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Albert & the Whale
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Albert & the Whale
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
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Description
A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN OBSERVER BEST ART BOOK OF 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2022
‘This is a wonderful book. A lyrical journey into the natural and unnatural world’ – Patti Smith
‘Everything Philip Hoare writes is bewitching’ – Olivia Laing
An illuminating exploration of the intersection between life, art and the sea from the award-winning author of Leviathan.
Albrecht Dürer changed the way we saw nature through art. From his prints in 1498 of the plague-ridden Apocalypse – the first works mass-produced by any artist – to his hyper-real images of animals and plants, his art was a revelation: it showed us who we are but it also foresaw our future. It is a vision that remains startlingly powerful and seductive, even now.
In Albert & the Whale, Philip Hoare sets out to discover why Dürer's art endures. He encounters medieval alchemists and modernist poets, eccentric emperors and queer soul rebels, ambassadorial whales and enigmatic pop artists. He witnesses the miraculous birth of Dürer's fantastical rhinoceros and his hermaphroditic hare, and he traces the fate of the star-crossed leviathan that the artist pursued. And as the author swims from Europe to America and beyond, these prophetic artists and downed angels provoke awkward questions. What is natural or unnatural? Is art a fatal contract? Or does it in fact have the power to save us?
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Philip Hoare's Albert & the Whale is acclaimed for its imaginative and digressive narrative, leading readers on a varied adventure tracing Albrecht Dürer's legacy. Reviewers praise its captivating blend of art history, biography, and nature writing. The book is described as visionary and enlightening, with a tone that resembles modernist poetry, leaving some readers feeling unmoored while others find it intoxicating.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780008323325
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 03 March 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 23.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 290g
Pages: 304
About the Author
Philip Hoare is the author of six works of non-fiction: Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant (1990) and Noel Coward: A Biography (1995), Wilde’s Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the First World War (1997), Spike Island: The Memory of a Military Hospital (2000), and England’s Lost Eden: Adventures in a Victorian Utopia (2005). Leviathan or, The Whale (2008), won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. Most recently, The Sea Inside (2013) was published to great critical acclaim. An experienced broadcaster, Hoare wrote and presented the BBC Arena film The Hunt for Moby-Dick, and directed three films for BBC’s Whale Night. He is Visiting Fellow at Southampton University, and Leverhulme Artist-in-residence at The Marine Institute, Plymouth University, which awarded him an honourary doctorate in 2011.
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