Christopher Finch

Christopher Robin Finch (* 1939 in Guernsey , Channel Islands ) is a British art critic and non-fiction author . He is an expert on contemporary British art, Chuck Close , Hollywood cinema and popular culture. Finch is familiar with Norman Rockwell and Jim Henson . He achieved international fame with a biography of Walt Disney (1973).

Live and act

Christopher Finch was born on the Channel Island of Guernsey in 1939. He attended the Chelsea Art School . In 1968 he went to the United States to work at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis . He had studied contemporary British art, especially Pop Art , and wrote two books about it. In 1967 he worked as an art critic for Michael Moorcock's New Worlds magazine , he wrote about Paolozzi ( Language Mechanisms ), Richard Hamilton , Peter Phillips and a book about Patrick Caulfield .

In America he turned his gaze to the popular culture of the United States and its most famous exponent: Walt Disney (1901–1966). The result was The Art of Walt Disney (1973, German Walt Disney. His life - his art , 1984). This biography not only followed Disney's outer life, but also dealt intensively with its artistic significance and the various influences on his work. Since Finch was the first to have access to the extensive Disney archive, he was able to illustrate his book lavishly. As a result, it became a bestseller translated into many languages and repeatedly reissued in updated versions over the following decades (most recently in 2004). It is still considered to be the definitive representation of the Walt Disney Company's artistic achievements . 1978 was Finch nor depth study Walt Disney's America , and later representations among others to the animated film The Lion King ( The Lion King , 1994) follow.

Finch has also dealt intensively with another well-known and popular artist in the USA, Norman Rockwell , with several successful illustrated books, studies and a biography (1980). Was very successful Rainbow (1975), a biography of the Hollywood hitmakers Judy Garland that the basis for the NBC - TV movie apprenticeship of a Hollywood star - Judy Garland made. Finch wrote for television and co-authored Gone Hollywood (1979) with his wife, Linda Rosenkrantz , a social story about the American film industry in the years leading up to World War II. Starting with Of muppets & men. The making of the Muppet show (1981) he also dealt with the work of the puppeteer and filmmaker Jim Henson , to whom he devoted a biographical and artistic study in 1993.

One of his other specialties is watercolor painting , about which he wrote three separate representations. Finch also wrote books on the subject of " beer " and the " auto biography" Highways to Heaven. The Auto Bibliography of America (1992). He has also published and published numerous articles in US and UK magazines, including regularly in Architectural Digest .

Many of his books - especially those that have not been reprinted - are now sought-after and expensive collector's items.

Christopher Finch lives in New York City with his wife and daughter .

Fonts

• Pop art . Object and Image , Studio Vista, London 1968 ( ISBN 0-289-79554-0 )
• Image as Language. Aspects of British Art, 1950–1968 , Penguin, Harmondsworth 1969 ( ISBN 0-14-021023-7 )
• Patrick Caulfield , Penguin, Harmondsworth 1971 ( ISBN 0-14-070622-4 )
• The Art of Walt Disney . From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms , New York 1973 (current edition: The Art of Walt Disney. From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms and Beyond , Abrams, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-8109-9814-8 ; Ger. : Walt Disney. His life - his art , Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-7704-0171-9 )
• Norman Rockwell ’s America , New York 1975 (current edition: New York 1985, ISBN 0-8109-8071-1 )
• Rainbow. The Stormy Life of Judy Garland , New York 1975 ( ISBN 0-448-11731-2 or ISBN 0-448-12142-5 )
• Walt Disney's America , New York 1978 ( ISBN 0-89659-000-3 )
• with Linda Rosenkrantz: Gone Hollywood , Garden City (NY) 1979 ( ISBN 0-385-12808-8 )
• with Norman Rockwell: 332 Magazine Covers , New York 1979 (current: New York around 1990, ISBN 0-89660-000-9 )
• Norman Rockwell , New York 1980 ( ISBN 0-89659-090-9 )
• Of Muppets & Men. The Making of the Muppet show , New York 1981 ( ISBN 0-394-52085-8 ):
• The Making of the Dark Crystal . Creating a Unique Film , New York 1983 ( ISBN 0-03-063332-X )
• Special effects . Creating movie magic , New York 1984 ( ISBN 0-89659-452-1 )
• American Watercolors , New York 1986 ( ISBN 0-89659-654-0 )
• Twentieth-century Watercolors , New York 1988 ( ISBN 0-89659-811-X )
• Beer. A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best , New York 1989 ( ISBN 0-89659-913-2 )
• Nineteenth-Century Watercolors , New York 1991 ( ISBN 1-55859-019-6 )
• Highways to Heaven. The Auto Biography of America , New York 1992 ( ISBN 0-06-016551-0 )
• Jim Henson . The Works - the Art, the Magic, the Imagination , New York 1993 ( ISBN 0-679-41203-4 )
• The Art of The Lion King , New York 1994 ( ISBN 0-7868-6028-6 )
• with W. Scott Griffiths and Loretta Hwong-Griffiths: Famous Chefs (and Other Characters) Cook with Beer , New York 1996 ( ISBN 0-385-48041-5 )
• together with Linda Rosenkrantz: Sotheby’s Guide to Animation Art , New York 1998 ( ISBN 0-8050-4854-5 )
• Disney's Winnie the Pooh . A celebration of the silly old bear , New York 2000 ( ISBN 0-7868-6352-8 )
• In the market. The Illustrated History of the Financial Markets , New York 2001 ( ISBN 0-7892-0014-7 )
• The Lion King. A Giant Leap , New York and London 2003 ( ISBN 0-7868-5393-X )
• Chuck Close - Work , Munich, Berlin, London and New York 2007 ( ISBN 978-3-7913-3676-3 or ISBN 3-7913-3676-2 )
• Chuck Close - Life , Munich, Berlin, London and New York 2010 ( ISBN 978-3-7913-3677-0 )

Web links

• Christopher Finch in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Literature by and about Christopher Finch in the catalog of the German National Library