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Title: Paul McCartney Paintings by Paul McCartney, Julian Treuherz, Wolfgang Suttner ISBN: 0821226738 Publisher: Bulfinch Press Pub. Date: September, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.83
Rating: 5
Summary: Unpretentious Art!
Comment: Regardless of the high brow reviews of this book, I chose to purchase this book to see if this was another celebrity who found art and realized their celebrity could sell their art. Bottom line I had hoped that McCartney's personality would triuumph and his down to earth philoposphy would come through. Indeed it did and this is the first Unpretentious book on Art I have ever read. If anyone has the desire to paint, draw or create but is held back through social conditioninig this book is for you. McCartney albeit through interviews and ghost writers tells how he himself freed himself from his own perfectionist procrastination mode and at the age of 40 painted. What resulted I found to be liberating in the way that in his celebrity circle of friedns he learned from William De Kooning how to "kill the canvas" and get over the fear of standing in front of a blank canvas. Additionaly McCartney goes onto explain his creative process for his paintings again influenced by De Kooning. He discussed how he would write a friends name on a canvas or a sketch or just a smudge of paint and see what stimulated his creative enery to produce and be led by creativity instead of coming to the easle prepared with a pre-conceived idea. McCartney never pretends to be a De Kooning or indeed a high brow artist. He comes across as someone who enjoys the process and output that art offers. Through his own conditioning he is also seeking the feedback for his efforts, regardless of the technicalities I for one see his work as inspirational and has encouraged me to go and "kill the canvas" myself.
Rating: 4
Summary: Luigi Will Be Most Satisfied
Comment: Paul McCartney only cautiously agreed to publish this book of paintings, fearing, quite rightly, he would be categorized as just a 'celebrity painter' - the Stallone and Curtis kind. "I know I'll be getting a few snide comments for doing this book - it seems that if you approach the art world by one route, that's OK, but if you've come via another route, then it invites prejudice. In fact [...], one 'critic' wrote that I 'shouldn't be allowed to do this.'"
The simple, almost child-like honesty with which McCartney comments on this crossing into a different field, manifests itself in his paintings: they carry schoolboy-naughty titles like 'The Queen After Her First Cigarette' and 'Bowie Spitting', often display bright, simple colors, and have the kind of surprised pleasantness - for example "Ancient Connections" - which is often associated with children.
That said, his work is actually pretty good. Its diversity (there are abstract paintings, figurative paintings, portraits, surrealist ones) is a plus, as is the execution, which reveals McCartney has a keen eye for colors and shapes (composition and detail, i.e. the more technical side of painting, are of lesser interest to McCartney, who said: 'I like the primitive approach, so if I learn to sail I don't take sailing lessons: I get into a boat and capsize a lot. It's actually very much my philosophy and it works equally well in painting and in music.')
For people who are unaware, it should be pointed out that McCartney was a key figure in sixties' London, not only in the music field but also in the underground movement, doing collages, experimental music (long before Lennon), and drawings for the International Times paper and Indica Gallery, as well as collecting Magrittes and befriending Willem De Kooning. Also, he was the brain behind such legendary covers as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" (1967) and "Abbey Road" (1969).
Some of the paintings in this book remind of the ones featured in the "Standing Stone" CD booklet, which he'd done to illustrate the story of that 1997 classical piece. Big, three-dimensional (it's as if they're made out of shiny plastic) figures with soft, often sandy yellow, pastel colors. In paintings like "Unspoken Words", "Ancient Connections" and "Yellow Celt" (all featured in this book) McCartney effectively uses this style. They are the best ones in his catalogue.
In a way, his paintings - bright, simple, enjoyable, shapely - are the equivalent of his musical work. His approach is best summed up by himself: "In my mind I have a friend who is Luigi. Luigi owns a restaurant and he's got an alcove, and he always needs a painting for it. So whatever I'm doing, if I ever get that terrifying moment I say: 'It's for Luigi's alcove, Luigi will like this.' And he just lets me off - it frees my head for two seconds and then I'm over the hurdle and I can carry on. Luigi's alcove is one of my huge saviours."
Rating: 2
Summary: For McCartney completists only
Comment: Best known and most successful as a composer of popular music, McCartney has branched out to explore his creative nature in classical music and painting. McCartney surely can be considered a Renaissance man of our generation.
It's nice for us fans to see the results of his endeavors, but for the most part, McCartney's legacy will only include a brief footnote in reference to his painting. This book will be of interest to die-hard McCartney fans, but I doubt that either the book or McCartney's paintings will gain much attention in the world of contemporary art. I rather doubt that these paintings would have garnered the attention of a gallery curator and been exhibited were it not for the celebrity behind the work.
The book includes an interview with Sir Paul, as well as essays by Brian Clarke, Julian Treuherz, Barry Miles, Wolfgang Suttner and Christoph Tannert. Photographs of the painter at work, taken by his late wife, Linda, are also included. The paintings which are reproduced in this book were first displayed publicly in the Lyz Art Forum, Siegen, Germany in 1999.
McCartney's style is certainly his own, as one can see that McCartney the artist is exploring the canvas with his choice of colors, brush strokes and imagination. Clearly, he is "entirely fearless about getting lost" as Brian Clarke says in his essay in the book.
Paintings that might have some interest for fans of Paul the Beatle are Patti Boyd, a cartoonish caricature of the ex-wife of George Harrison; Yellow Linda with piano, a study of his late wife and one of the more interesting portraits in the collection; Elvish me, a "Paul as Elvis" study which is rather whimsical; and Green head, which looks a lot like one of the characters in the Coming Up video. No doubt that McCartney fans will spend hours trying to analyze the hidden meaning in his abstracts.
Is it for everyone? Certainly not. Do I regret paying the $50.00? Not really. I would expect those with a casual interest will be more likely to check the book out of a local library than adding it to their own collection.
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Title: Blackbird Singing : Poems and Lyrics, 1965-1999 by Paul McCartney, Adrian Mitchell ISBN: 0393020495 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Wingspan: Paul McCartney's Band on the Run by Paul McCartney, Mark Lewisohn ISBN: 0821227939 Publisher: Bulfinch Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Light From Within: Photojournals by Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney ISBN: 0821224867 Publisher: Bulfinch Press Pub. Date: 19 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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Title: Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics, 1965-2001 by Paul McCartney, Adrian Mitchell ISBN: 0393324095 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title:Back in the U.S. Live 2002 ASIN: B00006LSOG Publisher: Capitol Pub. Date: 26 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $14.99 |
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