Dali (Masters of Art)

Written by the foremost scholars for a general audience, Abrams' Masters of Art series has proved its popularity over the years, becoming the industry's best-selling art history monograph series. In each book, forty full-page colorplates are accompanied by commentaries discussing each individual work. Other illustrations show the artist at varied points in his career, his contemporaries, and comparative works. The series is now being reissued in paperback, and will be redesigned to bring a contemporary feel to these classic Abrams titles. The individual artists selected for this first round of revisions - Van Gogh, Monet, Dali, Renoir, Bosch, and Leonardo da Vinci - were chosen because of their enduring popularity and their continued influence on the art of today.

Customer Reviews:

Riding Dali's Roller-Coaster

By Ralph J. Bellantoni "RJB" - February 22, 2005

As a college art major I developed a distaste for Dali and his art, even referring to him as a "pimp" in an essay. I was turned off by his commercialism and his overly-polished style. But over the years my opinion began to shift, and the major retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art has completely renovated my appreciation for the man and his art.

This huge and handsome tome is the catalogue for the Philly retrospective, and includes hundreds of color images along with insights into the thought behind the imagery. The book takes you through his youthful experiments in post-impressionism and cubism (there are a few works you'd swear were by Picasso!), into his affiliation with Surrealism, his development of his personal "paranoiac-critical" method, and his later interests in physics and conversion to Catholicism. The middle section of the book and exhibit includes hundreds of his best-known and most widely-admired paintings, but surprises abound in the early and... read more

Everything You Want From Dali and More

By James M. Hatch - February 27, 2003

This book is the definitive look at Dali. I own a few other of his books but this one blows the out of the water. The only negative aspect about the book really comes down to my opinion. Some of my favorite paintings are fitted onto a page with 3 others making them a little difficult to see the extreme detail. While others get their own page but in my humble opinion didn't deserve it. While reading or just skimming through the paintings its awesome all the way through. The book is in chronological order so you can see his progress throughout his life. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you don't like Dali's style, there is so much in here that you'll find something. I've spent dozens of hours looking through it, finding something new each time.

The best of Dali

By Charles Pinney - December 31, 2001

While it may be hard to get a hold of here at Amazon, "Dali: The Paintings" is worthwhile in searching for. I found it at a local bookstore and snatched it up immediately. It's a gorgeous book at nearly 800 pages. It has a black cover with a classic image of Dali and his mustache ends sticking straight up on the cover.The real meat of the book is the paintings, drawings, and sketches. Over 1600 of them to be exact, almost all of them produced in vivid color. The book progresses year to year, giving a glimpse into Dali's changing techniques and styles. Thoughtful commentary by Robert Descharnes and Gilles Neret compliment the works of art.Overall this is one of the best and most comprehensive Dali books around. A must for any serious Dali fan, or even the casual admirer.