The Bottom Line
Pros
- Will have you laughing out loud as you view the tidied-up paintings
- Created by a stand-up comedian as a frivolous bit of fun
- Makes you see the paintings with a fresh eye and appreciate the details
Cons
- Will distract you from your painting while you check to see if everything is indeed tidied up
- Contains mostly modern art
Description
- Hardback book, 48 pages in full color.
- ISBN 3-7913-3003-9; Published by Prestel.
- Author, Ursus Wehrli, lives in Zurich and works as a comedian, cabaret artiste and freelance artist.
Guide Review - Tidying Up Art by Ursus Wehrli
This book had me in stitches, it really is great fun. The underlying concept is a simple one -- to take paintings and rearrange the elements in them so they're neat and tidy. You'll find yourself counting bits to see if everything in a painting has indeed been organized into piles of e.g. red, black, and yellow parts. And in the process look at the detail in the painting like you never have before.
The paintings are mostly modern, though there's a village scene by Bruegel that gets tidied up. It was probably my love of Van Gogh's paintings that made the catch my eye -- the cover has the painting of Van Gogh's bedroom on it. One version is the original and the other has all the elements tidied up either onto or underneath the bed! But I'm not telling how a Pointillist painting by Seurat gets tidied up, nor what happens to an already-neat painting; that'll spoilt the surprise.
If you want an art-related laugh, Tidying Up Art will give you heaps!
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