Patrick Bade

What even was this tiny garbage book?! Klimt is one of my favourite artists, and while this book may pack quite a bit of his work into its small stature, I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so disappointed in a book about him. The small pages made it a challenge to really appreciate the intricate details of his work, though they did an admirable job highlighting some choice details with cutout sections in the layout, but what really drove me crazy was the text. Completely divorced from show more the accompanying images, it meanders through a half-assed chronology of Klimt’s life, touches on a few recurring themes, and dabbles at some provocative commentary without actually grounding us in any sort of real discovery of the artist before concluding in a cloud of non-information. The only positive that I can see in this book is that it does introduce the reader to a decently broad range of Klimt’s works - covering (if randomly) his portraits, architectural installations, landscapes, classical (early) work, and sketches. Unfortunately, this breadth without any meaningful paired dialogue makes for haphazard reading and a generally unpleasant experience… I don’t know that I would even buy this book for my collection, even though I tend to hoard everything related to artists I love, that’s how much I dislike this book! show less

This is a copious collection of artefacts from the museum, comprising mostly drawings and paintings but with some illustrations of sculptures, and drawn from the whole history of its subject up to the middle of the twentieth century. It is particularly well furnished with material from the Far East, but its provision of graphic arts from Germany in the Inter-War years is truly magnificent, giving vivid testament to the 'decadence' of that period which matches that found in other popular art show more forms. The book is superbly well produced, and is a valuable testament to the influence and pervasiveness of the erotic arts, and the text by Dopp amply reinforces his reputation as a major interpreter of these seminal contributions to human endeavour. It's a large book, suited to occasional browsing for entertainment, as well as an authoritative statement of its subject. An excellent production. show less

A wonderful gift given to me this year, the book is exactly what it says: 600 reproductions of impressionist and early post-impressionist works, aiming to fairly comprehensively portray the era. Aside from a very brief introduction aimed at the common reader, this is entirely paintings.

Beng a slight choice of the art of the sexually-oriented Symbolist. Many people don't seem to care for his art, or even deny that it is art; that has made him underrepresented in publication, making this book very worthwhile. It is a little on the slight side as far as content.