Artists' Letters: Leonardo da Vinci to David Hockney
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Artists' Letters: Leonardo da Vinci to David Hockney Details
About the Author Michael Bird is a writer, art historian and radio broadcaster. He has published many books, essays and articles on modern and contemporary art. His books include Artists' Letters (2019) and 100 Ideas That Changed Art (2012). Read more
Reviews
Artists' Letters: Leonardo da Vinci to David Hockney from Michael Bird is a fascinating collection presented in a wonderful manner.While these letters are from and/or to famous people the emphasis is on the human aspect of each exchange. As such, they are grouped in broad general groupings such as Family & Friends, Love, and Travel. Unlike a collection of a single person's or a single couple's correspondence, this does not tell a single narrative. This makes this a book that can just as easily be read little by little as time allows as it can read all at once. If you need a single story arc to keep your interest, or if you can't read a book of short stories as a single book, then you might want to approach this as something to read as the fancy strikes you. I found it quite enjoyable as a single cohesive book, with each grouping as almost a prolonged conversation on a broad subject. Because of the context offered by Bird for each letter, each serves as a short story of sorts. The artists you're more familiar with will probably be more interesting to you but as long as you can relate to human feelings and situations it won't really matter a whole lot if you're unfamiliar with a lot of them.Another fun aspect of the book is that each correspondence is pictured so you can see the handwriting or any scribbling or doodling that was included. There is a bit of a voyeuristic pleasure in finding old letters in real life, whether of family or strangers. Many recent novels use the finding of letters as a jumping off point for some kind of adventure, the pleasure is so common. This is very similar in large part because of the images of the actual letters.I would recommend this to readers who like art and art history, who like to glimpse into the personal aspects of well known people, and those who simply enjoy reading something that was never meant to be made public and then speculating about what is written between the lines. This would also make a great gift for someone you know who might fall into these categories.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
