Stars in My Eyes
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Overview
Stars in My Eyes is a revealing and entertaining collection of celebrity portraits, rendered both in acute drawings and in finely observed prose. In the 1970s and 1980s, internationally known artist Don Bachardy made portraits from life, depicting the actors, writers, artists, composers, directors, and Hollywood elite that he and his partner Christopher Isherwood knew. He then made detailed notes about these portrait sittings in the journal he has kept for more than forty years. The result is a unique document: we enter the mind of the artist as he records the images and behavior of his celebrity subjects—from Ruby Keeler and Barbara Stanwyck to Jack Nicholson and Linda Ronstadt—during their often intense collaboration with him.
Finalist, Lambda Book Award
Synopsis
Stars in My Eyes is a revealing and entertaining collection of celebrity portraits, rendered both in acute drawings and in finely observed prose. In the 1970s and 1980s, internationally known artist Don Bachardy made portraits from life, depicting the actors, writers, artists, composers, directors, and Hollywood elite that he and his partner Christopher Isherwood knew. He then made detailed notes about these portrait sittings in the journal he has kept for more than forty years. The result is a unique document: we enter the mind of the artist as he records the images and behavior of his celebrity subjects—from Ruby Keeler and Barbara Stanwyck to Jack Nicholson and Linda Ronstadt—during their often intense collaboration with him.
Publishers Weekly
Like Richard Avedon's noted portrait photographs, Bachardy's pencil and ink wash drawings (from early in his career) and his later pen and brush, and then just brush, paintings distill the essence of a sitter with a startlingly blunt honesty that is often not very flattering. Bachardy, whose work hangs in such museums as the Metropolitan in New York and London's National Portrait Gallery, has assembled portraits of 33 noted personalities in the arts--including Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, Linda Ronstadt, Ellsworth Kelly, James Merrill, Iris Murdoch, Ruby Keeler--along with his diary entries about the sittings, which occurred between 1973 and 1984. As striking as his drawings are, his perceptive and informative journal entries are what make this collection so vital. Candid, often witty and decidedly opinionated, he spares no details about how difficult some of his subjects have been ("I will have approval of what you do today, won't I?" inquires a diffident Alice Faye). Speaking frequently of his own life (he was novelist Christopher Isherwood's lover for 33 years, beginning when Bachardy was 18 and the writer was 48), Bachardy provides a unique view of his creative process. He is at his most revealing, however, when he describes the complex interplay between subject and artist. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Like Richard Avedon's noted portrait photographs, Bachardy's pencil and ink wash drawings (from early in his career) and his later pen and brush, and then just brush, paintings distill the essence of a sitter with a startlingly blunt honesty that is often not very flattering. Bachardy, whose work hangs in such museums as the Metropolitan in New York and London's National Portrait Gallery, has assembled portraits of 33 noted personalities in the arts--including Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, Linda Ronstadt, Ellsworth Kelly, James Merrill, Iris Murdoch, Ruby Keeler--along with his diary entries about the sittings, which occurred between 1973 and 1984. As striking as his drawings are, his perceptive and informative journal entries are what make this collection so vital. Candid, often witty and decidedly opinionated, he spares no details about how difficult some of his subjects have been ("I will have approval of what you do today, won't I?" inquires a diffident Alice Faye). Speaking frequently of his own life (he was novelist Christopher Isherwood's lover for 33 years, beginning when Bachardy was 18 and the writer was 48), Bachardy provides a unique view of his creative process. He is at his most revealing, however, when he describes the complex interplay between subject and artist. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Library Journal
Portraitist Bachardy (Christopher Isherwood: Last Drawings) muses on the implications of looking and being looked at in this book comprising drawings of celebrities and diary entries spanning the 1970s and 1980s. Through literary icon Isherwood (his companion of over 30 years), the artist gained entrance to a world that mesmerized him at an early age. This culmination of his work is a fascinating blend of art and anecdote. Bachardy's own interpretations, however, tend to undermine his purported intention to portray truthfulness of vision (his vision) regardless of his subjects' preconceptions. Thus, the reader is treated to a highly subjective (though entertaining) view despite the pretense of objectivity. The author seems spellbound by his subjects--many in the twilight of their careers, including Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, Vincente Minnelli, and Aaron Copland--yet often becomes disenchanted to the point of cattiness (even misanthropy) when reality betrays image. As such, this "experience" of portraiture and deconstruction of image reveals as much about the artist as it does his sitters. Recommended.--Jayne Plymale, Univ. of Georgia, Athens Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\Booknews
A collection of celebrity portraits by artist Don Bachardy, accompanied by accounts of his sittings with actors, writers, artists, composers, directors, and Hollywood elite. Drawings and paintings were created in the 1980s and 1990s, and show celebrities at the end of their careers, including Bette Davis and Laurence Olivier, as well as others at the height of their stardom, such as Jack Nicholson, Mia Farrow, and Linda Ronstadt. Bachardy's drawings and paintings are in the collections of many major art museums. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Ted Loos
Bachardy wangled a remarkable number of eminent and often reluctant people, among them Henry Fonda, Alec Guinness, Ingrid Bergman and Ginger Rogers. Fifty-five images from the 1970's and early 80's appear in Stars in My Eyes. Bachardy captured likenesses quite quickly, doing all his drawings in front of the models and never reworking them later. However, the sharpest feature of the book is the writing. Bachardy's journal entries about each session accompany the drawings, and they are full of oddly acute observations....his recollection is richer than most celebrity profiles you'll read this year.—New York Times Book Review