Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for lovers of 20th Century British art., 4 Sep 2008
Here at the Goldmark Gallery my staff are well used to the cry "Fetch me Buckman". Out of the many thousands of reference books in our library, it's this magnificent 2-volume dictionary to which we most often refer. A must for lovers of 20th Century British art.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Invaluable, 1 Sep 2008
The 14,000 entries in this dictionary effectively rewrite the history of 20th century British Art. The dictionary not only covers the artists who are already familiar names but gives a unique insight into the 1000's of artist - many of whom are unsung hero's - who lived during the same era but whose work is little known. It should be the first port of call for any serious research on artists working in Britain since 1945.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique, original reference work for UK artist biogs, 29 Aug 2008
The great thing about these two weighty volumes is that you can trust the entries. It's not one of those vanity publications that charges fifty quid to list the next door neighbour, who had a watercolour in the local library. The author, David Buckman, is an art historian with several books to his credit on in-depth subjects. He also writes artist obituaries for The Independent. The book jacket states that he has penned all the entries himself (over 2 million words) with more than 18 years research into 14,500 artists, and that a lot of this was not from existing sources but unique material directly from artists and galleries etc.
Each entry is a snapshot of the artist, generally giving birth date and place, education, selected shows with dates, and sometimes information such as teachers and associates, which can show interesting connections. The text is often livened up by observations like "maker of enigmatic vessel-like objects" (Judith Gilmour 1937-) or quotes like "There are very few good people teaching ... because I'm older, I knew how I wanted to paint" (Clive Smith 1967-), presumably obtained directly from the artist.
The entries work well for better known artists, for whom an abundance of information exists, if you just want a quick grasp of them. If you want extensive features on major artists, then it will disappoint, but if you're looking for someone you can't find elsewhere, you may well find them here, if you're going to find them anywhere. Joseph Ginsbury (1892-), who fails to appear at all on a google search, was a "charcoal portrait specialist", who attended Birkbeck School of Art.
The Dictionary's strength is its breadth. There are of course all the current expected names such as Damien Hirst and Lucien Freud, but the catholic approach also lists many regional artists, and genre artists (such as aviation and equestrian), as well as David Bowie and Brian Eno. The longest entry is around half a page for someone like David Hockney. The entries are not strictly proportional to "importance": sometimes a lesser known artist will have a longer entry to include hard-to-find information. Mostly there are 6 to 9 artists on a page, the more obscure with just 4 lines.
One quibble I have is with dates, as only the year of birth (and death) is given, rather than day and month, which would be useful. There is also a curious quirk of style that talks about all the artists in the past tense, e.g. Tracey Emin "worked in London", even though she's still working there. This seems to be a future-proof tactic, so that when circumstances change, the text reads correctly, but in the meantime it takes getting used to.
The type itself is pleasant and easy to read and the paper of decent quality. The books are hardback. There are no illustrations, apart from a selection of adverts at the beginning of the books. Several of these are in colour and images featured include Patrick Heron and Sir Terry Frost.
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