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List Price: $50.00 | | Publisher: Rizzoli
Salesrank: 26037
Released: November 1, 2005 |
| Our Price: $29.87 |
| Used Price: $14.95 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
American artist Elizabeth Peyton is one of the outstanding painters of her generation, a painter known for her intimate figurative portraits of youthful, romantic people, ranging from friends, to historical figures, to music world celebrities. Her work is intensely personal, but the subject becomes an intimate of both audience and artist. Peyton's ability to draw the viewer in is a result of her own fascination and curiosity about the figures she chooses. They are stylish in a timeless way and are at moments in their lives when they stand for their own ideals of independence, beauty, and artistry. Her manner is to paint small, devotional images in an "awkward, self-effacing way with an offhand intensity." Compiled by Peyton herself, the book chronicles ten years of inspiration, her works in many media, and her exhibitions, revealing the evolution of this exceptional artist who has been highly influential, in the words of the New York Times, in bringing "a return to beauty in art, a resurgence of figurative work, and a revival of painting."
Elizabeth Peyton Reviews:
Splendid - well worth acquiring 
2008-04-03 - This is a book which really lets the pictures speak for themselves. The introduction by Matthew Higgs can be read in a matter of minutes, and while interesting it does not give a lot away. Scattered throughout the book there are a few extracts from catalogues and other sources which provide just a little more information, but clearly Ms Peyton wants her pictures to speak for themselves; and this book certainly allows them to do just that.
Illustrated in full-colour throughout (with just one or two exceptions) with examples of the artists work on almost every one of its 260 plus pages, with most of the images full-page or thereabouts, it covers work produce from around 1990 to 2005. The book concludes with a short fairy tale by Dave Hickey; a brief Conversation with the Artist; Biography; Bibliography; and a List of Works.
What comes across very strongly is the artist's clear preference for slim young men as subject matter, usually romantic creatures ranging from her own friends to the famous both past and present, the latter usually music celebrities, but also including a certain young Royal. What is also very apparent is Peyton's remarkable ability to capture with such seeming ease the essence of her subject. With complete economy she is able to portray her mysterious young men convincingly and with a strong allure, one cannot but admire her facility. A splendid book very well worth acquiring.
mindless trash. 
2007-10-12 - Elizabeth Peyton is proof you don't need talent to make it as an artist. she herself cannot explain what her art is about without mumbling like an idiot and storming off. her work pushes no boundaries and exist only for the suckers who buy it.
Beautiful
2007-09-14 - The book is lovely: full high gloss photographs of her work, including sketches and paintings. I am completely pleased with my copy of this book!
vanity fair
2007-07-13 - betsy's portraits are simple and alive, a nice mix of pop art, lucian freud and renaissance art with a touch of hello maganize. is that possible? awesome.
A great portraitist.
2007-05-19 - A wonderful book that traces Elizabeth Peyton's career back to the early nineties when she started making works on paper depicting celebrities or historical figures in an intimate style up to 2005 with recent oil paintings, mostly on board, of friends or unknown, always capturing what is human and intimate in her models, whether famous or not. The quality of the reproductions shows what a great colorist she is and even gives a sense of the thickness of her brushstrokes and of the glowing effect the small jewell-like oil paintings have. So far, the definitive book on this great portraitist, with many excerpts of articles written by critics from the Village Voice to the NY Times and also an interesting interview of Craig, one of her favourite models.
