An Art Book Replaces the Challenge

Grant Wood (1891-1942):
American Gothic - 1930

Okay, I have had enough of answering all the questions about the Book Blogging Information.  It served its purpose after answering the first 8 questions. I feel going on to finish all 15 would be flogging a dead tree.

It was a good exercise to get motivated to write a bit more and think about the whole blogging issue.  That has been accomplished. It was starting to get repetitive and if I get bored then it defeats the whole purpose.

I'd rather write about books than blogs.

From My Bookshelf is American Art. I came across this in a second hand book shop in Hobart.  I have always loved Grant Wood's American Gothic. It is at the Art Institute in Chicago according to this book and although I have never seen the original I grew up with it.  It used to pop up regularly in ads that I remember or as a bit of comedy as people have tinkered with it over the years.   It is quite iconic to the United States.


The English version was first published in 1972 by Octopus Book Lmtd. London and this copy was distributed in Australia by Angus and Robertson.  What I find interesting is the book was originally published in Italian by Fratelli Fabbri Editore in 1966 Milan.  This particular book doesn't seen to ever have visited North America.

It was the cover that attracted me to it and as it's in a great condition with dust jacket I thought it would be a lovely addition to my collection.

The 87 Colour Illustrations are well done and are very varied as you can see in the small sample below.

Jack Levine (born 1915) : Welcome Home !
1946 - New York - Brooklyn Museum

This book is part of a series that includes African Art, Classical Greece, Art Nouveau, Chinese Art, Christian ARt, Egyptian Art, Impressionism, Indian Art, Japanese Art, Pre-Columbian Art and Roman Art.

Stuart Davis (born 1894): The Paris bit. New York,
Whitney Museum of American Art

The book not only has examples of various American art work but has full colour photo plates of various  museums that the art is housed in as well as photos of the various homes some of the artists live in. Frank Lloyd Wright had an amazingly large home and no doubt it would be great to go through it.


So I hope people enjoy this short interlude away from more blog babbling and have a quick look at the photos presented from the book.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) : Portrait
of Mrs. X    18884 New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art