The 20th Century Art Book by Phaidon Press

The 20th Century Art Book Reviews

• 
  Rthvct

  Igual es por la traducción al español, pero algunas descripciones de artistas me chirrían.
• 
  Alan

  Well... it's a 20th-Century art book, anyway.
  
  I read
  The 20th Century Art Book straight through, from Acconci to Zorio, which is perhaps not the best and certainly not the only way to use this brilliantly-conceived reference work, even though I personally enjoyed going through this book page by page, encountering old favorites and artists new to me in a sequence which owed nothing to schools, or regions, or influences. On equal terms.
  
  Precisely equal terms, in fact. Each of the artists considered—and there are 500 of them, unified only by having done their most prominent work during the century in question—is given exactly one page to shine. Fascinating as the format is, it's also very restrictive, and does not do service to larger works, to three-dimensional pieces, or to kinetic and video art. Also, for some of the more prolific and versatile artists, the need to pick only a single piece leads to some oddly unrepresentative examples.
  
  However, the format also privileges no gender, no race, no level of celebrity or political affiliation. My friend Kim noticed right away, though it took me awhile to tumble to the same realization, that this is a profoundly democratic presentation. Pablo Picasso faces the New Yorker Adrian Piper. The page right after Brazilian sculptor Hélio Oiticica displays Georgia O'Keeffe. The "urban street poetry" of Jenny Holzer (one of my personal favorites) gets juxtaposed with the Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann. Only the tyranny of alphabetical order holds sway.
  
  That, and a certain cultural myopia. The book is British, and there is a definite (possibly-unavoidable) bias towards artists from England, or English-speaking countries, or at least countries somewhere near England. There must have been many artists working during those long hundred years from Africa, India and China, for example... but they go almost entirely unrepresented here.
  
  So
  The 20th Century Art Book must be understood as an overview—very broad, but by no means all-inclusive... and nowhere is it very deep.
  
  It is a product of the 20th Century itself, as well, with a copyright date of 1996 (but with updates in this edition up through 2007 or so, mostly in dates of death). The same book created with the perspective of 100 years from now might contain very different choices.
  
  
  
  The 20th Century Art Book should not be your sole, or even primary, reference for the artists of its chosen period. But despite its flaws I found it to be an impressively broad survey, a beautiful artifact, and a solid springboard for further research.
• 
  Amanda O'Kelley

  I love this small book, when Im trying to derive inspiration from something in order to start a piece of my own.
  
  It features tons and tons of amazing works from Picasso, to O'Keefe, Matisse, Cezanne, Pollock, Klimt (Big Breath) Brancussi, Boccioni and Rodin.
  
  My absolute favorite artist being Frida Kahlo because of her feminism, and weakness to her true love Diego, and beautiful bright colored works boldly portraying brutal agony of living life as a mexican woman in an age that wasn't ready for such honesty.
  
  One piece you have to check out is Chuck Close's "John" Acrylic on Canvas, an astonishingly life like painting that you'd swear at first glance is a photograph of a man wearing glasses, however is in fact a painstakingly accurate dipiction of the subject rendered through true mastery of acrylic medium.
• 
  Leti Ruiz

  Este librito me enseñó más cosas que algunos profesores de carrera... Como glosario de autores, cumple su función perfectamente: textos e imágenes bien confeccionados (con gusto, certeros y al grano), abriendo apetito para seguir investigando libre y personalmente. El formato además es carne de cañón de "mesita de noche": abrir una página al azar y descubrir algo nuevo antes de irte a dormir mola 😊.
• 
  Zandee Glz

  Increíble como libro de consulta, muy buena calidad y muy completo
• 
  Leez Matías

  Quisiera hablar de todos los artistas que se encuentran aquí pero es imposible. Me encanta este libro, saco mucha inspiración.
• 
  Juan Manuel Wills

  Se nota un buen esfuerzo de presentar una muestra de obras representativas del siglo XX, particularmente en el expresionismo abstracto, clasificadas por autor
• 
  J.C.

  The format's a bit weird, and the selections range from obvious to subpar, but for the most part, this is a good art reference book. It serves its purpose and I enjoyed browsing through the artworks. I wish i could get more than a simple photo of the exhibits that were explained and shown in a single image, however, as most of them require the viewer to actually be there.
• 
  Alex

  Well known artists combined with little known artists would make this a confusing book for someone with a limited knowledge of influential 20th century artists.
• 
  Millicent

  Amazing resource for my art degree
• 
  翰林院编修

  二十世纪艺术之书
  9.2 (24人评价) [英] 费顿出版社 / 邵沁韵 / 后浪丨湖南美术出版社 / 2021
  现当代艺术是一面现实之镜，镜子里是每一个“你” 全景式现当代艺术图鉴，尽览莫奈、毕加索、弗里达、霍克尼等500位国际知名艺术家的代表作品 45种风格流派，来自26个国
• 
  Matt Vandegriff

  Short review: I love all of the Phaidon Art books (and music books). The art books are just a wonderful collection from widely different sources and the books themselves are laid out beautifully. They are, of course, introductions to a spectrum of the artworld (time period, artist specific, genre, etc...), but a wonderful starting point for anyone curious in general, or interested in finding a direction to explore further.
• 
  Kayleigh

  It's a good book to dip in and out of, yet even though the size of it is handy for being able to flip through quickly, it means that the images are rather small (but still of a high quality). The best thing about this book is the snippets of information, which makes you want to know more about that artist and their work, so whatever you do don't just pass them by, sometimes they are more interesting than the artwork itself.
• 
  Nigel Wilson

  Although some of the art in this book is what I would class a being created by talented and inspiring people ( Bryan Organ for example).... Most of it could be have been created by a nursery school class of 4 year olds... All this is art.?... Really?
• 
  lurra

  Had I bought this book 4 years ago, I wouldn't have had to go to art school. Hur hur.
• 
  Josephine

  Great book! Large photos on each page with limited text (the way like art books).
• 
  Marilyn

  I really liked it. each page is a different artist. I discovered kandinsky whom I had not heard of before. It made some names at MoMA familiar.
• 
  Crystal

  Colorful, informative and compactly sized, I thoroughly enjoyed it very much.
• 
  Beth

  I loved this book so much in high school art class that I had to own it as an adult. Still a flip through favourite.
• 
  Christiana Guinle

  ARTE , UMA MARAVILHA ,VALE A pena , recomendo!!!!!!!
• 
  Mii

  This book was a great read!
• 
  Phillip

  Detailed Survey of 20th Century Art by Artist. Short concise descriptions and bio of work and Artist. Ends with helpful Glossaries of Terms and Artistic Movements. Good Quality Pictures.
• 
  Paula

  A great overview of 20th century art and well work the read
• 
  Kelley

  A great collection of artists. The descriptions are interesting and creative.