Artists: Their Lives and Works (DK History Changers)

This is a beautiful, informative book on the lives of artists. As an art history major I wasn't sure if I would learn much and bought it first for the illustrations. But as I read each chapter I was intrigued. The author did a fabulous job researching facts to make the book quite interesting.A must buy!

This book has all ranges of art through our past. So beautiful and everything well explained. Well worth it. So much inside....

Love it! Beautiful book and was delivered fast.. no damage to the book

Highly recommend! Beautiful book! I ordered this book as a Christmas present for my brother. He is an artist.The cover is beautiful as are the pictures inside. It contains a lot of information about famous artists. I can't wait to give it to him!

Ross King wrote the introduction. I take it that this was an endorsement in a way. So I bought the book. This old painter who reads a lot on art and artists learned new lore on each featured artist. Colorful and graphically well done. And, check out art books written by Ross King.

Don’t get me wrong. This is a nice book. I like DK anthologies and find them to be interesting, informative and visually well presented. And this is not a “greatest painters” list per se. But in a way it kind of is and like all best of lists what’s not included is as “interesting” as what is. That being said, the selections are VERY euro/Japan/China specific… and very male. I think there may be no more than 3-4 female artists featured in the whole book.In North America, Frida Khalo is pretty much the only non US artist shown. Diego Rivera is not even featured. The South American continent pretty much doesn’t exist here, not a single mention. Africa doesn’t get a single one either. Asia is confined to Russia, Japan and China. There are no Indian artists (aside from one Indian American) or artists from the Middle East featured either. I get that painting is not as common an art form in some of these regions but there are pure sculptors featured as well.Even the US gets a somewhat short shift. Grant Wood, Andrew Wyeth, Norman Rockwell are not featured. Frederic Remington led Western art in painting and sculpture and didn’t even get a mentionAnd even some of the most famous works of art aren’t shown. Discussing Vermeer without showing “Girl with the Pearl Earring” kind of seems like sacrilege. As does discussing Michelangelo without showing “Moses” or nothing more than a zoomed out shot of the “Sistine Chapel” ceilingSo, to sum up, it’s a nicely presented, visually interesting book about famous artists, but not what I would consider the most balanced overall global representation.

This is a coffee table book a bit on the smaller (manageable) side. It has incredibly clear graphics and narrative good enough to study. I love it and highly recommend it.

What a beauty of a table top book! Don’t even think of putting this on the bookshelf!! That would be a waste of its beauty and it won’t even fit! It’s a table top book for sure. I always keep mine in clear plastic bag or clear plastic wrap around it and I take it off when I have company ha ha! I cherish my books and I don’t want them to get dirty or dusty!