Julian Bell

"'I believe in the absolute necessity of a new art of colour, of drawing and--of the artistic life,' Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in 1888. 'And if we work in that faith, it seems to me that there's a chance that our hopes won't be in vain. 'His prediction would come true. In his brief and explosively creative life--he committed suicide a few years later at the age of thirty-seven--Van Gogh made us see the world in a new way. His shining...

"Yes, but is it art? This lucid book by Julian Bell, himself a painter, confronts the uncertainty many people feel about art today and challenges generally accepted ideas.Now in a completely revised second edition, What is Painting? is a fresh, focused look at painting. Bell addresses questions such as does anything unite those objects we call paintings? and what factors have changed the nature of painting over the last two centuries? by looking at...