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A review by generalheff
Secret Lives of Great Artists: What Your Teachers Never Told You about Master Painters and Sculptors by Elizabeth Lunday
4.0
Secret Lives briefly tells you the tale - warts and all - of 35 artists, primarily chosen on the basis of their (or one of their works) fame. Each artist gets about five pages, in which Elizabeth Lunday manages to pack a surprising amount.
This includes genuinely insightful discussion on specific artworks. Lunday's commentary on Jan Eyk's Arnolfini portrait (the first artist covered in the book) made me focus on the oranges in the window and the play of light on the woman's face, features I wouldn't have focussed on otherwise.
Around the discussion of artworks we are treated to concise bios of the artists in question. This gives a lot of detail in very little space: I feel like I know most of what I need to know about Caravaggio for instance, a man whose life was somehow more dramatic than his pioneering chiaroscuro paintings: he murdered someone, fled to southern Italy and then to Malta, joining the Knights of Malta for a time before being imprisoned by the group and having to be smuggled off the island. Despite such escapades he was heralded as a celebrity wherever he went.
A lot of the biographical detail is delivered via quotes from contemporaries which is a particularly nice touch; there was shock at a Paul Cézanne exhibit from the general public but Cézanne's fellow impressionists were in awe as we hear from Pissarro, "My enthusiasm is nothing compared to Renoir's. Even Degas has succumbed to the charm of this refined savage".
The third and most unique aspect of the discussion is of course (noting the title) the scandal and more salacious details of the artists. We hear about Manet attempting a dual but since neither party knew what they were doing it ended with bent swords and both sides agreeing enough was enough, honour restored etc. The discussion of Salvador Dalí's late-in-life orgies, arranged for his septuagenerian wife, is typical of the sort of 'not in A-level art' discussion you are treated to. Much of it is very funny: while some anecdotes may be familiar (most know of Andy Warhol's goings on at The Factory) a lot of it will, I imagine, be new. In the Warhol chapter (the last in the book) we hear about how he befriended Jimmy Carter's mother and took her to Studio 54, a nightclub. She proclaimed she didn't know whether she was in heaven or hell but she liked it. I defy anyone not to be amused by the prospect of a woman born in the 19th century going to a 70s nightclub with Andy Warhol and his entourage.
In sum the book is a funny and speedy whizz through a whole heap of art history. The language used can occasionally veer towards the 'trying to be cool or edgy'; use of the word "preggers" early on had me rolling my eyes. But luckily such irritants are few and far between. The main reason this book doesn't earn a full five stars it the lack of images of the artworks in question. I was constantly searching paintings online to understand the discussion. I imagine this is a rights thing (it would cost a fortune to get the rights to print all these images) but it's a real nuisance to read the book with a computer in front of you. With this one big exception, this is a fun, easy-to-read, surprisingly insightful book that, despite its pick-up and put-down coffee book nature will likely have you reading through the whole thing.
This includes genuinely insightful discussion on specific artworks. Lunday's commentary on Jan Eyk's Arnolfini portrait (the first artist covered in the book) made me focus on the oranges in the window and the play of light on the woman's face, features I wouldn't have focussed on otherwise.
Around the discussion of artworks we are treated to concise bios of the artists in question. This gives a lot of detail in very little space: I feel like I know most of what I need to know about Caravaggio for instance, a man whose life was somehow more dramatic than his pioneering chiaroscuro paintings: he murdered someone, fled to southern Italy and then to Malta, joining the Knights of Malta for a time before being imprisoned by the group and having to be smuggled off the island. Despite such escapades he was heralded as a celebrity wherever he went.
A lot of the biographical detail is delivered via quotes from contemporaries which is a particularly nice touch; there was shock at a Paul Cézanne exhibit from the general public but Cézanne's fellow impressionists were in awe as we hear from Pissarro, "My enthusiasm is nothing compared to Renoir's. Even Degas has succumbed to the charm of this refined savage".
The third and most unique aspect of the discussion is of course (noting the title) the scandal and more salacious details of the artists. We hear about Manet attempting a dual but since neither party knew what they were doing it ended with bent swords and both sides agreeing enough was enough, honour restored etc. The discussion of Salvador Dalí's late-in-life orgies, arranged for his septuagenerian wife, is typical of the sort of 'not in A-level art' discussion you are treated to. Much of it is very funny: while some anecdotes may be familiar (most know of Andy Warhol's goings on at The Factory) a lot of it will, I imagine, be new. In the Warhol chapter (the last in the book) we hear about how he befriended Jimmy Carter's mother and took her to Studio 54, a nightclub. She proclaimed she didn't know whether she was in heaven or hell but she liked it. I defy anyone not to be amused by the prospect of a woman born in the 19th century going to a 70s nightclub with Andy Warhol and his entourage.
In sum the book is a funny and speedy whizz through a whole heap of art history. The language used can occasionally veer towards the 'trying to be cool or edgy'; use of the word "preggers" early on had me rolling my eyes. But luckily such irritants are few and far between. The main reason this book doesn't earn a full five stars it the lack of images of the artworks in question. I was constantly searching paintings online to understand the discussion. I imagine this is a rights thing (it would cost a fortune to get the rights to print all these images) but it's a real nuisance to read the book with a computer in front of you. With this one big exception, this is a fun, easy-to-read, surprisingly insightful book that, despite its pick-up and put-down coffee book nature will likely have you reading through the whole thing.