Artists at Home

I am very nosy when it comes to peering into people's houses, so in that respect, this was a great book. Lots of full colour, detailed pictures of artists' houses. Minimal text with a potted history of the artist's life and whatever connection they had to the house they lived in accompanies the pictures. It's glossy, it's beautiful but on the whole it wasn't for me. There were precious few women artists here, and a lot of establishment figures. In many cases I struggled to see the importance of the house they lived in with regard to the work they produced. Of course, just as a woman's sex was a bar to her career as an artist for much of art history, she may also have found it equally difficult to be a home owner. On the other hand, we know that for a long time, many women artist's chose to depict the domestic sphere, simply because it was available to them. I would have liked to have seen more discussion and illustration of this in the book. The book took the safe route. It felt like something you'd buy someone as a gift if you didn't know them well but knew they liked 'art'.

It's a great table book or addition to the collection of an interior design or painting -lover. It covers artists from diverse nationalities, however mostly Europe and Americas, time periods and different gender (yes, women too), but all of them had iconic houses which reflected on their art and vice versa.It contains big high quality prints or photos and well structured essential, but not overwhelming amount of information with them. Beautiful graphic design.

I've never placed a lot of thought into what artists' homes looked like. I just assumed most artists had regular, boring houses. This book has informed me that this isn't true at all. I flipped through it (cause no one actually reads coffee table books) and was surprised by how eclectic some of the artists' décor was. It's extremely fascinating to see how these artists lived. In a time where I'd just use google the answer if I had a random thought along the lines of this book's content, this book is far better organized and laid out than any website would be. I definitely recommend checking this out.

I am one of those people who says: “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.” Well, I like this book, a lavish coffee-table volume, filled with beautiful photographs, in which Susie Hodge takes us to the homes of thirty famous artists and shows us the domestic surroundings where these men and women lived, loved, and, in many cases, brought their creations to life. In each chapter, Hodge provides a brief biography of the artist and some information about their home - and then lets the photographs do the talking.Hodge’s selection ranges from the house that J.M.W. Turner designed for himself in Twickenham, Sandycombe Lodge, to Yinka Shonibare’s home studio in a former carpet warehouse in Hackney. Along the way we see inside Paul Cézanne’s country home in Aix-en-Provence; Georgia O’Keefee’s adobe hacienda, Rancho de los Burros, in New Mexico; René Magritte’s rented apartment in Brussels; and La Casa Azul, the French-style Mexican house where Frida Kahlo lived - and where she had an affair with Leon Trotsky….something I did *not* expect to learn from this book!Other artistic luminaries whose homes are featured include Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Salvador Dalí and Lucian Freud. I was especially interested in seeing the unpretentious stone house in Essoyes where Pierre-Auguste Renoir lived and worked with his family, including his son Jean, who grew up to become one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema: one can’t help but wonder if his masterpiece, La règle du jeu, was influenced by the lively scenes he would have experienced growing up in a house full of artistic and creative characters.I began this review by saying that I don’t know much about art; I shall conclude by saying that the Picasso Museum in Paris is one of my favorite places on the planet. A photograph of Picasso amidst the clutter of his home, La Californie in Cannes, graces the cover of Artists At Home and inside there are several wonderful photos of Picasso surrounded by paintings, sculptures, and ceramics, ample evidence of a unique individual who was always creating.Books like this are not necessarily meant to be read cover-to-cover; like any good coffee-table book, Artists At Home is something to be dipped into and revisited. Susie Hodge has curated a book that will feel at home in your home - and which is also recommended as a gift for your art-loving friends.

This was a neat find. I liked that there were some lesser known artist in here. It wasn't filled with the usual suspects which made this all the more interesting. Beautiful photographs blend nicely with some written detail and information about the space and the artist. This really gives you a unique look at some creative minds and how they live.I have found this to be the "go to" coffee table book for our guests. They have really enjoyed it and has sparked some great conversations. I've also taken some inspiration from a few of the pages.Really unique and well curated book.

Artists at Home is a lovely, oversized coffee table book with many beautiful photos and more narrative than expected about artists and the creative inspiration drawn from their surroundings. The concept reminded me of a piece I once read in Architectural Digest that took the reader inside Marc Chagall’s home, though this provides a broader experience being a cover to cover collection about 30 artists who are diverse as to things such as gender, art medium, background and culture, time period and more.This book is casual entertainment but also educational. I felt a tad ignorant at first as I didn’t recognize almost 1/3 of the artists, but a friend who’s an artist and long time art educator commented after browsing this book that she hadn’t heard of 8 of the artists. I’ve displayed this book a few months, and it evokes more interest, commentary and conversation than any other coffee table book I own. I find it a bit wordy at times, but it continues to interest me and I even look back at photos (Monet’s kitchen is stunning) for decorative ideas for an upcoming renovation. Like it a lot. 4.5 stars.