Reviews for Ronald Bladen: Sculpture

The average rating for Ronald Bladen: Sculpture based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-01-26 00:00:00 Lorenzo Ruiz An interesting collection of articles drawn from a 1998 conference on Northwest Coast archeology. I wouldn't consider this to be an archaeological textbook, in as much as I found it useful as a non-archaeologist, but it is highly academic in tone. Most of the book I think contains useful information for a general audience, though there were a couple chapters (for example, dealing with the precise dimensions of houses at different locations) which were highly specific and technical and not particularly interesting for me. I think this is a useful book for west coast Settlers interested in learning a bit about the cultures of that place. There's some really fascinating information that should be widely known by settlers but isn't. A paramount example of this is the long history of iron and copper metallurgy on the coast. Some of the most interesting archaeological finds covered in the book are examples of perishable wood items and basketry, preserved in wet-sites. Pretty cool how stuff like that can survive so long. This kind of data has been used to show both the dynamicity of these cultures and their ancient roots. A downside to this collection is that, while it's full of interesting information about West Coast peoples, it's written (as far as I can tell) by non-indigenous people. While I don't think this automatically discredits it in any way, I found it a bit strange how seldom were indigenous communities mentioned in the acknowledgements at the end of each chapter. Overall, a good book for learning about the long history of Wakashan and Coast Salish people.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-04-12 00:00:00 Keith Mitchell More a catalog of artworks than an introductory text. The first 30 pages are an essay piece giving an introduction of the movement and biographical details of a few artists. (the usual ones, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd and Robert Morris). The rest are all double spreads for individual artwork ,curiously, ordered in alphabetical order by the artist's surname. Some contexts and interpretation are given for each piece but the tone is often promotional than critical and they soon become quite repetitive. (Well, the author is an art gallery owner.) Describing the work of Carl Andre (a set of boilerplates on the ground in a chessboard arrangement), the author gave us this hyperbole : "The work appears to have clicked in with the molecular structure of the surrounding room so that none of its elements can evade being reevaluated". Oh, you don't say.