A-Z Great Modern Artists

by Andy Tuohy (Illustrator), Christopher Masters

A fun introduction to the world of modern artists, from Albers to Zox, via Basquiat, Kahlo, Warhol and more.

A striking, design-led reference book, A-Z Great Modern Artists features Andy Tuohy's portraits of 52 key modern artists, rendered in each artist's own characteristic style - including Aleksandr Rodchenko in trademark green and red, Andy Warhol as a classic repeated print, and Marc Quinn as a frozen blood head in a box.

With text by art historian Christopher Masters, each artist's entry will also have a summary of the essential things you need to know about the artist; their biographical details, why they're so significant, where you can find their works today, and a surprising fact or two about them as well as reproductions of key works.

Whether you're already an art expert, or looking for a helpful cheat to navigating around a gallery, you'll love this guide to global artists of the modern age.

Andy Tuohy is a graphic designer and worked in advertising for many years before becoming a freelance artist/ designer. He has had design work commissioned by the Tate Modern and Tate Liverpool, Turner Contemporary and Henley Regatta, and has been featured in Design Week amongst other publications.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Design, Art Design

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2015

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Josef Albers to Larry Zox - the A-Z of modern art, as chosen by illustrator Andy Tuohy and art historian Christopher Masters. Each artist gets a Tuohy portrait, often incorporating elements of the artist's signature style, along with a short biography and one or two highlighted works. If you want more bio details and major pieces, this is not your best resource, but it suffices for a survey of (mostly) Western modern artists, from the 1880s-present time, from the well-known (Magritte, Picasso, Rothko, etc.) to new-to-me entries like Lebanese painter Choucar, Australian Nolan, Sudanese El-Salahi.

Good for brushing up on a who's who in modern art before a visit to the museum.

[Jennie Garcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

It's a good coffee table book. I wouldn't buy it. You can't define an artist in one piece, not possible. He either picked a incredibly cliché work of art or something that does not define the artist at all. Lichtenstein is one of my favorite artist and he picked one of his worsts paintings. Disappointing, good idea but it needed a lot more. I did enjoyed his illustrations.

[Krasi Karaivanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Много интересна и бързо се чете. Страхотно издание на Orange Books, същонска енциклопедия...

[Lau:) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brooooo, m’ha agradat molt!!!!!! mmmm no és gens pretensiós i és una porta per entrar a quadres i a artistes moderns, sense que intimidi !!!! Aquest llibre és com una primera clau i de veritat que de locos. O sigui ara tinc mil ganes de saber més sobre l’art , he descobert quadres i rerefons súper súper súper macus mmmm vull seguir!!! A veure li he posat tres perquè clar, podria ser més complet i si no fossis súper súper curta com jo mmm segur que ja els coneixeries tots, però a mi m’ha servit molt i mje enamorat de molts artistes i sobre tot m’ha donat ilu per seguir investigant , que crec que és el més important :))) a les notes m’he apuntat els artistes que vull seguir explorant 🧚🏼🧚🏼 i què més es demana dels llibres ?!! No es demana més , si arriben a les teves notes mmm ho han aconseguit !!!!!!!!!!!

[Ian Laird · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a puzzling book with a thin premise.

The designer Andy Tuohy has decided to represent a selection of twentieth century artists, mainly painters from the USA, Britain, Germany and France, by applying a symbolic portrait template or model, usually face on. He attempts to represent in some way the character and style of the individual subject, for example, the image of Henry Moore has a large aperture through his torso. Yes…

There are a few witty and observant portraits, but he often comes unstuck. Sidney Nolan, one the two Australians included is shown in profile in the manner of his Ned Kelly figure, holding a rifle. Unfortunately, Nolan’s head of the bushranger is already a perfect symbol which cannot be improved. Brett Whitley is actually OK, shown with his overalls and Harpo Marx hair.

But to be positive, Joan Miro is terrific in both colour and abstraction and Edward Hopper is properly noir.

However, the limitations of the images, their gimmickry if you like, is shown through the excellent text by Christopher Masters; his capsule bios of each artist are concise masterpieces of knowledge and appraisal. I learned a lot. To add to the imbalance, one or two works are included for each artist and they tend to show up the Andy Tuohy’s portraits.

[Debra Komar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what this book was trying to be. The selection of artists included seems to have been made based solely on the fact that another artist made a caricature of them. The style depicted is a little too cartoon for my tastes - while there is some effort to capture the subject's style, I had no idea what the subject actually looked like in many cases. The accompanying text was simplistic and tended toward trivia, rather than substantial biography or critique. Perhaps this is intended for a young adult market.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars for the concept, which is a good one, but not very well executed, in my opinion. And I thought all the "portraits" of the artists were too similar to each other to give one an idea of their individual styles.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is handy in terms of starting to get you familiar with the names of famous artists you may have otherwise missed. The book isn’t about depth, it’s an introduction. It’s a reference point into doing your own research and getting familiar with an artist or movement.

The idea of introducing you to an artist in an illustration with the amalgamated style of Andy Tuohy and the defining characteristics of the selected artist is really fun and unique. This aspect made the book stand out, however it of course doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for the works of the artists’ themselves. The up-side to this is that it’s kind of like a blind date with the artist you’re reading about. Ready for date one where you read about Lichtenstein’s theory before you’re ready to commit to looking at his work? Well this is the book for you. You can read about the life and ideas of an artist you may not have read about before, react to their ideals first, and separate the visual from the theory. It does help you understand the relationship between the two. Then you are introduced to a defining piece, giving you a start to begin further research. However, if you’re very much a visual person (as you might expect from someone reading a book about artists) it can be difficult reading a page of theory without the example right there.

Of course, you can’t really sum up an entire artist’s body of work with one pick, so it does fall flat there. It’s understandable why the author chose their most already recognisable works.

I found the text by Christopher Masters, to be really well written and easy to understand. The summaries of the artists are short, but includes those important terms to get you familiar.

However, the constant comparisons to Picasso got annoying once I really picked up on it. Take a shot every time ‘Pablo Picasso’ is mentioned and compared to and you’ll see what I mean.

[michael green · Rating 5 out of 5]

the art work was realy good and it was kinda cool to see from an artistic stand point of the way people and famous artist where portrayed. The book gave a stong base of information and the history it told wasn't as boring as some would think.I would recomend this book to someone who likes art and would enjoy learning about where most of the art styles came from. There are no spoilers because its a history sort of deal.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of portraits of modern artists accompanied by short biographies and one or, less often, two examples of their work. The portraits make a nod to the style of the artist, but that's the problem with them - they neither inform us of what the artist actually looked like nor are they a sufficiently close imitation of the style to inform us about what the artist did. The choice of artists is eclectic, which I don't mind when it comes to inclusion but why are so many artists excluded? Marc Quinn is the sole representative of the Young British Artists, and where are Balthus, Fernando Botero, Christo, Beryl Cook, Paul Delvaux, Gilbert and George, Andy Goldsworthy, Anthony Gormley, Richard Hamilton, Yves Klein, Willem de Kooning, Jeff Koons, Tamara de Lempicka, Bridget Riley, Dorothea Tanning, Victor Vasarely or Ai Weiwei? As for movements - Op Art isn't even mentioned, while neo-Impressionism is mentioned three times in the text but not explained in the glossary. The explanations of Divisionism and pointillism are so bad as to make it unclear as to whether the effective leader of the movement, Paul Signac (not mentioned, despite his influence), counts, since he painted mainly in brush-stroke dashes of colour rather than the insisted-on "dots".

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating is all a matter of this book's title. If it had been titled "Illustrations of Modern Artists by Andy Tuohy", then it would have gotten a better review. As it is titled the reader thinks they are getting information on modern artists but Tuohy's colorful fun illustrations take up an huge portion of the space devoted to each artist. The artists covered often only get one illustration of their work and that is only 1/3 of the page while Tuohy's illustrations are all full page. There is reasonable information about the artists but without good examples of their work it is hard to really understand them.

[Viktoria Tzvetanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for everyone who love art and want to know something more about their favourite artists from the era of the Modernism. I like the clear texts for all 52 artists who are included in this book but also like the illustrations - simple but very attractive. It is easy for reading and it has tips for every artist like where we can see their artworks and "did you know..." short texts. I think that it will be useful for everyone who deal with art.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

it's decent! i liked the illustrations, and the information was interesting and informative, though too brief to be super useful. it's okay for a basic primer while also going into some lesser-known but important artists (kusama!!! my heart was happy :')), but a lot of the artworks displayed in the book just aren't that important or great compared to the artist's whole portfolio IMO.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded down (upon after thought) No great depth to be found here, and I would argue it lacks breadth- very few women and non-white artists are represented. I’m also surprised by some of the “old white guy” omissions (Norman Rockwell, for example). A good starting point for ideas of artists to investigate, but functions for little else.

[JUAN CAMILO · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maravilloso texto.

No me gusta el arte y no sé casi nada acerca de ello.

Pero este libro es una guía perfecta que nos lleva a observar las motivaciones de los artistas modernos más importantes del siglo. Increíble libro, supremamente recomendado para quienes gustan del arte y para los que no también.

Este libro lo leí gracias a mi pareja. Gracias, mi amor.

[Wes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief summary of some modern artists works, most I hadn't heard off but a few I will delve into deeper. This book seems to get slated for trying to cover an artist's work on one or two examples, which is fair enough but it has expanded my understanding of a broad range of artists so fair play to it.

[Lottee Houghton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's taken me a long time to even start this book but it was rewarding when I finally did, and I decided to look up each artist and piece of art as I went along to make it a more interactive educational read! There are some amazing artists here that I would never have discovered otherwise, definitely need a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Tate Modern in London.

[Rodrigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book because I understood the different styles of each artist. The concept behind the book is good and the design of it is awesome. It is very unique and informative at the same time. It has a proper length of information concerning each artist.

[Seb Swann · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like books about modern art; this is a helpful guide for novices seeking to learn more about modern artists and various modern art movements.

[Fozz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love a quick bit of knowledge

[Lorna Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book to read in the library with a cup of coffee

[Sharanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating collection of a 100 artists, their famous works and styles

[Ясен В. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll probably have zero retention from this book.

[Mike Hammer · Rating 3 out of 5]

a nice introduction to some artists i didnt know
a few pieces of their work and some brief bio stuff about them
good for anyone into art

[Sarah Sloan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference/introduction to modern artists and genres.

[Emylie]

quick bits of bio on modern artists