From Library Journal
Livingstone, a London-based postwar painting specialist, presents a generously illustrated and appealing overview of the life and work of Jim Dine, still popular four decades after his initial work bridging abstract expressionism and Pop art. The text has a loosely thematic structure that, like Dine's art, circles around repeatedly to revisit themes and motifs. This repetition, along with the use of many quotations from Dine and footnotes that rival the text itself in length, creates a fragmented reading experience that may not appeal to some readers. Earlier writings in the now extensive Dine literature are quoted frequently, while little is added that breaks new ground in understanding the artist or his work. The book does collect it all in one place, however. This volume will not be an essential acquisition for scholarly collections but can be enjoyed by both specialized and general readers.AKathryn Wekselman, Univ. of Cincinnati Lib.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Kurzbeschreibung
In fewer than four decades, Jim Dine has produced more than 3,500 works in an astonishing range of media -- above all in painting, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking, but with occasional excursions into performance, stage design, book design, poetry, and even music -- using a variety of approaches and imagery. Illustrated with over three hundred exceptional examples, this is the most comprehensive survey of this important artist's oeuvre. From Dine's early Happenings in the late 1950s to his most recent paintings, Marco Livingstone has documented and analyzed the evolution of both work and artist by exploring and discussing several themes in great detail. The discussion of these themes, ordered chronologically, presents a tightly woven account of the artist's development: his reaction to abstract expressionism and action painting of the late 1950s and early 1960s; the central role of objects used both as constituent elements of assemblages and sculptures and as a fund of images; the various art-making techniques and "hands-on" quality of his art; his profound vocabulary of images as well as his signature motifs; and his return to direct observation and life drawing, supplementing representations of the human body in the form of fragments, clothing, and tools. Integrated into Livingstone's text are short essays by Dine himself, giving insight into his personal history and his relation to visual material.
