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Guide to Historic Artists' Homes & Studios
From the desert vistas of Georgia O'Keeffe's New Mexico ranch to Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner's Hamptons cottage, step into the homes and studios of illustrious American artists and witness creativity in the making. Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Historic Artists' Homes and Studios program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, this is the first guidebook to the forty-four site museums in the network, located across all regions of the United States and all open to the public. The guide conveys each artist's visual legacy and sets each site in the context of its architecture and landscape, which often were designed by the artists themselves.
Through portraits, artwork, and site photos, discover the powerful influence of place on American greats such as Andrew Wyeth, Grant Wood, Winslow Homer, and Donald Judd as well as lesser-known but equally creative figures who made important contributions to cultural history-photographer Alice Austen and muralist Clementine Hunter among them.
Through portraits, artwork, and site photos, discover the powerful influence of place on American greats such as Andrew Wyeth, Grant Wood, Winslow Homer, and Donald Judd as well as lesser-known but equally creative figures who made important contributions to cultural history-photographer Alice Austen and muralist Clementine Hunter among them.
- GenresArtHistoryNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
Published June 2, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 17, 2020
Context is Everything
In 1558, Giorgio Vasari published his updated version of “Lives of Artists,” which described the lives of a group of Renaissance artists, most of whom are now household names. In doing so, he really was the first person, art critic, to designate the period as the Renaissance. Vasari’s lives is still read and studied today as a critical text on art history. He places these artists’ art in the context of their lives.
Valerie A. Balint does in “Guide to Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios” for these artists’ environments what Vasari did with biography. in this well-researched and exquisitely photographed book, she shows where, but does not dwell on how or why, her chosen artists worked. This is an extremely important idea. It is too easy to play amateur psychologist and say “Artist X’s work turned gloomy after the death of his only daughter,” or “Artist Y’s depictions of trees demonstrates his homesickness for his native Everia.”. In fact, we never really know, unless we have the actual words from the artist if any of these supposition is true. Some artists leave behind statements of aesthetic theory, while others would rather just do their work and leave the theorizing to others.
However, we can often learn a lot from the working environments of these artists. Anyone who has ever marveled, as I have, over the way Edward Hopper uses light, whether in his sunlit seaside pictures or in his darker urban street scapes, will recognize immediately where that sense of light comes from when they see where Hopper lived and the studio in which he worked. We can learn a lot about N.C Wyeth from seeing the large small-panned window in his studio, harking back to Federalist architecture. We get some insight into this painter whose main work is historical, who painted larger-than-life historical-fictional figures like James Fenimore Cooper’s “Hawkeye” or Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “Long John Silver.”
This book clearly demonstrates the importance of context in any artistic endeavor. Each of Balint’s artists becomes more real as we journey through their homes and studios.
The book is organized by geographic regions, which makes it a terrific travel companion. Many of the places she describes are places most of have never been, and now we have wonderful guide to help us explore American artists and their places.
In 1558, Giorgio Vasari published his updated version of “Lives of Artists,” which described the lives of a group of Renaissance artists, most of whom are now household names. In doing so, he really was the first person, art critic, to designate the period as the Renaissance. Vasari’s lives is still read and studied today as a critical text on art history. He places these artists’ art in the context of their lives.
Valerie A. Balint does in “Guide to Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios” for these artists’ environments what Vasari did with biography. in this well-researched and exquisitely photographed book, she shows where, but does not dwell on how or why, her chosen artists worked. This is an extremely important idea. It is too easy to play amateur psychologist and say “Artist X’s work turned gloomy after the death of his only daughter,” or “Artist Y’s depictions of trees demonstrates his homesickness for his native Everia.”. In fact, we never really know, unless we have the actual words from the artist if any of these supposition is true. Some artists leave behind statements of aesthetic theory, while others would rather just do their work and leave the theorizing to others.
However, we can often learn a lot from the working environments of these artists. Anyone who has ever marveled, as I have, over the way Edward Hopper uses light, whether in his sunlit seaside pictures or in his darker urban street scapes, will recognize immediately where that sense of light comes from when they see where Hopper lived and the studio in which he worked. We can learn a lot about N.C Wyeth from seeing the large small-panned window in his studio, harking back to Federalist architecture. We get some insight into this painter whose main work is historical, who painted larger-than-life historical-fictional figures like James Fenimore Cooper’s “Hawkeye” or Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “Long John Silver.”
This book clearly demonstrates the importance of context in any artistic endeavor. Each of Balint’s artists becomes more real as we journey through their homes and studios.
The book is organized by geographic regions, which makes it a terrific travel companion. Many of the places she describes are places most of have never been, and now we have wonderful guide to help us explore American artists and their places.
June 23, 2020
Excellent guidebook. It's really interesting to see how different artists lives and there are so many beautiful homes I want to visit now!
August 5, 2020
I will enjoy using this book to make visits to these sites, once we are all able to travel again, post-COVID. In the meantime, I enjoyed reading about them.
August 7, 2020
I’ve been to a few of these fabulous art studios and can’t wait to use this guide to visit more. Chesterwood was a stunner!
December 31, 2020
A shame a book like this one came out during a year nobody could actually visit these sites. As a lover/worker of small house museums, let’s hope things change soon in 2021!
January 22, 2021
I liked it! Each biography was like a snack and the pictures were good quality.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews