Book Review: 100 Great Artists

Title: 100 Great Artists: A Visual Journey from Fra Angelico to Andy Warhol

Synopsis: A list of 100 artists through the ages. Each artist gets a double page spread, a timeline, two images and a short narrative.  Recently published in the UK

Summary review:  This book is good introduction to great artists for a reasonable price.  There is no definitive list of 100 great artists but this one is a good effort.  It's also a good place to start for those wanting to learn more about the leading artists over time.  Their importance is distilled down to a potted version - but it's a good book for getting a sense of who the artist was, when and where they created art, what their paintings look like and for some - why they were important.

Highlights covers different periods in art history over eight centuries from Giotto in the 13th century to Hockney in the 21st. includes artists from a range of countries useful for a skim review of artists who played a significant role in the development of some aspect of art good quality publication - although not all reproductions first rate however..... ....this is NOT an expensive book (less than £10 from Amazon)

Think Again? artists listed alphabetically rather than chronologically - latter might have been more helpful limited coverage of the twentieth century - probably limited by the publishers budget for images for modern and contemprary artists leans towards a European perspective of art (but does also include non Europeans eg Hopper, Hokusai and Hiroshige) a few odd choices of artists I've never heard of with a limited claim to the top 100 / does not explain the reasons behind all the choices

Who should buy this?: new students of art history those wanting to learn more about leading artists across the ages

Who should not buy this? of limited interest to those wanting specialised information about specific artists unlikely to impress those who know quite a bit about art history

Author: Charlotte Gerlings Publisher / Publication Date: UK - Arcturus Publishing (31 July 2009)  Originally published 2006. USA - Published by Gramercy (February 7, 2006) Amazon link Technical data: Paperback -  208 pages