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The Art Museum
This imaginary museum created and curated by Phaidon houses the finest art collection ever assembled
Hardback | English
USD$200.00
'Why buy a mere art book when you could have a museum of your own?... The Art Museum is a colossal tome that, ranging across continents, periods and artistic approaches, sets out to compile the perfect collection. Here, for the man who has everything, is the Mona Lisa, and plenty more as well, from Byzantine mosaics through Benin bronzes to the abstractions of Brice Marden.'
The Times
'This is indeed a monumental museum without walls' Daily Telegraph
‘impressive … should be in public libraries and schools as well as on coffee tables. In an age when so much information about art is gleaned electronically, this massive tome, with its beautiful reproductions, is a bold assertion of the importance of the printed page.’ Art Quarterly
'What is a great work of art? The question asks itself when you leaf through The Art Museum, a colossal new book that gathers together an ideal collection of superlative sculptures, paintings, vases, embroideries and installations.' The Guardian
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My Kind of Masterpiece As featured in: The Guardian G2 |
| What makes a masterpiece a masterpiece? We asked big names from the world of art to pick their all-time greats from The Art Museum |
Kristin Scott Thomas: Paris Street, Rainy Day (1877) by Gustave Caillebotte This picture throws you into Haussmann’s new Paris with its wide boulevards and grand buildings. A couple walk towards us at a clip. All the action happens on the right – fast walking, swerving umbrellas – whereas on the other side of the black post, life is slower, lonelier and uncomfortably wet. I feel a twinge of envy as I think about this comfortable, affectionate couple going home to tea and a warm fire |
Tim Marlow: The Dead Christ (1521) by Hans Holbein the Younger This stark, life-size image of Christ in the tomb is one of the great depictions of death and decay in western art. It’s a painting that seems to assault the nose as much as the eyes, a pathological vision that famously caused the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky to remark that it 'could rob a man of his faith' |
Philip Pullman: The Four Trees (1891) by Claude Monet Monet changed the way painters in the west saw and depicted light. The Four Trees is a great artwork because it conveys the sense of a bright morning with freshness and brilliance; because it’s formally thrilling (I pity anyone who didn’t feel a little shock of delight at first seeing that grid of dark lavenders over the palest blue and gold); and because it’s part of impressionism’s great project of teaching the 20th century a new way of seeing |
Ed Vaizey: Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife (1434) by Jan van Eyck I’ve been fascinated by this painting ever since I was a child. The thing I love is the mirror. You’re right there with the couple having their portrait painted, and you can see the workings of the scene reflected in it. The painting has a lifelike quality: you can almost reach out and touch this moment from six centuries ago |
Kirsty Wark: Old Woman Cooking Eggs (1618) by Diego Velázquez Velázquez wasn’t even 20 when he painted this, and we don’t know the full story behind it, but I would assume he knew the woman well because he has captured her so beautifully. Is the boy her grandson? She’s not looking directly at him. What is she thinking? I love the way the artist plays with light, having it pick out kitchen utensils. When I look at the painting, I see the joy of cooking and the joy of the kitchen. It gives you so many clues about the way people lived and how little has changed |