Book Review: Imaginaire II: Magic Realism

Magic realism, or magical realism, is an aesthetic style in which magical elements or illogical scenarios appear in an otherwise realistic or even "normal" setting - wikipedia (source).

This is volume 2 of the Imaginaire, a series that features artists who mix fantasy with reality in their art. Gil Bruvel is the spotlight in this issue with 16 pages of his art and some amazing sculptures. The rest of the book showcases 50 of the best artists from all over the world. The text is in English and French.

There's art from all sorts of medium, from oils to sculptures. The paintings are beautifully rendered and evokes a sense of wonder, the same sort of feeling you get when viewing Salvador Dali's art.

This is quite unlike any other art books I collect because of the subject. The only ones which I can easily describe are the portraits and fine art style figure paintings (think the old masters style). The rest are difficult to describe with words and are better seen. "A picture says a thousand words" is apt here.

A wonderful book for those who like the magic realism genre.

The list of artists (and a gallery) included are:

• Gil Bruvel
• Galerie Princesse De Kiev
• Katarina Ali
• Karol Bak
• David M. Bowers
• Margaret Bowland
• Claus Brusen
• Jo Coquelin
• Kinuko Y. Craft
• Gerald Dareau
• Elisabeth De Lunde
• Bruno Di Maio
• Di Vogo
• Zeljko Djurovic
• Val Dyshlov
• Eike Erzmoneit
• Monica Fagan
• Magda Francot
• Igor Grechanyk
• Wolfgang Harms
• Danny Evo Heinricht
• Stephanie Henderson
• Erik Heyninck
• Michael Hiep
• Fritz Horauf
• Lukas Kandl
• Emil Kazaz
• Steven Kenny
• Ugo Levita
• Jack Lipowczan
• Brigid Marlin
• Nataliya Mudruk
• Jo Niklaus
• Hans Niklaus
• Voytek Nowakowski
• Peter Van Oostzanen
• Daniela Ovtcharov
• Isabelle Plante
• Jose Roosevelt
• Ines Scheppach
• Olga Spiegel
• Carsten Svennson
• Guy Thirion
• Tweekunst
• Cas Waterman
• Wessi
• Mark Wilkinson
• Patrick Woodroffe
• Sigfried Zademack
• Oliver Zappelli

Visit the link beside to read more reviews on Amazon. If you buy from the link, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books for review.

Here are direct links to the book:
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