1945-1960
In this book art historian James Hyman takes a fresh look at the crucial years after the Second World War, when attempts were made to revive European culture and debates about the future of art were fierce. The author proposes that realism in Europe during the early Cold War years occupied a radical vanguard position and stood in opposition to the competing claims made for American abstract expressionism. He examines two distinct visions of realism--social realism and Modernist realism--and explores their political implications and ideological significance. Hyman argues that this Battle for Realism shaped and internationalized British art, and he addresses a range of artists from Modernist realists such as Auerbach, Bacon, Freud, Kossoff, Moore, and Sutherland to social realists Hogarth, de Francia, and the "kitchen-sink painters." He also illuminates the impact of foreign and émigré artists on British culture, addressing artists such as Giacometti, Guttuso, and Picasso, and examining the claims made for London as an art center to rival the Ecole de Paris and the New York School. Hyman draws on contemporary critical writing to give fresh insights into the art debates of the period and gives prominence to the central roles of the critics John Berger and David Sylvester.
The Figure in Clay: Contemporary Sculpting Techniques by Master Artists
Nine master ceramic artists present their personal approaches to sculpting the human figure in a spectacular volume that's both technically illuminating and visually inspirational. The outstanding examples range from representational to abstract, diminutive to heroic. Nan Smith uses a range of mold-making techniques and precise slab construction, while Akio Takamori coil-builds a simplified figure inspired by a Velásquez painting and Christyl Boger creates a lavishly decorated, classically formal figurine. Each featured sculptor discusses the unique attractions and challenges of his or her method, and a series of detailed color photographs follows the artwork as it takes shape. In addition, there's a gallery of contemporary pieces selected by the major contributors. Glen R. Brown, a noted writer on ceramics, provides an insightful, thought-provoking introduction.
The Figure in Clay: Contemporary Sculpting Techniques by Master Artists
Nine master ceramic artists present their personal approaches to sculpting the human figure in a spectacular volume that's both technically illuminating and visually inspirational. The outstanding examples range from representational to abstract, diminutive to heroic. Nan Smith uses a range of mold-making techniques and precise slab construction, while Akio Takamori coil-builds a simplified figure inspired by a Velásquez painting and Christyl Boger creates a lavishly decorated, classically formal figurine. Each featured sculptor discusses the unique attractions and challenges of his or her method, and a series of detailed color photographs follows the artwork as it takes shape. In addition, there's a gallery of contemporary pieces selected by the major contributors. Glen R. Brown, a noted writer on ceramics, provides an insightful, thought-provoking introduction.