Author Description

Arnold Newman's star was already established in the photographic firmament when Godine published his first book, One Mind's Eye, in 1975. It confirmed his ability to portray the wealthy, powerful, and famous with sympathy, insight, and dignity. In association with the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, we have assembled fifty-six of Newman's photographs of artists, all of whom have been connected with the great state of Maine. Included are the "old guard" Hopper, Martin, O'Keeffe, Sheeler, Sloan, and Steichen, to name but a few, as well as the new generation of abstract expressionists and modernists rising to fill their shoes Red Grooms, Robert Indiana, James Rosenquist, and Paul Caponigro. Unlike previous books, each portrait will be accompanied by an essay by Michael Komanecky, the Farnsworth's Chief Curator. What emerges from the portraits is the fact that Newman was first, foremost, and always, an artist, using the tool of his camera much as a painter would a brush.