Georgia
Posted: July 24, 2016 Filed under: Book Reviews | Tags: art, Biography, historical fiction Leave a comment
Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O’Keeffe, by Dawn Tripp
I enjoyed this compelling novel about artist Georgia O’Keeffe almost as much as I’ve enjoyed looking at her art. Georgia and her older husband, photographer and art promoter Alfred Stieglitz, exchanged so many letters that the author had plenty of source material to work with, along with biographies, Georgia’s memoirs, exhibition catalogs, critiques and much more. Fortunately, the author doesn’t let her research get in the way of telling a character-driven, moving, and engaging story about Georgia’s long and adventurous life. The various settings, New York City, the Stieglitz lake house in the Adirondacks, and New Mexico, are detailed and appealing. Georgia and her art change over time, as does her tempestuous relationship with Stieglitz. Recommended for fans of biographical fiction, and especially for readers of Susan Vreeland, Nancy Horan, and Paula McLain.
Brenda
A Bed of Scorpions
Posted: April 22, 2016 Filed under: Book Reviews | Tags: art, humor, mystery, publishing Leave a comment
A Bed of Scorpions by Judith Flanders
A clever, satisfying mystery, the second to feature London book editor Samantha Clair. When Aidan, an old flame, asks Sam to lunch, she is shocked to learn that the gallery owner’s partner Frank has been found dead. Sam, along with her new boyfriend, DI Jake Field, begins investigating. Sam’s knowledge of the publishing world turns out to be both helpful and dangerous. The plotting is smart, the dialogue witty, and Sam can be very funny, especially when she kicks a snob at a dinner party or reacts after a bike accident. Sam’s older neighbor, her assistant Miranda, and her mother Helena, a solicitor, are all good company and do their bit to help Sam and Jake solve the mystery. I’m always happy to find a good new mystery author to recommend. My review of the first book, A Murder of Magpies, is here. There is a third book, but it’s just out in Great Britain, and will probably appear in the U.S. next spring.
Brenda
Lisette’s List
Posted: August 13, 2014 Filed under: Book Reviews | Tags: art, France, historical fiction, World War II 1 CommentLisette’s List by Susan Vreeland
This is another good choice for book discussion groups from Vreeland, author of Luncheon of the Boating Party and Clara and Mr. Tiffany. Set in Provence and Paris from the late 1930s to the late 1940s, Parisian Lisette has a rough transition to life in Provence with her husband Andre and his grandfather Pascal. Andre is a frame maker, and Lisette had hoped to work in an art gallery in Paris. Gradually, Lisette learns to appreciate the village of Roussillon and the beauty of the countryside. Elderly Pascal tells Lisette stories of the paintings he has collected and how he acquired them, and of meeting Camille Pissarro and Paul Cezanne. As a young man, Pascal had mined ochre used for pigments in the paintings. When the war begins, the paintings are hidden. Lisette learns to garden and milk a goat, and meets contemporary painter Marc Chagall. Visit the author’s website for gorgeous photos of Roussillon.
Brenda
The Bookman’s Tale
Posted: April 19, 2014 Filed under: Book Reviews | Tags: art, England, historical fiction, romance, Shakespeare Leave a comment
The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett
Romance, mystery, history, Victorian art, and rare books combine to make for an engaging read. The setting moves from the 1980s and 1990s in North Carolina and England to the Victorian era and Elizabethan England. In 1995, rare book dealer Peter Byerly has retreated from North Carolina to an English cottage after the death of his wife Amanda. Finally visiting a bookstore, he is stunned to find a Victorian watercolor portrait tucked into a book about Shakespearean forgeries. The portrait looks just like his wife, who studied Victorian art. When Amanda’s books don’t identify the artist, he is referred to an art society meeting in London, where he meets book editor Liz Sutcliffe. The mystery of the portrait and its artist are somehow connected to an Elizabethan novel Pandosto by Robert Greene, the inspiration for Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale. A copy of Pandosto with margin notes by Shakespeare and a list of people who owned the book could be proof that Shakespeare really wrote his plays; or it could be a forgery. The search puts Peter and Liz in jeopardy, while alternating chapters describe Peter and Amanda’s college years and the people who owned the copy of Pandosto. Peter’s joy in learning about rare books and his love for Amanda add depth to the story.
Brenda
I Always Loved You
Posted: March 14, 2014 Filed under: Book Reviews | Tags: art, biographical fiction, France Leave a comment
I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira
If you enjoy reading about art or Paris, this book may be appealing. To begin with, I found the title a bit misleading. The main characters are Impressionist painters Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas, and I was expecting a grand romance. Degas gives Mary painting advice, and they are friends from time to time, when he isn’t being excessively critical or rude. Occasionally they are more than friends, but mostly not. The author’s focus is on painting, the artists’ community in 19th century Paris, Paris itself, and the illnesses and vision problems of the characters. Berthe Morisot and her brother-in-law Édouard Manet have a shared past, and Mary’s parents and sister Lydia, subject of many of Mary’s paintings, are the other featured characters, especially after they move from Philadelphia to live with Mary in Paris. The summary of the last forty years of Mary Cassatt’s life and work and the lives of her family and colleagues at the end was too compressed, but overall the book really kept my interest.
Brenda
The Art Forger
Posted: February 10, 2014 Filed under: Book Discussions, Book Reviews | Tags: art Leave a comment
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
Painter Claire Roth was working on her master’s degree when her boyfriend Isaac got painter’s block. With a deadline looming, Claire painted a picture in Isaac’s style to inspire him. Predictably, when the painting is successful Isaac claims it as his own work. Three years later, Claire is a struggling artist, painting reproductions for an online art store. Then she is approached about copying a painting stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1990, and has a chance at her own gallery showing. Claire suspects the Degas painting may be a forgery itself, and looks for a connection between Isabella and Degas. This novel is both a thriller and a romance, but art is the main focus. The morning book group will be reading this book in March, and I look forward to the discussion.
Brenda
An Object of Beauty
Posted: June 4, 2012 Filed under: Book Reviews | Tags: art, fiction, New York City Leave a comment
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
“Great paintings live on because they’re not quite explicable.” says Steve Martin. In “An Object of Beauty” , Steve Martin puts his considerable knowledge of the art world in full display. This novel is part fictional memoir, and part primer on the business of fine art collecting. It takes place in New York City and covers a period from about 1997 through 2008.
The novel is narrated by Daniel Franks, a writer for art world publications but who is really a stand in for Martin. The main character is Lacey Yeager, who is young, ambitious, gorgeous, quick witted and morally suspect. We follow her from art school to an internship at Sotheby’s, to working for a private art dealer to opening her own art gallery. Lacey is a master manipulator of men. She has Daniel Franks in her thrall throughout the book. Lacey sleeps with every man she meets, except Franks. She commits fraud for personal monetary gain, spies on competitors, and makes the big time.
The art market is booming along with the housing bubble in the early 2000s with money coming in from Russia and China. But as they say what goes up must come down as her career slides in the collapse of Wall Street and the subsequent drying up of the big money. As Martin states: “Art as an aesthetic principle was supported by thousands of years of discernment and psychic rewards, but art as a commodity was held up by air. The loss of confidence that affected banks and financial instruments was now affecting art as well.”
As we go through the book the works of art that Martin is talking about are displayed in full color inserts so that we can better appreciate them.
Steve Martin is an American actor, comedian, author, playwright, producer, musician and composer, and an avid art collector. I knew he was funny but had no idea he was such a good writer. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Joel
