good art, bad editing


Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art (Taschen 25th Anniversary Series). Great book, good illustrations. Some of the chapters are very badly edited, however. One repeats the phrase "his illness, from which he never recovered" four times in a short chapter. More typically, they end abruptly with no proper conclusion, as if chopped so as not to exceed space limitations. The writing/editing is the disappointing weak point here. Other times, terms are dropped or events referenced that have not yet been explained in the text. As an art book, the strength of the art can carry it. But it's a shame that it had to be this way.

Bad translation


Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art (Taschen 25th Anniversary Series). I think that there is a good balance between text and images, and the images are of high quality. However, this book and other Taschen books that I have read suffer from poor translation. I work in translation and it appears to me that they did not use a native English speaker to translate from the German, as there are quite a few clunky sentences.

If you do not want to read, by postcards instead...


Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art (Taschen 25th Anniversary Series). Picture books are nice... but if you want some information too, it'll have to be some text in it, otherwise you might as well buy a postcardbook instead... It is beyond my comprehension that someone here critisizes a book for providing information instead of images only, and this you find plenty in here.

Where's the art?


Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art (Taschen 25th Anniversary Series). I really hate art books that are all writing, too few images, and this is a classic one of those. Prof. Elger waxes on (and on) about the meaning of the paintings but talks so little about formalistic issues (he is obiviously not a painter nor cares much about the art of painting). I suppose what he says is of interest to some, but as an artist I cared very little for the book.