Looking at Art - Tapa blanda

This stimulating and fascinating introduction to art contains a series of thematic chapters covering a range of topics that will provide readers with a basis for approaching art and enjoying it. It also serves to dispel some preconceptions about the visual arts—assumptions made about a work based on an individual's own experience. Chapter topics include the appeal and aims of art, style and formal elements, artists at work, art themes, art in and out of context, approaches to art, and arguing about art. For museum goers and anyone who wants a better understanding of art.

The arts affect our lives whether or not we ever set foot in a museum. Advertisements use images to sell products; pictures and sculptures stimulate our senses and decorate our urban and rural spaces. These, along with the buildings we inhabit, are manifestations of the visual arts.

This book of eight brief chapters on different aspects of the visual arts is designed to explore the nature of imagery and its relevance to many facets of our lives. Drawing on a wealth of examples from Western and non-Western art through the ages, it examines a wide range of themes, from the relationship between form and meaning, to the methodologies of art-historical analysis, to the controversies that have surrounded certain works of art both past and present.

The author's concise and clear analytical approach to understanding and appreciating works of art helps readers understand the various ways of interpreting images by artists as diverse as Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, and Jackson Pollock. Beautiful illustrations accompany the text, making this book an ideal resource for students, museum visitors, and anyone interested in the arts.