Painting People: Figure Painting Today

Charlotte Mullins is a highly respected British art critic and historian and her contribution to the milieu of figurative painting today is a major one. This book, PAINTING PEOPLE: FIGURE PAINTING TODAY, manages to give enough information about various approach to the figure, including the fusion of vision of artists with societal atmosphere at present to make it an immediately indispensable volume for students and art lovers and collectors. She writes very well and manages to stay comfortably away from the Artspeak that so often alienates the casual viewer. For that she is to be heartily congratulated: this book is readable even without images!The best part of Mullins' writing is the segments she places beside the many images that generously flood the pages of this finely designed and produced volume. Readers who know the artists well may take exception to some of her 'diagnostic thoughts' about the meaning of some of the paintings, but at least she is making the attempt to pull the viewer into the paintings rather than simply posting images. Unfortunately the sizes of the paintings in this book are not listed, a factor that many seem unimportant to some, but when discussing the potency of standing in the presence of, say, the works of Cecily Brown, Jenny Saville, of Lucien Freud, size matters: the impact of the figures that are larger than life makes a difference on how they are perceived.Anyone involved even tangentially with the artists who paint the figure may take exception to many of the artists included in this selection and be even more amazed at the paucity of the many giant figurative artists from the USA: listing the artists not included here would be an entire other book. And on the other hand, while it is informative to be exposed to the myriad types of artists Mullins does include, the quality of many of them beg indulgence with the company they keep! But here is an opportunity to study the thoughts of a well regarded critic about the current status of figurative painting, and for those of us who have been champions of figurative art for decades, this book is gratifyingly comprehensive. At least the Figure is being discussed in depth, even if too many of the artists who have devoted their lives and careers to the figure on canvas are ignored. Grady Harp, May 10

This survey book is well illustrated with almost 175 pages of color reproductions of the artists that Ms. Mullins has selected for her review of figurative artists. One of the artists she selects is Chuck Close and she includes two recent works from 2004 and 2006 that show Close's most recent approach to the use of grid to serve as an armature on which to paint the face. These paintings are superb by any measure of artistic standards. They are executed with precision and the color strategies he works within each square is fascinating, beautiful, and ingenious.There are several artists selected with Asian names and this seems to reflect the emergence of Asian artists mastering the Western traditions and media and producing outstanding images. One such example are the highly disconcerting paintings of Yi Chen. His masterful yet upsetting canvases appear to be large paintings developed from smaller collages of photographic materials. These disjointed facial features come together to build a face but having been derived from a range of other faces, they have a frightening, off-setting look about them.Jenny Saville has been included in the survey and her work is some of the most shocking yet accomplished work currently being produced in the United States. The human body appears after accidents or burns or murders and the scars and wounds immediately evoke a narrative thread for the viewer. Who is this poor burned child? Who killed this man? Saville's nude self-portrait where 3 mirrors reflect her back, side, and genitals creates a claustrophobic image that is relentlessly honest.Cecily Brown's wild expressive expressionistic figures hidden in landscapes and brushwork are fascinating. Lucian Freud is represented and the slow careful continued application of layers upon layers of paint is so evident in his thick textured thoughtfully constructed images of the male nude. I had never seen Matthew Cerletty until I purchased this survey and I was impressed with his cool approach that reminded me of Romaine Bearden. Eric Fischl is a fine painter and even though he is provoking in his imagery he handles paint like Manet.Lisa Yushavage is represented by three paintings. I find her work to be very confrontive regarding the age of sexual maturity and the distinction between young fertile sexual youth emerging from childhood and that of society's expectations of these young women bursting with breasts and hormones and egg cells waiting to be fertilized. These images of fertility are almost children, just barely sexually mature, and yet they are presented as the beautiful goddesses and courtesans found in paintings of the past. Yushavage makes me think about what is a woman and what is a girl, what is sexual maturity, what is adulthood, why does sexual fertility and desire emerge before adult maturity and responsibility and experience?George Condo is included and despite the unique and horrible manner in which he reconstructs the head, he is steeped in art history. Picasso and Goya's influence is evident in a well digested way that is not derivative. Norbert Bisky's glowing homoerotic perfect young men are dreamlike. Michael Borremans also bears mention as his images of 1930 women evoke the past almost as if he is casting a spell on time. John Currin's perfect narrative work is also included and reveals Currin to be one of the finest painters of his generation.Overall this collection is excellent. The book is large, the essays straight forward and readable, and the color illustrations are plentiful and clear. Highly recommended.

London art historian and critic, Charlotte Mullins', extensive selection indicates just how strong the art of portraiture and the figure are in contemporary art. Particularly in light of how much drawing, and the figure in general, fell out of favour during the 20th Century.All the big players are here: Close, Freud, Borremans, Richter, Nara etc. alongside the lesser known. The works of 80+ artists are featured, typically with two, sometimes more, representative pieces per artist, in full-colour.The collection centres around works created in the last six years, with the artists grouped together by various themes:The Figure Unravelled - Close, Freud, Akkerman etc.The Urban Condition - Eggerer, Evans, Fischl...Other Worlds - Mutu, Doig, Takano...Folk Tales - Condo, Schutz, Howard...The Past Deconstructed - Borremans, Brown, Xiaogang...with all styles represented from photorealists, Neo-Expressionists, Comic-Inspired, self portraits etc.On the copy I have the index pages appear to have shifted slightly during printing leading to the text being ghosted. However that doesn't appear to have occured elsewhere, although I'm not 100% sure about that. Also I would have preferred the details of art media, dimensions etc to have be placed alongside the piece as opposed to being collected in an appendix.It's an interesting selection accompanied by insightful text from Mullins. It certainly provides a good foundation from which to explore the world of contemporary figure/portraiture. Although I am left with the question "Is this really the best of what's out there?" as a number of works I didn't care for. Each to their own :-)Recommended.

Very well done. Great image and artist choices.The only issue I have is with the layout. Many of the images seemed to be reproduced much smaller than they needed to be. This was unnecessary since the pages I am referring to have ample white negative space, allowing for a considerably larger image. This irritated me since they are not big enough to see the work properly, let alone any details... (To be specific, page # 161 is a good example of this.) The practical function of looking through the images should outweigh stylish graphic design. The text descriptions of the artists are also printed in such a tiny font, I practically feel like I am reading the back of a pill bottle. The design should serve the function. Sorry, but this is the truth.Annoying graphic design choices aside, the print quality is very good.Worth the buy.