A Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.
to e-mail us: support the site buy us books ! Amazon wishlist |
Stroke by Stroke general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author
- Return to top of the page -
Our Assessment:
(-) : attractive, mystifying See our review for fuller assessment.
From the Reviews: - Return to top of the page - The complete review's Review:
Stroke by Stroke consists of two volumes of Henri Michaux's drawing-dominated books.
There is some text -- explanation, poetic variations on the themes -- but it is the striking black-ink drawings that dominate.
Insects, especially insects, were happening to me. Intrigued, I became more and more of a bug. Even though I thought they had completely slipped my mind.Many of the pictures are of animals and insects, mostly roughly drawn, rarely just a single creature on a page, as Michaux prefers to show transitions and groups. There's a sense of scrawl to the drawings, the black ink too thick for precise detail, and yet their very roughness makes them more evocative. Influenced by Chinese ideograms, there's a sense of double-meaning -- as well as that of the personal hand-writing behind the images, a distinctive style connecting creator and content. Michaux has little interest in precise realism: What is a resemblance without dissemblance ?Among his ambitions is specifically: "To disobey form." Tension is almost always present in the pictures -- the sense of motion he tries to capture, for example. The first volume is called Grasp -- an attempt, among other things: "To grasp the underlying." From there he moves to Stroke by Stroke, more focussed on action ("Gestures rather than signs"), looking to transform, release, approach, explore -- all "stroke by stroke". It's an appealing and attractive volume, if occasionally frustrating (though that frustration of communication is an essential part of what he is trying to convey). The imagery is striking, the text limited but intriguing. Worthwhile. - Return to top of the page - Stroke by Stroke:
- Return to top of the page - French poet and painter Henri Michaux lived from 1899 to 1984. - Return to top of the page -
© 2006-2010 the complete review
|