'Yves Tanguy' - Katharina Schmidt, Prestel, 1982

Edited by Katharina Schmidt

Published by Prestel, 1982

Paperback, 282 pages

64 paintings in colour, a bunch in b&w

Language: German

ISBN: 3-7913-0616-2

Catalog of the retrospective at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 17-Oct-1982 to 2-Jan-1983

Verdict: v v good.  Currently the book I turn to most often when I need a fix.

It's in classic art book format, with the bits that nobody reads at the front, a juicy print section in the middle and ephemera at the back.

Tanguy's entire career is covered but, painting-wise, there is a bias towards the '20s and '30s.  The later years are not so well covered.

First 120 pages = text (in German) with lots of black & white illustrations (photos, paintings by Tanguy and others, etc).  The print quality here is okay.  Fairly detailed if a bit grey.

Paintings (colour and b&w) = 112 pages

- Colour prints are very good quality, and there are 64 of them

- Mostly given a page each, good size but with a decent white border (which I prefer to full page, generally)

- Only one double-page spread

Drawings and Exquisite Corpses = 20 pages

Catalog of works in exhibition = 14 pages

Biography with b&w photos = 12 pages

I managed to get mine for 12 quid, and would place in the "10 - 25 quid" bracket.

'Yves Tanguy' - Bihan, Mabin, Sawin, Editions Palantines, 2001

By René Le Bihan, Renée Mabin and Martica Sawin

Published by Embannaduriou An Here, 2001

Hardback, 301 pages

ISBN 2-86843-244-1

(This is the Breton language version of the Editions Palantines volume, ISBN 2-911434-17-X)

Still not the perfect Tanguy book, but v good.

- Images separate from text

- All in colour

- All a decent size

Gripes:

- Some images disappearing into the gutter (where spread across two pages)

- Some coloured borders

- Not sure about having the paintings all the way to the edge of the page

It beats the Karin von Maur book (see previous post) on layout, image size and number of paintings.  But I'm not sure about print quality.  It's more variable in this volume.  Comparing prints of the same painting, the von Maur repros generally look brighter and sharper.  Whether that makes them better or not is a matter of taste, obvs.  If I had to choose between the two I would pick this one.

Like the von Maur volume, I'd put this in the 20 to 30 quid bracket.