Giorgio Morandi (Twentieth-Century Masters Series) - Hardcover

Wilkin, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847819477 ISBN 13: 9780847819478

Publisher: Rizzoli, 1998

Synopsis

This much-anticipated volume presents the work of the private, enigmatic Bolognese painter and engraver. The text traces Morandi's many influences, from Giotto to Cezanne and the Metaphysical painters to the Cubists, and discusses the manner in which his life and work have informed the critical interpretations of his art. A wealth of color reproductions illustrates every phase of Morandi's career, including his signature still lifes and landscapes with their serene groupings of muted objects.

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Reviews

Few major twentieth-century artists seem duller at first glance than Morandi (1890^-1964). Except for some very early portraits, his work is "about" just three things: the landscape, with windowless houses, of hilly northern Italy; the courtyard of Morandi's apartment building in Bologna; and bottles, bowls, boxes, and other utensils atop a table. His palette of dusty hues is more subdued than that of the cubists, he regards his subjects from directly in front of them, and, except in the paintings from the year he was influenced by Di Chirico, he eschews dramatic effects. Those who know painting, however, see Morandi as the greatest disciple of Ce zanne and a painter whose subject is seeing itself and who, in the acts of seeing and representing, teases out meaning and feeling. Wilkin, one of the best contemporary writers on art, helps us realize Morandi's relationship to Ce zanne and also to the much earlier Giotto and Piero della Francesca brilliantly well. With 116 plates, an excellent library choice. Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Rizzoli
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0847819477
• ISBN 13: 9780847819478
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128