Thursday's Three on Art

Today, Thursday's Three brings you a trio of art exhibition catalogues for holiday gift-giving. I've selected these with an eye toward building art lovers' personal libraries.

★ Dublin-based painter Anne Madden is the subject of Ann Madden. A Restrospective (Scala Arts Publishers and Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2007). The 192-page monograph, which includes 80 images, ranges over Madden's entire artistic career, beginning in the 1950s. Among important works showcased in the catalogue are Madden's Self-Portrait (1950), Clare Land (1967) and other paintings from a series inspired by Ireland's Burren landscape, and selections from her gorgeous series Megaliths, Monoliths, and Doorways. Enrique Juncosa, the IMMA's director, contributes the foreword; Derek Mahon provides an essay and the poem "Triptych (for Anne Madden)". 

The internationally exhibited artist has received numerous honors, among them the French Government's award of Officier des Arts et des Lettres (2008) and an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin (2006). She is the subject of the excellent documentary Anne Madden Painter and Muse; it's a remarkably deep portrait of the artist.

Madden's work is spectacular in effect and exquisite in technique. Among her sources of inspiration  are myths and the Northern Lights (see Paintings 2003-2010 on her Website. Also be sure to see the images of the Pompeii & The Garden Series and The Odyssey & Icarus Series of 1995-1997 and 1998-2000.) 

Cover Art for Anne Madden. A Retrospective

Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2007

Madden also is the subject of Anne Madden: Painting and Reality (Charta Art Book/Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2011).

Stoney Road Press Ireland carries prints of Madden's work (her artist page).

IMMA Press Release on 2007 Retrospective

Images of Madden's Painting in the IMMA's Collection

"Of Myths and Madness: An Interview with Painter Anne Madden", Irish Connections

★ A series of 18 never-before-seen photographs by Robert Adams comprise Robert Adams: A Road Through Shore Pine (Fraenkel Gallery, September 2014). All were taken in Nehalem Bay State Park in Oregon in late 2013. On the archival print box (see image below) in which Adams had stored his photographs, he wrote this line by Greek poet George Seferis: "A marvelous road, enough to make you weep; pine trees, pine trees...." Adams's book is available through Amazon.

An exhibition focused on the series recently concluded at Fraenkel Gallery.

Cover Art for A Road Through Shore Pine

Fraenkel Gallery Page for A Road Through Shore Pine

★ The National Portrait Gallery's William Morris: Words & Wisdom (October 31, 2014) comprises a collection of quotations by William Morris and those who knew him, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. Morris (1834-1896) founded Kelmscott Press and was both inspiration for and influence on Arts and Crafts designers. In addition to being an artist and textile designer, Morris was a writer and poet.

William Morris Society

William Morris & Co.

William Morris at Victoria & Albert Museum

Kelmscott Press Collection at University of Glasgow