Barbara Chase Riboud:Sculptor

Rating:
Summary: A superbly written presentation on a major sculptor's work.
Review: Barbara Chase-Riboud is one of the most significant and original sculptors of her generation. Her dramatic explorations of literary and historical themes earned her a presence in major museums throughout American and Europe. Barbara Chase-Riboud: Sculptor is a richly illustrated presentation and overview of her 30 hear career as a sculptor and draftsman. Peter Selz and Anthony Janson are distinguished art historians who draw upon their considerable expertise to reveal how history, archaeology, spiritualism, the Baroque tradition, and Chase-Riboud's parallel career as a poet-novelist worked together to influence her work, from the Malcom X, Tantra, Zanzibar, and Cleopatra series to her recent monument Africa Rising -- the award-wining New York City landmark commemorating an African-American burial ground from the colonial slave-era. Barbara Chase-Riboud: Sculptor is a superb and informative addition to any personal, academic, or community library art history collection.

Rating:
Summary: A truly wonderful artist
Review: Barbara Chase-Riboud, one of the most amazing artists of the twentieth century, challenged many assumptions about what constitutes art, interrogating the viewer with complex and unforgettable images. Unfortunately, the male writers of this book seem unable to properly celebrate this brilliant artist; they do little other than catalogue her "influences", which one might better describe as the incredibly rich variety of artistic discourses of the past, which Chase-Riboud used subversively and excitingly. African and Egyptian influences are obvious, but she was also engaged with baroque art and Surrealsim (but *always* making it her *own*). Perhaps a better book will someday be written. This is an artist all Women should be able to study from, if only she were to become better known.