One of the best books on Freud's paintings
582883
This is definitely one of the best books on Freud's paintings.  The reproductions are excellent.  I highly recommend.
2163238
Although there are few paintings in the collection itself (mainly drawings), a large number of paintings are actually represented in the book to illustrate essays on Klimt's most important patrons and muses (some of which I had not seen in reproduction before) - these form about half the book, with interviews, contemporary documents, letters and photographs - I found this section the most interesting - there are also good essays on his background and his relationships to other artists, contemporary reception of his work, and his inspirations (especially fascinating were the visual comparisons of his drawings of nudes to the work of a contemporary erotic photographer, where the similarities are too many and complex to be put down to pure coincidence). Most poignant is the essay on three of the most prominent Jewish families of the period who were major collectors of Klimt's work - the Lederers, the Bloch-Bauers, and the Zuckerkandls, based on a mind-boggling 193 references. These families began the century at the pinnacle of contemporary society, and were at the centre of Vienna's cultural life; their stories make for harrowing reading - for example, Elizabeth Bachofen-Echt, the daughter of Adele Bloch-Bauer, survived the Third Reich by claiming that she was Klimt's illegitimate daughter and therefore of mixed race - and are worth the price of the book in themselves. Layout and reproductions are superb, as is the general quality of the book. A joy to the eye and definitely one of the best art books on the market.
1545145
My wife bought this book for me for my birthday this summer, direct from Taschen. Taschen always has superb art books with great color photography, and this one is as good as any I have ever seen. I was unfamiliar with the work of Ando Tadao, and I am now pleased to say that as a result of this book, I have become a fan. Ando's blending of interior and exterior space (walk through a central courtyard, with a tree, to get from one part of the home to another), plus his use of concrete to create calm surfaces, have me wishing to see his buildings in person. The book has text in English, German, and French, and features both photos from multiple angles and also reproductions of his orginal drawings so that you can study the transition from plan to reality.

Great book. Fascinating architecture.
2666581
For anyone interested in Millais or in Victorian art generally this is a must buy. Many, if not most, illustrations occupy a single page and all appear to be in accurate colors which are vivid and sharp. In addition, many images are accompanied by an analysis, usually on the facing page. And the scope is wide: It covers Millais's career through the years of his declining popularity when the public's interest moved toward impressionism. Then he was undertaking landscape works which are rarely seen in other descriptions of his paintings. In short, this is the definitive examination of his output.
Even so the book is not all it could have been. I am not capable of critically commenting on the text and its analyses. However, I know what I like to see in an illustration. Millais often painted works that were wider than tall. In this book these are presented across the page. This leaves all kinds of white space above and below that could have been used by turning the image ninety degrees thereby presenting a larger image. Nor are all images full-paged. Many are reduced to three by two and a quarter inches. Surprisingly some of the most well-known paintings are less than a full page: for me most notable are "The Boyhood of Raleigh" and "Trust Me." Both are quite shrunken and the latter is not even analyzed. Perhaps the editors deemed that they were too well-known to merit full display.
Although the reader may occasionally grit her or his teeth at the miniaturizing of a favorite, the book is worth the price for its coverage of a marvelous painter.
2735752
This is an excellent book about Cezanne for two reasons: 1) It describes his life in much more detail than other books that I have read, and, in particular, discusses his interactions with other artists, poets, and writers in greater depth than I have seen before. 2) The reproductions are excellent for a book in this price range, and are consistent with the publisher's (Taschen's) high standards; many images are of works I have not seen in other publications. I was able to purchase it used, and it was worth every penny.
4733075
I've read it three times so far and each time got a little more from it. It's an unusual book because it's author was commissioned by Freud to write a summary of his clinical work in the early thirties. Freud hadn't written a book but instead published monographs summarising his ideas as he developed them. He gives his blessing to this book in a preface. It is in effect the official representation of Freud's clinical work. There have been other books summarising Freudian psychoanalysis but not as completely as this.
It's become fashionable for people learning psychoanalysis to give Freud a passing nod of respect as the instigator of psychoanalysis and then to get on with the more modern developments. The object relations and Self psychology as well as Lacanian psychoanalysis, etc. This is I believe a mistake. Freudian psychoanalysis hasn't been surpassed by any of these newer models. They can focus attention on certain aspects of Freud's work that he didn't have time to develop but I don't believe they can replace it.
If you want to 'Return To Freud' as the Lacanian's claim they do (apparently claiming to know more about what the real Freud meant than Freud himself) then I strongly suggest you read this book. It's fairly well written though it's more of a comprehensive summary than an introduction and can be hard going but is well worth it.
1301572
Bought this after reading MJ Rose's "The Witch of Painted Sorrows" which features Moreau as the teacher of the book's heroine.  His mystical and intuitive sense of his subject matter and use of paint to convey deeper sentiments intrigued me.  His work is detailed and fantastical, depicting biblical and mythological scenes and themes as political commentary.  He was an iconoclast who isolated himself, going his own way, yet influenced his students Matisse and Roualt, as well as later artists, including the surrealists.  His technique is awesome and his dedication to research scholarly in its breadth and depth.  This is a beautiful book and very instructive about the paintings in it, which are from different periods of his life and various collections not easily seen..  His home museum is described including its contents.  It is the same atelier to which he brought special students, including the heroine of the aforementioned novel.  This is a book rich in images and content/  If you are drawn to Moreau, it's mesmerezing.
831995
Those interested in psychological reconstruction or psychoanalytic biography will not like this book.
  It is most useful for those with a linguistic interest to see how the author links V's profession with his hobby--although, in the end, the "hobby" dominated.
  Also strongly hints at both methodological and personal differences with Alice Kober.
  most interesting, quite informative, and a pleasant read.
1632474
I have read many of Freud's works for years and only recently believed  that I gained significant understanding. This came initially from reading  Richard Wollheim's book _Sigmund Freud_. Then with both new perspective and  renewed interest, I checked this book out from the library.
The first  thing one notices when reading it is how articulately it is written, and  the ease of understanding by which Bettelheim's prose is understood. The  clarity and simplicity is wonderful and adds further support for, and  credibility to, his claims.
There is no question of his passion to  express his explicit concerns regarding the mistranslation of Freud's  corpus. However, further benefit are his explanations of the various myths  Freud drew on, how Freud constructed his vocabulary, and how Freud was  motivated by love and concern for others in an eternal sense.
This is  wonderful book that anyone with even the slightest interest in Freud would  do well in reading. I wish I had read it first. However, now it is a  valuable resource as Bettelheim's understanding of Freud is so thorough,  elegant, poignant, and full of respect for this great man and thinker.
1837075
Not an exhaustive study of his works, but a comprehensive look at his most famous and note worthy works such as "The Kiss" "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" "Judith I" as well as details of some of his large murals and lost works.  Many beautiful large plates.  Will not disapoint the amateur fan and very likely will broaden their undersanding of the artist.  Probably won't have teach an Art historian, or student of the period.  Includes biographical details of his life and the Vienese Secessionist movement.  Overall an excelent book on an excelent artist.
3184800
In their Preface to this remarkable book (published to accompany exhibitions in Paris, Montreal, and Barcelona) Guy Cogeval, Jean Clair, and Maria Teresa Ocana assert that all of the art of Pablo Picasso - whether visual or literary - was "guided by a specifically Spanish eroticism, a medley of sensuality and tenderness, of scatology and gluttony." Curator and editor Clair has assembled a group of erudite and sometimes thrilling essayists, and 350 or so plates of Picasso's most obviously erotic topics, whether sketches, paintings, sculpture - from his entire art-producing life (beginning at age 9!). Mythology, religion, linguistics, classical influences, and Picasso's upbringing and circumstances and adult life (among many other things)  are all explored in the dozen essays that make this book such great reading.
Clair's own "The School of Darkness" is a heady and passionate appreciation of Picasso. He contributes right off to the decades-old debate regarding Picasso's view and treatment of women. He defends the artist and the man,  rejecting portrayals of Picasso as " the ogre, the dark demon, the wife-eating Minotaur," quoting writer Micheline Sauvage's words on Don Juan: "Not the profaner of love, but the hero of profane love." Picasso possessed energy and drive that included prodigious eating, drinking, sexual expression, writing, the production of art, and more art.
Housekeeping out of the way, Clair's  essay grows into something remarkable: part biography, part chant. If you read it aloud you might well amaze and delight yourself and your listener.
Annie Le Brun's "Painting in the Bedroom" successfully places Picasso's erotic sensibilities and drive  in context and in comparison to other painters, whom she asserts (and proves) shared traits with Picasso. 'Diamond Made of All the Love of the Loves of Blood,' (the title comes from a diary entry of  the artist) by Marie-Noelle Delorme is a fabulous compilation, effectively and subtlely organized, that shows Picasso the energetic and larger-than-life diarist - a passionate and powerful writer on love, bodies, intimate landscapes, and much more.
The illustrations - a "Chronological Catalogue of Exhibited Works,"  fill over 200 pages. The layout and the colors are good and the plates are big enough. There are oil paintings, etchings, drawings in pencil, colored pencil, chalk, ink, and charcoal;  aquatint, drypoint, etchings; sculptures in wood, plaster, clay and bronze - and more. The earliest drawing is a copulation scene, "Donkey and She-Ass," done by a nine-year old Picasso - who as a schoolboy was already drawing confidently and well and, it can be argued, had already found his voice.
The works are of men, women, animals together, animals with people, blind men, lovers, voyeurs, brothel scenes, outsized genitalia,  mythological beasts and people, nudes in classical poses, Cubist paintings on erotic themes, sketches of solicitude and tenderness and caring, playfully altered pin-ups from the 50's, visions of sexuality altered but undimmed by old age, and much more.
By virtue of its twelve strong, smart, passionate essays, and its 300 plates,  this  book becomes much more than the sum of its parts.  Very worthwhile, and a great read.
3830781
How odd to try to write a review for a psychology themed biography book based on evaluating ones mind through visual assessment criteria which is abstract. I don't believe it is my job to persuade anyone to read or skip this book. Those who have interest will dive in for the experience and what they walk away with will be uniquely their own whether they enjoy it or not. Instead, I choose to share a very small excerpt that seemed to jump from the pages as I came across it. Most of the following ideas and statements are lifted from this book. The discussion was how Freud was a word person, used talk therapy, founded "Freudian Slips", and focused on uncovering the unconscious in what one says or doesn't say. Modern psychology worships at the altar of statistics. In contrast, Rorschach was a visual person who created visual psychology. Our brains are highly devoted to visual processing, estimates run as high as 85%. Seeing runs deeper than talking.
4749539
This book is a treasure trove for those interested in the Symbolist art movement.  As a collector of books on the subject, this is one of my favorites.  However, this is a very accessible work to anyone with a healthy appreciation for art.  The book is divided into 6 sections, each with a few short and diverse essays, and the works of art are further organized based on some common themes of Symbolist art (Northern Myths, The Agony of the Self, The Femme Fatale, Motherhood, etc).  The quality of the reproductions is quite high with the majority being in color, but there are also selections of photographs and sculpture represented here.  It is the perfect book to browse on a lazy afternoon or to use as a reference when I want to steal something for my own paintings and sketches.
3543488
At the heart of this book is a symbol -- Freud's own psychoanalytic couch -- one of the iconic images of the 20th Century. Freud himself said he adopted the couch for psychoanalysis because he couldn't stand to be stared at by his patients all day. But the truth, as Dr Nathan Kravis makes indelibly clear in this unique book, goes far deeper. In true psychoanalytic fashion, the symbol of the couch obscures as much as it reveals.

  One of a psychoanalyst's key capacities is to notice unexpected details. Here the key details are not verbal, but visual: the actual physical appearance of the couch itself. Freud's own couch, Kravis points out, was an oriental-style divan -- an item of furniture whose history goes back a few centuries in Europe, and in some ways even further to classical Greece and Rome.

  In its original Freudian embodiment, the couch was decidedly more sensual. And psychoanalysis itself was originally a step-child of clinical hypnosis, a practice with decidedly erotic overtones. As Kravis writes, "the couch -- and recumbent speech itself -- resonates with a culturally rich and intriguingly ambiguous interplay of traditions of luxury, healing, intimacy, and erotic freedom."  ("Pillow-talk," if you will).  The point is driven home by a remarkable series of images of naked or semi-naked bodies lying on luxurious couches -- from ancient Rome, to Titian, Ingres, David, Boucher, Renior, Sargent, Manet, 19th Century photographers, Henri Rousseau, and Picasso.

  On the Couch is as beautiful as any living-room-table guidebook to an exhibit at the Met. Working together with distinguished picture editor Leora Kahn, Kravis has put together a breathtaking collection of images that clearly situates Freud's couch within a visual tradition of the erotic.

  Confronted with this astonishing series of images, it's hard not to wonder that no one thought to connect these dots to Freud, until Dr Kravis. But that's the case with all great insights, of course: In retrospect, they seem obvious.

  Let's not forget that to the early 20th Century mind, "Freudianism" meant only one thing: that everything -- towers, forests, cigars -- was connected to sex.  In its early days, psychoanalysis attracted more than its share of bohemian spirits. What became of this clearly sensuous ritual as the 20th Century proceeded, was that the design of psychoanalytic couches became decidedly more austere -- as if to deny the original sensual impulse behind psychoanalysis itself.  Practitioners seemed to be more uneasy with the harem-like eroticism embodied by Freud's original couch.

  Kravis rightly points out the original eroticism of the psychoanalytic procedure -- and connects the couch with other currents in Western culture as well. The result is a tour-de-force of historical scholarship, brilliantly argued. I only wish it could reach a broader intellectual audience. Its use of technical language (such as "analysand" for "patient on the couch"), while conventional in psychoanalytic writing, limits the degree to which the book will be understood by lay readers. I hope the author will choose to adapt this work so it can be more widely read!
1911039
Hoban has written an insightful book into what may have made Lucian Freud the great painter he came to be.  From his early days in Germany with his grandfather, Sigmund Freud, to his subsequent life in London, where his family moved before the war, we see Lucian Freud gradually developing from an intense adolescent who often resorted to physical violence in conflicts with others to the powerful figure who changed the face of Realism.  His many liaisons with women are described in detail: Hoban offers us a candid sketch of who the most prominent women in his life were, his problems with commitment and other moral conundrums we are forced to consider in his character, such as his questionable demand on his lovers that they use no form of birth control, resulting in at least 14 children, most out of wedlock.  Along with that, Freud's gambling addiction and his love of risk are explored by Hoban in a way that allows us a glimpse into Freud's psyche that is invaluable for anyone wanting to understand in a more in depth way the factors that might have contributed to his enormous talents and output.
1820813
Finally, the realist painter is looked into in depth and past due recogniton.  The book is amazing- 81 colorplates of his paintings that start as early as 1958 all the way to 1993.  Each plate includes a  description of the painting, and some the artist's comments about the work.  The back of the book even includes a cronology of Ryman's life,  exhibitions, newspaper articles, and interviews.  The book is a must for  any fan of Ryman.
1037125
A fascinating look at sitting for a portrait by Lucien Freud with lots of insightful segways about art and artists. It's a great book, highly readable.