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Kenton Nelson

Autor(a) de Water: California Idealism

1 Work 2 Membros 1 Review

Obras por Kenton Nelson

Water: California Idealism (2019) 2 exemplares

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Water: California idealism is a collection of Kenton Nelson's art with several essays. The images are wonderful and the essays add to the enjoyment rather than just prattle on like some art essays do.

First, the paintings themselves. I have always enjoyed this type of painting but usually with a bit of an on the fence feeling about it, like maybe in another minute or two I might no longer enjoy them. That, obviously, is a statement about me and not the art. I tended to spend less time really looking at it and just thought "yeah, that is a 50s-ish woman in a bathing suit." Then on to the next. In this collection, even before reading the essays, I made a point of really looking. And I realized that there are a lot of things here that speak to me.

I spent part of my childhood in southern California, in both the mid-60s and the early to mid 70s, so while after the period that seems to be presented, still similar enough. The voyeuristic element seems stronger here than with other styles, maybe because the subject of the painting, whether a human or a viewfinder, is really the only thing with enough detail to be looked at closely, much like when one spies someone or something everything else appears out of focus and we concentrate on what we are looking at. Also, many paintings are of parts of people or things. This made me think of some memories, how, even when I can recall a person completely, I often remember something in particular. Maybe how they wore their hair, or clothes, or how they would stare intently in the distance. Whatever it might be, many memories are cropped images of people and/or things. These paintings take me back to that type of thinking/remembering.

While Nelson's short essay was interesting and certainly helped contextualize the paintings, I found Johnson's essay to be the most interesting and most helpful. He brought many ideas that had floated on the periphery of my mind while looking at the art work and put them into words. With allusions to literary as well as physical art history, Johnson really brought the separate paintings into conversation both with each other and with people like myself who might not have a strong art background but do have a literary background.

All in all, I would recommend this to anyone who even remotely likes this style of painting. If you do, this book will offer you some potentially new perspectives and, hopefully, lead to a new appreciation. I also would obviously recommend this to people who already know and appreciate both this style and Nelson in particular.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.
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Assinalado
pomo58 | May 5, 2019 |

Estatísticas

Obras
1
Membros
2
Popularidade
#2,183,609
Avaliação
5.0
Críticas
1
ISBN
1