Disney: The World of Mary Blair (Magic Color Flair: The Art of Mary Blair)

Incredible book! Not a huge one in dimensions (slightly bigger than A4) but CHOCK full of Mary Blair's beautiful artwork. A vast improvement on the previous 'Art and Flair' book which was released some years back, a good book but a lot of the images were quite small and a little disappointing. In this 'Magic Color Flair...' edition however a lot of the artwork featured appears in full page plates...utterly gorgeous! Mary Blair was a true visionary and her work and amazing talent really does deserves a large format coffee table artbook retrospective of her work, but this one certainly does come close to acheiving this until such a book materializes. A bigger glossy retrospective format please Mr Canemaker (similar to the Pierre Lambert Disney books... 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Jungle Book' etc...) would be very much appreciated. But well done and thank you for this.

Good buy funny

Excellent illustration and animation stills, a nicely produced and well written summary of Mary Blair's work.

When I bought this book, I was seriously confused by the other book The Art and Flair of Mary Blair: An Appreciation that was also coming out in the same month. Magic Color Flair is actually the companion book to the exhibition of the same name that's held at The Walt Disney Family Museum from March 13 to September 7, 2014. This book is a 176-page hardcover. The focus of this book is on the aesthetics of Mary Blair's art and design. The essay by John Canemaker reflects that, and if you have The Art and Flair of Mary Blair as well, you will find that there is quite an overlap of content. To get a fuller picture of Mary Blair's life, you have to get the other book. Mary Blair's artworks are wonderfully produced in the book. They are printed huge, many are printed full page. They included artworks that she created for Disney and for her freelance jobs. You'll see art for Cinderella, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, "It's a Small World" exhibition and the Little Golden Books. This is a fine artbook by itself. But if you just want to get one book, I would suggest getting The Art and Flair of Mary Blair: An Appreciation. I feel that the selection of works is much better in the other book which are more striking and representative of Mary Blair, but that could be because I read that book first. There aren't much duplication in both books so you can still get both, but then there's this dissatisfaction of having to pay more money just to have a more complete collection. 4 out of 5 stars. (See more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

Any of Mary Blair books are jwewls for color schemes, reference and knowledge worth buying for anyone passionate for art, ilustration, animation and anything related. LOVE IT.

This is an amazing and precious book. Love the packaging too

This book serves as the exhibition Catalog to the Mary Blair exhibit at The Walt Disney Family Museum. Arguably best known for her work on Disneyland's "it's a small world" attraction as well as her commercial work in the 60's, "Magic Color Flair" serves as both biography, catalog and extraordinary commentary on Mary Blair's work. I was fortunate to visit the exhibit last month and found the book and the exhibit offered a wonderful overview of her work as a young artist followed by her time at Disney as well her commercial work for ad agencies and Little Golden Books. Mr. Canemaker is both a fan and an expert on Blair. In this book he gives lots of insight into her history, the events that shaped her work as well as providing insightful commentary. Mary is remarkable for being a successful artist at Disney during a time dominated by men. The book's biography tells of her upbringing, Walt's interest in her art and her balance as both mother and artist. Along with the text are many pictures of her early paintings, family photos and newspaper clippings that all serve to illustrate how Mary's career began and developed. One really gets a sense of how she moved from strength to strength exploring design and color. Mary's work is gorgeous and this book offers an excellent gallery of images. All the images from the exhibit are found here as well as lots pencil sketches and notes. In addition to her paintings She often created textile patterns and window displays for upscale stores. The author Included in the back of the book photos of several window displays and scarves she created. A nice bonus as these images and works were not at the exhibit. I was excited to see these pieces. As for the book itself it is hardback and full color. The images of her work are bright and printed large enough to see. If I had one criticism of thus book it would be that the author repeated a few images (maybe 5) however I am willing to forgive this as they are shown in context to the text that accompanies them. Overall this a gorgeous book that provides great insight into an amazing artist. For those who cannot make the exhibit this is the next best thing and in some cases even better. You can come back look at her work as much as you like! Highly Recommended!

Grande admiratrice de Mary Blair je n'ai pas hésité une seule seconde. C'est un très beau livre, il y a d'ailleurs des recherches de Mary Blair que je n'avais pas encore vu dans les autres livres consacrés à l'artiste. Je ne peux que le recommander.

This is a Beautiful book on Disney artist Mary Blair. The beginning of the book tells you a history of Mary and her early work. Then the rest of the book is beautiful images of her art work. I love it and would definitely recommend it to other fans of Mary Blair. It came in perfect condition and I definitely would buy again from Hanbury Books.