|
|
TechnoTV - J.C. Leyendecker
|
List Price: $50.00
Our Price: $31.18
Your Save: $ 18.82 ( 38% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Abrams
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.652092
EAN: 9780810995215
ISBN: 0810995212
Label: Abrams
Manufacturer: Abrams
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2008-11-01
Publisher: Abrams
Studio: Abrams
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: HOMOPHOBIC FABRICATED ACCOUNT!
Comment: The Forgeries are just a bonus to the reader! I am so disappointed with the inaccuracies found in this book! Let's address the counterfeit issue for a moment. Lots of people are documenting specific paintings as copies, duplicates, forgeries, etc. Judy Cutler is the self-proclaimed and acknowledged expert on J. C. Leyendecker so how could she not identify a phony painting? Isn't she the country's biggest dealer of Leyendecker original paintings? Maybe her real specialty is only Norman Rockwell. After these faux pas, any claims of Leyendecker expertise should be instantly removed from her resume'. I now understand that there are more than just the counterfeit painting identified on pages 98 & 99. Another Leyendecker blogger, who obviously knows his way around a JCL painting or two, says the painting on page 75 is also fake. The blogger urged readers to compare it with the one in Michael Schau's book and he is correct. Yet another Leyendecker blog-member thinks the matador painting reeks of fraud. I don't know that painting so I reserve my comment.
It makes a person wonder why fakes would have been included. One example could be a mistake, two counterfeit appearances would be unfortunate, but more than several inclusions indicate a trend that cannot be explained away by the authors. Also, there is no way that the picture on page 37 is Charles Beach. Impossible. How can they substantiate that male, although quite handsome, is Charles Beach. I have a copy of the Poster Design Magazine from the mid 1920's and there are two very clear photographs of Beach. More research was surely needed on the part of the Cutlers. Many Leyendecker fans/groupies identify each handsome Leyendecker model as Charles Beach but they are usually mistaken. Once a person can actually see Beach's face and absorb his characteristic features, his image is instantly identifiable! But when an author doesn't have all of the proper facts they should not include an imposter image or a substitute picture. Do the Cutlers think no one will call them out on this?
It is my opinion that Judy and Laurence Cutler assembled and wrote the majority of the biographical nonsense that appears in this book. Their comments regarding Leyendecker's sexual preferences are especially offputting and smack of biased homophobia and mis-statement of facts.
Mr. and Ms. Cutler often generalize and insert fantasy stories to entertain the readers. I consider myself a scholar of the gay culture in America and my research has focused on the homosexual environments and lifestyles of 1910-1930. My works have been published often and I always credit my sources of information. Mr. and Ms. Cutler should try writing only the information that can be substantiated. How many pages would be eliminated from this Leyendecker book if they had adopted that approach? Subtract the fake pictures, subtract the superfluous writing by an Architect?, remove all of the sub-standard reproductions that display unbalanced color, what's left? Not much at all. This book retails for fifty dollars. If you must buy it, understand what you are getting - 50% accurate content and 50% accurate pictures.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Comment: I've been searching for years for good Leyendecker work as reference. This book seems to have a nearly comprehensive collection of his professional work. Almost every page has nice color reproductions of his work. Only drawbacks, the book is not large and some of the artwork is sized down quite a bit on the pages. But as a whole this book is fantastic for it's collection of Leyendecker's beautiful work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: HILARIOUSLY INACCURATE
Comment: Any new book about Leyendecker is a welcome event. This volume is an ambitious effort with many excellent images. Try to focus on the pictures and avert your eyes from the text, which is hilariously inaccurate.
As just one example, the authors write: "After Leyendecker's precedent-setting career, Charles Livingston Bull, John Clymer, Steven Dohanos, John Falter, Anton Otto Fisher, Harrison Fisher, James Montgomery Flagg, Charles Dana Gibson, J.F. Kernan, Frederic Remington, Robert Riggs, N.C. Wyeth, and other famous artists went on to make their names with the Post." It's hard to imagine how a sentence could be more wrong. Several of the listed artists (Remington, Gibson, Fisher, Wyeth) "made their name" BEFORE Leyendecker made his, and were in fact dead before the end of Leyendecker's "precedent-setting career." Other artists on their list (Bull and Flagg) were Leyendecker's contemporaries, NOT his successors. Flagg was far more famous in their lifetime than Leyendecker. But most importantly, it's hard to think of more than two (or at most, three) from this list of illustrators who actually "made their names with the Post." Some did not work for the Post at all.
Such errors are common in this book-- apparently, the authors feel free to simply make such things up (although based on the number of rave reviews the book is receiving, most readers don't know enough about the subject to tell the difference.)
Putting factual errors aside, the authors would've had room for more (and larger) images if they had been willing to let go of a few pet fixations, such as Leyendecker's gay relationship with model Charles Beach. It is certainly appropriate for the authors to note that the famed Arrow man "was not only a homosexual but a kept man, the live-in lover of the famed artist who thrust himself into such an exalted status," but 200 pages later their focus on "thrusting" continues unabated. We are still reading that "Charles Beach and Joe Leyendecker are held up as examples of monogamy among the gay community, so often criticized for promiscuity," or that "Charles' Dorian Gray image never [ages] in Joe's eyes nor in ours either" or that "members of the gay community [remember Leyendecker] for icons of masculinity and sensitivity." After a while, these musings become presumptuous and insulting to the gay community.
Finally, on a personal note, I believe that a biographer has an obligation to avoid using his or her subject as a platform for self-aggrandizement. It is amazing how many of the "milestones" of Leyendecker's life took place long after his death, and coincidentally are centered around the authors' own gallery shows and sales of Leyendecker's work, or around their promotion of the term "imagist" to describe his work, or around public relations for their illustration museum. The art of public relations is very different from the art of painting, and this would have been a better book if the authors had the restraint to keep the two separate.
Customer Rating:
Summary: J.C. Leyendecker
Comment: This is the best book available on one of the greatest illustrators of the early 20th century. The number of major illustrations by J.C. Leyendecker in this book is worth the price of the book by itself. The text is wonderful and knowledgable since it is written by the two founders of one the best museums in New England. The text is a little off base, in my opinion, when it comes to the comdemnation of a homophobic environment of the first half of the twentieth century in the US. This is a small point overall when it comes to such a well researched publication. I'm hoping that the couple share their knowledge and skills with other less known Illustrators from the twentieth century. I'd love to see books like this on Austin Briggs, Bernie Fuchs, Bob Pike and others. Great book and well worth the price!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Shameful Oversight! A Phony Painting on Pages 98-99.
Comment: Samir - I just read your review from yesterday. I acknowledge that this additional compilation showcasing Leyendecker's abilities and genius is long overdue. Michael Schau's book of almost 35 years ago was limited in many areas. The printing technology had not approached today's standards and abilities and there was very little information available on J. C. Leyendecker. The internet and digital processes changed all of that. The printing in this new book is much better than anything available before, but the reproduction of images falls very short of today's abilities. Maybe there were budget limitations that restricted the proofing and fine-tuning. Nice to see the larger reproductions of Leyendecker's original paintings, which brings me to one of the major problems! On page 98-99, a reader is exposed to a 2-page reproduction of a painting - supposedly done for the Arrow Comp. This should be one of the motherlode pictures - especially since JCL was so instrumental in creating Arrow's popularity. Many people associate Leyendecker with creating the "great Gatsby look" and developing the image of the ideal man. Unfortunately, a viewer is smacked with a COUNTERFEIT - a Leyendecker forgery. This is not the painting that Leyendecker created for Arrow Collars! In fact, it is only a 2nd-rate knock-off. Many readers might not recognize that fact but the original Arrow Collar advertisements do not lie. 100% FAKE!
Do the authors not know the difference? How were the pictures chosen for this book? Maybe the Cutlers only wrote the biographical part of this book. Attention purchasers! There is so much innuendo and fiction in the reading, it is hard for a person to de-code what is real and what is totally fabricated. Only 12 footnotes for a biographical work of this scope? The authors have contrived details where there weren't any. They have concocted stories from the inaccurate details. If you want to buy the book, do it because you love the work of J. C. Leyendecker. The quality of the pictures is better than anything published yet - but the rambling paragraphs are sometimes a joke - especially the paragraph about Charles Beach tending to Leyendecker when he collapsed from a heart attack. Do the authors expect any reader to accept the details of that event as fact? C'mon! Please Mr. & Mrs Cutler, don't insult your readers - the people that eagerly paid almost $50-dollars for a book that reads as one big April-Fool's joke.
I feel like I should be given a rebate - or refund. Authors should stick to what they know as fact - don't make up details when they aren't available. Omissions are understandable - but this book shouldn't be regarded as fiction.
Tom Schacks
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
One of the most prolific and successful artists of the Golden Age of American Illustration, J. C. Leyendecker captivated audiences throughout the first half of the 20th century. Leyendecker is best known for his creation of the archetype of the fashionable American male with his advertisements for Arrow Collar. These images sold to an eager public the idea of a glamorous lifestyle, the bedrock upon which modern advertising was built. He also was the creator instantly recognizable icons, such as the New Year’s baby and Santa Claus, that are to this day an integral part of the lexicon of Americana and was commissioned to paint more Saturday Evening Post covers than any other artist.  Leyendecker lived for most of his adult life with Charles Beach, the Arrow Collar Man, on whom the stylish men in his artwork were modeled.  The first book about the artist in more than 30 years, J. C. Leyendecker features his masterworks, rare paintings, studies, and other artwork, including the 322 covers he did for the Post. With a revealing text that delves into both his artistic evolution and personal life, J. C. Leyendecker restores this iconic image maker’s rightful position in the pantheon of great American artists.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
