I'm conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I welcome any attempts to bring attention to Eyvind Earle's life and works. On the other hand, I think Awaking Beauty could have been a lot better.
The nice things about it is that they pulled out all the stops on these reproductions. They are beautiful and often appropriately sized, while still giving them space to breath on the page. There are quite a few works in here, especially those pertaining to Earle's early life and studies, that are impossible to track down in print or online. Finally, we can see some of the brilliant watercolor landscapes that Earle goes on and on about during his roadtrip journal in Horizon Bound! And the Easter special! (I wish they could have tracked down some of the navy portraits though.)
Moving on to the bad: Upon seeing the title and description for this book, and knowing that it was made to commemorate a show at the Disney Family Museum, I knew this book would show some of Earle's non-Disney work but have a distinct focus on the art he created for the numerous productions he was attached to throughout his years at Disney. The Disney section is wonderful, but it's too short. At about 60 pages, it covers only a third of the book. I was so looking forward to wonderful reproductions of some of the concept works I've seen in online auction catalogs and others that find their way to the internet here and there. But very little of it makes it into the book. It's still quite a lot by comparison, but you could fill a whole book with just the Sleeping Beauty stuff I've seen out there alone. I could be mistaken, but I don't think anything made it from his foray into the Little Golden Book collection either.
Most of the textual information found in this book is rehashed or directly quoted from Earle's autobiography, Horizon Bound on a Bicycle. The quotes are completely unattributed in the main part of the book, which is a little jarring, but the source is made clear in a small paragraph on the copyright page at the end. The book seems to rely a lot on this reprinted material to carry it; seeing Earle's own words beside his artwork is great, but it takes up a disproportionate amount of the text (I'm not counting poetry here.) I would have liked a more cohesive narrative or supporting details that add something to what's already available. But even in areas where the writers summarize events in their own words, much of the nuance of Earle's life is lost as well and you end up with a frustratingly vague picture of who he was and where he came from. He led a very interesting life and it's a shame to water it down to such an extent.
Lastly, not only does the book lift a lot of it's text from Horizon Bound, but they devoted over 10 pages to reprinting 26 of the 70 chapterhead illustrations found in it. I can understand reprinting a few to show Earle's scratch board works, but many of these are repetitive and some are quite simple works hardly worthy of their own page. I don't mean to insult the sentimental value when I say that, but for such a prolific artist who has so few publications dedicated to his work, these pages just start to feel like they exist simply to pad it out. Not only that, but if you want to see them all, why not just buy the book they were made for? Though I've only got a chance to look through Earle's other book, The Complete Works of Eyvind Earle, only once, I heavily suspect the same could be said for many of the works that comprise the last 30 or so pages of Awaking Beauty as well.
And a note on the physical book: The dust jacket is very fragile and the book itself wasn't shrinkwrapped. As a result, though I preordered, my book still arrived with a torn and beat up dust jacket.
This was a long review. I understand that this book was a labor of love for those involved and I don't mean to disparage their effort, and it's entirely possible that the production of this book suffered limitations beyond its creators' control, but so much of this book seems to me a lost opportunity. There is so much out there by Eyvind Earle that's already had its chance to shine and I would have liked to see this book focus more on things that haven't found their way to print. I will still display it proudly on my shelf, as I'm excited to see any of Earle's Disney work collected. Here's to hoping that some day we will get to see more of Earle's stunning concept work on our shelves.
Edit: I just wanted to add, that if you want to find some good quality images for a large amount of Earle's Sleeping Beauty work all in one place (along with a few other gems,) search for him on the Heritage Auctions.
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此商品在美国亚马逊上最有用的商品评论
美国亚马逊：
33 条评论
N. W.
A beautiful book with a few disappointments
2017年8月26日 -
已在美国亚马逊上发表已确认购买
Britt Le Bonzo
An Enigmatic & Introspective Genius
2022年1月9日 -
已在美国亚马逊上发表已确认购买
Lori
Great book but was damaged and they would not replace
2019年8月12日 -
已在美国亚马逊上发表已确认购买
Charb56
Nice book to add to my Eyvind Earle collection
2017年9月2日 -
已在美国亚马逊上发表已确认购买
tp
Great Series for Design Libraries
2019年5月10日 -
已在美国亚马逊上发表已确认购买
