In this posthumous collection of John Updikersquo;s art writings; a companion volume to the acclaimed Just Looking (1989) and Still Looking (2005); readers are again treated to ldquo;remarkably elegant essaysrdquo; (Newsday) in which ldquo;the psychological concerns of the novelist drive the eye from work to work until a deep understanding of the art emergesrdquo; (The New York Times Book Review). Always Looking opens with ldquo;The Clarity of Things;rdquo; the Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities for 2008. Here; in looking closely at individual works by Copley; Homer; Eakins; Norman Rockwell; and others; the author teases out what is characteristically ldquo;Americanrdquo; in American art. This talk is followed by fourteen essays; most of them written for The New York Review of Books; on certain highlights in Western art of the last two hundred years: the iconic portraits of Gilbert Stuart and the sublime landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church; the series paintings of Monet and the monotypes of Degas; the richly patterned canvases of Vuillard and the golden extravagances of Klimt; the cryptic triptychs of Beckmann; the personal graffiti of Miroacute;; the verbal-visual puzzles of Magritte; and the monumental Pop of Oldenburg and Lichtenstein. The book ends with a consideration of recent works by a living American master; the steely sculptural environments of Richard Serra. John Updike was a gallery-goer of genius. Always Looking is; like everything else he wrote; an invitation to look; to see; to apprehend the visual world through the eyes of a connoisseur.
#1664285 in eBooks 2013-01-19 2013-01-19File Name: B00ATLA0OQ
Review
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Not what I expectedBy M. MacyI thought there would be so many great pictures; but there are not. Instead; this is a very academic; wordy description of some of the photographers who produced photos on the sets of silent films; but without nearly enough pictures. This is definitely not what I was looking for. Also; I dont feel the indexing system is well organized. All in all; a disappointment.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Still: American Silent Motion Picture PhotographyBy Mark SwiftExtremely well written by an expert in this field. Fully illustrated with vintage images from the time period that add depth and feeling to the test. His grasp and insight into the time period and material is quite amazing. Anyone who enjoys movies and the origin of film and its inception will appreciate this effort. Also highly recommended for your average film lover too.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Icons From The PastBy M. BrennanThis is a large; beautiful book. Far too many of the silent films h ave been lost; but they had on set still photographers who preserved a little of what is now gone. The photographs remain; and are artistic and beautiful. Thank you so much for this fabulous book.