[.ca] Sister Wendy's American Collection (ISBN 0060195568)

From Amazon.com:
Sister Wendy's catholic view of art is as rare as her insightful view of Western religious painting. The work she admires is startlingly diverse, embracing Paul Revere's silver and a bodhisattva from Pakistan, an Issey Miyake metallic polyester dress and a Mayan vase, not to mention paintings by artists as remote in style and vision as John Singer Sargent and Joan Mitchell. Sister Wendy's American Collection is a highly selective tour through six major U.S. museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. To frequent museumgoers, her choices initially can seem charmingly arbitrary--until they begin to inspire the urge to check out those galleries again. With a page or two allotted to each art work (short essays in large type and 250-odd modestly sized illustrations), this is a friendly book to curl up with, as unpretentious as Sister Wendy herself. Anyone looking for detailed art historical information will be disappointed by her tendency to coast on a thimbleful of facts, yet her gift for plainspoken rapture about art remains intact on the page. When she singles out from the Met's vast collections an Ottoman sultan's elegant logo with its "small paradise" of painted flowers, when she peers at the tense body of the young cheat in Caravaggio's The Cardsharps at the Kimbell, or ambles along the length of a Sung dynasty landscape painting at the Cleveland museum, that's when Sister Wendy proves the value of close, patient looking as a contemplative act. --Cathy Curtis

Your heart will soar!:
This is a wonderful, wonderful book showcasing fine art from museums all across America, in exquisite full-color detail, with fabulous insight from one of the most intelligent minds of our time--Sister Wendy Beckett. If you have seen her PBS specials, you will know just what a treasure she is to the art world. She has a well-cultivated eye for detail, yet instead of being just another critic, is able to convey to people of all ages and backgrounds just what it is that she finds so special about great art masterpieces. And through her words, you can learn what it means to truly appreciate art. This is a fantastic addition to any collection and an excellent gift choice for the holidays ahead.

Wonderful!:
First- the positive: This is a fresh look at art works that run the gamut from silver bowls to statues to paintings and more. I particularly like the little side squares giving a little big of information about the artist. It might be a story, some facutal information, or information about other art made by this person. In very limited space (one to two pages) Sister Windy is able to convey to the reader what it is she likes about each particular piece of art she included in her book. The brief history she gives about the painting only adds to the understanding of each artwork. I also liked the fact that she didn't spend a lot of time analyzing the paint strokes, chisel marks etc. She didn't spend a lot of time discussing what the artist was trying to say or the political ramifications of each piece. She wrote clear, concise explanations about what she liked about each piece, what each piece was about, a short history of the time and the artist and the art work and left it at that. There are other books that you can buy about each artist, their work, their genre of work etc. if you want a more in depth look and more information that you will never remember. Her enthusiasm for each piece she chose to place in this book is wonderful. The pictures are glorious. The negative: Proofreading. Two or three times I'd take a second look at the picture of the art because what was said in the text didn't match the words. (For example, in one she talks of the lady pulling the man's beard and as far as I can see it's his hair!) Overall, this is a wonderful book. I found it very educational and enhlightening.

Fast and loose with proof reading!:
I really don't think anyone could dislike Sister Wendy and her fresh and witty approace to art reviews. But the proof readers at the publishers must have been on holiday. Concerning one painting Sister said, "he holds a protractor in his hand". It is obviously a compass. Then Sister Wendy claims that there is a field of "corn" which any child could see is a field of wheat. This critic is disturbed by the sloppy work published in the last 10 to 15 years. Constantly I see errors of spelling and syntax in books published during that period. One Jami Lin even said that the beginning of Spring, the Equinox, was April 20!! Doublt if Jami ever took science! Don't think they have taught grammar in the USA public schools for over 40 years!

Beware...:
While Sister Wendy's intentions are admirable in her enthusiastic description of the best art to be found in American galleries, her interpretations often completely miss the point. For example, in talking about Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon at La Grande Jatte" (Art Institute of Chicago), she does not even mention it's companion work "Bathers at Asnieres", and so gives an extremely basic interpretation that completely undermines Seurat's socialist intentions in these two paintings. Anyone with more than a very fleeting interest in Art in general should steer well clear of this book, and if you're a student of Art History (like me), run a mile.

A HEAVENLY, ARTFUL APPROACH:
She's getting to be a habit with us, this Sister Wendy Beckett, renowned daughter of Christ, art historian and hostess of a widely-acclaimed small-screen series. Her heavenly philosophy - that there is something for everyone to love when it comes to art - is what has allowed her to become an icon for the great unwashed masses who don't know their beans about Goya. This thick tome, the companion volume to the upcoming PBS series of the same name, focuses on six American museums (including New York City's Metropolitan and Boston's MFA), from whose collections Sister Wendy has judiciously culled her own "American collection." Here, she shares her keen knowledge and indomitable enthusiasm and humor, demystifying art history while educating about style and technique. Quite the artful angel