Great Gifts for Mom: THE ARTIST'S MOTHER

Nancy Davison pays tribute to The Artist's Mother on this Mother's Day weekend: "Lavishly illustrated with reproductions of paintings and drawings of their mothers by thirty-three artists, this book offers a quick overview of art history and a brief survey of women’s lives from Albrecht Dürer’s mother in 1490 to Andy Warhol’s mother in 1974 (pictured here: "Julia Warhola"). Judith Thurman, a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of books about Isak Dineson and Collette, wrote the introduction “A Mother’s Gift, a Child’s Homage” dedicated to the idea that we are all mothers and that we are all artists. A combination of art history and social history, the book’s basic format is simple and effective—a brief essay about the artist and the artist’s mother on the left side, the picture of her on the right. The reproductions are crisp and uncropped. Regardless of style or medium, the artists all approached their mothers with an unsentimental, unsparing eye. Relationships between them jump off the page. The images are boldly executed in a wide variety of styles. Many of the male all-stars—Dürer, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Picasso—are represented; they are joined by female artists such as Anguissola, Cassatt, and Kahlo, as well as artists of color—Motley and Tanner—and even some of the academic painters such as Købke and Blanche, who won fame and fortune in their time but are no longer in fashion. . . The mothers gaze at us from their canvases—wary, confident, or preoccupied. They are often the convenient subjects of their children’s earliest work, sometimes painted from life and sometimes from memory or from photographs. Many of the women actively supported their children’s careers as artists by sitting as models or providing financial and emotional security. Others died young or raised their children in hardship and want. The images are excellent and the relationships between the artists and their mothers are vivid and concrete."

THE ARTIST'S MOTHER: Great Painters Pay Tribute to the Gals Who Rocked Their Cradles

The Artist's Mother, reviewed by Shana Nys Dambrot on Flavorwire: "It’s a simple idea but a powerful one — and perhaps the single greatest Mother’s Day gift idea of all time. The Artist’s Mother collects depictions of the maternal unit across six centuries of Western art history giants. There’s the iconic Whistler from 1871 of course — he really inspired the project, and like many, his portrait of mom went on to be his most famous work. Also in the pages, Toulouse-Lautrec — whom one never really thinks of as having a mom, and it turns out she was a Countess (pictured here) — plus Gauguin, Seurat, van Gogh, Picasso (with a pair of pictures of his mom: a haunting, candlelit love letter with no cubism in evidence from when he was only 15; and a later example from 1923, by which time his style had completely altered yet he restrained his avant-garde impulses in favor of elegance on this occasion), and even a rare 1974 Andy Warhol. If it’s true that we all become our parents, then maybe painting our mothers can be seen as predictive self-portraiture, an especially poignant notion when you look at the 15th century Durers and the 17th century Rembrandts in the book, and think about how famous both men became for obsessively depicting themselves. The collection is introduced with a moving essay by Judith Thurman entitled “A Mother’s Gift, A Child’s Homage” in which we discover that mothers really do get excited when their kids immortalize them on canvas."

THE ARTIST'S MOTHER in More Magazine

The Artist's Mother is featured in this month's More magazine: "Mother as muse may not be a common theme in art history books, but great painters have often paid homage to the women who raised them. In The Artist's Mother, the editors at the Overlook Press have collected, for the first time, 36 portraits of famous artists' mothers: Anna van Gogh taught her son Vincent to draw, and Katherine Cassatt, a Victorian matron, encouraged her daughter Mary's bohemian lifestyle. While their offspring have long been anointed as geniuses, these women finally have their place in history too. Its one that is much richer than oil on canvas." —Rebecca Adler Warren

Overlook Preview: THE ARTIST'S MOTHER

Just in time for Mother's Day (May 10) is a new book that illustrates how artists have found ways to incorporate their mothers into their most famous paintings. The Artist’s Mother is the first-ever collection of paintings by famous artists of the women who created them. This beautiful book offers masterpieces by some of the greatest painters in history, including Rembrandt van Rijn, Mary Cassatt, James McNeill Whistler, Vincent van Gogh, Archibald Motley, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Arshile Gorky, Andy Warhol, and many others. The portraits are accompanied by the touching, surprising, and timeless stories about each artist’s relationship with his or her mother, and how each painting came to be. With an introduction by National Book Award winner Judith Thurman, The Artist’s Mother is a true celebration of the mother-child bond and of the many ways in which mothers make the world a more beautiful place.

Milton Glaser and Judith Thurman Discuss DRAWING AS THINKING

Milton Glaser, author of Drawing is Thinking and Art is Work, at a recent event with writer Judith Thurman in New York City.

Milton Glaser's DRAWING IS THINKING in Town & Country

Drawing is Thinking, the new book by Milton Glaser, is featured in Town & Country magazine's holiday gift guide: "A trove of the eminent graphic designer's works on paper spanning almost sixty years, pairs both like and unlike images. The juxtapositions, says Judith Thurman in her introduction. lead the reader to question not just what the eye sees but, more interestingly, what the mind makes of it all." - John Cantrell

Milton Glaser's DRAWING IS THINKING at Rubin Museum in NYC on October 29

The renowned graphic designer and artist Milton Glaser celebrates the launch of his new book Drawing is Thinking with a talk at New York's Rubin Museum of Art on Wednesday, October 29, at 7pm. Glaser will discuss his commitment to the fundamental idea that drawing is not simply a way to represent reality, but, as the title suggests, a way to understand and experience the world. Discussion, museum tour, and booksigning. For more information: 212.620.5000 x344 / rmanyc.org.