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Work Standing Up: The Life and Art of Paul Fontaine
Work Standing Up: The Life and Art of Paul Fontaine is about the ingredients for living one’s life artfully and fully present. It’s a story about one man’s decision to be deliberate in his choices about where he lived and how he lived it. It is a testimony that where one comes from has almost nothing to do with what one can achieve; that it is truly possible to make a good living as an artist.
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Fontaine discovered early a talent for drawing and painting, and not much else. He was a product of the Depression, yet managed to graduate from Yale, paint in the Virgin Islands, and paint in Italy as a soldier during World War II. Rather than returning to the United States, he remained in Germany as the art director for Stars and Stripes—and stayed for 25 years, painting and exhibiting with the finest European and American abstractionists, such as Willi Baumeister and Alexander Calder. In 1970, he moved with his family to Mexico for another 25 years, and finally Austin, Texas, for the last four years of his life. He and his wife were expatriates but also essentially ambassadors for America’s cultural aesthetic. Whether holding court among his peers, living in a tent, or buying art, Fontaine’s approach was to study, immerse, and act.
Art historians Margaret Stenz, Mary Brantl, and Robert Linsley each provide investigations into Fontaine’s art during the different periods of his working career: the Depression era, postwar Germany, and finally Mexico. In this first book-length treatise on Fontaine, readers will experience his work and, through previously unpublished photographs, also his community of artists that survived the war in Europe. Fontaine’s daughter, Claudia Chidester, offers a biographical section, which is centered around the lessons learned from Fontaine—on topics from marrying well to obtaining valuable press credentials.
Taken altogether, this extraordinary book sets forth an intimate and detailed portrait of a global artist who lived and worked for most of the twentieth century.
Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Fontaine discovered early a talent for drawing and painting, and not much else. He was a product of the Depression, yet managed to graduate from Yale, paint in the Virgin Islands, and paint in Italy as a soldier during World War II. Rather than returning to the United States, he remained in Germany as the art director for Stars and Stripes—and stayed for 25 years, painting and exhibiting with the finest European and American abstractionists, such as Willi Baumeister and Alexander Calder. In 1970, he moved with his family to Mexico for another 25 years, and finally Austin, Texas, for the last four years of his life. He and his wife were expatriates but also essentially ambassadors for America’s cultural aesthetic. Whether holding court among his peers, living in a tent, or buying art, Fontaine’s approach was to study, immerse, and act.
Art historians Margaret Stenz, Mary Brantl, and Robert Linsley each provide investigations into Fontaine’s art during the different periods of his working career: the Depression era, postwar Germany, and finally Mexico. In this first book-length treatise on Fontaine, readers will experience his work and, through previously unpublished photographs, also his community of artists that survived the war in Europe. Fontaine’s daughter, Claudia Chidester, offers a biographical section, which is centered around the lessons learned from Fontaine—on topics from marrying well to obtaining valuable press credentials.
Taken altogether, this extraordinary book sets forth an intimate and detailed portrait of a global artist who lived and worked for most of the twentieth century.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published June 22, 2013
4 people want to read
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June 13, 2013
This review is based on an electronic advanced release
Work Standing Up is a biography/coffee table book that shows the work of painter Paul Fontaine throughout the different periods of his life. Like many painters of his time he started with fairly realistic paintings and then at some point due to his influences ventured into more abstract territory.
While I had never "heard" of Fontaine before I read this book, I admire a lot of the skill and control he had.
The book is essentially three or four essays on different aspects of his life and art. The first and most intimate essay was written by one of his daughters, while the others were written by people who are more "art scene."
There are many photos of his work inside. Some are black and white due to them being photos of work that was later destroyed, lost or otherwise mislaid. The book goes into depth to describe the different paints and styles he used throughout his life.
While I don't have any coffee table books that I display due to my dog having a voracious book appetite, this is one book that I would love to have. The electronic edition, while nice and getting the point across, would surely pale to a larger format for the photographs.
If the publishing price I saw is legit, this is only a must-buy if you're a diehard Fontaine fan. Otherwise, see if your library is getting a copy. If the price was a typo, it's quite possibly worth the money.
Work Standing Up is a biography/coffee table book that shows the work of painter Paul Fontaine throughout the different periods of his life. Like many painters of his time he started with fairly realistic paintings and then at some point due to his influences ventured into more abstract territory.
While I had never "heard" of Fontaine before I read this book, I admire a lot of the skill and control he had.
The book is essentially three or four essays on different aspects of his life and art. The first and most intimate essay was written by one of his daughters, while the others were written by people who are more "art scene."
There are many photos of his work inside. Some are black and white due to them being photos of work that was later destroyed, lost or otherwise mislaid. The book goes into depth to describe the different paints and styles he used throughout his life.
While I don't have any coffee table books that I display due to my dog having a voracious book appetite, this is one book that I would love to have. The electronic edition, while nice and getting the point across, would surely pale to a larger format for the photographs.
If the publishing price I saw is legit, this is only a must-buy if you're a diehard Fontaine fan. Otherwise, see if your library is getting a copy. If the price was a typo, it's quite possibly worth the money.
Displaying 1 of 1 review