Staff Book and Media Recommendations

Jean Longo is a Research & Learning Librarian at the University of Central Oklahoma.

The Power of Art

by Simon Schama

Historian Schama certainly has a powerful method of telling a story.  He tells the tales of eight different artists Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko. The book was written to accompany the television series published by the BBC but it is not necessary to have seen the series to enjoy the book.  I read the book several years before watching the series and after watching the series picked up the book again.  Reading through it again I could imagine the visual sets that the series provides.

Schama writes about these eight artists and their work focusing on a pivotal piece for each individual.  The sections on each artist are engaging and the accompanying illustrations are wonderful.  His writing style reads like an action movie with killings, excessive self-mutilation, speech impediments, imprisonment, suicide, and insanity.   In his perceptive style, Schama reveals the lives of these artists and the difficult situations they overcame while developing their artistic talents.  He simultaneously explores the social, political, and cultural factors which facilitate a greater understanding of what the artists were facing at the time he was creating. He explains what we are looking at and helps us understand the passions at play when the artist undertook his works, putting the person up front rather than the genre. 

Most of the artists are individuals I have admired, yet he manages to remove them from the hero status that I assigned to them and turn them into struggling artist with their own demons.  This is an engaging book that can be read as a whole or in parts and will be enjoyed by anyone interested in the arts.

Reviewed November 2012