Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Part of the Contemporary Arts Series this text presents 450 works of art, photography, architecture and design. It includes Andy Warhol's Marilyn, Piano and Rogers' Centre Beaubourg, Karsh's Winston Churchill, Alec Issigonis' Mini Major and Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother.

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Booklist Review

This collection represents a new direction in the Contemporary Arts series, which heretofore has been biographical--Contemporary Artists, Contemporary Architects, Contemporary Photographers, and Contemporary Designers. An advisory board of 20 scholars, critics, curators, and historians recommended for inclusion here 450 individual works of art, architecture, photography, and design "which have achieved the status of `masterpiece' or `classic' and have made a significant contribution to twentieth century culture." Featured works are presented in a full-page black-and-white photograph with catalog data, a signed critical essay, and a bibliography on the facing page. In "Art," the first and largest section (142 works), entries include paintings, assemblage, collage, earthworks, prints, mixed media, sculpture, and performance work. Arranged alphabetically by artist (as are other sections), it begins with documentation of Mariana Abramovic/Ulay's performance work, Gold Found by the Artist, and ends with Tom Wesselmann's Great American Nude No. 57. Among the familiar entries are Christo's Valley Curtain, Picasso's Guernica, Oppenheim's Fur-Lined Teacup, and Jackson Pollock's Autumn Rhythm. Some of the essays are confined to the technique and influence of the work shown; others discuss the piece in relation to the artist's other work. The lack of color in the photographic reproductions is glaring in this section, as, for instance, in Helen Frankenthaler's Flood, described as a "monumental abstract with . . . surging bands of color." "Architecture," which includes 108 works, begins with Aalto's Paimio Tuberculosis Sanatorium. The insightful essay explains the background of the project, the rationale for its design, its reception, its use today, and its influence on contemporary building design. The essay on Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the last work in this section, describes the spiral gallery space and circulation pattern, calling the well "one of the great interior spaces of the twentieth century." No mention is made of the controversy surrounding the addition and renovation first proposed in 1987. Other well-known sites covered are Pelli's World Financial Center, the Pompidou Center, Habitat '67, and the Sydney Opera House. "Photography" starts with Ansel Adams' Moon and Half Dome. A perceptive essay examines Adams' work in terms of inspiration, technique, and philosophy and analyzes the selected photograph as typical of his art. The section ends with one of Mariana Yampolsky's documentary prints of Mexican village life. Among the famous photographs reproduced and discussed are Robert Capa's Collaborator, Eddie Adams' Vietnamese General Executing Vietcong, and Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother. The 101 "Design" works are diverse. In addition to several chairs, cars, typefaces, and posters, we find corporate identity programs (IBM, CBS); advertising campaigns (Volkswagen, Mobil, Playboy); fashions (Mary Quant's minidress and Christian Dior's "New Look"); and products (Fiskars scissors and the Lego construction toy system). The bibliographies appended to each essay consist of from two to a dozen citations to journal articles and monographs that usually focus on the specific masterwork or medium. For example, the monographs and exhibition catalogs cited with David Hockney's photomontage deal with his photographs and those with the essay on his painting deal with that aspect of his work. There is no access to the works by title. They are listed in the front of the book after the maker's name but without page numbers. An index to artists, architects, photographers, designers, engineers, design studios, and manufacturers is provided at the end of the book, but there is no way to find the Sydney Opera House, for instance, if you don't know the architect. The credentials of the 160 essayists and the advisory board members (many of whom are also contributors) are listed. Any selection of "masterworks" invites argument in terms of who and what is included, and there is no doubt that some choices are questionable. The poor quality of the black-and-white images and the lack of color in the "Art" section is unfortunate. Nevertheless, Contemporary Masterworks is a scholarly, accessible reference work providing international coverage of many of the icons of twentieth-century art, architecture, photography, and design. (Reviewed Apr. 15, 1992)