Product Description

The Essentials Series.
In the architectural wilderness of the modern age, 71-year-old Frank O. Gehry stands out for his incredibly inventive buildings-from the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to the recent Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. This portrait of one of the hottest cultural icons of our day examines Gehry's life and work-and his continuing search for new forms and new means of architectural expression.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #365895 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 112 pages

From Library Journal
This series is geared to the needs of the armchair art lover eager to broaden his or her knowledge of the art world without having to wade through lengthy and sometimes pretentious tomes. Past titles have focused on artists as disparate as Hieronymous Bosch, John James Audubon, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, and Cindy Sherman, and all have followed a fairly similar formula. Look here for art history "lite," with no indexing and no attempt to appear scholarly but lots of good illustrations. There are stylistic differences among the individual writers, some of whom have better qualifications than others. For example, Chollet's previous writing experiences have been limited to screenplays (Seven Years in Tibet), and the Cassatt book can be maddening because of the author's preoccupation with feminist issues. Sidebars, called "Sound Bytes," include pertinent quotes by or about each artist profiled including a pitch from actor Brad Pitt speaking as an authority on Louis Comfort Tiffany. Given the books' small size (an easily stolen 6" square) and the likelihood that most libraries would already have material on these artists, none should be considered a necessary purchase. Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
Exhibition Schedule: Philadelphia Museum of Art Sept. 2001-Jan. 2002, Musée d' Orsay, Paris Feb.-May 2002, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June-Sept. 2002

Customer Reviews

Great photos and interesting writing
I found this book at the Indianapolis Institute of Arts. The author does a fine job of surveying Gehry's career and accomplishments. The reader is also offered some additional GENERAL information on various influencing architects, and architectual syles and/or movements. While the text is concise, it is truly unpretentious. The photographs are splendid, especially those showing his masterpiece, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. While this is not a full treatise on the works and influence of Gehry's career, it is exactly as the title suggests: it offers the essentials of Gehry's artistry and mastery.