William Blake: Visionary

AMAZING!! Super impressed

The Getty Museum has mounted some fine exhibitions over the past few years, and the books that have been published to accompany and complement the exhibits have uniformly been first rate. I was, however, a bit reluctant to consider this one. All I knew about William Blake was that he wrote a poem that's a staple of middle grade anthologies, ("Tyger Tyger, burning bright..."), and he was considered nutzy in his time and pretty much ever since. The Getty's exhibit and this book establish why you should never get too comfortable with settled, secondhand opinions. It turns out that William Blake was most definitely nutzy, but in a fascinating, eccentric, transgressive, idiosyncratic, and entirely admirable fashion.This book doesn't make any effort to "rehabilitate" Blake by explaining him away as simply misunderstood, or ahead of his time. Rather, we fully embrace his eccentricities and the difficulty he presents across the entire spectrum of his work. This book is almost a celebration of Blake as the inspired, weird and wonderful visionary. To draw a phrase from Timothy Potts' Foreword, the exhibit intent is to "present a more rounded picture of Blake", but not to diminish or dismiss his unique vision. Mission accomplished.This book is nicely organized. It comprises three crisp and varied essays and a treasure trove of prints, drawings and paintings, including some major rarities. Having ended my formal Blake education at "Tyger Tyger..." and a few incomprehensible poems, I had no idea that Blake was such an accomplished printmaker, and much of the book's text is either taken up with his life and work in this field, or addresses the matter of how thoroughly Blake has been admired and appreciated in America. As to the generous collection of plates, (133 pieces, which take up the bulk of the book), that is divided into sections devoted to Printmaker, Painter-Illustrator, Painter-Poet, Visionary, and Mythmaker. I assume it was considered disrespectful to have a section captioned "Nutzy", but the "Visionary" and "Mythmaker" chapters come close enough. The plates in each section are introduced with a brief overview. (And it goes almost without saying that the actual production quality of the book is top drawer.)So, while Blake isn't the first artist I would think of when mounting an exhibition, this turned out to be a nervy choice and a fine collaboration with the Tate in London and a wide range of private collectors and public collections. Again to borrow from Potts, "astonishing and captivating".(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

William Blake: Visionary by Edina Adam and Julian Brooks (through the J Paul Getty Museum) is a visually stunning introduction to his work and life.The plates are, as I have come to expect from Getty, wonderful. This exhibition looks to be more comprehensive than I would have thought and covers a wide range of Blake's work. The text, in the form of essays, are good without being too detailed. but then I am familiar with Blake and also don't generally expect exhibition catalogues to be thorough sources of detailed information, they are meant to introduce the artist and work. As such, the essays are just fine. Sources are mentioned for those who really want to know more.If you only know Blake as either an artist or a poet this book is a beautiful way to introduce you to the other aspects of his work. The book would make a nice coffee table book or display book. This is one of those book/author combinations that make for great conversations. Leave the book open to an image next time you have guests over and see where any responses go. I would recommend this to those who like to own beautiful books that place the art in some context.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

This, like pretty much every other Getty title, is an excellent study of a great subject. Blake is now known almost as much as a printer as he is a poet, and of course, the two cannot be separated in this work. This beautifully illustrated monograph covers the prints and printmaking itself, with an analysis of the context in his time and through the historical printing techniques he borrowed from. It may not be the best introduction to his art for people just looking for an overview, but it is of unmatched beauty.

William Blake: Visionary by Edina Adam is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in early September.With this collection compiled by the J. Paul Getty museum, there are biographic and critic-al essays, alongside epic, foreboding, biblical, gloomy paintings, poetry, and lithographs where Blake makes some nods toward celestial astrology and fully embraces folds, creases, and curves of muscle.

I love William Blake and this book made me learned a lot about him and his work.Well written and informative, highly recommended.Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Very cool to see a bunch of Blake's work accompanied by snippets of biography and historical context. Wish I could go see the exhibit!

Good book contains great examples of Blake's paintings