1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die

Search For 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die at Amazon

Upon waking up in with a pulsating pain next to my brain after a long Vegas night, I found myself stumbling on a book in the gift shop at Hard Rock Hotel. The book is titled “1001 Beer You Must Taste Before You Die”. Obviously the title alone intrigued my spidey senses in wanting another fine alcoholic beverage. After further review, I found this book to be a must buy for the beer connoisseur.

The book is coordinated by amber, blond, white, dark, distinguishing trait and so forth. The book also includes references to country, brewery, internet sites and even pictures of the great tasting beverages. Some have reviewed this as being beer porn, but if this is beer porn, then call me the peeping tom of beer because I could not take my eyes off this masterpiece. I found myself engulfed in respective sizes, shapes and dissimilar colors of beer.

This guide to each mans dream takes you around the world and back! Although this work of art is not for every one due to it is vast size (960 pages, with a price tag online of approx $25), this book will improve your immense noesis of beers. If not anything else, each time you hit the man throne you may start out salivating over a heap of impressive beers from around the world.

So pick up “1001 Beer You Must Taste Before You Die” and become the beer connoisseur among your friends. You may just impress a female or two along the way! (or three).

1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die

From Ancient Egyptian frescoes to the Renaissance masters, from French Impressionists to American Abstract Expressionists, this highly browsable guide embraces all cultures and each style of painting from 4,000 BC to the present. A visually arresting reference for art lovers and students, it provides a genuinely comprehensive international gazeteer of paintings coordinated chronologically by date of completion. Each entry includes the history of the painting, data in regards to the artisan or artistic movement, the current emplacement of the painting (all are on view to the public), as well as other details. The works are also indexed by artisan and by title, making for easy cross-referencing. Included are standard paintings, key works that are the most breathtaking for their extraordinary power and beauty, paintings that were turning points in the history of art, and rediscovered masterpieces, making 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die an art museum in it is own right.

Review For insatiable art lovers, this book brings together longstanding calassics and contemporary masterworks from a good deal of of the world’s most widely known and esteemed galleries and museums. From Italian frescoes to the Renaissance masters, and French Impressionists to American Abstract Expressionists, 1001 Paintings in public domain.

Organized chronologically and accompanied by gorgeous reproductions, 1001 Paintings traverses centuries and genres- Giotto, Jasper Johns, El Greco, da Vinci and Degas- no master is left behind. The artworks featured in the book are the most compelling controversial, important, widely loved and, sometimes, despised paintings that change the trajectory of painting’s evolution as well as make us reconsider it is past. Whether for invention or rediscovery, 1001 Paintings is an accessible and addictive chronicle of the world’s most necessary painting. — SFDC News 2007.02 Summer Fall

Sophisticated art lovers will get a kick out of the critics’ choices. Amateurs will get savvy guidance in an easy to perceive format.” — 04/24 MIAMI HERALD

“A painting or two per page, plus perceptive commentary, 1001 Paintings adds up to a rich browsable read or an ambitious vacation guide.” — Jun HOUSE BEAUTIFUL

“comprehensive, yet compact and concise volume” — May NEW YORK LIVING

“you actually come away from it with an expanded curiosity for that which you don’t know”…”a stunning overview” — 5/21 BLOG ON BOOKS

1001 series review “to-do, until Death” — Jul NEW YORK POST

About the AuthorStephen Farthing is a graduate of the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford and a professional fellow at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was elected a fellow member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1998 and executive conductor of the New York Academy of Art in 2000. He has been instructing fine art since 1977, and he is a painter.

Most helpful customer reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
A Book With A Gimmick Format That Is Actually a Smart Survey!
By Grady Harp
The very title of this book will probably offend serious art lovers as well as the cover art that strains to imitate Magritte. But don’t be fooled by the packaging in this case. This is a fine little volume that covers an enormous variety of paintings through time and is designed in a format that places one painting per page (though the page are not large) with an accompanying commentary on the painting, the artist, the historical content and some astute remarks by a staff of well informed writers.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful.
Helpful Catalog for Finding What You Like
By Professor Donald Mitchell
The concept behind this book is an intriguing one: If you had seen most of the best paintings in the world, which 1001 would you recommend that others see if at all possible? My initial reaction was that there probably aren’t 1001 paintings that I would recommend to everyone else.

With that perspective in mind, I first read through the book to identify which paintings would be on my list. I came up with 72. Almost all of those were on my mental list when I started reading the book. I was also missing about 100 of my favorites, but few of the artists were omitted. So if I had been new to paintings and became familiar with the 65 artists who did the 72 paintings, I would have eventually uncovered almost all of the other 100. That experience confirmed my impression that this book would be of most value to those who have seen relatively few great paintings and want to get a sense of what they like.

The images were quite well done for such small reproductions. Most paintings are represented on one page (a few are two to a page) with the minimum size being about one inch by two inches. But the printing was done well enough that you get a decent idea of the painting. I have seen more than 600 of these works in person and found that the reproductions often looked better than the originals: So don’t be too disappointed when you see the real thing. Naturally, others look at lot better in person: You cannot capture the Sistine Chapel’s paintings very well in a small image, for example.

The nice surprise for me was to find that the book contains works from private collections, several of which were new to me. This made me feel like I was visiting a blockbuster traveling show, especially when the works were by some of my favorite artists.

One of the most impressive aspects of the book was its equal emphasis over 1400 to the present with some representation even earlier than that. As a result, you get a good cross-section of different styles among Western artists (other artists are underrepresented, as they are in major Western museums).

Those who want to travel to see these works will be pleased to see that their locations are noted. There is a missed opportunity to index the works by museum to make trip planning easier. But most good museums today have extensive online catalogs of images that you can scan to plan what you want to see in advance. Simply jot down museums you should visit, but haven’t been to yet. Then go online to see which art there will appeal to you.

I would love to see someone take this same concept and apply it to each century of paintings, sculptures, and graphic art.

Take a good look!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Beautiful compilation for all levels of interest
By Scott Woods
An enormous, beautifully compiled collection of artwork whose title I couldn’t agree with more. Filled with easily digested insights into some of the greatest artwork in history, this almost 1000-page book is great for people only mildly interested in art or for serious art-core types.
The pictures are lovely and there’s just enough text to get you interested in someone new (or old) at every turn.

See all 20 customer reviews…