I can remember seeing the work of de Rivera decades ago when I was at design college and I loved the look of his thin steel tube sculpture and over the years I would come across a picture of one of his works in a book or a magazine article about modern art. It was only recently that I decided I really should find out about this abstract sculpture. Books about him are remarkable few and as he died in 1985 I think he's now become a sort of footnote in art history.
Luckily this book (in English) by the Spanish publishers Taller is probably the only book worth getting, published in 1979 with well over two hundred images. Most are photos of de Rivera's table sculptures with some in color and others of his large corporate and civic work plus an interesting selection of him working in his Long Island studio. The are two essays, the first an Introduction by Dore Ashton was sort of interesting but Joan Marter's forty-one page essay was first class and it made me appreciate his work even more.
The book's production is not up to today's standards of art books with quality printing on good art paper though I think it's typical of its time but as it's really all there is on this great sculpture it's worth searching out.
No comments:
Post a Comment