Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Henry Moore: On Being a Sculptor
John Martin: Sketches of My Life
William Blake: Seen in My Visions: A Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures
Ebook series4 titles

Artist's Writings Series

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3/5

()

About this series

"Creative Confession" brings together three short critical texts written by Paul Klee, one of the most distinctive artists of the early twentieth century. Reflective and often lyrical, the essays exemplify Klee's artistic thinking and his relationship with the creative process.Entitled "Graphic Art" (published as Creative Confession, 1920), "Ways of Nature Study" (1923) and "Exact Experiments in the Realm of Art" (1928), the texts arch into each other through a number of common and overlapping concerns: the alliance between what Klee terms his graphic art, nature, and abstraction, and the role of the artist in this triumvirate; the notion of genius, equating creativity with Genesis as well as nature; and the importance of the process as well as the outcome of art. The practical function of these writings was to draw a wider public into a dialogue that Klee was already having with the world around him through his art. Indeed, he said Art does not reproduce what is visible, instead it makes it visible, and it is with this philosophy that he talks us through his own creative confessions. With a postscript by Matthew Gale, Head of Display at Tate Modern, on the origins and context of the essays, this compact new edition is a must for any Klee fan, as well as those wishing to explore Modern artistic ideas.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 31, 2014
Henry Moore: On Being a Sculptor
John Martin: Sketches of My Life
William Blake: Seen in My Visions: A Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures

Titles in the series (4)

  • William Blake: Seen in My Visions: A Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures

    1

    William Blake: Seen in My Visions: A Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures
    William Blake: Seen in My Visions: A Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures

    In 1809 the little-known artist William Blake held an exhibition of 16 paintings in a private house in Soho in the west end of London. Works inspired by Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and John Milton's "Paradise Lost" sat alongside biblical scenes and Arthurian legend. The exhibition was not a success; the only review in the press was extremely unfavourable and few of the public came. One of those who did was the poet Charles Lamb, who later described the pictures as 'hard, dry, yet with grace', and the catalogue that accompanied the show as 'mystical and full of vision'. It is this catalogue that Tate Publishing are once again making available. In it, the scale and range of Blake's ambition are made plain, along with his theories on painting, his unsparing critiques of other artists and some extraordinary insights into the working of his mind. The only detailed writing on art that remains to us by Blake, it throws light on all his subsequent artistic enterprises, including the illuminated books for which he is perhaps most famous. Part commentary and part manifesto, his catalogue is as radical as it is in places eccentric (he claims at one point to have been transported in a "vision" back to the classical world). Fully illustrated in colour with reproductions of surviving works originally in the exhibition, the book includes an illuminating essay by leading authority on British art Martin Myrone, Lead Curator of Pre-1800 Art at Tate Britain, making it an essential purchase for all of those wanting to know more.

  • Henry Moore: On Being a Sculptor

    2

    Henry Moore: On Being a Sculptor
    Henry Moore: On Being a Sculptor

    Henry Spencer Moore (1898-1986) was arguably the most influential British sculptor of the twentieth century. Brought up in Castleford in Yorkshire, Moore ended his life completing commissions for large-scale public sculptures in countries around the world. The scale of Moore's success in later life has tended to obscure the radical nature of his achievement. Rejecting the influence of his teachers and inspired by works from other cultures he saw in museums, Moore championed direct carving, evolving abstract sculptures derived from the human body. He was involved in the modernist Seven and Give Society and later in Unit One. Written by Henry Moore in the 1930s, these three powerful, polemical texts lay out his ideas about sculpture, calling for truth to materials, openness to other sculptural traditions and understanding of the importance of scale. Illustrated with archival photographs and with an introduction by his daughter Mary Moore, this book gives new insights into Moore's working methods and inspiration and speaks directly to artists today.

  • John Martin: Sketches of My Life

    3

    John Martin: Sketches of My Life
    John Martin: Sketches of My Life

    In February and March of 1849, the "Illustrated London News" carried a series of announcements about the works of the painter John Martin being exhibited at the British Institution, the third of which included an account of his early life. On the 17 March the paper received a long letter from the artist, reproduced here in full, in which he demands a right of reply. Their article is, he claims, "so unfortunate a tissue of errors from beginning to end, that it can only have the effect of misleading your readers." Martin's brief autobiography makes fascinating reading. Beginning with his youth in Newcastle where he was apprenticed to a coach-builder, it recounts his initial struggles in London and the eventual recognition accorded to his vast, apocalyptic landscape painting and stunning engravings, ending with the civic works he devoted himself to in later years. The reader is left in awe of Martin's determination and drive.With an introduction by Martin Myrone, Lead Curator of Pre-1800 British Art at Tate Britain, this engaging book provides many new insights into the work of this extraordinary painter of sublime landscapes and the times in which he lived.

  • Paul Klee: Creative Confession

    5

    Paul Klee: Creative Confession
    Paul Klee: Creative Confession

    "Creative Confession" brings together three short critical texts written by Paul Klee, one of the most distinctive artists of the early twentieth century. Reflective and often lyrical, the essays exemplify Klee's artistic thinking and his relationship with the creative process.Entitled "Graphic Art" (published as Creative Confession, 1920), "Ways of Nature Study" (1923) and "Exact Experiments in the Realm of Art" (1928), the texts arch into each other through a number of common and overlapping concerns: the alliance between what Klee terms his graphic art, nature, and abstraction, and the role of the artist in this triumvirate; the notion of genius, equating creativity with Genesis as well as nature; and the importance of the process as well as the outcome of art. The practical function of these writings was to draw a wider public into a dialogue that Klee was already having with the world around him through his art. Indeed, he said Art does not reproduce what is visible, instead it makes it visible, and it is with this philosophy that he talks us through his own creative confessions. With a postscript by Matthew Gale, Head of Display at Tate Modern, on the origins and context of the essays, this compact new edition is a must for any Klee fan, as well as those wishing to explore Modern artistic ideas.

Author

John Martin

John Martin is Associate Professor of History at Trinity University.

Read more from John Martin

Related to Artist's Writings

Related ebooks

Art For You

View More

Related categories

Reviews for Artist's Writings

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5

1 rating0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words