A to Z: Great Modern Artists

Graphic designer Tuohy and art historian Masters introduce readers to the work of 52 modernists whom they deem to have had “a profound and lasting impact on the art world.” The book’s sleek design features pop art-inspired portraits of each artist with bright colors and crisp lines, often with a nod to the individual’s artistic style. Tuohy’s Basquiat is a boxy take on the artist’s famous self-portrait; Giacometti is depicted with the same “slender, attenuated proportions” of his sculptural subjects; and Pollock is drawn with a paint can for a head. Masters provides brief commentary, noting the artists’ biographies, influences, affiliations, methods, and major works, with accompanying fun facts like Duchamp’s penchant for chess and Klee’s early career as a violinist. The authors mostly cover heavy hitters like Chagall, Dalí, Hopper, and Kahlo, occasionally widening the spectrum globally with artists such as Lebanese painter and sculptor Saloua Raouda Choucair, Sudanese painter Ibrahim El-Salahi, and the “Pablo Picasso of [India],” Maqbool Fida Husain. This is a quick and fun primer of Modernism’s greats, though light on the art itself, with only one or two small prints of each artist’s work; and of the 52 artists represented, there are only six women. [em](June) [/em]