Laura Murray Cree

I think there should be more books like this. Published in the year 2000, Laura Murray Cree and co-editors profile 80 visual artists working at that time (or who had died in the late 1990s) in Australia. Their works range from figurative art to extremely abstract. Each artist is given a biography and short overview of their career followed by two colour plates of their work, and some further reading suggestions.

It's great because although the book has an insider's tone, and analyses the career from the perspective of methodology and praxis, it also allows a sampling to the great unwashed (of which, when it comes to modern art, I am distinctly a member). I would like to see an equivalent version in 2020, to act as a guide for future investigation.

The only flaw is not really a flaw, in a book already oversized and heavy, that perhaps it would have been nice to see a couple more works per artist. Nevertheless, much more remains to be explored.
… (mais)

This large format almost square book provides a survey of Australian art today. Following an informative illustrated introduction the vast bulk of the book comprises an artist by artist survey covering the full spectrum of Australian painting. Each artist is allotted four pages. The first page provides some brief information about the artist, (as these are written by different contributors the nature of the content varies), along with a very brief biography and selected bibliography, is followed by three pages illustrating the artist's work. The book concludes with some brief notes about the contributors.

Eighty artists are included, and the number of colour illustrations totals 160. The book is most attractively laid out, with imaginative typography along with a careful and varied arrangement of the illustrations, all of which really does show the work to advantage. The range of work covered is vast, ranging from realism to non-representational and including the iconic work of Aboriginal artists. It all makes for a most sumptuous and desirable volume.… (mais)