Paul McCartney's Paintings

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Bookseller ReviewsWhen an exhibition of paintings by ex-beatle Paul McCartney opened in Siegen, Germany, last year, it seemed designed for critics' sarcasm. After all, Siegen was the birth place of Peter paul Rubens: What could be more offensive to the memory of the great Flemish painter than to have the splatterings of a rock singer presented in his own home city? But, McCartney's intense paintings were greeted by accolades, not jeers. More than ninety percent of the reviews were positive, many of them alluding to the range and sophistication of McCarthy's artwork. This original coffee table-size pictorial collects seventy-five paintings, photographs of the artist at work, and an extended interview with Paul: "I think there's an urge in us to stop the terrible fleetingness of time. Music. Paintings. It's the same with Linda's photos. Try and capture one bloody moment please." Relax, Paul. You've captured a few.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Yes, it's him, and no, they're not bad. In 1982, after years spent as a collector and in the company of artists, McCartney began painting his first canvases, inspired (as he notes repeatedly in the various interviews here), primarily by the late Willem de Kooning, who lived down the road from him at the time. The paintings he produced then and since--selected here in 117 color illustrations and 17 duotone photos--readily show the late de Kooning's influence: lush color washes, careful blocking of the canvas, airy abstraction. The problem is that none of McCartney's paintings in this style approach his models in terms of brush work, or significance. Inane titles and commentary on the work do not help matters. McCartney and interlocutor Wolfgang Suttner, a culture bureaucrat in the German county of Siegen-Wittgenstein, have the following exchange over Big Mountain Face, which furnishes the book's cover: Suttner: "It is the McCartney style, it is drainage. I think we talked about this picture being like the face in the mountain." McCartney: "Yes, like Mount Rushmore, the monumental faces of American presidents. It's as if someone has carved this great big face on the side of the mountain." A loose assortment of little-known art journalists with varying degrees of separation from McCartney (one was "supported by McCartney" in a gallery endeavor and is a former editor of the Beatles' literary imprint, Zapple), provide further insights into works like Boxer lips, Sea God, Mr. Kipps; Brains on Fire and Bowie Spewing (McCartney: "Which means being sick"). But the paintings are pleasant to look at, at times evoking Philip Guston (White Dream) and '80s landscape artist Christian Brechneff, and fans will be happy to see their man has a hobby at which he excels. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|