GEORGES SEURAT by Norma Broude ...

GEORGES SEURAT by Norma Broude and REMBRANDT by Larry Silver (Rizzoli: $7.95 each). These two handsome volumes are part of an extensive new series of art books from Rizzoli. Undergraduates could easily frame the large, full-color reproductions of famous paintings for the walls of their dorm rooms, and parents eager to expose their children to fine art can give them copies without worrying about the kids’ getting jelly on the pages of a $75 coffee-table book. The brief texts are well researched but not pedantic. Silver notes the ongoing debate over the attribution of various “Rembrandts” and explains the traditional interpretation of the artist’s self-portraits as reflections of the changing conditions of his life. Broude traces the links between science and art during late 19th Century that led Seurat to experiment with his pointillist technique, and summarizes the current theories about the meaning of his masterpiece, “A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte.” Other entries in the series include “Edward Hopper” by Karal Ann Marling, “Jasper Johns” by Roberta Bernstein, “Jacob Lawrence” by Richard Powell and “Kazimir Malevich” by Alison Hilton.