Meyer Schapiro

Admirers of the late, legendary art historian Meyer Schapiro will find this first publication of his own artwork a revelation. More than 200 paintings, drawings, and sculptures are reproduced; along with three never-published essays -- "On Representing and Knowing", "Color as Expressive", and "Drawing from the Figure" -- they yield a surprising private view of this Renaissance man who was a giant figure in American intellectual and artistic life from the 1930s until his death in 1996 at age 91.Of special interest are Schapiro's self-portraits and renderings of such notable people as Bernard Berenson, Whittaker Chambers, and Irving Howe. An introduction by Schapiro's widow, Lillian Milgram Schapiro, gives insights into his early art education, and a preface by New York Times art critic John Russell provides a personal reminiscence of this inspirational figure in the art world who soared above the crowd as "one of nature's illuminants".