Art Books & Comic Reviews
01
Art Book - Reviews
Art books, don't have to educate to be great… Which is fortuitous really, as most fail to deliver upon such a lofty ambition.
Their major, or at the very least, most realistic directive, is to actively engage the imagination of the viewer and trigger within them, a physically creative response.
We at popillustrated.com buy a lot of art books and though there is an amazing amount of dross out there, these following reviews are to support those page collections, we believe are worthy of perusal and study.
Enjoy, or even better… Think. By Ross Trower
Comic / Graphic Novel - Reviews
I didn't have pocket money or an allowance as a kid… Sweets and football stickers were anathema to me and at the end of each week, my sweaty, young palms were crossed with, “magazine money.”
Two decades later and I’m creating a section on my site that deals with reviewing comics… My reasoning is that in todays oversaturated commercial illustration market, comics remain one of the few illustration forms, where art actually has meaning and goals, reaching beyond the mere decorative.
By Ross Trower
"The Art of Robert E. McGinnis... is simply gorgeous"
by Ross Trower
The Art of Robert E McGinnis
It’s not a complete collection, if that’s what you want. When you consider this illustration master, produced over 1200 book and magazine covers, spanning a career of almost seventy years… Well… To expect a full accounting of his work, in just one modest tome, would be somewhat churlish.
Following in the footsteps of such illustration illuminati, as Coby Whitmore and Andrew Wyeth, who in turn traced the path of Norman Rockwell, McGinnis distinguishes himself, by being somewhat broader in subject matter. Given his domination of multiple illustration markets, inclusive of crime, romance and advertising, it’s clear that McGinnis hates the idea of being pigeonholed and is famously quoted as saying, that art critics find, “something unsettling about a person who won't be indelibly stamped with a narrow label.”
McGinnis did have contemporaries, working within the same period. Bernie Fuchs and Bob Peak, being two such masters, but certainly from a European perspective, McGinnis almost phased these greats out of existence, by the sheer prolificness of his work.
In summary, you’d have to combine Whitmore, Wyeth, Fuchs and Peak into one, to get a McGinnis level of output and as they are to lesser and greater extents, each in possession of a fanatical fanbase, you can begin to understand the true importance of what McGinnis achieved and the inflammatory nature of this review. I’m not exactly saying, McGinnis was better, but I am saying, his work en masse was more significant.
The Art of Robert E McGinnis, is a superbly compact collection of the painters works and unlike some other art books out there, provides each subject, each print… Space. There’s nothing worse than six vibrant images dominating one page (in a roughly A4 sized offering) and yet, it happens all too regularly. I’d like to say I’m forever taking out my monocle, to do, Lord Giles, impersonations, but its actually because of poor page management. In this book, space has been carefully considered and tastefully implemented.
In regard to actual content, McGinnis’s later career is well covered, but interestingly (though not unsurprisingly), barely any focus, is dedicated toward his early cartooning. I suppose, this section, stands today as being the least significant period, but if I run a google search on Robert McGinnis, I’m always going to be inundated with the work we find, so beautifully reprinted in this book. I’ll rarely, if ever find an image link to this man’s early cartoon work. When I take a journey into the pages of a book, I’m not just looking for the destination… I’m looking for the journey as well. I’ll go as far as saying that it’s this small, but significant omission, that really excludes this book, from getting a 5/5 star rating.
On the plus side, Movie posters receive a fair amount of page real estate, which given that Thunderball and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, are his most iconic images, makes complete sense. Among the artistically uneducated, the McGinnis brand, hints at a fictional Scottish incarnation of Irish Stout, but show the great unwashed a small selection of his posters and they will generally recognise his work. His pieces for Hollywood, are a who’s-who of characters and celebrities. Think The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Comes a Horseman, The Odd Couple, Woody Allen… His commissions really were almost legion.
If you love Rockwell, or any of the other famous artists I’ve listed, you will definitely like this wonderfully presented publication. In an age of somewhat sterile, imperfect digital illustration, you can clearly see, when leafing through, The Art of Robert E McGinnis, that a level of romance has dwindled, between the creator and their medium. McGinnis’s choice of colours, following his use of black and white reference photos along with his deliberate mark making, deliver compelling viewing.
If you can get this book in a decent condition for £30/$45 or less, there are few offerings out there, giving better value.
It’s not a complete collection, if that’s what you want. When you consider this illustration master, produced over 1200 book and magazine covers, spanning a career of almost seventy years… Well… To expect a full accounting of his work, in just one modest tome, would be somewhat churlish.
Following in the footsteps of such illustration illuminati, as Coby Whitmore and Andrew Wyeth, who in turn traced the path of Norman Rockwell, McGinnis distinguishes himself, by being somewhat broader in subject matter. Given his domination of multiple illustration markets, inclusive of crime, romance and advertising, it’s clear that McGinnis hates being pigeonholed and is famously quoted as stating that art critics find, “something unsettling about a person who won't be indelibly stamped with a narrow label.”
McGinnis did have contemporaries, working within the same period. Bernie Fuchs and Bob Peak, being two such masters, but certainly from a European perspective, McGinnis almost phased these greats out of existence, by the sheer prolificness of his work.
In summary, you’d have to combine Whitmore, Wyeth, Fuchs and Peak into one, to get a McGinnis level of output and as they are to lesser and greater extents, each in possession of a fanatical fanbase, you can begin to understand the true importance of what McGinnis achieved and the inflammatory nature of this review. I’m not exactly saying, McGinnis was better, but I am saying, his work en masse was more significant.
The Art of Robert E. McGinnis, is a superbly compact collection of the painters works and unlike some other art books out there, provides each subject, each print… Space. There’s nothing worse than six vibrant images dominating one page (in a roughly A4 sized offering) and yet, it happens all too regularly. I’d like to say I’m forever taking out my monocle, to do, Lord Charles, impersonations, but its actually because of poor page management. In this book, space has been carefully considered and tastefully implemented.
In regard to actual content, McGinnis’s later career is well covered, but interestingly (though not unsurprisingly), barely any focus, is dedicated toward his early cartooning. I suppose, this section, stands today as being the least significant period, but if I run a google search on Robert McGinnis, I’m always going to be inundated with the work we find, so beautifully reprinted in this book. I’ll rarely, if ever find an image link to this man’s early cartoon work. When I take a journey into the pages of a book, I’m not just looking for the destination… I’m looking for the journey as well. I’ll go as far as saying that it’s this small, but significant omission, that really excludes this book, from getting a 5/5 star rating.
On the plus side, Movie posters receive a fair amount of page real estate, which given that Thunderball and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, are his most iconic images, makes complete sense. Among the artistically uneducated, the McGinnis brand, hints at a fictional Scottish incarnation of Irish Stout, but show the great unwashed a small selection of his posters and they will generally recognise his work. His pieces for Hollywood, are a who’s-who of characters and celebrities. Think The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Comes a Horseman, The Odd Couple, Woody Allen… His commissions really were almost legion.
If you love Rockwell, or any of the other famous artists I’ve listed, you will definitely like this wonderfully presented publication. In an age of somewhat sterile, imperfect digital illustration, you can clearly see, when leafing through, The Art of Robert E. McGinnis, that a level of romance has dwindled, between the creator and their medium. McGinnis’s choice of colours, following his use of black and white reference photos along with his deliberate mark making, deliver compelling viewing.
If you can get this book in a decent condition for £30/$45 or less, there are few offerings out there, giving better value. by Ross Trower
Amazon: The Art of Robert E. McGinnis
