American Masters: Voice Of The

by Brian O'Doherty

This book has Hopper, Davis, Pollack, de Kooning, Rothko, Rauschenberg, Wyeth, and Cornell whom all stand for certain aspects of American art and tradition.

Genres: Art

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Brian O'Doherty is an Irish art critic, writer, artist, and academic. He was born at Ballaghaderreen in County Roscommon in 1928, and grew up in Dublin. He studied medicine at University College Dublin, and did post-graduate work at Cambridge University and at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has lived in New York for more than 50 years.

Reviews

[Divvy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decided I've not given 20th century art a fair chance, and I'm setting out to learn more about it. I've read the first section on Hopper and really enjoyed it. Not really an interview, O'Doherty's essay tries to use the artist's voice for narration.

I'm marking this book read, but in truth I've read about half. I was interested in the sections titled Hopper's voice, Rothko: the tragic and the transcendental, Rauschenberg: the sixties, and Cornell: outsider on the left. I've chosen to skip the sections on Davis, Pollock, De Kooning and Wyeth as these artist's don't really interest me (currently.)

O'Doherty's writing is very good and has a poetic quality, but I fear some of this may have been over my head (as so much writing about 20th century art is.) I feel I may want to return to this book at a later time after I've learned more about these artists.

[Dominic F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The insight into these artists is quite exceptional especially in detailing the works of Edward Hopper. So much more than what is just seen exists in Hopper’s paintings. On one level his art is appreciated just simply for the somewhat straight forwardness of the subject matter presented and by the uneducated art viewer the works on the simplest level are understandable for their figurative presentation. But Hopper’s work goes so much deeper into the realm of his psyche and the author takes us on a tour of that deeper level into Hopper’s works. This book is, if for no other reasonthan the insight into Hopper's work alone is worth the read.