Portraits (Modern Library)

The chief art critic for "The New York Times" gives a painter's-, sculptor's-, and photographer's-eye view of art as he explores museums with some of today's most important artists. Photos throughout.

A Notable Book of the Year:
The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post
A Best Book of the Year: Publishers Weekly
A Choice Art Book of the Year: Town and Country

"Michael Kimmelman is the most acute American art critic of his generation, and Portraits, his first book, is a fine debut. Patiently, inquisitively, and with remarkable insight, he coaxes from artists a whole range of responses to art that take us in their own words to the heart of their own work. A valuable book and a great read."
--Robert Hughes

In Portraits, Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic for The New York Times, speaks with eighteen of today's important artists as they view some of the world's great art. Kimmelman's engaging, informal profiles of Chuck Close, Wayne Thiebaud, Brice Marden, Kiki Smith and others reveal not only what they said about the art they chose to look at in various museums and elsewhere, but also what they revealed about themselves and their work in the process.

"A fascinating collective portrait of the relationship of living artists to a shared past."
--The New York Times Book Review

"This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to become more familiar with con-
temporary art or who wants to savor the words of working artists, words that defy a common notion that artists cannot communicate." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Sixteen handsomely wrought biographical essays, essays that also reveal much about the state of museums today, the way artists employ the past, and the inclu-
sive temper of America's most prominent art critic."--New Orleans Times Picayune