Review: Art Guide - iPad/iPhone app by Art Fund

The new free Art Guide app (for iPhone/iPod/IPad) developed by the Art Fund and available from iTunes is an excellent app for those aiming to get out and about to see exhibitions in the main art galleries and museums around the UK

Initial impression, sat at my desk, are very favourable.  It looks like it's a very useful app for all those visiting exhibitions on a regular basis.  It provides listings of current major exhibitions and even has a  "popular" tab providing a top ten list of all current exhibitions.

The Art Guide App from iTunes
photographed on my iPad
copyright - all rights reserved

Pros:

• "nearby" function has the capacity to identify where you are
• identifies the most popular exhibitions
• very easy to develop a "wish list" of things you want to see and visit
• "trip planner" enables you to identify what's on in an area you are planning to visit.  You can identify location by post code and then identify exhibitions / galleries and museums within a defined area (you choose the mileage).  It also prompts for different mileages.
• provides detailed information about individual venues including how to contact them, when they are open and what the charges are - plus directions using Google Maps
• enables anybody with a National Art Pass to check the benefits and discounts wherever you are
• provides a prompt about an exhibition coming to an end (if you set up a wishlist)

Cons:

• much more suitable for iPhone and iPod than the iPad where it lacks the scope to make use of all the screen and the functionality of the iPad

Here's a YouTube video which explains what it does and shows you what you can see and how it works

Purpose of app

This is the description about the Art Guide on the iTunes website

Passionate about art? This free app is the ultimate guide to seeing and experiencing art across the UK. The Art Guide brought to you by the Art Fund helps you discover world-class exhibitions, museums and stunning country homes near you.

This is the official listing of what it does

• Search for the most interesting and inspirational exhibitions across the UK

• Discover over 600 museums and galleries

• Check for National Art Pass benefits and discounts wherever you are

• Create a wishlist of your favourite exhibitions and places you'd like to visit

• Set up alerts in your wishlist telling you when an exhibition is coming to an end

• Browse high-res image galleries of venues, exhibition highlights and work the Art Fund has helped buy

What type of app? 

According to iTunes, it's:

• Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, 
• iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and 
• iPad.Requires iOS 4.2 or late

According to the Art Fund the android version is in the works and coming soon.  I shall certainly be downloading it to my Samsung Galaxy.

The app is looking a bit small and lonely on my iPad as it's obviously configured primarily for the iPhone and iPod.

I do wish both developers and iTunes would be more explicit about those apps which are "available" for the iPad and which ones are "designed for" the iPad!

Primarily this is an iPhone app which has been made available on the iPad.  It lacks iPad functionality (eg there's only one way you can look at it and it doesn't turn as you change the angle of the iPad.) I'd like to see an upgrade happening very fast to get this app fully sized for the iPad.

Book Review: Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico

Title: Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place by: Barbara Buhler Lynes, Lesley Poling-Kempes, Frederick W. Turner

Synopsis: Beautifully illustrated, the book accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It reproduces the exhibition's 50 paintings and includes striking photographs of the sites that inspired them as well as diagrams of the region's distinctive geology. The book examines O'Keeffe's work through essays by the three noted authors

Summary review: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED The landscape of New Mexico is just a strong motif in Georgia O'Keeffe's work as her popular flowers.  This book explores the locations she painted in and analyses her approach to her landscape work in New Mexico.  It provides insight into both the character of the place, the painter and the person.

Highlights extremely well researched - the text is as interesting as the images of the places and the paintings comparisons of paintings with photographs of current geology - identifies how little she changed and what elements she emphasised an example of how to 'see' paintings and distill and strip down to something very simple excellent catalogue of the details of all the images included in the book illuminating essays on different topics by the three authors very interesting explanation of the geology of northern New Mexico and the different motifs in O'Keeffe's landscape  excellent reproduction of images high quality production values evident throughout

Think Again? If you like your landscapes green and verdant this may not be for you the geology does not dominate - but if you're not in the least interested in landforms you may find it tedious

Who should buy this? fans of Georgia O'Keeffe's work artists exploring 'place' in their landscape painting people who love the eccentric landforms and landscapes of New Mexico

Who should not buy this? the landscapes are about the geology of the 'badlands' - and may not appeal to people who like their landscapes lush and green

Authors: Barbara Buhler Lynes, Lesley Poling-Kempes, Frederick W. Turner (Publisher)Princeton University Press; 3rd edition Technical data: Publication Date: May 4, 2004 Hardcover (with dust jacket) -  140 pages; ISBN-10: 0691116598 ISBN-13: 978-0691116594

[  See also my post today about Georgia O'Keeffe's landscapes of northern New Mexico on my The Art of the Landscape blog. ]

When Georgia O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917, she was instantly drawn to the stark beauty of its unusual architectural and landscape forms. In 1929, she began spending part of almost every year painting there, first in Taos, and subsequently in and around Alcalde, Abiquiu, and Ghost Ranch, with occasional excursions to remote sites she found particularly compelling. Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico is the first book to analyze the artist's famous depictions of these Southwestern landscapes.
Princeton University Press

I love books which compare the place 'as is' with the paintings produced by an artist.   I'm also a huge fan of geomorphology and geology so any artist who enjoys landforms always catches my eye.  When they are as accomplished a painter as Georgia O'Keeffe, it would be fair to say I was 'sold' on this book as an idea from the off!

Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place by: Barbara Buhler Lynes, Lesley Poling-Kempes, Frederick W. Turner delivered to my expectations and more.

This exhibition catalogue is a really marvellous example of the homework that went into the 2004 exhibition of O'Keeffe's painting of New Mexico at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe - Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place.  I'd have loved to have seen this exhibition but unfortunately paid my visit to the Museum some two years later in 2006.

It's extremely well researched and makes the experience of looking at the paintings that much more rewarding.  The locations were tracked down and photographs were taken of the current geology - at which you point you begin to realise how faithful her paintings are to the contour and how wonderfully she extracts and simplifies to produce her wonderful paintings of New Mexico.

The book also includes three essays by people covering different aspects of her life and work.  All of them bring to life the experience of the environment both as a stimuli and as a context for O'Keeffe's paintings.

• Barbara Buhler Lynes, Curator of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and organizer of the exhibition, discusses the relationship of the artist's paintings to the places that inspired her and how she reduced and simplified forms to abstract the essence of the place while retaining its inherent beauty.  The juxtaposition of photos and paintings is simply stunning.
• Lesley Poling-Kempes provides a chronology of her years in New Mexico.  She also explains the geology and why there are such intense colours and dramatic shapes within the landscape. As an amateur geologist I found the explanation of the 225 million years of geology in the layers of rocks in the mountains at the back of Ghost Ranch to be absolutely fascinating.   Her explanations of what produced the warm and cool colours will interest anybody who likes to understand the formation of a landscape.
• Frederick W Turner covers her relationship with the land in New Mexico and her somewhat uneasy relationship with locals around Abiquiu and the art communities of both Taos and Santa Fe.  New Mexico is a place to which many artists gravitate however he recalls that when he and his wife first went to live in Santa fe in the mid-1970s there was never any talk of Georgia O'Keeffe who, at the time, was still living at Ghost Ranch.  He explored what he terms "the wall of silence".  It appears O'Keeffe liked her seclusion, belonged to "another world" and had very strict rules about her contacts with the rest of the world.  He speculates also about how O'Keefge developed a strategy for dealing with painting the landscape of the place she found herself in.  Ultimately he finds himself in awe of her work when faced with the motifs she painted

O'Keeffe's style was like walking out on a rocky ledge, I thought, with no room for misstep: either she would estblish dominion or she'd be defeated and the paintings would be botches in which viewers wouldn't be able to sense what she'd dared.....and whatever your ultimate judgement of O'Keeffe's work work might be, there could be no cailing with the profound sincerity of her engagement, here, the danger of it.  For her this had been no playground.

You can buy from Amazon UK by clicking this link 
Georgia O'Keeffe and New Mexico: A Sense of Place

Book review: Treasures of Botanical Art

Treasures of Botanical Artby Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix
published by Kew Publishing

Title: Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from the Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections (USA/paperback)Links to: Hardback (UK) Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from the Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections Softcover (UK) Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from the Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections

Synopsis: Written by two experts in botanical art and published as the catalogue of the inaugural exhibition of the The Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens, the first gallery in the world to be dedicated to year round exhibitions of botanical art. The book provides an overview of the richness and endurance of botanical art and the most significant artists from the 1600s through to contemporary artists.

Summary review: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED The book focuses on the botanical artworks in the exhibition in terms of their place in the history of botanical art and in relation to the plants they portray. Images are largely organised according to themes and so paintings completed many years apart are presented side by side. At the end of the book are biographies of all the artists whose work is reproduced in the book.

Highlights Provides an overview of: the origins, history and relevance of botanical illustration. some of the most significant artists from the 1600s through to contemporary artists includes works by some of the most highly regarded botanical artists of all time extensively illustrated; features some 200 illustrations of paintings and drawings from both the Kew and Shirley Sherwood collections. the colour reproduction of the drawings and paintings is excellent (I saw the exhibition) each illustration is annotated with particularly thorough captions, with artist's details, dimensions of the paintings, medium and material, and the nature of the plant shown. informative essays on the origins, history and relevance of botanical illustration selected bibliography is thorough

Think Again? this is not a 'how to' book - its focus is not on how drawing or paintings were produced indices for both plants and artists could be better.

Who should buy this?: botanical artists botanical art lovers botanical art tutors

Who should not buy this? people not interested in botanical art

Author / (Publisher) Shirley Sherwood, Martyn Rix / Kew Publishing

Technical data: Publication Dates: 1 April 2008 (hardback/paperback): Hardcover/Paperback - 272 pages; Hardcover: ISBN-10: 1842463683 ISBN-13: 978-1842463680 Paperback: ISBN-10: 1842462210 ISBN-13: 978-1842462218

This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It proved very popular on publication and I'm sure it will become a landmark publication over time.

This review was first published - in a different format - on Making A Mark on Monday, April 21, 2008 - see Treasures of Botanical Art - a recommended read. This post also includes a review of the exhibition and some of the images of the work on display.

Notes:

1. Dr Shirley Sherwood has been collecting contemporary botanical drawings since 1990. Her comprehensive collection from over two hundred artists, living in thirty different countries documents the emergence of a new wave of botanical artists and the renaissance of their art form. She holds a number of distinguished posts with leading organisations in the horticulural and botanical art worlds. She has written several books on botanical art (see below)
2. Martyn Rix is the editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, which is the longest running botanical periodical in the world.
3. Kew Publishing is the publishing house of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It produces over 20 new titles each year and aims to inspire and educate people about our work and to make available Kew’s unique heritage and resources, knowledge and cutting edge expertise to as wide an audience as possible throughout the world.

Links:

• Making A Mark - Kew opens the world's first dedicated botanical art gallery
• Botanical Art - Resources for Artists - many links of interest to botanical artists plus it contains a bookmark link to this book review and links to items about the new gallery and both botanical artists in history and contemporary botanical artists.
• Botanical Art - Art Book Reviews for Artists - book reviews of botanical art, first published on my blog Making A Mark
• Books by Shirley Sherwood
• Contemporary Botanical Artists: The Shirley Sherwood Collection by Shirley Sherwood, Victoria Matthews
• A Passion for Plants: Contemporary Botanical Masterworks by Shirley Sherwood
• New Flowering: 1000 Years of Botanical Art by Shirley Sherwood

Art Bookshop Review: Tate Britain Millbank Shop

The Millbank Shop at Tate Britain
shelves of books about British Artists
all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I love the warm but light wood floors and bookshelves of the Millbank Shop in Tate Britain. It gives a feel of a modern classic. It also fits very well with the nature of the art in this great museum of British art.

One of the things I like most about this museum is that whenever I visit it's quiet! I'm not sure what it's like at weekends but whenever I've visited on weekdays it doesn't have the hordes who are always thronging around the comparable bookshop at Tate Modern - and I like it a lot better for that.

Name of Art Bookshop: Tate Britain - Millbank Shop

Address: Millbank, London SW1P 4RG

Shop opening hours: 10.00–17.40 Monday to Sunday

Website: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/

Contact: If you would like to contact the shops at Tate Britain email shop.britain@tate.org.uk

Telephone: 020 7887 8888

Of interest to: art lovers, exhibition visitors, art students, art teachers and art history buffs

Highlights: great range of good quality art books about British Art and British Artists - past and present A very nice environment providing a good "bookshop" feel Tends to be quiet and a bit library like - which is a big plus point for me Books in stock include ones which can be difficult to find elsewhere exhibition catalogues from current and past exhibitions exhibition catalogues from overseas exhibitions in comparable galleries selection of art instruction books selection of art books for children basic art materials available offers a mail order service

Think Again? For books about more contemporary/international art see the bookshop in the basement of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern more oriented towards the art lover than the hobby artist wanting art instruction books

Summary: This is the bookshop to go if: you enjoy books about British Art and artists you need an art bookshop near Victoria

See large versions of the photos featured in this review in my Tate Britain Millbank Shop set on Flickr.

Shelves devoted to British Art History A-F, F-P and P-Z

The Millbank Shop has a great range of books about British Art History and a fantastic selection of books about British Artists - both past and present - including catalogues of their work. I had an impression that it favours painters. In terms of living artists, it certainly seemds to lean more towards Freud, Hockney and Doig than artists like Hirst and Emin.

I found a copy of the David Hockney catelogue Nur Natur - Just Nature for the current Hockney exhibition in Germany here when the Annely Juda Gallery holding another recent David Hockney exhibition only had one copy of Just Nature - for reference only - and had told me they couldn't get hold of any more!

In the home of the Turner Bequest, it naturally has a great selection of books about Turner and his art. It also has an extensive selection of books about the artists who formed the PreRaphaelite Brotherhood and other British painting groups such as The Camden Town Group of artists.

There's also a section devoted to art instruction books. Although it has some good books for both adults and children, I found it less impressive than the similar section at The National Gallery Bookshop. You can see from this photo the type of books it's stocking.

Art Instruction Books for adults and children

A basic set of art materials are also on sale in the shop. I bought a couple of their sketchbooks to try when I was there - the Green Landscape Sketchbook and the Postcard Sketchbook

There is also an online shop for all books and products sold by Tate Shops - including those at Tate Modern, Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool

Overall, I recommend this bookshop to anybody who likes the art found in the galleries at Tate Britain.

You can find my other reviews of art bookshops in London on Art Bookshops - Resources for Artists

Book review: David Hockney - Nur Natur - Just Nature

Title: David Hockney - Nur Natur - Just Nature

Author: (Publisher): Editor and project management C. Sylvia Weber (Swiridoff Verla) ISBN 978-3-89929-154-4

Synopsis: Bilingual catalogue of the Just Nature (Nur Natur) exhibition at the Kunsthalle Würth Schwäbisch Hall from 27th April 2009 until 27th September 2009. Foreword by C. Sylvia Weber. Series of inteersting and informative essays by Christoph Becker, Director of the Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland; Marco Livingstone, Richard Cork and Ian Barker. Contains photographs of Hockney painting plein air and images/details of works produced

Who should buy this?: people interested in the art of David Hockney landscape artists landscape artists working in series art historians art libraries

Who should not buy this? people who will feel seriously impoverished by paying the full price - get your library to order it for you!

Highlights Images of the works 'on site', in exhibitions and of Hockney creating art in his studio Front and back endpapers include multiple images from Hockney's 80 page Yorkshire Sketchbook dated April 04. Contains a list of works with full details (ie title, dimensions, medium and support, date started/painted, how signed and the catalogue page no. where it can be seen Includes as an appendix a revised and updated biography based on the Hockney Pictures website biography excellent production values in terms of colour, paper and book binding/publication

Think Again? Limited distribution - not yet on Amazon - (May not be distributed via Amazon?) It's very expensive. My copy cost me £44.50 Not yet indexed on Google (apart from my blog post) or listed on Google Books - so it's very difficult to know who's stocking it

Summary: This is a recommended read It's an expensive but useful addition to the library of any Hockneyphile

I find that people who buy exhibition catalogues are people who creating a library about a particular topic or artist. I've been buying books about David Hockney for a very long time now and I'd have felt that my small library was somehow deficient if it hadn't contained this catalogue of his exhibition David Hockney - Just Nature which is at Kunsthalle Würth, Schwäbisch Hall in Germany 27th April 2009 – 27th September 200

Front Cover of the Catalogue for the Just Nature exhibition

That's despite the fact that this relates to an exhibition which I may not get to see. (Is it going to come to England I ask myself?). When developing landscapes, I'm also very partial to drawing trees and vistas so the subject matter is also very special to me. The notion of doing a series is also one that I started to develop this year with my Ecology Park Pond series - and Hockney's work has provided a bit of an impetus for me to get on with it!

You can't beat nature, it never lets you down.... It's the biggest painting project I've ever done, and I've only just begun
David Hockney - quoted on the back cover of the catalogue

The book comes in three parts

• The German version of the essays
• the catalogue in the middle which comprises a comprehensive list of works and reproductions of all works - both drawings and paintings. This groups works as listed below - the names will be familiar to those who saw the documentary
  
• Woldgate Woods
• The Tunnerl near Kilham
• Roads, Fields and Vistas
• Bigger Trees
• Hawthorne Blossom
• Trees near Thixendale
• Timber and Totems
• Computer Drawings

Essentially this cxatalogue an insight into what Hockney has been doing for the last four years or so - which is painting the landscapes he's seen in the Wolds of East Yorkshore in watercolour on paper and in sketchbooks, then oil on canvas and latterly as digital artwork published as giclee prints. You can see images of various works in the links contained in mt post yesterday on Making A Mark (see David Hockney - recent exhibitions). As such it provides an excellent complement to the recent BBC documentary about Hockney which also focused on Hockney's return to painting and new venture of painting plein air as well as the approach used for developing his oil paintings and the development of very large multiple canvas works.

The major benefit for me of this book is being able to see:

• sequences of paintings - of the same subject across the seasons
• close up reproductions of sections of paintings
• being able to see his drawings and sketchbooks which didn't feature in any significant way in the documentary or exhibitions of work I've seen so far. Some of the drawings remind me of the mark-making made by Van Gogh in his series of drawings of vistas of the Provencal landscape. If I had a choice I think I'd probably want to own one of his drawings - but that's me!
• the essays which recount the author's relationship with this area of Yorkshire, the context for and influences on his most recent work, plus experiences of discussing particular works or the project as a whole with Hockney. It's chock full of quotable quotes.

If you start with some excitement, you will probably finish up with some excitement as well.

I'll tell you this - cold makes you work fast

It's not just about landscape; it's about being in it, seeing it, it's about England. I'm painting the real England.

You have to plan to be spontaneous

various quotations found in this catalogue

One of the reasons this is not a cheap book is that, first it's bilingual and consequently it's like two books in one. Secpomd, it's a quality production in terms of the design and layout, the colour reproduction of the images (some of which I have seen in real life) and the quality of the paper and binding used for this catalogue. This is not going to fall apart!

The difficulty experienced in locating a copy suggests there may not have been many produced which also might mean buying this book coiuld be a good investment!

You can find more details - in German - on the website of publisher Swiridoff Verlag

This is a recommended read

Art Bookshop Review: Thomas Heneage Art Books

Lots of excellent art history books
all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is a review of a shop selling art history books. It's also a shop which I shall definitely be going back to. Yesterday I visited Thomas Heneage Art Books and walked away with two excellent books - one a Tate Publishing catalogue of the 1998 retrospective exhibition of John Singer Sargent at the Tate Gallery and a 1984 book providing an overview of Pastels and pastel artists from the 16th to the 20th century by Genevieve Monnier.

Name of Art Bookshop: Thomas Heneage Art Books

Address: 2 Duke Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6DJ

Website: Thomas Heneage Art Books http://www.heneage.com

Shope hours: Monday to Friday 9.30am to 6pm, otherwise by appointment (closed public holidays).

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7930 9223

Of interest to: art lovers, students of art history, gallery owners, art dealers, art exhibition visitors, art students and art teachers

Highlights: my idea of a good bookshop - three rooms with books everywhere! an excellent range of high quality art history books about various artists - published at various dates and in various languages ad hoc selection of international exhibition catalogues from past exhibitions; strong on 'landmark' exhibitions all books in excellent condition new publications focus on very specialised topics very helpful staff

Think Again? not for those seeking a cheap book - although prices are fair no art instruction books

Summary: This is the bookshop to go to if: you love art history books you're trying to track down an art history book or catalogue that you want.

Exterior of shop at 42 Duke Street

Thomas Heneage Art Books was founded in 1977. The business focuses on selling art books. We specialize in books for the art market, our core business being in catalogues raisonnés, monographs and international exhibition catalogues. It is our policy to stock the most authoritative book on any subject and in any language, irrespective of its being new or second hand.

I'm never averse to stepping over the threshold of an art bookshop. However shops in the "very posh" St Jame's area of London can be a bit intimidating. However this one is very relaxed - there are books everywhere and you sometimes have to watch your step!

This shop also has extremely friendly and very helpful staff. For example, after I asked whether I could take photographs and explained why, I was given a complete tour of the bookshop - and the coverage of topic areas within art hsitory is extensive - including I then asked about a book I've been trying to get hold of Wilfrid Blunt's The Art of Botanical Illustration and one was located in a very short space of time and I had a price for it. Reader - I was impressed!

Lucian Freud on paper'
surveys what's on offer

Most of the books are about artists and painting - however there is also a set of shelves just devoted to the history of drawing. Extensive shelving is also given over to specialised areas of antiques and artifacts and the art associated with specific countries.

This is the sort of bookshop which is a recommended visit for serious art bibilophiles, art historians, art teachers and students of art history - not to mention the art dealers - many of whom get their reference books here.

The books are authoritative and the best quality. Some are new (the type which only get published in limited numbers for not insignificant prices) but the majority are secondhand. That said they are all in good condition. Some even come with some added extras inserted by their previous owners - always a small joy to find! I opened up my Pastels Book to find an item from the Galerie Camoin on the Quai Voltaire in Paris.

If you like art history and you really like books I recommend a visit.

Book Review: BP Portrait Award 2009 catalogue

Title: BP Portrait Award catalogue

Author: (Publisher): National Portrait Gallery Publications (£7.99 / reduction for NPG Members)

Synopsis: A catalogue of all the portraits which are part of the exhibition for the BP Portrait Award 2009. Plus an interesting essay on portraiture by Sarah Dunant and an item about the the work undertaken by artist who won the BP Travel Award 2008

Who should buy this?: People interested in portraiture Artists who want to submit work to a future BP Portrait Exhibition

Who should not buy this? People who are hapy viewing the small images and better background information available on the exhibition website. People not interested in portraiture

Highlights complete catalogue of all portraits in the exhibition dimensions and media/support are listed for all images interesting essay by Sarah Dunant good overview of Emmanouil Bitsakis's journey to north-west China to paint portraits of a Turkic minority people (but the NPG magazine did it better).

Think Again? the catalogue is very small which limits the size of the images of the portraits. Those which have portraits in landscape format are particularly ill-served by this format. the artist's background plus the explanation of the portrait - which are both available in the exhibition and on the website - is missing from the book. the photographs in my edition flatten the images and the colours are slightly off. Rather in the same way as you get when flash has not been used well. Some of the portraits are not well represented by photographs - including the winner.

Summary: The range and approaches used by different artists may be seen to serve as an indicator of what is popular but it really only indicates what this year's jury liked. Interesting to keep as a record and to review the different approaches used. It needs to have the details of the artist and the background included - but they're missing.

There's a limited audience for this publication. People buying it are probably limited to those about to see the exhibition, those who'd like to see their work in the exhibition next year and those trying to develop their portraiture practice!

It needs to be remembered that this is a painting competition and therefore it doesn't in any way represent the full range of ways in which artists can now choose to create portraits of individuals.

The catalogue is the size of a large hand and is a good size for carrying round in an exhibition, however if we were thinking about ways to save trees my guess is a lot of people would be happy with a simpler document which they could borrow to see the exhibition and then return afterwards.

For those interested in the portraits and portraiture, it seems to pitch itself somewhere between providing too much for those visiting the exhibition and not enough for those interested in portraiture. I looked back at it following the press preview and over lunch in the National Cafe next door and I'm afraid this catalogue irritated me. Some portraits stay with you after you've left an exhibition and you end up wanting to know 'how' or 'why' - but this book doesn't answer that question. For example, it doesn't include any of the notes about the background of the artist or the reasons for painting this portrait and how they approached it which are provided next to each portrait in the exhibition and also on the website.

It's always difficult to comment on photographs in a book. There can be a number of reasons why they may not look as much like the portraits in the exhibition as they could. The photographer's technique for photographing the work, how they process their images, the paper it's printed on, the printer used, the batch I'm looking at - any or all could influence the outcome. The simple fact is that they don't all represent the portraits as well as they might do. I'm probably more conscious of this , this year as the winning portrait is one of the ones that suffers as a result. Some of the images are really flattened and some of the colours in some of the pictures are slightly 'off'. Maybe I'm being picky but to my mind the the quality of the image reproduction in a catalogue is absolutely critical to its rating.

I'm minded to suggest the NPG consults with Taschen about to this sort of exhibition catalogue in future. Taschen have a talent for publishing informative art books with good production values, excellent images and a very cheap price. That's what this should be - but it doesn't quite achieve this.

That said I do buy it every year. I just wish every year that it were a better catalogue.

Art Bookshop Review: The National Gallery Bookshop

The National Gallery Bookshop

all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

There's nothing better than a browse round a bookshop after you've been to see an exhibition or a favourite painting. In the National Gallery you have the choice of three shops - however the one located in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London has recently had a "makeover". Its focus on art books has now been underlined and emphasised in terms of design.

I thought people who have visited in the past would like to see what it now looks like and those that have never visited might now be tempted! You can see a series of photos which I took - with the permission of the manager - on Flickr here National Gallery Bookshop and I comment on the changed below.

Name of Art Bookshop: National Gallery - Sainsbury Wing Shop

Address: The National Gallery (Sainsbury Wing), Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN

Website: Shop Love Art http://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/shop/ (National Gallery Company Ltd.)

Of interest to: art lovers, exhibition visitors, art students, art teachers, and art history buffs

Highlights: a much improved "bookshop" feel - good flow and excellent signposting comprehensive selection of exhibition catalogues from current and past exhibitions; national gallery guidebooks and national gallery publications excellent collection of Taschen art books (best value for money anywhere) Conservation: technical bulletins available in the shop a very good range of the new catalogues of public art (BUT these are not available from the national gallery online site) good range of quality art books about various artists small but good selection of better quality art instruction books best selection of art postcards anywhere in London? "fine art giclee print to go" - at all sizes

Think Again? Focus of books tends to be on what the gallery covers ie art by artists prior to 1900

Summary: An art bookshop which is well worth a visit. Besides fulfilling its role of helping to explain the art in exhibitions and on display, it also has a much wider range of good quality art books. Visual accessories in the form of postcards and prints complement but do not overpower the bookshop.

Sainsbury Wing shop: located on the ground floor of the Sainsbury Wing, offers an unparalleled selection of art books and gifts related to the collection. The book department offers both the full range of National Gallery publications and several thousand books from other publishers, making this one of the premier specialist art bookshops in London. As well as a wide selection of postcards and posters, the shop also offers a regularly updated variety of specially commissioned gift items produced exclusively for the National Gallery.
National Gallery Company website

The layout of the shop has been completely changed. Very clear zones have been created for different aspects of the shop and the flow - within the bookshop part - works really well. In my view it's got a much better lay-out and it's much easier to find the type of book or the topic you're interested in. Dark bookcases have also been introduced which signal from outside in the Lobby area that this is a shop with some serious reading materials and lots of books! Previously a casual glance into the shop would have left you thinking it wasn't much different to the other two shops whereas there were in fact a lot of serious art books around - you just couldn't see them too easily from the entrance!

As you walk in from the lobby to the Sainsbury Wing, on the left is a cash desk and a whole bank of postcards which are displayed so it's very easy to see what's available - and it's a lot!

Art Postcards

On the right and in front of you are what one might term the gift items and gift books.

Towards the west wall (the one with the windows) are banks of bookcases. They've mixed these up in terms of size and introduced 'pouffes' for people to sit down on while they browse the books. It only needs a sofa and a coffee machine and you'd think you were in a rather upmarket Borders!

In either corner to the far right of the entrance are the "Print on Demand" fine art giclee print shop and the "ready to go" giclee prints on paper and canvas. Also up this end is a good selection of art journals.

What sort of books does it stock?

I think it needs to be remembered that this is a bookshop in a national gallery. This naturally influences the type of stock since there obviously need to be links to both the collection and the exhibitions. Having said that it's an excellent bookshop to go to if you want a book in any of the areas in which it specialises (or you can order online!)

Links in the text below are to photographs that I took last week (with the kind permission of Greg Sanderson, the manager - thanks Greg!) and which are now part of my latest set of photos on Flickr - National Gallery Bookshop (Set).

National Gallery publications: Pride of place goes to the National Gallery exhibition catalogues and the National Gallery publications. They don't stock all the catalogues for all the exhibitions - presumably because some sold out. However if you missed an exhibition and now want the catalogue this is the place to go.

There are some excellent titles in the National Gallery publications series - I like the way they focus on making a topic within art accessible. An example is the National Gallery Pocket Guide Flowers and Fruit. However I must confess I tend to wait for their sales, which are held twice a year (in the summer and around the end of the calendar year) and buy then. The main point about the bookshop in relation to these titles is that it's difficult to find the whole range anywhere else and this is the place to come and browse!

Exhibition catalogues: They also stock exhibition catalogues from other galleries and other countries. This is the place I try first if I'm trying to pick up a catalogue from one of the national galleries in the USA or Australia. These don't always arrive at the same time the exhibition is on. I've always thought they tend to get distributed after the exhibition is over. If you can't get to see the exhibition, then the catalogue is the next best thing!

Guides to art: They stock a good range of each of the 'guides' to art which they stock. Notable in terms of numbers are their own National Gallery publications, the Taschen Basics series which must represent the best value for money of any art book publisher and the Getty Guides to Imagery

Some of the bookshelves

It also is one of the very few places in the UK which stocks the new catalogues of art in public ownership. You can read more about this in today's post on Making A Mark (later today - I'll post the link here when posted).

Books about Artists: Considerable shelfspace is also given over to good quality books (from any publisher) about individual artists. These tend to be about artists who've featured in some way in an exhibition in the gallery but this is not always the case.

Art Instruction Books / Theory and techniques : The shop only offers a small selection of art instruction books covering drawing and sketching and painting in acrylics, oil and watercolours. They are generally good quality books and/or new publications. For example it includes Sarah Simblet's excellent book on Anatomy for the artist. I also noticed it had a very new release - Ann Kullberg's Colored Pencil Secrets for Success and I came home and sent Ann an email to tell her!

Both art theory and art techniques are covered by the books in stock. I noted they had a particularly good section on colour.

In summary - I think the revamp has created a much improved layout and scope for easier navigation and access to the items people want to find, review - and maybe buy! The shop continues to maintain a high standard in terms of the nature of the books it holds in stock and on the shelves.

For the serious browsers amongst us, having anywhere to sit down is always a boon, however if the budget will stretch to it, it would be really great if the odd chair with back support could be introduced! As an added incentive maybe I should share that I buy more books in bookshops where I can sit down and feel at ease!

Note: This is the first in a set of reviews of art bookshops. If you've done a review of an art bookshop which you'd like to share please contact and I'll post a summary (in the proforma table - see above) and a link to your review.

Book Review: From Breughal to Rubens

Title: Bruegel to Rubens – Masters of Flemish Painting

Authors (Publisher): Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Jennifer Scott (Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd)

Synopsis: This is a superior paperback catalogue for the exhibition of the same name (Bruegel to Rubens - Masters of Flemish Painting). Functions effectively as a catalogue for the paintings in the exhibition. The text prefacing each section and providing context for this period of painting is dense and leans towards the academic rather than the accessible.

Suitable for: People interested in learning more about a great period in Flemish painting.

Highlights timeline order reveals the progression and developments over time and as a result of events essays provide a lot of information about the period each painting in the exhibition has at least a double page spread with a colour image and text explanation Includes 156 colour illustrations, 8 maps and a timeline. good production values a unique publication priced at £12.95 - representing good value for money

Think Again? the sections would benefit from an overview of key figures, events and important facts about the period as it relates to art and artists. This is a confusing time in history and there needs to be a simple version. historical timeline lacks any reference to major paintings and major partists appears to lean towards having an academic bias rather than being accessible

Summary: This book is a unique publication containing only pictures from the Royal Collection. It will be of interest to anybody wanting to find out more about Flemish painting without

This review accompanies the Exhibition review: From Bruegel to Rubens - Masters of Flemish Painting over on Making A Mark.

This is how the Royal Collection website describes the book

Accompanies the exhibition opening at The Queen’s Gallery, The Palace of Holyroodhouse in September 2007 and at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace in October 2008.

It is said that much of the greatest art is produced during periods of strife. In the mid-16th century, the Netherlands – the United Provinces in the north (modern Holland) and the Spanish-ruled south (modern Belgium) – was the most sophisticated society in Europe, but its learning and luxury industries were all but annihilated by the so-called Dutch Revolt and by the Eighty Years War that followed (1568-1648). Two-thirds of the works discussed here were painted during this turbulent period, including Pieter Bruegel’s Massacre of the Innocents of 1567. Other highlights include works by his son Jan Brueghel, while the Twelve Year’s Truce (1609-21) is celebrated by a group of landscapes (including three by Rubens) depicting the blessings of peace and the fertility of the region.

During the Renaissance the Low Countries attained a flawless technique of painting and the highest standards of craftsmanship. This tradition survived during even the worst years of the war. Everyone is familiar with the Golden Age of Dutch Art; this is an opportunity to explore its no less glorious Flemish counterpart.

The Royal Collection - Bruegel to Rubens – Masters of Flemish Painting (catalogue)

Each of the paintings in the exhibition receives a double page spread in the catalogue. A reproduction of the painting is on one page with the text accompanying it on the facing page.

While using the catalogue in the exhibition I found it very easy to use in relation to specific paintings. There is also a pleasing hierarchy between the detailed label next to each painting with the summary overview, the verbal explanation for certain paintings on the audio guide and the more detailed entry in the catalogue. They were all linked but different.

The text explains about artist and painting which means that we get an appropriate amount of background information about the lesser known artists who can often get less attention in some catalogues.

Important pieces have more space devoted to them and sections of paintings are also 'exploded' out of the image so that we can see the level of detail and quality of the finish at a macro level or understand the nature of what has happened to the painting - as with the amendments made to the Massacre of the Innocents by Pieter Bruegel to eliminate the pictures of the children.

Unlike the organisation of the display in the exhibition, this catalogue organises the paintings on display into a timeline with five sections:

• The Inheritance of Charles V (1500-1555)
• Revolt (1555-1568)
• War (1568-1598) (see Revolt and war on the microsite)
  
• The Archdukes (1598-1633)
• The Later Governors (1633-1665)

Each of the sections opens with an essay about what was happening during the period - with images of maps and key individuals as appropriate. Whether reading these in the exhibition or afterwards, I'd have really liked to see a summary somewhere which provided a bullet point overview of the key points relating to each period. As it is, one has to sit down and read each section in detail to arrive at the key points - which I'm afraid I don't tend to do in exhibitions!

There's a timeline of people and events at the end of the catalogue. This provides a summary overview of the historical context for the paintings in terms of major and relevant historical events and who was ruling the House of Habsburg and the Holy Roman Empire as well as Spain, the Netherlands, the Dutch Republic and England. However what it does not do is link the rulers and events to the major pieces of art in the exhibition and the Flemish artists. I think that was a mistake since the purpose of a timeline in a catalogue like this is to provide context for the artist and the art!

This review has been based on using the catalogue in the exhibition and a review again when I got it home. I'll update this book review once I've finished reading all the text explaining the history of context as well as the art.

Note re. Authors:

• Desmond Shawe-Taylor is Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures and was formerly Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery.
• Jennifer Scott is Loans Officer and Assistant Curator (Paintings), worked at National Museums Liverpool and the National Gallery and joined the Royal Collection in 2004. She lectures regularly on paintings in the Royal Collection.