Dogs in the Louvre
Throughout the ages, artists have frequently depicted dogs as symbols of positive values such as courage, loyalty, and vigilance. Whether serving as guards, guides, companions, or hunters, dogs have a very strong presence in the great artworks at the Louvre. They appear in the form of Mesopotamian statuettes of the third millennium BC; they flank peasants in Le Nain’s paintings, or sit loyally at the queen’s side in Rubens’s The Coronation. They may be portrayed as active, accompanying Diana the Huntress, or pampered, as cherished lap dogs nestled on cushions.This beautiful volume is packed with works from all of the Louvre’s many departments. Each painting or sculpture is shown in its entirety and in detail, to highlight the canine presence, and is accompanied by short, illuminating commentary. The book opens with a preface in which the prize-winning author draws upon his own personal experiences with man’s most loyal companions. Dogs in the Louvre provides a delightfully unusual tour of the most visited gallery in the world, and invites the reader to engage in a fresh way with some of its perennially inspiring themes. It is a fitting tribute to man’s best friend.
Author: Francois Nourissier, Elisabeth Foucart-Walter
Hardcover: 80 pages
Company: Flammarion (2008-02-12) (2008-02-12)
ISBN: 2080300504
List Price: $19.95
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Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre, and Elsewhere
“One can only speak properly about paintings in front of paintings,” Paul Cézanne once said. It is usually, though, critics who speak in front of paintings, not artists. With an eye toward rectifying that situation, Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic of the New York Times, constructed Portraits. He invited individual artists to meet him at museums, then tagged along on their peregrinations through various galleries–sometimes the most unlikely ones. At New York’s Metropolitan Museum, the late Roy Lichtenstein, papa of pop, stopped to praise some frou-frou Fragonards. Who knew? “Clearly there’s something wrong with me,” Lichtenstein said.
Kimmelman’s knowledge of art is astonishingly broad, and he has a way with questions that ignite each artist’s memories, reflections, and opinions. Otherwise, he inserts himself only to offer enough biographical data or physical description to bring a reader up-to-date and up close. For the most part, he simply listens. Closely. The result is a series of interviews so cozy readers may feel they’re eavesdropping. Few readers will ever make another foray through the Metropolitan or the Museum of Modern Art or London’s National Gallery completely alone. After devouring these “portraits”–most of which appeared originally as articles in the Times’s art pages–they will be accompanied forevermore by the lively, eccentric, thoughtful, unguarded voices of Jacob Lawrence, Kiki Smith, Wayne Thibaud, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Elizabeth Murray, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Leon Golub and Nancy Spero, Brice Marden, Hans Haacke, and Chuck Close. –Peggy Moorman
Author: Michael Kimmelman
Hardcover: 265 pages
Company: Random House (1998-08-11) (1998-08-11)
ISBN: 0679452192
List Price: $25.95
Amazon Price: $25.95
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