- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
The beautiful book `A Hidden Alchemy' maps the journey of artist craftsman Kevin Coates through a life of craftsmanship, music, geometry, literature and philosophy. His work has influenced a generation through his exhibitions and teaching at the Royal College of Art. Roy Strong, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, explains in the book's introduction that one of the delights of working at the V&A was the discovery of the renaissance in the world of Applied Arts in Great Britain. "I cannot tell you the excitement of meeting contemporary creators, of being either to exhibit or acquire works by them for the collection. Kevin Coates was a man whose work fascinated me for its complexity, astonishing technical virtuosity, sophistication of allusion, and unashamed richness of a kind which would have delighted a Medici Grand Duke," Strong writes. "I am fortunate enough to have and wear one of Kevin's jewels, a lapel brooch made by him in memory of my late wife, the designer Julia Trevelyan Oman. So I have the knowledge and experience of living with a jewel which has power and presence and in a sense a life of its own. It is recondite, meant to be read by the initiated but a closed book to ignorant eyes," Strong continues. The book opens our eyes to the cornerstones of Coates' philosophies, his love of music and the influence of Mozart. The `Mozart Jewels' chapter replicates a lecture given by Coates at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, explaining his interaction with the opera The Magic Flute. An interview, with Francoise Carli on the Lido Beach, Venice, called Fragments: Pages stolen from a book of Time, investigates his use of found objects from the Lido Beach which include fragments of household china and 16th and 17th century shards of maiolica (fine earthenware with coloured decorated on an opaque white tin glaze), washed up from the lagoon where they were dumped as sea-defence ballast long ago. A Hidden Alchemy, sumptuously bound and produced with a full complement of illustrations of Coates' work, is a superb insight into the mind of a great artist craftsman.
--The Goldsmith Magazine, No. 318, July 2008
--The Goldsmith Magazine, No. 318, July 2008
Review
The intriguing title of "A Hidden Alchemy" is a reference to Coates` way of thinking and working, the complex mix of theory , myth and imagination that inspires his work. If this conjures images of the rich and fantastical, then readers of this frankly gorgeous book will not be disappointed. Bound in silk and lavishly illustrated in full colour, the weighty 314-page tome feels like it belongs on the shelves of a story-book alchemist; an impression which is reinforced by the inclusion of intricate drawings, footnotes and a comprehensive index, bibliography and catalogue raisonné. A page at the back listing the different materials used by the jeweller even reads like a diabolical recipe: walrus ivory, boxwood, aragonite and Emu egg. ... "A Hidden Alchemy" is an essential purchase - both informative and a lovely object in itself.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This long-awaited book features all of the work produced to this date by the brilliant contemporary British artist Kevin Coates. Informative essays by Roy Strong, among others, gives us tremendous insight into the technique and imagination of this artist, unique among living goldsmith/sculptors. Although a highly intellectual presentation, this book is also a must have for any individual or curator interested in the work of outstanding goldsmiths of our era. Both a traditionalist in technique and a visionary artist, Coates marries the symbols of the past with modern creations of his own seemingly boundless imagination. Extraordinary photographs throughout.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A not-so-hidden mastery
19 Sep 2008
Format:Hardcover
Kevin Coates is a British jeweller, who works in...pretty much anything he wants. Very figurative work, starting out in the early '70s with innovative use of titanium, largely for its colour. He also works extensively with baroque and handcarved stones, incorporating them into the figurative portions of the work. He's still one of my two favorite people for using titanium for his own purposes, rather than letting the titanium use him. Stunning stuff. I saw an exhibition of his work at Goldsmith's when I was a student in London. I've been a fan ever since. Imagine someone who does figurative work with outstanding craftsmanship. Imagine someone who makes pieces that pun...in Latin. He makes work that assumes that the viewer's well educated enough to either get the joke, or follow the references, and refuses to dumb down for those that don't get it.
Meanwhile, the book: 315 pages, hardbound, full colour throughout. It's not exactly a retrospective, but more of a collection of work, with critical evaluations by several authors. However the most important thing is the pictures. Full colour pictures of all of his pieces, up through 2007. Full page images of many of them, along with explanations and technical notes for some. You could (and I have) spend days just looking at the pictures.
I'm at a loss to describe the book itself without turning it into an explanation of Coates' work, and that's rather the point: his work *is* the point of the book. This is the first time all the work has been available in colour, all in one place, with explanations. If you're at all interested in seeing just how metaphorical and figurative jewellery can get, and still *be* jewellery, (as opposed to academic studies) you need to see this book. If you're interested in how to incorporate intelligent references into jewellery without turning it into a steaming pile of inscrutability, you need to see this.
I don't impress easily. Coates is one of two people who have made my jaw bounce off the floor.
Meanwhile, the book: 315 pages, hardbound, full colour throughout. It's not exactly a retrospective, but more of a collection of work, with critical evaluations by several authors. However the most important thing is the pictures. Full colour pictures of all of his pieces, up through 2007. Full page images of many of them, along with explanations and technical notes for some. You could (and I have) spend days just looking at the pictures.
I'm at a loss to describe the book itself without turning it into an explanation of Coates' work, and that's rather the point: his work *is* the point of the book. This is the first time all the work has been available in colour, all in one place, with explanations. If you're at all interested in seeing just how metaphorical and figurative jewellery can get, and still *be* jewellery, (as opposed to academic studies) you need to see this book. If you're interested in how to incorporate intelligent references into jewellery without turning it into a steaming pile of inscrutability, you need to see this.
I don't impress easily. Coates is one of two people who have made my jaw bounce off the floor.
Beautiful volume, extraordinary artist
5 July 2008
Format:Hardcover
This long-awaited book features all of the work produced to this date by the brilliant contemporary British artist Kevin Coates. Informative essays by Roy Strong, among others, gives us tremendous insight into the technique and imagination of this artist, unique among living goldsmith/sculptors. Although a highly intellectual presentation, this book is also a must have for any individual or curator interested in the work of outstanding goldsmiths of our era. Both a traditionalist in technique and a visionary artist, Coates marries the symbols of the past with modern creations of his own seemingly boundless imagination. Extraordinary photographs throughout.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
