Art Books

About this Art Book section.
I plan to write a number of book reviews in the coming months. Eventually I hope to examine a wide number of art books, exhibition catalogs, art criticism and dvds. With each book I list will be a link to buy the book at Amazon.com. If you purchase the book from my links you will be supporting this site as we get a small percentage of each sale of someone clicking on the link for a book on this page.

Also, please consider supporting this site by whenever you wish to purchase any book at all from Amazon – if you first return to this page, click on any link to a book and put that book in your shopping cart and then add the book(s) you really want to your shopping cart. Then simply delete the book you initially clicked on from the shopping cart and in the same shopping session buy the books you want. We will still get a small percentage for referring you to Amazon.

Thank you for considering this help. Any money I get will be used to help make this blog even better with more interviews, video interviews and time devoted to making this site a valuable resource to the perceptual painter.

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Edwin Dickinson: A Critical History of His Paintings by John L. Ward

$61.17
from Amazon.com

One of the few books currently available on Edwin Dickinson (1891-1978), Edwin Dickinson is one of American greatest painters who primarily worked from observation. This book gives first-rate scholarship to a painter who has been long overlooked by art historians. The essays are well researched and contain information gleaned from interviews and other period sources that are difficult to find elsewhere. Edwin Dickinson was also a great teacher and the book offer painters and art lovers many treasures of knowledge to learn from his teachings as well as new insight into his enigmatic paintings. This book, being primarily essays rather than a catalog of images, is the perfect companion to the Albright-Knox exhibition catalog, Edwin Dickinson: Dreams and Realities from a few years ago.
Here is a sample image of the text in the book that discusses one of Dickinson’s major works, “The Cello Player” (pictured below)

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In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open-Air Painting by Philip Conisbee and others.

A great resource is In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open-Air Painting in learning about Corot and other early plein air painting done in Rome. Wonderful reproductions of lessor known 18th and 19th Century painters as well as Corot, who painted outdoor views in Italy to directly study Nature. Intelligent and insightful commentary, I’ve returned to this book many times for inspiration and ideas. Sadly, out of print but you can currently still get copies used on Amazon.
From a blurb about the book:

Prominent art historians Philip Conisbee, Sarah Faunce, Jeremy Strick, Peter Galassi, and Vincent Pomarede discuss the cultural, theoretical, and art historical background of this school of outdoor painting. They examine the early history of open-air painting, its theory and practice, the sites of Rome and southern Italy that were painted, and the delicate balance that existed among realism, memory and imagination. A rich selection of representative paintings is discussed and reproduced. The book is the catalogue for an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Saint Louis Art Museum

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Corot in Italy: Open-Air Painting and the Classical-Landscape Tradition

An essential and perhaps the definitive book on Corot’s outdoor paintings in Italy is Corot in Italy: Open-Air Painting and the Classical-Landscape Tradition by Peter Galassi This book is also out of print but used copies are also currently available on Amazon. I have almost used my copy of this book as a textbook over the years.
Here are what a couple of reviewers had to say about this book…

“Beautifully produced. . . . Galassi has assembled a formidable range of facts and new insights for this detailed examination of Corot’s first, and most important, visit to Italy in 1825-8. In doing so he has uncovered a wealth of illustrative material (much of it previously unpublished). . . . Galassi’s book deserves unrestrained praise. It probes far more deeply into Corot’s most impressive period than any previous study of the artist. It is also essential reading for anyone interested in landscape painting.”—Michael Clarke, Apollo Magazine

“Our view of nineteenth-century French painting may never be the same. . . . Corot in Italy is plentifully and beautifully illustrated, with many near-life-sized details that make Corot’s firm touch as evident as reproductions can. A delight to look at, Corot in Italy is also a delight to read—lucid, intelligent, and blissfully free of jargon, Galassi has a gift for the telling phrase and—a scarce commodity these days—clearheaded discussion. . . . Corot in Italy is on of the best, most absorbing new books on art I’ve come across in a long time.”—Karen Wilkin, New Criterion

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