Patrick Heron. An Artist’s Bookshelf Review.

I’ve had a long love of books, and some of my most prized books are art books. This is a review of books from my collection that can be found on shelves in my studio. I will provide links when possible.

Patrick Heron.

One of my favorite painters is the great British artist Patrick Heron, and this little book from the St Ives Artist series is a nice introduction to his work. It has an interesting and readable essay by Michael McNay that covers his life and career, and there are many colour illustrations that give a good sense of his progression as a colourist from his early, muted earth tones to his glorious Matisse-inspired canvases that would drive the majority of his career.

I particularly admire his paintings from the 1960s of glowing orbs, with stunning colour, and loose aggressive brush strokes. His harder-edge paintings of the 1970s, though simpler in appearance, are feats of great endurance often painted with a small brush to create the clean crisp edge of his shapes. The colours of these painting can only be described as hot. But it is his late paintings of the 1990s that are to me his most daring works. They are made of loose flowing lines and scribbles of colour and are joyful, powerful works. I admire painters who keep on experimenting, and he went out with a bang.

An Artist’s Bookshelf Review. This is Modern Art. Blimey! and Art Crazy Nation.

Bookshelf.

This is Modern Art.

I have to admit that I’m a big fan of Matthew Collings’s many different projects. I first came across him when I picked up his book This is Modern Art. It was summer and I really enjoyed the book, as it was a fast, fun, and informative read. The book was published as a companion piece to the Channel Four program of the same name. His style as a television host is a bit self conscious, and he tends to fidget and play with one of his little fingers, but at the same time he can be very entertaining, and informative. His interviews with Patrick Heron and Jules Olitski were the highlights for me. They are two great artists who have sadly been out of fashion and largely forgotten, so it was great to see someone admitting to being interested in their work.

Blimey!

Blimey! From Bohemia to Britpop: The London artworld from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst, is a mix of art history, art journalism, personal diary, and gossip column. In a mix of anecdote and critique, he presents an account of the lives, habits, and works of artists such as Damien Hirst, R.B. Kitaj, and David Hockney. He looks at trends in British art from Shock Art to Pop, and the School of London. He discusses the philosophies of each art movement as well as the works of their various adherents. The book is full of many great illustrations of work both familiar and unfamiliar.

Art Crazy Nation.

Art Crazy Nation is the follow-up book to Blimey, and it finds Collings in a grumpier mood, and his support of the YBAs faded. It still has all the stuff I enjoy when reading Collings, and it seems to offer a bit more biographical information about Collings than his previous books. It’s a fast, fun, gossipy read, and takes us through the British artworld, and introduces the reader to many interesting, if at times self-satisfied, characters.