1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die: Revised and Updated

by Stephen Farthing

Hardcover, 2011

Status

Checked out

Due 1 Apr 2024

Publication

Universe (2011), Edition: Revised, Updated, 960 pages

Description

From Ancient Egyptian frescoes to the Renaissance masters, from French Impressionists to American Abstract Expressionists, this highly browsable guide embraces all cultures and every style of painting from 4,000 BC to the present. A visually arresting reference for art lovers and students, it provides a truly comprehensive worldwide gazeteer of paintings organized chronologically by date of completion. Each entry includes the history of the painting, information about the artist or artistic movement, the current location of the painting (all are on view to the public), as well as other details. The works are also indexed by artist and by title, making for easy cross-referencing. Included are popular paintings, key works that are the most breathtaking for their extraordinary power and beauty, paintings that were turning points in the history of art, and rediscovered masterpieces, making 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die an art museum in its own right.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member rampaginglibrarian

I love the fact that many of these paintings are reproduced (in however small a form here). Makes for a very useful book...

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LibraryThing member burnit99

The title is self-explanatory. I have a guilty preference for books of this nature. It helps to see this not as a definitive statement of the top 1001 paintings in human history (from ancient Egypt to 2006), but as a roadmap of some of the most significant paintings, artists and movements. It

certainly helped me in that regard, serving as a guide to point me toward artists I find particularly intriguing, and expanding my knowledge of old favorites. The format is well-organized and informative; each page (or 1/2 page occasionally) shows the painting, biographical information on the artist, his postulated intent and frame of mind in creating the painting, any relevant historical information, and a written persuasion of why this painting satisfys the book's title. I was most intrigued by Monet's "Impression" (which inspired the title of the Impressionist movement), Winslow Homer's "Snap the Whip", and Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World", an old favorite of mine which I saw in New York a few weeks prior to reading this book. Actually, I wish I'd read this book before my New York trip; many of the paintings herein I remember from the museums we visited, and it would have increased my pleasure. I was not so taken with the latter part of the 20th century (nor the next century); it seems almost totally comprised of abstract paintings that do not appeal to me so much. I was interested by the editors' valiant attempts to make sense of the works, though. My only real quibble with the book, strange though it might be for a nearly 1000-page book, is the small size of the reproductions. I realize cost is a factor here, but I would have gladly paid much more for a coffee-table size book that would have room for decently-sized illustrations.

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LibraryThing member LizPhoto

For the most part I loved this book. Who wouldn't love all the best paintings in one book? My complaints are the pictures of paintings are too small and they left out some of the most important paintings and artist in the world, no Keith Haring,no Jacques louis David but Damien Hirst all I have to

ask is really.

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LibraryThing member Cynical_Ames

When I ordered this I didn’t expect it to be so compact. It’s very thick, almost like a bible. The paintings are organised by date from 1375BC to 2006 AD. On each page is the painting at the top with the title, date, type of painting (e.g. oil on canvas), size dimensions and the painting’s

location underneath as well as a description which sometimes includes titbits about the artist and places the painting in a socio-historical context. There is even a helpful glossary of art terms and indexes of the titles and artists featured. My only problem with this book is the size of the paintings; some of them are too small to see the detail mentioned in the descriptions.

Due to its fairly expansive nature and as a complete novice when it comes to art, I now feel I have a better idea of what kind of paintings I like and dislike. Most of the early paintings contain religious and mythological imagery with a few commissioned works of royalty, the later ones tend to be more political and abstract. I preferred the earlier works, I could have done without most of the modern paintings.

I’ve learned a lot from just this one book, though I did notice that the majority of the paintings were by male European artists.

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LibraryThing member alsaadiah

Rich book in arts domain. This book take you a round to the history of this field (from ancient Egypt to 2006). I like the picture that had given in this book. It let me make a lot of changes in my house paintings throw the huge number of elegant design in It.

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