Yeah, but what about important artists?
936608
I just got this book, and have gone though and ticked off the albums they list in my collection. I have a grand total of 115 of the 1001; mostly clustered between 1966 and 1972. Typical, I suppose of a lot of people my age. The book provides me an interesting touch stone that will help me expand outside of the 'golden era' I think.

Several points trouble me about the book however:

1) It has reminded me that I still haven't replaced a bunch of records that an ex-roommate stole from me - including my entire first release Beatles collection. (My total might have topped 150 I think).

2) While no list like this, however large, is going to satisfy everyone, how anyone could include Britney Spears in this list is beyond my imagination. If they just had to have an obvious example of late nineties bubblegum, they could have picked someone with just a little bit of talent, like maybe Kylie Minogue. I expect 99.44% of all readers could think of several omitted albums that would be more appropriate. I myself can't see how they could leave out the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed, or John Coltrane's Blue Train but find room for Spears.

3) While not actually gathered onto an album until decades after the 78's were recorded, I think a 'special case' should have been made for Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Hot Sevens. It is not an overstatement to say that without these recordings, very little of the music on the 1001 albums chosen could have ever existed. And even though the 'LP album' as such wasn't invented until much later, taken together they are very much in the general mode of an album, capturing a special time in the artists development and a turning point in popular music.

4) Although this is "1001 Albums..." not "1001 Artists..." several artists are clearly over-represented (Led Zeppelin is great, but do they really deserve 5 albums here) and other very important artists are completely missing (the above mentioned Louis Armstrong; Robert Johnson; Bessie Smith [actually most Blues artists in general], Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Sam the Sham and the Pharohs).

5) I found a bunch of indexing errors - page numbers and inconsistent group names ("Led Zeppelin" and "Zeppelin, Led").

Items 2, 3, and 4 point to a possibly more fundamental problem. I expect that the contributors felt is important to try to balance the weights of the decades and dropped older stuff to make way for the newer. The problem is that much of the newer stuff is too new to be properly considered a 'must hear' important album. Pop music is in a deep cycle of bubblegum, and very little of todays 'pop' is destined to become important historical records. These days, ground breaking takes place by indies and is distributed via the internet. Not a very easy environment for an album to grab the imagination.

Overall I think it is an interesting - if weighty - tome. Ready made to inspire arguements and the widening of horizons. And much more realistic than its 1001 Books or 1001 Movies siblings.
2319995
Given the objectives of the volume; i.e. exemplification of the different methods, and materials used in street art (paint, stencil, 3D, miniatures, etc.) the author did a credible job in illustrating its variations across a number of countries (hardly 'the world'), while also engaging and illustrating the work of some of our leading artists. Focusing on artististic conception of some current human condition, the author illustrates by works of artists like blek le art, c215, evol, shepard fairey, eva, gaia, blu, roa, jimmy c, os gemeos, and others. A rather monumental task done quite well.
4553299
I know the artists that this book is written about, as its primary topic, first-hand. I find that this book concentrates on the very specific area of "Moving" Pictures Generation only in regard to film with no mention of those in video. That is too bad, not even to acknowledge that simultaneous area of development, which was also extremely exciting and progressive at the time under consideration. Under illustrated. Otherwise, there is definitely some good information to be gleaned.
2004569
this guy should be famous. oh wait, he has too much talent. that is not what it takes these days.
725764
I have been fortunate to work with alot of artists over  the last  23yrs. 70% of the artists I worked with are truly  talented, but there  are only a few that can truly reach  deep inside themselves and  reveal their souls, in music and  always reach all people of all ages  with truth and with the  ability to take fresh ideas and put those  ideas, into  their music even though at times it seems a little  risky such  is an Artist who goes by the of Sting. This is a persn who  I have had pleasure working with . Great Job Gordon........
3936707
Very good example of the importance of art during the Middle Ages.  If not for this great artist, we would have much less of an understanding of the times of Henry VIII and 16th Century England.
4189306
There is no question that Henry Adams scholarly book EAKINS REVEALED: THE SECRET LIFE OF AN AMERICAN ARTIST is an important tome in the already extensive library of the life and works of Thomas Eakins, an artist still considered by many to be the greatest American artist who ever lived.  And if many Eakins' devotees find this information as gathered and regaled by Adams as an attempt to push Eakins of his historic pedestal, then I think the chosen title for this treatise has been misleading.

Adams has pored over countless reams of notes and letters and documents and oral histories (all well documented and scrutinized in his extensive bibliography) and presents another aspect of Eakins' life - that of a crude, exhibitionist, sexually ambiguous vs disturbed, depressed man obsessed with nudity and body functions and a man whose family history of cruelty, incest and madness informed his paintings.

The book is divided into three sections: Part One - The Eakins Legacy (including Eakins family background, odd living conditions, family quarrels, the deaths and insanities of those close to him, and including the infamous Loin Cloth Scandal that contributed to his being fired from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Part Two - Life and Art in which the previous information is shown to have influenced Eakins' portraits, rowing paintings, swimming paintings and the BIG paintings like 'The Gross Clinic', 'The Champion Single Sculls', 'William Rush' etc; and Part Three - The Case of Thomas Eakins in which Adams pulls it all together maintaining that indeed because of Adams' scholarship, Eakins is still the most important painter America has produced.

The question arises as to just how much of this Freudian muck raking is necessary and whether ultimately how important is this 'new' information to the viewer of Eakins' paintings.  Yes, facts such as those presented (ad infinitum!) in this lengthy volume provide smarmy interest, if not material for a movie about a strange but great man.  Others have written similarly about Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Artemsia Gentileschi, Bacon, Warhol, de Kooning, Pollock etc.  No artist can stand before an easel and not have his/her interior feelings and experiences influence the painted work.  But does all of this innuendo-plucking make or break an artist's place in history?

The argument Adams makes is ultimately strong and deserves respect: "Eakins, far from being the most moral of American artists, was surely one of the most profoundly confused, even disturbed.  By making art out of the chaos, conflict, and scandal of his own life, Eakins brought us more deeply into the world of sorrow, suffering, and despair than any other American artist of the nineteenth century.  By some peculiar alchemy, he made his dark feelings beautiful, as anyone can attest who has contemplated one of his major paintings.  Their effect can only be described as hypnotic".

Where Adams succeeds in making his points is in his painting by painting dissection of all of the Freudian implications of composition, exhibitionism, indeterminate gender buttocks, hidden models, etc, yet his visual examples are so poorly presented in this volume that they are all but indecipherable.  Would that the publishers had devoted more space to the paintings and even used color, an important component of Eakins' works, to make the lesson more workable.

Yet as in Adams summary, Thomas Eakins is such an important painter that any additional information or perspective only results in expanding our appreciation for his greatness.  Adams writes well (if excessively) and if the reader can drop preconceived prejudice that Adams is out to dethrone Eakins by prying into his psyche, this is actually a fine read.  And given some time for reactionary responses to die down, EAKINS REVEALED will be an important contribution to the art libraries.  Grady Harp, August 05
1530407
Art and artists create and reflect so much of the zeitgeist of their times. For some reason we discard art as illustrative or decorative. This work gets it right by demonstration that art moves people in ways that words cannot.
1871136
It's a very important collection. I'm always stunned though when people from outside the culture, outside historical preservation or American roots music who pretend to be experts. It ends up looking self serving and not really at all about perpetuating the music of those Creole artists from the Louisiana prairies that was born from this artist and other pioneers like Clifton. These, like so many are one and done projects that really don't inform and educate the public in a sustainable way. And the reviews - smh- are just arrogant in their attempt to also project some type of expert knowledge from mainly white males.
3862762
The catalogue for last year's blockbuster show at the Tate Gallery in London, this book focuses on Rothko's late series (the Seagram Murals, the late black on gray paintings). It is therefore not a complete retrospective of the artist's career (at least four other books are available if you are looking for a broader study of his art), but it nevertheless is a high-quality publication with many first-rate illustrations of Rothko's darkest and most austere works. Interesting essays by leading authorities on the artist (especially by David Anfam, the author of the widely praised catalogue raisonn of Rothko's paintings) explain the significance of this shift to a darker palette, the importance of the relationship between the paintings and the space they were meant to be hung in, the artist's mood and psyche during the 1960's, his uneasiness with success and money, or his rejection of a purely decorative and colorful art.

On the whole a valuable addition to the albeit extensive literature on the artist. Do not expect any breakthrough study though, most of the ideas that appear in these essays having already been expressed in earlier publications (by Diane Waldman, Jeffrey Weiss and, of course, David Anfam)with the exception of the chapter dealing with the pigments and components used by the artist, with very interesting photographs of the different layers of paint.
573767
Great info, funky, enlightening...great to see what other artists doing.
A great read...though some parts short on information...sure wish some of them could be longer.
Definitely something everyone is interested in. Helps with our normal curiousity of what artists do.
4117036
I love small compact sizes, so this book with its small size and huge content was a lovely surprise. Its main focus is on the different artists listed according to the timeline. Starts with pre-history and ends with art after 1945. Each period initiates with a visual timeline that lists important artists and short introductory text. The list of artists is comprehensive and I have always found a artist with whom I was not acquainted and wanted to look him up in this this book.

But what this book lacks, is the detail in each period and the different art movements which is so important to understand to know art properly. It just mentions the name of the movements all together in each period with minimal description in the introduction text and that's about it.

This is a great book as an world or western artist reference but to understand different art movements and details about a particular style, this book is not helpful.
741982
While there is much information in this book, it is more of a jazz encyclopedia than a guide. I say this because it does a good job of summarizing the artists - the entries are well written.  But, it's a bit  weak on the recording reviews.  It tends to review only those recordings  that are currently available.  With the labels re-releasing so many old  recordings, you will find that many recent re-releases are not covered.  I  would prefer a comprehensive list of an artists original releases (as much  as possible - at least all of an artist's major releases should be listed,  whether they are currently available or not).
The entries should be  listed or highlighted with bold text - instead they are burried in the  paragraph making quick reference difficult.
Like many guides they are  too liberal with the 5 star (they use bones) ratings.
This book covers  all forms of jazz including fusion and crossover, a positive for those who  want to learn about all types of music related to jazz. Personally, I could  do without the Kenny G. reviews.
Even with my reservations, I will  admit its a fun book to have and for the price you get much useful  information and an accompanying CD with very well chosen titles. -GR4
1565750
This is a good resource to have. But unfortunately it only highlights the real prominent artists of the time. I was hoping for a more expansive view.
997190
Warren Zevon had more to give. This (2nd?) album of his songs done by other artists is testimony to that fact. It is good that

the artists do not just cover the famous hits... .. ..and when they did, they did them in their fashion.
161409
Closely examines the creation of a music legend. They aren't just musicians but stars and icons, they are part of peoples everyday lives.
949970
This catalogue is offered on several Amazon .com pages

The author has held a number of important positions at the Louvre before going on to higher positions

The exhibition is a bit different to the usual exhibition
It seeks to see the Art of Louis XV period as it was seen by their contempories. Most modern exhibitions tend to be focused on the more important names as they are perceived NOW
A number of relatively unknown or unknown artists are included ( I am talking of the general public not a expert on Loius XV ) Some 20 of the 90 artists were not represented in the Louvre at the time of the exhibition . There are 127 items in the exhibition
 Major and minor artists get one work each on average but there are exceptions Quite a number of pictures were shown in the Salon of various years
Also the exhibition aims to show as many portraits as still life's,and as many history paintings as landscapes or genre scenes
All in all this is challenging
There is an introduction to art in the Age of Louis XV
There is a catalogue to the paintings with helpful comment. There is a 5--10 line introduction to each artist then comment on the one or more paintings in the exhibition
There are 13 colour plates. The rest are illustrated in B&W

Pierre Rosenberg has taken a similar approach to a variable degree in some of his other extensive list of works
I possibly wouldn't start with this as my first book on the period, but that said, it does challenge us to rethink our view of the period

I was pleased to see the portrait
"Portrait du Graveur Jean Mariette 1723-- he was one of the great Mariette family of Print dealers
He was the father of Jean--Pierre.  The great drawing collector and scholar
I found a number of other works that I was pleased to meet