I’ve always been intrigued by the juxtaposition of visions and styles in the same visual space. Hanging disparate artworks together is a great example of this and I wrote about it in a blog post last year entitled “the odd couple”.
I’ve recently been digesting a great little book titled “The Art Book” (Phaidon). I have the 1997 edition measuring just 5 x 6 1/2 in. It’s not just the content which fascinates me, although excellent, it’s that it is organized by one artist per page, arranged alphabetically. I love the randomness of the inadvertent pairings, page after page, putting together artists of different ages, schools and visions, linked by the hazard of their surnames.
We’re invited to consider together Michelangelo with the Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais; portraits by Renoir and Joshua Reynolds; the French landscape artist Theodore Rousseau alongside the monumental Rubens; Hans Holbein with Winslow Homer; Turner with the abstract work of Ty Twombly and of course, Claude Monet with Henry Moore.
In each case, the forced comparison seems to bring out the best in both works and artists.
There is now a new edition – larger (11 3/8 x 9 7/8 in) and much revised. I’ve not read this one as yet, but do know that with additions and subtractions the pagination changes resulting in a whole new set of pairings.
In this new version, Monet is paired with Piet Mondrian!