At a time when the dominant mode of painting; Abstract Expressionism; emphasised expressive drama through bold brushwork and largely abstract compositions; Johnsrsquo; paintings of the American flag; targets; numbers and the alphabet demonstrated a decided departure from convention. Despite being painted with obvious care; they seemed emotionally reticent; cool and quiet; far from the emotional fireworks then fashionable. ldquo;It all beganhellip; with my painting a picture of an American flag. Using this design took care of a great deal for me because I didnrsquo;t have to design it. So I went on to similar things like the targets - things the mind already knows. That gave me room to work on other levels. For instance; Irsquo;ve always thought of painting as a surface; painting it in one color made this very clear. Then I decided that looking at a painting should not require a special kind of focus like going to church. A picture ought to be looked at the same way you look at a radiator.rdquo; Unlike most artistsrsquo; statements in New York during the 1950s; Johnsrsquo; remarks contained none of the familiar talk of doubt and angst; and his selection of subject matter appeared deliberate; thoughtful; and far removed from emotional attachments and desires. To younger artists; his art seemed not so much cold and unfeeling as clear-eyed and honest after the excesses of Abstract Expressionism. Furthermore; in selecting recognisable subjects; Johns seemed to reject prevailing abstract modes of painting; yet his subjects themselves - flags; targets; numbers - each possessed a vital characteristic of classic abstraction; namely; a flatness rendering them all but indistinguishable from the picture plane itself. This book underlines how Johnsrsquo;s work made the polarity between abstraction and representation that had dominated debates about modern art for decades seem suddenly obsolete; opening up other ways of thinking about artrsquo;s relation to the world. It also tries to understand why; since his first exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery at the age of twenty-seven; he has remained one of the major artists of the contemporary artistic scene.
#1253195 in eBooks 2015-09-15 2015-09-15File Name: B016XN12A4
Review
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Great content. ALL color plates and great colors!By ClairedeLuneThis is a 5 STAR book. The color plates (They are ALL color) are excellent as far as reproduction is concerned. and there are plenty of them. The text is informative. bringing in other painters and their paintings for references.The text and the plates shed light on the Nabis. in a useful way. Though a 2005 edition. the pages are still pristine. So. I highly recommend this book.16 of 16 people found the following review helpful. Very well illustratedBy BenjaminBonnard and the Nabis includes the work of Pierre Bonnard along with Edouard Vuillard. Ker Xavier Roussel. Maurice Denis and Felix Vallotton. The first half of the book concerns Bonnard; in pages seven through fifty-nine the well illustrated text discusses his life and work. The Masterworks runs from page sixty to one hundred and thirteen. and comprises full page plates of Bonnards paintings. occasionally accompanied by a page of explanatory text. The remainder of the book is given over to the other four artists; following a general discussion of the Nabis the life and work of each artist is discussed individually along with colour plates of their work. The book concludes with five separate biographies of a page each. notes and a bibliography.This is a fine book. the text is comprehensive and very readable. and it is superbly illustrated almost entirely in full colour with the vast majority of the images being full page size or nearly so. The plates illustrating the text are placed close to their mention in the text. In addition to the work of the artists under discussion there are several examples of the paintings of other artists for purposes of comparison. There are about 200 illustrations in total. all but about half a dozen in full colour. and the quality of reproduction is excellent.
