Carroll Cloar: In His Studio, a new book on the art of artist Carroll Cloar, caps a great year for those who love this painter of the Arkansas Delta and his magical realism style.
In fact, it also was a great year for Arkansas-published art catalogs. Let's begin with Cloar:
The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South by Stanton Thomas (Arkansas Arts Center, $29.95 paperback, $49.95 hardcover)
Carroll Cloar: In His Studio by The Art Museum of the University of Memphis (University Press of Mississippi/The Art Museum of the University of Memphis, $42)
We now have two beautiful books available on the celebrated Arkansas-born artist. The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South documents the Cloar exhibit's stop at the Arkansas Arts Center, which was supplemented with works by local collectors. The Crossroads tour opened in Memphis in 2013 and traveled to Athens, Ga., before coming to Little Rock this year. The exhibition, in observance of the centennial of Cloar's birth, was curated by the Memphis Brooks Museum and the Arkansas Arts Center. The catalog was organized by the Arts Center.
The newly printed Carroll Cloar: In His Studio is a large softcover book by The Art Museum of the University of Memphis that presents the contents of their exhibition of Cloar's work. These are two books of extremely high quality that offer much to study and read about an Arkansan whose work is now returning to the limelight after years of neglect. Both are highly recommended.
The Crossroads of Memory faithfully documents the Little Rock version of the traveling retrospective that was the definitive, detailed look at the artist's work. Cloar's masterpiece Where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog (1965) adorns the cover and sets the tone for the rest of the book.
There are insightful essays on Cloar's life and work combined with color reproductions of most, if not all, of Cloar's major paintings. Great paintings like Gibson Bayou Anthology (1956) and The Lightning That Struck Rufo Barcliff (1955) are displayed here, and there is a page that includes descriptive information, source images and preliminary sketches accompanying each of the color plates.
There are plenty of interesting comparisons to be made between the painter's source material and his finished work: The mysterious backward flag that can be found in Faculty and Honor Students, Lewis School House (1966) can be seen to have been painted faithfully from an old black-and-white photo with a corresponding backward flag. The book can be bought at the Arkansas Arts Center Museum Shop.
Carroll Cloar: In His Studio catalogs a smaller show that ran concurrently with the Cloar exhibit's stay at the Memphis Brooks Museum in 2013, and complemented it nicely. The book includes rare items from the museum's extensive collection of Cloar documents that were donated by Patricia Cloar Milsted, the artist's widow.
Because there is surprisingly little overlap between the two books, In His Studio is the perfect complement to the Arkansas Arts Center's catalog. There are all sorts of visual treats to be found in these pages: an extensive selection of Cloar's early lithographs, drawings and watercolors; an assortment of works from his years traveling abroad; and quite a few images related to his Memphis home and studio. There is even a section that includes a series of delightfully funny parody paintings that lampoon everyone from the 19th-century painter Albert Pinkham Ryder to abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning.
There are compelling and occasionally bizarre passages from Cloar's writings: "I was careful that no one outside my family should know that I played with paper dolls, but they were amazing and virile things and fought and killed, loved and fornicated." He wrote extensively about Arkansas, including this passage about Marked Tree: "I used to go up there people-hunting ... great numbers of country people would come to town every Sunday afternoon. They were small farmers and sharecroppers, and they were just right for the country scenes I painted. They are all gone now, replaced by machines, and 71 of them are in my paintings. None of them know it."
-- K.M.
Face to Face, Artists' Self-Portraits From the Collection of Jackye and Curtis Finch Jr. (Arkansas Arts Center, $24.95)
The Arkansas Arts Center catalogs the "Face to Face" show of artists' self-portraits with a large-format, softcover book that faithfully chronicles a powerful exhibition. One of the joys of this book is that each artist has a way of making a personal statement within the framework of the self-portrait; there are as many different approaches as there are artists.
A lot of Arkansas artists are included: George Dombek, Warren Criswell, A.J. Smith, John Deering and Kevin Kresse, to name a few. Among the nationally known creators are Milton Avery, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Alex Katz, Paul Cadmus and George Tooker. It's a really well curated selection of artwork and the reproductions are crisp and beautiful. Everything about this is first-rate and the large format adds to the impact of these striking images.
-- K.M.
State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, $49)
The catalog for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's sprawling overview of up-and-coming American contemporary art takes an unconventional approach to its design. Think of it as an interactive art lover's jigsaw puzzle that could be an inspiration for storytelling, allow one to create an art exhibit or play unique versions of gin rummy or go fish (instructions are included).
Inside a sturdy box is 100 6-by-9-inch cards, each with an image from the show and information on the artist. Each is color-coded for different themes and the artist's region in the United States. The cards can fit into one another so they can be stacked vertically and horizontally. As for games, those who use card sets (Tarot, Medicine Cards, etc.) will be quite at home with the possibilities.
The softcover book has comments by outgoing museum president Don Bacigalupi and assistant curator Chad Alligood, along with a listing of the exhibition's artists.
This catalog could stimulate discussion about particular works, the exhibit or contemporary art in ways a traditional publication wouldn't.
-- E.W.
George Dombek (University of Arkansas Press, $65)
One only needs to see the wondrous watercolors of Arkansas native George Dombek to recognize his immense talent and how his background in architecture informs his hyper-realistic art. Whether painting farm equipment, rocks, flowers, birds, bicycles in trees or whatever subject he chooses, there is beauty, intelligence and a singular vision that speaks volumes to those who take time to observe and immerse within his canvases.
Dombek's work is held in hundreds of museum and corporate collections internationally. This beautiful coffee table book, with an informative and interesting essay by Henry Adams, art professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, is a superb tribute to a man who is one of the state's, and nation's, best living painters.
-- E.W.
Style on 12/21/2014