Synopsis
Book by Michael Sharpe Tim Laming
Revue de presse
This new collection of 175 aviation paintings is attractively packaged in a coffee table book format. (It should not be confused with John Blake's 1987 book of the same title.) The reproductions are large, crisp and colorful, and the layout generally avoids running artwork across the page gutter. Assembled with the military aviation enthusiast in mind, it provides a quick survey through eight decades of aviation art. The author includes a very broad range of material, encompassing fine art, contemporary combat art, aircraft profile illustrations and model box art- representing the diversity within the aviation art movement. The book is organized chronologically by aircraft subject, with chapter headings like "World War I", "Between the Wars", "World War II", and "Postwar". Although other recent titles have highlighted aircraft of the 1940s, this book does an excellent job of bringing to light a large number of World War I subjects. The text is generally accurate, although aircraft are occasionally mislabeled -for example a flight F-15 Eagles identified as an F-14 Tomcats or a Focke Wulf FW-190D profile captioned as a Messerschmitt Bf-109G. While the book serves as a very good introduction to a broad range of aviation art subjects, two areas for improvement came to mind. First, I would have preferred to see a bit more information about the individual paintings, such as size of the original, the medium and the date it was painted. Second, those most familiar with aviation art will notice the absence of a dozen or so of some of the best known and most prolific contemporary aviation artists. The book has 175 paintings, by 57 named artists (a handful of pieces are labeled anonymous,). But just three artists account for 40% of the artwork in the book. The task of selecting one piece or artist over another is always a challenge, but there seems to have been room to even things out a bit more. Overall, it is a colorful, attractive book at a reasonable price. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in aviation art. It should be popular with aviation enthusiasts of all ages. Hopefully, it will also find its way onto many school library shelves to inspire the next generation of aviation and space artists. --Upward Call
Recieving this book through the mail was a real pleasure. I ordered this book sight unseen with no available reviews trusting Mike Sharpe to come up with the goods and indeed he has! The book provides an overview of the history of aviation art with excellent colour reproductions of works by many of the more obscure aviation artists as well as the well known ones. Each panel has a few words about the artist as well as a full description of the aircraft or event depicted.For an aviation art nut like me in South Africa, where this kind of book is not readily available, this is real value for money.If you like aircraft and art do not hesitate to buy this book --Lee Lang
This is a terrific value for the price. Easily one of the best collections of aviation art, all beautifully reproduced, that I have ever seen. Only a few of the prints are across the fold and that too is a plus. I was particularly pleased to see that some of the lesser known, but wonderfully talented artists' work was represented. The only complaint I have is that in the introduction, there is a print of some jets in formation. They are identified as F-14s, when they are clearly F-15s and prominently marked USAF. Granted, there is a general resemblance in design between the two aircraft, but still... However, that minor gripe aside, this is an outstanding book and hopefully a second volume is in the works. --Lance Frickensmith - Frickensmith Review of Books
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