2005 / Paperback / 384 pages / Various
**
The first quarter's good, before scenic paintings make way for boring crockery and trinkets. If I'd wanted a book of landscape scrolls, I probably should have been more specific than an overview of the entire artistic output of the world's largest continent.
2005 / Paperback / 384 pages / UK/USA/France
****
An insightful and inspirational tour with a trinity I hadn't thought to group, travelling the impressionistic purgatory between serene romanticism and grim modernism with ace light effects.
2007 / Paperback / 384 pages / UK/Netherlands
***
Impressive multi-angle obsessing, even if I would've preferred another contrived comparison of similar artists to explore the connections and vex the snobs.
1976 / Hardback / 116 pages / Luxembourg/Netherlands
***
A brief biography and insubstantial analysis to read once, before most of the book is rightly given over to repetitive, mad dioramas. Turns out I don't like Bosch as much as I used to, but I still want that jigsaw.
2014 / Hardback / 64 pages / Poland
****
I'd lusted after a Beksiński book since he became my favourite weird/dark artist as a teen. I could have treated myself to more than a basic, budget release, but there's still plenty of good stuff here, in miniature.
