By Sandy Amazeen Jul 23, 2007, 3:02 GMT
American born painter Philip Morsberger has a strong, easily recognized style based upon a solid grounding in family and artistic principles. Lloyd presents a warm, familial biography outlining the continued importance of family imagery while following Morsberger’s rise from high school cartoonist, through training at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, service in the Korean War, attendance at the Ruskin School of Drawing at Oxford, marriage to Mary Ann and through later years as he hop-scotched across the Atlantic. Throughout both the biography and color plates, it is clear that Morsberger maintains a keen observational eye, a devotion to his art and an overlaying sense of humor.
The full color Plates section begins with some of Morsberger’s early works depicting realistic human figures dating around the mid-1950’s including “Study of a Female Head”. Many of his more political works are grouped together including the haunting “Missing” series that covers a time span from 1964 to 2003. One begins seeing the start of a different painting style in the 1972“Self-Portrait with Running Figures” and a collection of landscapes that utilizes lots of yellow, ocher and umber. By the 1980’s Morsberger has refined his vivid painting style with immediately recognized large-eyed men, floating hats, fish and bold color as seen in “The Artist’s Dream” and “Lift-Off”. Some, like “Epiphany” and “Le Rouge et le Noir”are vaguely disturbing while others like the more recent “Dog-Day Afternoon” are detailed and gently humorous. All are shown in full color, some with close-ups allowing a better appreciation for the artist and his keen eye for detail. This book is a spectacular collection to be savored by those familiar with Morseberger’s work and a great introduction to those just learning about him.
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