Comfort Reads discussion

I just found this while looking for something else on my art bookshelf. It's a wonderful book by the Canadian artist Emily Carr called Pause: An Emily Carr Sketch Book. She kept a journal and sketch book during an 18 month stay at a sanatorium in England. It's very charming and funny.

This is a great thread! I have read many art books, quite a few of them on my shelves here, probably moat of them having comforting properties.

One little known book (and place except to some San Franciscans) that I have gotten great comfort from viewing is Lawrence Halprin: Changing Places : Exhibition San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 3 July - 24 August 1986

One book from my childhood that I loved and still own, basically a book of family photographs by a then local photographer (very dated now) is The World Is Young by Wayne Miller.

Oh, and thanks Lee. I put that book on my to-read shelf. It looks wonderful.

Lisa, I thought it was a very special book and it's a pretty fast read. I'm glad you're going to read it.

Rather than repeat all that is listed, I thought I would mention a thread I started in the group Historical Fictionistas under the headline "Recommendations". The thread is entitled Artists in Historical Fiction. LOTS of interestng books are mentioned there - for those interested.

Ooh, thanks Chrissie! Those will be of great interest to me. Thank you; I'll go check out that list and might copy & paste so I don't forget the books.

If you like Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, as I do, the following are great books:Andrew Wyeth: Autobiography, Andrew Wyeth: Memory & Magic and JAMIE WYETH.

And Lisa remember that book about Calder and his home...

We have been discussing Van Gogh on another thread and here is a link to the multi-volume set of his letters with drawings and paintings included. It sounds great!

Chrissie, I loved the book (goodreads won't let me link) Calder at Home, but for me it's not a comfort read. I might check out some of those mentioned art books though, and I think I will wait until I'm on my computer to catch up with the rest of these threads!

These could go in historical fiction as well but I love these fictionalized biographies of artists by Irving Stone.

When I was 12 I spent a week home ill with the flu and read and was completely engrossed by The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo.

Lisa, my computer let me link the Calder book:Calder at Home: The Joyous Environment of Alexander Calder. I have yet to read it!

Thanks, Chrissie!!! I could have done that when I got home but forgot. I very much appreciate your post.

ETA: I really enjoyed it but for some reason it did not feel like a comfort read to me. A few of his wife's rugs and some of his/his wife's art was comforting to look at I suppose but it was more of a learning experience for me.

Lisa, for me Calder's art is omfort so I will link it here: Calder at Home: The Joyous Environment of Alexander Calder.

Chrissie, Calder's art pieces are comfort for me too but, even though there were many photos of his/his wife's art, it was primarily a biography.

Lisa, I SO want to read this book. I find it very difficult to shove a particular book into just one nitch! The cheapest I can find is 30€ at ABE books. I know I would like to own it. I want it even more now that I know it is essentialy a biography!

Chrissie, I'm hoping swap will be international soon. Maybe you'll have luck here at Goodreads. I borrowed mine from the library. If I had ever owned it, I would have been happy to send you my copy, but I think the library would frown upon my sending you their copy. ;-)

Chrissie, Just want to add that I don't think Calder's very best stuff made its way into the book. I did enjoy what was there though and his wife's rugs (based on his designs) really gave me pleasure.

Lisa, not a good idea to send a library book :0) ! Actually I am more interested in the biographical info than the art pices - I know his famous pieces very well and how can a photo do justice to seeing it in real life?

Chrissie wrote: "Lisa, not a good idea to send a library book :0) ! Actually I am more interested in the biographical info than the art pices - I know his famous pieces very well and how can a photo do justice to s..."

Chrissie, It was fascinating to read about his life. I hope you're able to get an affordable copy.

Lisa, me too!

Lisa, message 13: Book-learning experiences *are comfort experiences for me!

Peregrine wrote: "Lisa, message 13: Book-learning experiences *are comfort experiences for me! "

Peregrine, Me too. Sometimes. Just not this one for some reason.

This seems to be the thread for books that include art/artists so I'd like to add one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland was fabulous! (I think Lee mention Susan Vreeland in another post.) I just loved the description of the people in Renoir's painting and kept refering to it often in my reading of the book. I will definitely look into more of her books!

Wendy, Thanks. I added it to the group's shelves and also to my personal to-read shelf.

Oh good Wendy, I'm happy to hear that her other books are just as enjoyable as the one I read. I'll have to read that one too.

From Wikipedia:

Jonathan Argyll series (art history mysteries)
This series describes the adventures of art historian Jonathan Argyll and two members of the (fictitious) Art Squad of the Italian police: Flavia di Stefano (deputy) and General Bottando (head of the squad). Books:

The Raphael Affair (1991)

The Titian Committee (1992)

The Bernini Bust (1993)

The Last Judgement (1994)

Giotto's Hand (1995)

Death and Restoration (1996)

The Immaculate Deception (2000)

since I posted this comment on Chrissie´s review, I decided to copied it here also.

Laura, thank you so much for posting about Ian Pears. I've been curious about his art books since I read and loved An Instance of the Fingerpost: A Novel. That was a fantastic book!

I read The Immaculate Deception as a passport-book which was kindly sent by Hayes (Italy) to Bettie (Sweden), me (Brazil) and then to Wanda (USA). I loved it!!

Great! Good to know. :-)

Iain Pears just giving the right link, ok?

Laura wrote: "Iain Pears just giving the right link, ok?

"

Laura, Yes. Thanks!

Lee, sorry. I forgot that this thread already existed. Talk about thick-headed! Let me suggest the following books that I have really enjoyed:

The World to Come
Arrogance: A Novel
The Passion of Artemisia
The Piano Tuner
Girl with a Pearl Earring

I want to read:
The Lady and the Unicorn
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier
The Painted Kiss: A Novel
The Birth of Venus
I, Mona Lisa
Carnevale
Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet
The Master of Bruges
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo

I have more but I will add them in another post!

It's okay Chrissie, the thread is kind of hidden down here so I may move it up into a general Arts folder instead so you and others can find it in a more obvious place.

Here are some more that I loved:

Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse: The Conquest of Colour: 1909-1954
The Unknown Matisse
Modigliani and His Models
Renoir's Garden
What I Loved

Lee, I am just happy there is a thread. I am moving stuff from another place here. I LOVE this group! People are nice.

Here are more I want to read:
An Artist of the Floating World
The Phantom of the Opera

great books Chrissie!!!

A few more books:


The Lost Painting

The Matisse stories

The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Dear Theo, The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh

The Secret Life of Salvador Dali

Leonardo's notebooks

The Unknown Masterpiece

Artemisia

Misfit, I'm going to stick your book in here because the other thread is going away!

Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet

Don't forget these:

The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto
which is another about Schiele, although
Arrogance: A Novel is much better.
and
Dancing for Degas: A Novel
The Creation of Eve

Laura, I will check out the ones you just added tomorrow.

I know this still isn't complete, but I am tired....

Good night and don't let the bed bugs bite.

Thank you Chrissie and Laura for all the recent additions to the thread!

Laura, I just had time to go through the books you named. I have added several. That one about Caravaggio' s The Rising oc Christ looks particularly good. Also Artemisia. The two could be good to read together.

Another two about VanGogh are
The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles and
Johanna

Theo's wife did much to bring reknown to Vincent Van Gogh! The second book is about that.

then we have to check these books. By the way, do you know any book about Cezanne??

Bettie just mentioned a new series coming up in BBC, about Caravaggio:

The Secrets of the Art and the Artist: Caravaggio

With the 400th anniversary of his death approaching, the painter Caravaggio is receiving a great deal of attention in Italy and around the world. He was controversial in his own lifetime and a passionate debate rages over his legacy today. Artist Roger Law goes in search of the man behind the myth.

Laura wrote: "A few more books:


The Lost Painting

The Matisse stories

The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Dear Theo, The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh

The Secret Life of Salvador Dali"

I am not that hip on Salvador Dali.... Have you seen the one they have in the Moderna Museum in Stockholm, the one with the long, long thigh and then knee. This doesn't do much for me!

Laura there is Cezanne's Quarry. I haven't read it and it seems to be highly fictional. I forgot to add:
Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
Picasso's War
Between Lives: An Artist and Her World
The Painter From Shanghai: A Novel
The Museum GuardI Am Madame X: A Novel
The Pianist
Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper
In Mozart's Shadow: His Sister's Story

I am still not done..... it takes awhile and it will never be complete!

There will be alot of talk about Caravaggio since it is his 400 year anniversary!

The Architecture of Happiness has a great author.
Frida - I do not think this will be as good as the bookk by Hayden Herrera mentioned above.
JAMIE WYETH I adore this.
Luncheon of the Boating Party looks interesting.
Girl in Hyacinth Blue wasn't that good!

That is enough for now.

PLEASE YOU GUYS - ADD MORE! Help me find good books about artists, although I certainly have a long list ahead of me....

Chrissie wrote: "Laura wrote: "A few more books:


The Lost Painting

The Matisse stories

The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Dear Theo, The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh

The Secret Life of Salvador D..."

yes, but Dali´s museum in Montparnasse have great paintings and the place is quite warmful.

I just finished Claude and Camille. A good book, but it didn't rock my world either. Very *light*.