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Artists
A stunning exploration of over 80 famous artists and their fascinating lives, from Leonardo da Vinci to Frida Kahlo.
Artists: Their Lives and Works tells the inspiring stories behind the world's most famous masterpieces and their creators, including their influences, development, friendships, loves, and rivalries. Discover the often tumultuous lives of iconic artists including Raphael, Hogarth, van Gogh, O'Keeffe, Magritte, Warhol, and Kiefer.
Uncover the unconventional tales of the artists' lives, including Holbein's matchmaking portraits for Henry VIII, Caravaggio's thuggish reactions to a badly-cooked artichoke, and the many romantic affairs of Picasso. Lavishly illustrated biographies for every artist reveal these visionaries at work in their studios, as well as the unique techniques, artworks, and personalities that made them into legends.
Featuring a foreword by Andrew Graham-Dixon, Artists: Their Lives and Works is the ideal gift for art lovers old and young, and a uniquely fascinating look at the lives of these creators.
Artists: Their Lives and Works tells the inspiring stories behind the world's most famous masterpieces and their creators, including their influences, development, friendships, loves, and rivalries. Discover the often tumultuous lives of iconic artists including Raphael, Hogarth, van Gogh, O'Keeffe, Magritte, Warhol, and Kiefer.
Uncover the unconventional tales of the artists' lives, including Holbein's matchmaking portraits for Henry VIII, Caravaggio's thuggish reactions to a badly-cooked artichoke, and the many romantic affairs of Picasso. Lavishly illustrated biographies for every artist reveal these visionaries at work in their studios, as well as the unique techniques, artworks, and personalities that made them into legends.
Featuring a foreword by Andrew Graham-Dixon, Artists: Their Lives and Works is the ideal gift for art lovers old and young, and a uniquely fascinating look at the lives of these creators.
Hardcover
First published September 7, 2017
36 people are currently reading
664 people want to read
About the author
D.K. Publishing
9,126 books2,068 followersDorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
Source: Wikipedia.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
Source: Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 17, 2020
It is a one of good books that introduces greatness of art and wonderful artists to ordinary people. It helped me to get a notion of Art and get insight to beauty of it. Highly recommended to people who love art & beginners.
June 18, 2018
This book has one highly irritating shortcoming: it doesn’t show enough art. There are 80 profiles of different artists here, so clearly things are going to be cramped, but why wasn’t better use made of the space available? Instead of showing me a picture of the city the artist lived in, show me a painting! Instead of a picture of an award the artist won, make that picture of one of his works bigger! And why is a whole page given to a picture of every artist? When you only have three pages to show an artist’s work, it’s insane that you would waste an entire page (FOR EVERY ARTIST) on a picture of that person. Some of these aren’t even self portraits. Unless you have a self portrait that is an important example of the artist’s work (as with Frida Kahlo for example) show me one of their masterpieces and keep the artist’s portrait passport sized.
This is a pretty decent book to plop down on your coffee table and dip into from time to time, but I actually went ahead and read it straight through. This was probably not the best way to take in this book because when you read one profile after another the blandness of the writing becomes more and more apparent. It’s like reading a series of Wikipedia articles. One Wikipedia article is fine, but reading 80 in a row, even over the course of several weeks, starts to grate. Of course, it’s hard to blame the author too much for this, because when you only have two pages or so it’s hard to do anything more than give a bare recitation of the essential facts.
This is a pretty decent book to plop down on your coffee table and dip into from time to time, but I actually went ahead and read it straight through. This was probably not the best way to take in this book because when you read one profile after another the blandness of the writing becomes more and more apparent. It’s like reading a series of Wikipedia articles. One Wikipedia article is fine, but reading 80 in a row, even over the course of several weeks, starts to grate. Of course, it’s hard to blame the author too much for this, because when you only have two pages or so it’s hard to do anything more than give a bare recitation of the essential facts.
May 2, 2020
Erken rönesanstan günümüze ressamların yaşamları ve eserlerine ayrılan ansiklopedik bir çalışma. Ancak, konusu, sayfa ebatları, kağıt kalitesi ile çok daha güzel bir kitap olabilirdi. Ressamların hayatlarından birsürü okumaya değmeyecek lüzumsuz detay veya tam sayfa portreleri yerine dönem bilgisi, resim sanatına katkısı, benimsedikleri akımlarla ilgili daha detaylı bilgiler, birkaç eseriyle ilgili derinlemesine analizler ve en önemlisi çok daha fazla eserlere yer verilebilirdi. Kitabı okurken sürekli bir taraftan internetten ressamın diğer resimlerini incelemek veya analizleri okumak durumunda kaldım.
Nerede Gombrich’in efsane “Sanatın Öyküsü” kitabı.
Nerede Gombrich’in efsane “Sanatın Öyküsü” kitabı.
March 27, 2020
This would be a wonderful text for any beginner's art history class--beautiful photographs and good bios on a lot of artists. However, as the book came up to modern day, it became really clear that the artists were bigger fans of modern art than the rest. Also, the amount of text dedicated to each artist seemed to be on the whim of the writers: Picasso got SIX pages of text where a LOT of very famous/important artists got stuck with maybe a single paragraph in the honorable mentions sections. I found this very odd and couldn't find a rhyme or reason for this except it must've been whomever the writers cared for or not. I'm very glad I borrowed this book because it is quite large and heavy and it didn't quite live up to my expectations, so I doubt I'll ever pick it up again, but it is still a wonderful reference for someone who maybe doesn't know a lot about art history and isn't sure where to start.
January 26, 2020
This was a highly informative, though not comprehensive, collection of artists and their works down through the centuries. Though, to be fair, a comprehensive book would be several thousand pages.
Each chapter was a century in the history of art, starting with some of the earliest artists, who mostly focused on religious subjects, down through present day. Each chapter had about ten artists profiled in it. Within the profile was short biography, information about how and what they painted, and many full color examples of their work.
The renditions of the art shown were wonderful. Full detail and color, and the text was written in a highly interesting, engaging way. Anyone interested in art should check this book out.
Each chapter was a century in the history of art, starting with some of the earliest artists, who mostly focused on religious subjects, down through present day. Each chapter had about ten artists profiled in it. Within the profile was short biography, information about how and what they painted, and many full color examples of their work.
The renditions of the art shown were wonderful. Full detail and color, and the text was written in a highly interesting, engaging way. Anyone interested in art should check this book out.
February 4, 2023
最近看了陈丹青的两季《局部》，挺有意思的。刚好开始读这本书/画册。古代的雕塑家画家都是订件（王公贵族,教皇主教们）。文艺复兴时期及之前多是宗教（神话）题材。陈丹青非常推崇欧洲早期的湿壁画。他也特别喜欢艺术家早期的作品（比如梵高）。偏离规范的作品往往是艺术家最好的。
这本书校订有点潦草，好几处typos，有的连画家的出生年份都搞错了。
委拉斯开兹的《宫娥》和伦布朗的《夜巡》印象最深。18世纪Tiepolo有一张画画的是埃及艳后Cleopatra宴请安东尼时为了炫富，把一个珍珠耳环取下溶解在酒里然后喝了，挺好玩的。
英国画家Gainsborough善于画肖像画，但他很想画风景画（没人买）。为了增加收入，他从乡下搬到了Bath（没去伦敦，因为竞争太激烈），非常精明的商业头脑。他的Mrs Richard Brinsley Sheridan有种飘逸的美。
梵高邀请了高更（巴黎认识的）到他家做客，画了向日葵放在卧房准备迎接高更。做客后期两人吵了起来，高更逃到了旅馆，梵高把自己耳朵割了下来。
印象派大师们刚出道时不被巴黎沙龙待见，受尽了嘲讽。
罗马尼亚雕塑家Brancusi直接在石头上雕刻，他的鸟系列（29件作品）一开始还像只鸟，到后来越来越抽象。“Simplicity is not an objective in art, but one achieves simplicity despite one’s self by entering into the real sense of things.”这话让我想起了康德的物自体。
看到Hopper的《Nighthawks》觉得眼熟，网上查了一下果然阵列在芝加哥艺术博物馆。当时还是对这幅画留下了深刻的印象🫢据说表现的是身处大城市的孤独感。
19世纪末20世纪初的艺术史上出现最多的词就是先锋，抽象，潜意识，梦境啥的。
这本书校订有点潦草，好几处typos，有的连画家的出生年份都搞错了。
委拉斯开兹的《宫娥》和伦布朗的《夜巡》印象最深。18世纪Tiepolo有一张画画的是埃及艳后Cleopatra宴请安东尼时为了炫富，把一个珍珠耳环取下溶解在酒里然后喝了，挺好玩的。
英国画家Gainsborough善于画肖像画，但他很想画风景画（没人买）。为了增加收入，他从乡下搬到了Bath（没去伦敦，因为竞争太激烈），非常精明的商业头脑。他的Mrs Richard Brinsley Sheridan有种飘逸的美。
梵高邀请了高更（巴黎认识的）到他家做客，画了向日葵放在卧房准备迎接高更。做客后期两人吵了起来，高更逃到了旅馆，梵高把自己耳朵割了下来。
印象派大师们刚出道时不被巴黎沙龙待见，受尽了嘲讽。
罗马尼亚雕塑家Brancusi直接在石头上雕刻，他的鸟系列（29件作品）一开始还像只鸟，到后来越来越抽象。“Simplicity is not an objective in art, but one achieves simplicity despite one’s self by entering into the real sense of things.”这话让我想起了康德的物自体。
看到Hopper的《Nighthawks》觉得眼熟，网上查了一下果然阵列在芝加哥艺术博物馆。当时还是对这幅画留下了深刻的印象🫢据说表现的是身处大城市的孤独感。
19世纪末20世纪初的艺术史上出现最多的词就是先锋，抽象，潜意识，梦境啥的。
September 2, 2025
This book is ambitiously comprehensive, covering artists, movements, and techniques across a wide span of history and countries. While it offers great breadth and depth, it still leans heavily Eurocentric. As a starting point, though, it’s excellent - I certainly learned a lot.
That said, I found myself wishing for more pictures. Too often, pivotal works are discussed as turning points in an artist’s career but aren’t shown, leaving the reader to do a lot of leg work in order to get the full picture.
Another issue is the book’s refusal to grapple with politics or ethics. It presents the lives of artists with a neutral tone, refraining from even minimal critique of those who were terrible people.
That said, I found myself wishing for more pictures. Too often, pivotal works are discussed as turning points in an artist’s career but aren’t shown, leaving the reader to do a lot of leg work in order to get the full picture.
Another issue is the book’s refusal to grapple with politics or ethics. It presents the lives of artists with a neutral tone, refraining from even minimal critique of those who were terrible people.
May 1, 2024
As with any attempt at a compendium, there will be some disagreement on who should or should not have been included. Although this is primarily white European men, there are a few women and nonEuropeans included. One thing I found particularly interesting is that where possible, self-portraits are used to identify the artist.
January 10, 2025
Muy buena recopilación de artistas que marcaron distintas épocas que se muestra de manera cronológica para tener una apreciación de cómo ha ido evolucionando el arte. Cada artista es abordado a través de sus obras más representativas, lo que invita a conocer un poco más de ellos de manera adicional al libro.
October 6, 2020
The biographies are good, if a little superficial. The only thing that could have made this better is if they included even more works by each artist and maybe showcased slightly less, although it was good to see some names off the beaten path of pop culture knowledge.
September 10, 2022
One of my most favorite books ever read. A fantastic job of presenting information without dictating interpretations of their works. Names and works mentioned and shown. A great summary to find information not so easily googled or found even in art apps.
March 25, 2020
I want to read
January 22, 2022
cok pahali nah alirim
August 18, 2023
excellent pictures and writing
great art resource or coffee table book
great art resource or coffee table book
November 30, 2023
Star rating out of 5:
4.5/5
Would I recommend the book:
If you're interested in a beautiful "coffee table book" or Artist reference source, yes.
My favorite part was:
Learning about artists I didn't know about and facts about some of my favorite artists that I didn't already know
Do i think the book is well written? Why is or isn't it? Was engaging, delightful, or inspiring? Was it staid, boring, or contrived?
Yes and beautifully illustrated.
Was it what you expected it to be?
Yes
How I discovered the book:
My hubby knows my interests and gave this to me as a Christmas or birthday gift a few years ago. I've been reading it bit by bit ever since. (it took awhile, it's kind of like a textbook!)
Format I read it in: physical book
4.5/5
Would I recommend the book:
If you're interested in a beautiful "coffee table book" or Artist reference source, yes.
My favorite part was:
Learning about artists I didn't know about and facts about some of my favorite artists that I didn't already know
Do i think the book is well written? Why is or isn't it? Was engaging, delightful, or inspiring? Was it staid, boring, or contrived?
Yes and beautifully illustrated.
Was it what you expected it to be?
Yes
How I discovered the book:
My hubby knows my interests and gave this to me as a Christmas or birthday gift a few years ago. I've been reading it bit by bit ever since. (it took awhile, it's kind of like a textbook!)
Format I read it in: physical book
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews