The
20th Century Art Book (Phaidon Press Limited, London 1999) explores the
significant artists, works of art, and art movements of the twentieth century,
all in a compact 5x6x1 inch format. You may wonder why I'm reading about art in
a blog about gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area, but to me it makes
perfect sense! It starts with color, and quickly expands to more!
The
bulk of the book is an alphabetical presentation of international artists each
with a representative piece of a work, a description of the work, demographic
information about the artist and the work, and cross references to other
artists who may have influenced the artist or been working in the same artistic
school. Works of art range from sculpture and paintings, to installations and
happenings, to media. Artists range from Acconci and Hockney, to Mondrian and
Pollock, to Rodin and Vasarely, to Zorio. Some of the artists were known to me,
but most were not.
The
back matter provides a glossary of terms for talking about art (abstract, body
art, found object, kinetic, modernism, prints, realism, watercolor, and so
forth). It also provides a glossary of artistic movements, with references to
artists, such as Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, Cubism, Dada, Expressionism, Op Art, Pop
Art, Surrealism. After
reading about each artistic movement, I spent time rereading the pages
for each cited artist, and found it added to my overall understanding.
I
was interested to learn that much of 20th century art was about breaking away
from representing the world around us, and finding ways to represent the world
through abstraction or reduction. French Impressionism, a painting style that
started in the 1860s, used light and color to create "an impression"
of everyday objects and scenes. The movement laid the ground work for the many
styles of abstraction that followed. In abstraction, the idea or emotion of the
object is conveyed, rather than a physical representation.
I
recommend The 20th Century Art Book for anyone interested in art or
gardens. Gardeners can be inspired by Josef Albers, Gunther Forg and others for
using color to convey emotion; Isamu Noguchi, Henry Moore and others for
creating sculpture with which to ponder and interact; and Andy Goldsworthy and
Robert Smithson for employing Land Art concepts both temporary and long
lasting.
