Decent history of 20TH Century Art | Art of the Twentieth Century (Jumbo)

Not what the Amazon.com review says it is. | Art of the Twentieth Century (Jumbo)

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	• Art of the Twentieth Century (Jumbo) Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 1998 - 840 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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A 20th century art museum in the form of a book...

A work that attempts as much as *Art in the 20th Century* always gives itself up to the criticism of incompletion, that it left this or that important work or artist out, either through partisanship or ignorance. Lets face it--you simply cannot compile a record of an entire century of art--painting, sculpture, photography--especially not of a century of artists as diverse and prolific and as numerous as those of the 20th without omissions, oversights, or differences of opinion as to who deserves mention, and who doesn't. With that caveat in mind, *Art of the 20th Century* makes a credible attempt at an impossible task. What the authors succeed in doing best is provide a coherent narrative of the major movements in 20th century art and--in their view--it's most representative and groundbreaking practitioners.

For the most part, the text is clearly written although not without bias and the occasional gratuitously dismissive comment. The subjective nature of art criticism in general is never so apparent as when you see critics investing enormous quantities of their own intellectual energy and enthusiasm to "discover" encyclopedic volumes of encoded significance in a black paint blob of a painter they like and barely glancing seriously at a similar black blob of an artist they don't like. Art is rather like responding to a Rorschach test--one's judgments often say more about the critic than the artist. And cultural tastes, as evidenced by the rise and decline in the valuation of artists over time, are likewise very often the measure of the psychology of an age.

Oh well--it's impossible, I suppose, to remain entirely objective in a history of this sort, or to always check your passion when discussing art at any length, in any depth, if you're moved by it at all, but this survey is weakest when the authors' personal opinions get the better of them. The text itself is occasionally awkward and/or convoluted; the paintings weren't always easy to find in the places on the pages indicated, and the typeface is tiny--but the color plates of the art itself are generous and varied. Even a museum has to be selective and ultimately reflects the taste of its curator. And so it is with *Art in the 20th Century.*

All in all, my visit through this particular museum of 20th century art from Manet and the birth of Impressionism to the mid 1990s, from early photography and sculpture to the video age was enjoyable and enlightening--and well worth both the time it took to tour and the price of admission. If I give this book four stars instead of five its only because I can imagine a better book might be written on the subject--but I have to admit that at present I don't know of one.

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Decent history of 20TH Century Art

I have several art history textbooks that I had to read for school. I generally like Taschen's books because they are attractive and inexpensive. This book is pretty good, it doesn't put you to sleep when you read it like most books like this. Most books that try to cover painting, sculpture, photography and film over a 100 years or so can be very dry. I would reccommend this book over H.H. Arnason's book that I had to read at the Art Inst. of Chicago. I would recommend this book with Stokstad's Art History text. Stokstad taught a friend of mine at Kansas and I found her book to be a good reference. This book, I think, is written by a European...so, it might be good to have an American and European's view of the same subjects.

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Not what the Amazon.com review says it is.

This is far from the "be-all, end-all guide to art of the past 100 years." In fact, while it does cover a huge number of artists superficially, it leaves out an equally huge number of extremely important 20th century artists, particularly 3-dimensional artists. Where is Ernest Trova? Claude & Francois Lalanne? Chihuly? Where, in God's name, is Duane Hanson, the first and best 3-dimensional Hyperrealist? If you want a superficial and not particularly daring look at 20th century art, this is a decent choice. It is not, however, anything approaching "be-all" or "end-all."

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Excellent value

Taschen does it again. This comprehensive guide covers an extrodinary amount of 20th century art beginning with impressionism to the 1990's. Everything from sculpture, painting and photography is gone over here, as well as the movements that changed and influenced them. Full color photos and artist bios included. A little gem of a book. Well fairly large gem, hell, lets call it a 10 pound stone. wonderful good value for the money

From Klimt to Koons and everything in between: it's all here (TASCHEN's 25th anniversary special edition) Who could possibly have forecast on New Year's Eve 1899 that, one hundred years later, painting and sculpture would be only options, not prerequisites? The term "art" has been defined and redefined so many times over the last 100 years that it has gained entirely new social, political, and technological meanings. Ranging across the full spectrum of disciplines available, including photography and new media, and thematically chaptered to highlight relationships between works and movements, this readable and encyclopaedic masterwork does just what it says on the cover. Whether you want Surrealism or Land Art, Fluxus or Bauhaus, this is your be-all, end-all guide to art of the 20th century. An undertaking as immensely ambitious as this one deserves to be owned by everyone, which is why we decided to make a special, more compact edition of this two-volume classic in celebration of 25

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