Reading the 20th Century discussion
This topic is about
What Are You Looking At?
Moderator's Choice
>
What Are You Looking At?: 150 Years of Modern Art in a Nutshell by Will Gompertz (September 2020)
date
newest »
newest »
Nigeyb wrote: "This is not a book to rush and I am really enjoying just reading one chapter at a time. There's so much to appreciate and enjoy here."Thank you for 'liking' my review Nigey, but I would have preferred to have written it beforehand.
Mod
Actually I was expressing approval of your five star rating.
I suspect I will come to the same conclusion.
I look foward to your review and, if it doesn't pass muster, might have to withdraw my like ;-)
Mod
Nigeyb wrote: "A pleasure Val :-))Actually I was expressing approval of your five star rating.
I look foward to your review and..."
it will now be somewhat shorter than it would have been.
Mod
...if you are curious about Modern Art, and seek an entertaining, amusing, and succinct introduction to the developments of the last 150 years then allow Will Gompertz to lead you by the hand. You will be glad you did.
Mod
Mod
https://faculty.hope.edu/andre/index....
Here's Leonora's wonderful The Inn of the Dawn House (Self-Portrait) (1936-37)....
Mod
The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington by Joanna Moorhead?
The blurb sounds very enticing...
In 2006 journalist Joanna Moorhead discovered that her father's cousin, Prim, who had disappeared many decades earlier, was now a famous artist in Mexico. Although rarely spoken of in her own family (regarded as a black sheep, a wild child; someone they were better off without) in the meantime Leonora Carrington had become a national treasure in Mexico, where she now lived, while her paintings are fetching ever-higher prices at auction today.
Intrigued by her story, Joanna set off to Mexico City to find her lost relation. Later she was to return to Mexico ten times more between then and Leonora's death in 2011, sometimes staying for months at a time and subsequently travelling around Britain and through Europe in search of the loose ends of her tale.
They spent days talking and reading together, drinking tea and tequila, going for walks and to parties and eating take away pizzas or dining out in her local restaurants as Leonora told Joanna the wild and amazing truth about a life that had taken her from the suffocating existence of a debutante in London via war-torn France with her lover, Max Ernst, to incarceration in an asylum and finally to the life of a recluse in Mexico City.
Leonora was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s, a founding member of the Women's Liberation Movement in Mexico during the 1970s and a woman whose reputation will survive not only as a muse but as a novelist and a great artist. This book is the extraordinary story of Leonora Carrington's life, and of the friendship between two women, related by blood but previously unknown to one another, whose encounters were to change both their lives.
Mod
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington
"Her delirious fantasy reveals to us a little of the secret magic of her paintings."--Luis Buñuel
"Complete Stories, a collection of Carrington's published and unpublished short stories--many newly translated from their original French and Spanish--is a terrific introduction to her bizarre, dreamlike worlds."--NPR
"The Complete Stories and Down Below are both remarkable books; read together they are almost overwhelming. The Carrington centennial should stand as one of the great literary events of 2017. I know that I will be pressing these books on friends, family, and acquaintances for years to come."--Tor.com
"A menagerie of eccentric humans, bloodthirsty talking animals, and hybrid creatures is on display in her fantastic, and fantastical, collection of stories."--Publishers Weekly
"Carrington's prose is precise and droll, even when translated from French or Spanish. Her best stories glory in fantastic rebellion against gender constructs and class even as they tend toward shock and tragedy...a key work in the history of literary weirdness."--Kirkus
"Carrington's stories are optimistic and nihilistic, beautiful and grotesque, tender and cruel. She never contented herself with something simple or trite, a philosophy of life that can be shortened and simplified and put in a fortune cookie."--Sheila Heti
"Her protagonists speak to gods, monsters, parents, and strangers in the same fearlessly ironic voice. Irrational or horrible things happen to people in these stories just as they do in fairy tales, dreams, the Bible, and real life. Intending to destroy dualistic viewpoints, Carrington offers no glib moral judgments."--The Village Voice
"Her stories are vivid, funny and surprisingly fresh...[combining] satire with surrealist situations to deftly mock the pomposity of organized religion, sexual repression or the endless forms of bureaucratic hypocrisy and ineptitude."--The New York Times
"In both her prose and her visual art, Carrington dissolves the borders between human and inhuman, fantasy and reality, death and life. In The Complete Stories we meet a mad queen who uses squirming live sponges to wash herself; a corpse that casts a circle of light in the forest; and a horse-woman who lives among plants and animals because humans won't accept her hybrid state. Whenever Carrington's heroines are forced to pledge allegiance, they always choose the company of beasts."--Joy Press, Los Angeles Times, "Leonora Carrington, the surrealist storytelling genius you've never heard of"
"Kathryn Davis's wonderful introduction to this complete collection (published in conjunction with the centennial of Carrington's birth) is a satisfying piece on its own, delightedly preparing the reader for a writer bestowed with a satisfying mix of the most wicked yet tender of visions."--Entropy
Mod
Mod
So far as I can make out, the short stories are quite expensive to procure so probably not ideal for a future choice
Mod
Mod
The film was about Dora Carrington, a different artist. I really enjoyed that film. Thanks, Nigey for all this info about the other Carrington. Never heard of her before.
Mod
Mod
The film synopsis mentions Carrington’s love for Lytton Strachey. The first I’d heard of it. Now I know it’s a different Carrington it makes perfect sense 🤠
Mod
Has anyone read her Confessions Of an Art Addict?
No, I have not. I would keen to do so. She had good taste in art.
Mod
Mod
I did indeed love the Pop Art chapter. Pop Art is probably my favourite type of modern art and, as usual, Will Gompertz really does it justice in a pithy, erudite and insightful way.
Mod
A really entertaining and informative read
I feel better equipped to visit art galleries now
Mod
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thanks Will Gompertz
Thanks fellow readers here at RTTC
Wonderful
Mod
I'm not on this thread but have read the biography of Leonora Carrington mentioned and have to say I thought it was really terrible, gushing and awkwardly written. But love Leonora Carrington's work, if you're interested in her then I'd recommend her novel The Hearing Trumpet very accessible, thought it was very entertaining. Her stories are really interesting too but vary in style/quality. Dora Carrington, on the other hand, produced some fascinating diaries but unfortunately they're out of print and tend to be expensive. But the biography by Gretchen Gerzina Carrington: A Life of Dora Carrington, 1893-1932 is okay, and an edition of Carrington's letters was published recently and definitely worth reading for any hardcore Bloomsbury fans Carrington's Letters: Her Art, Her Loves, Her Friendships
I haven't read Peggy Guggenheim's book but enjoyed Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern Francine Prose's recent biography.
Mod
Wasn't Dora Carrington often known as just 'Carrington' RC? If so, it would be easy to confuse them.
Reading the 20th Century
Books mentioned in this topic
The Hearing Trumpet (other topics)Carrington a Life of Dora Carrington 1893 - 1932 (other topics)
Carrington's Letters: Her Art, Her Loves, Her Friendships (other topics)
Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern (other topics)
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Leonora Carrington (other topics)Joanna Moorhead (other topics)
Will Gompertz (other topics)
Will Gompertz is the perfect guide as he's excited and passionate about his subject. He wants us to share his enthusiasm and appreciation. He's a good writer too, able to convey his prodigious knowledge in an accessible and entertaining manner.
Every chapter contains wonderful concepts and light bulb moments for the reader.
I do wish the book had more colour illustrations. It is not hard to find the art online however it breaks up the flow when there is not a colour plate in the book. That's a minor quibble though in terms of one of the best books I think anyone could hope to read about modern art.
By the way, I sometimes post covers of the book I am reading onto my Instagram account, as I did with this one. A friend commented that Will Gompertz was responsible for her first ever hangover "at the tender age of 14". Next time I run into her in person I'll find out more.