Title: Masters: Collage
Author: curated by Randel Plowman
Info: 335 p. - 2010
Finished: 10 May 2011
Acquired through: amazon.com
Rating: 8/10
Notes:
Few words and an overload of inspiration, that's how I would describe this wonderful feast on the eyes.
I've had this book on my coffee table for about half a year before I completely finished it. It took me that long to get through it, not because it's no good, but because there's simply too much to see and my mind couln't cope with all those beautiful images at once ;-) And now that I'm all through, I might as well start over again, cause this is one you can come back to again and again.
This is not a book about artists and their process, this is not a book about the meaning of collage in the art world, this is not a book to gain information on techniques or materials. What it is, is like a huge (and when I say huge I mean enormous) collage museum in a book! 40 collage artists are presented through their work. A very short introduction is given to each artist and some short quotes of what they say of their work are spread through the presentation. That's it, that's all, and that's more than enough.
If anything this book shows just how diverse the medium of collage can be and if you don't at least get 100 ideas from it, you must be blind ;-) I loved it. The only drawback of it might be that you cannot look at the works in their actual size. I would have loved to see some of them up close and see how the different layers were done, but that's the limit of dealing with a book instead of a real museum.
Still, if somebody out there wants to build a collage museum that has all these works in it, I would definitely move right in and never go out again!