Seeing like an artist : what artists perceive in the art of others
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
Boston : David R. Godine, Publisher, 2022.
Status
Central - Adult Nonfiction
701.1 PERRY
1 available

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Central - Adult Nonfiction701.1 PERRYAvailable

Description

“Beguiling and informative”—Wall Street JournalLearn to see art as an artist does. Discover how a painting’s composition or a sculpture’s spatial structure influence the experience of what you’re seeing. With an artist as your guide, viewing art becomes a powerfully enriching experience that will stay in your mind long after you’ve left a museum.A visit to view art can be overwhelming, exhausting, and unrewarding. Lincoln Perry wants to change that. In fifteen essays—each framed around a specific theme—he provides new ways of seeing and appreciating art. Drawing heavily on examples from the European traditions of art, Perry aims to overturn assumptions and asks readers to re-think artistic prejudices while rebuilding new preferences. Included are essays on how artists “read” paintings, how scale and format influence viewers, how to engage with sculptures and murals, as well as guides to some of the great museums and churches of Europe.Seeing Like an Artist is for any artist, art-lover, or museumgoer who wants to grow their appreciation for the art of others.

More Details

Format
Book
Physical Desc
220 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Language
English
ISBN
9781567926996, 1567926991

Notes

Description
"A visit to a museum can be overwhelming, exhausting, and unrewarding. Lincoln Perry wants to change that. In sixteen essays--each framed around a specific theme--he provides new ways of seeing and appreciating art. As Perry says, 'I'll try to evoke what I've come to love not because I believe it's what you should love, but, rather, because I hope my enthusiasm might inspire you to find what you love.' Perry is a disarmingly charming tour guide to museums large or small and artists from Bruegel to Pollock. Along the way, he weaves in personal stories from his own artistic journey including the nights he slept in his beaten-up VW Bus in the Louvre's parking lot. Drawing heavily on examples from the European tradition of art, the author aims to overturn assumptions and cause the reader to re-think artistic prejudices while rebuilding new preferences."-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

An artist goes into a museum
Summoning Francis : a memoir of sorts about being inspired
A grand tour : how a trip to Europe can change everything
An epiphany in Munich : rethinking old assumptions
Gleaning to patrimony : a side trip to an alternate tradition
past as present : art, as fresh as the day it was done
Big Tom and Little Tom : Masaccio and Masolino, realism and fantasy
Reading paintings : clarifying pictorial space
Format and fate : how you frame the issue
Human scale : big fish in a little pond and vice versa
Busted, or very like a whale : the poetics of damage
Only connect : on seeing sculpture and the urge to touch it
Making as metaphor : the sculpture of Hildebrand and Rodin, Charkow, and Neri
Sex and subtext : I hate to say what it looks like, but...
Multiplicity : can one image always tell the whole story?
You had to be there : The necessity (and joy) of travel.

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Published Reviews

Publisher's Weekly Review

Sculptor Perry covers "how certain paintings and sculpture were made" in his conversational debut, a convincing "plea to look closely." Across 16 essays, Perry combines memoir and art criticism, recalling in "A Grand Tour" a 1979 trip to the Louvre and seeing work by Camille Corot (who "make you proud to be a human after all") and Paolo Veronese (who painted "Shakespearean" characters). "Summoning Francis" covers the early inspiration he found in Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert, while "Reading Paintings" is a masterclass in technical components including color, shape, and what Perry calls velocity, or the speed with which the viewer is "asked to read through the fictional space of the picture," in works such as Picasso's Man with a Guitar. The book includes very few reproductions of the artworks discussed, relying instead on Perry's own sketches, which don't all scratch the itch. Still, Perry has an expansive knowledge of European artists, comparing well-known ones with more obscure figures, and his guidance is well delivered: "I'll try to evoke what I've come to love not because I believe it's what you should love, but, rather, because I hope my enthusiasm might inspire you to find what you love." Budding art aficionados, take note. (Sept.)

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Kirkus Book Review

A push for casual museumgoers to explore a deeper engagement with the art they experience. With an unabashed focus on the Renaissance, Perry's collection of short essays encourages readers to look beyond a painting's depiction for what makes a masterpiece. He meticulously reveals the interplay of light, color, and spatial planes hidden beneath a wealth of important paintings, and he steers viewers toward contemplating "how an artist thought as he painted." Exemplifying the importance of seeing and interpretation, Perry, himself an accomplished artist, illustrates the book with his own sketches in lieu of traditional reproductions. "That's what a good painting enables us to do," he writes. "We can become not passive recipients, but instead participants." The author is best when he lectures like a professor, effortlessly floating between scholarly citations and visual references. The more personal moments are less interesting. Perry relentlessly touts the importance of seeing art in situ and frequently recounts his extensive travels throughout Europe. Now in his 70s, he occasionally shows his weariness with the younger generation. In one essay, he recalls a "very sour student" who pointed out that a "Grand Tour" of Europe is cost-prohibitive for most people today. "It was never a matter of money," he later insists, believing that "a bit of [Gustave] Courbet's passion for life" was all a true art lover (like him) needed to get out there. Later, an aside about "the way kids devour the latest movie in the Marvel multiverse" feels unnecessary. Ultimately, Perry's lessons are revelatory, but his insistence that viewers "use [their] eyes first" is too dismissive, particularly to those who might find enrichment in a book like this one. When we read how, in order to truly understand frescoes "one really has to be there to have a non-verbal and purely spatial experience," it's a perplexing sentiment to process, particularly in a book that's so passionately verbose and full of such well-researched, meandering tangents. Thoughtful investigations in art history for an unintentionally narrow audience. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

Sculptor Perry covers "how certain paintings and sculpture were made" in his conversational debut, a convincing "plea to look closely." Across 16 essays, Perry combines memoir and art criticism, recalling in "A Grand Tour" a 1979 trip to the Louvre and seeing work by Camille Corot (who "make you proud to be a human after all") and Paolo Veronese (who painted "Shakespearean" characters). "Summoning Francis" covers the early inspiration he found in Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert, while "Reading Paintings" is a masterclass in technical components including color, shape, and what Perry calls velocity, or the speed with which the viewer is "asked to read through the fictional space of the picture," in works such as Picasso's Man with a Guitar. The book includes very few reproductions of the artworks discussed, relying instead on Perry's own sketches, which don't all scratch the itch. Still, Perry has an expansive knowledge of European artists, comparing well-known ones with more obscure figures, and his guidance is well delivered: "I'll try to evoke what I've come to love not because I believe it's what you should love, but, rather, because I hope my enthusiasm might inspire you to find what you love." Budding art aficionados, take note. (Sept.)

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Perry, L. F. (2022). Seeing like an artist: what artists perceive in the art of others . David R. Godine, Publisher.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Perry, Lincoln Frederick, 1949-. 2022. Seeing Like an Artist: What Artists Perceive in the Art of Others. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Perry, Lincoln Frederick, 1949-. Seeing Like an Artist: What Artists Perceive in the Art of Others Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2022.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Perry, L. F. (2022). Seeing like an artist: what artists perceive in the art of others. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Perry, Lincoln Frederick. Seeing Like an Artist: What Artists Perceive in the Art of Others David R. Godine, Publisher, 2022.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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