Volume 3. Excellent.
Buy now while still in print.

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Product Description

The third volume in his series on the subject, Louis K. Meisel's "Photorealism at the Millennium" documents the movement's evolution through the 1990s. More than 600 colour images, including such distinctive works as Tom Blackwell's "Odalisque Express", Richard Estes's "Spring Afternoon, Madison Square, New York" and Ralph Going's "Duke Diner" represent the decade. Ron Kleemann, Richard McLean, David Parrish, John Salt - every major Photorealist and many of Meisel's discoveries are featured. Begun in the early 1970s, this series is Meisel's ongoing chronicle of an entire contemporary movement, and the essay written by Linda Chase, included in this volume, places the paintings in context.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #768521 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

About the Author
Louis K. Meisel, author of several Abrams books, is a New York art dealer and the leading proponent of Photorealism - in fact, he coined the term for the movement in the late 1960s. Linda Chase's groundbreaking interviews with the first Photorealists appeared in Art in America in the early 1970s, and she has since written extensively on the movement. She divides her time between New Kingston, New York, and Naples, Florida.

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Customer Reviews

It's a photo, it's a painting, it's Photorealism!
The story continues and in colour too! A brilliant third volume from the curator of the Photorealist art movement and made more enjoyable because the six hundred plus paintings are all in colour. I have the two previous books and good as they were I always felt they were let down by having too many of the 2,323 pictures in black and white but here's an interesting point, the first book had 710 colour and 493 b/w, the second book had 560 colour and 560 b/w, this latest book has 620 colour and no black and whites, does this mean the Movement is on the wane? I hope not because I feel that Photorealism is somehow a uniquely American art movement.

The format follows the same style as the others, an upfront essay (in this case Linda Chase writes about the use of photography by artists over the last century or so) followed by hundreds of illustrations from the featured artists, twenty-eight in this book. These artists are continuing to record 'the fascinating in the familiar' as Ms Chase succinctly puts it and this is one reason I love these paintings, they record Americana so wonderfully, though it is worth remembering that when these paintings, many of them huge, are reproduced a few inches wide it tightens up all the detail and they become even more 'photographic'. On page seventeen of the first volume twelve artists work was shown (unfortunately in black and white) the same size as the original painting and you can see how different their brushstrokes are.

Of the artists, some of my favorites are Davis Cone for his movie theaters (and if you like him too, have a look at a lovely book about movie theaters and his paintings, eighty shown in 'Popcorn Palaces') Robert Gniewek for street scenes at night, Charles Bell the pinball wizard, Linda Bacon for her toy tableau's including one called 'Crash' which has a three toy car pile-up and artfully uses Grant Wood's painting 'Death on the Ridge Road' as a backdrop. Perhaps the most amazing paintings in the book are Don Jacot's 'Retro-Active' (it took most of 1998 to paint) and 'Garbo's' (2001) both show shop-fronts with the windows crammed with nostalgia antiques. I sometimes think these artists do their best to make the painting as hard to do as possible!

So, a lovely book to enjoy over and over and thank you Mr Meisel for your faith in these artists and the Photorealist movement. I'm looking forward to the fourth volume around 2010.