How to Understand Art

How to Understand Art

Author: Janetta Rebold Benton

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2021-10-26

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0500295832

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A clear and concise overview of the fundamentals shared by visual arts across the globe, enabling the reader to think carefully, inquisitively, and critically about art. The visual arts enrich our lives in so many ways, presenting beauty, emotion, and ideas—but sometimes looking at art is confusing and challenging. This new volume in the Art Essentials series, How to Understand Art, sets out to enhance the viewer’s experience by breaking down the elements of art to provide a firm basis for simple enjoyment as well as further understanding. With one hundred visual examples drawn from across the globe, the emphasis is on how to assess art objectively—a key skill for any art student, museum visitor, or cultural enthusiast. Art historian and museum lecturer Janetta Rebold Benton teaches the reader to reevaluate their experiences of looking at art by learning to move beyond “I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like,” toward an understanding of “why I like it.” By looking at artists’ materials and techniques, such as drawing, painting, printing, photography, sculpture, and decorative art, Benton makes it possible to assess what can (and cannot) be done in certain media. With these tools at hand, it’s possible to break down any work of art. Further framing the lesson, there is a section devoted to six key artists that have had a particularly notable and innovative influence on the history of art. Perfectly aimed at students and the general reader, this indispensable guide encourages everyone to develop confidence in experiencing, analyzing, and appreciating art.


101 Things to Learn in Art School

101 Things to Learn in Art School

Author: Kit White

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2011-08-19

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0262300133

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Lessons, demonstrations, definitions, and tips on what to expect in art school, what it means to make art, and how to think like an artist. What is the first thing to learn in art school? “Art can be anything.” The second thing? “Learn to draw.” With 101 Things to Learn in Art School, artist and teacher Kit White delivers and develops such lessons, striking an instructive balance between technical advice and sage concepts. These 101 maxims, meditations, and demonstrations offer both a toolkit of ideas for the art student and a set of guiding principles for the artist. Complementing each of the 101 succinct texts is an equally expressive drawing by the artist, often based on a historical or contemporary work of art, offering a visual correlative to the written thought. “Art can be anything” is illustrated by a drawing of Duchamp's famous urinal; a description of chiaroscuro art is illuminated by an image “after Caravaggio”; a lesson on time and media is accompanied by a view of a Jenny Holzer projection; advice about surviving a critique gains resonance from Piero della Francesca's arrow-pierced Saint Sebastian. 101 Things to Learn in Art School offers advice about the issues artists confront across all artistic media, but this is no simple handbook to making art. It is a guide to understanding art as a description of the world we live in, and it is a guide to using art as a medium for thought. And so this book belongs on the reading list of art students, art teachers, and artists, but it also belongs in the library of everyone who cares about art as a way of understanding life.


Understand Art History

Understand Art History

Author: Grant Pooke

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Published: 2011-03-01

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9781444104974

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Is this the right book for me? Are you interested in art? Do you want to develop your own opinions? Would you like to get more out of your visits to galleries and exhibitions? Art History: Teach Yourself is a comprehensive and unpretentious guide that will ensure you gain a solid grounding in this fascinating subject. It begins by asking the fundamental question, 'what exactly is art?' before delving into the main historical approaches and interpretations, such as formalism, postmodernism and context. The different art periods, styles and genres are all considered in detail and illustrated with well-known examples, as are painting techniques and the way in which art is presented in museums and galleries. So, whether you are preparing for a course in art history or just want to gain confidence in your own opinions, this is the book for you. Understand Art History includes: Chapter 1: What is art and what is art history? Art: different things in different times and places Artistic status What is a 'good' painting Chapter 2: Judging by appearances Formalism: What it means Formalism and art history Chapter 3: Looking beyond the picture frame Art in context The life of the artist: biography Representing gender . Chapter 4: Art today: contemporary ways of looking Where to start? Postmodernism and art histories Seeing difference: non-Western art Chapter 5: Art in museums and galleries: spectacle and display The art museum experience The art exhibition and the 'blockbuster' show Museums and exhibitions: other meanings Chapter 6: Categorizing the history of art Art periods and styles Painting materials and techniques Finding out more: what to look for Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features: Not got much time? One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started. Author insights Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience. Test yourself Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress. Extend your knowledge Extra online articles to give you a richer understanding of the subject. Five things to remember Quick refreshers to help you remember the key facts. Try this Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.


Are You an Art Sleuth?

Are You an Art Sleuth?

Author: Brooke DiGiovanni Evans

Publisher: Quarry Books Editions

Published: 2016-07

Total Pages: 107

ISBN-13: 1631591312

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Help children think critically about art and learn an appreciation for the old masters. Kids will love this collection of thought provoking paintings!


The School of Art

The School of Art

Author: Teal Triggs

Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions

Published: 2015-08-15

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 1847807003

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Welcome to the School of Art! Here you will learn how to make great art with this fully-illustrated collection of fun and informative lessons. Follow the five professors as they work togetherto deliver 40 demonstrations - each one accompanied by a guided activity for you to try at home - to help you to understand the basics of art and design, including composition, color, line, shape, and perspective. - See more at: http://quartoknows.com/books/9781847807007/The-School-of-Art.html?direct=1#sthash.alslhwv7.dpuf


How to Understand a Painting

How to Understand a Painting

Author: Francoise Barbe-Gall

Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Published: 2011-07-26

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9780711232136

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Choosing ten symbols from the natural world (the sun, the shell, the bird) and ten man-made (the window, the book, the mirror), Françoise Barbe-Gall illuminates our understanding of how these have been used and developed in art from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century, with sixty-eight wonderfully vivid examples. Painting has always made abundant use of forms and objects to convey abstract ideas: love, hope for eternal life, loyalty or betrayal. These recurring motifs, which were familiar to many in the past, have mostly become mysterious to the audiences of today. Today's art-lover will have to learn to look out for all the small things that can so easily seem like unimportant details, or simply decoration. But a flower, a reflection in a mirror or a bird in flight nearly always mean more than they first appear to. From Holbein's apple of knowledge to the black cat at the foot of Manet's Olympia, from Magritte's mysterious candles to Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers, this book shows how each work makes use of the language of symbols in an original and more meaningful way.


The Art Is the Cloth

The Art Is the Cloth

Author: Micala Sidore

Publisher:

Published: 2020-06-28

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780764359927

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A colorful guided tour from an expert, enabling weavers, textile lovers, and art lovers to notice and appreciate what tapestries can do and how they do it. This guide from expert tapestry weaver and historian Sidore gives how-to strategies enabling weavers and nonweavers to notice and appreciate the meaning of these artworks. You'll discover much to enjoy in photos of more than 300 tapestries from the 12th to the 21st centuries. Sidore enables you to think about the weavings in ways you have never before considered as she groups pieces that talk with each other--and that also converse with the viewer. Enjoy learning basic elements of weaving to help you become increasingly sophisticated in understanding what you're seeing. Then, learn six ways in which tapestries can call attention to themselves as cloth. This eye-opening guide to seeing explains the great range of materials and visual themes, the use of trompe l'oeil, the importance of the direction in which the weaver weaves, and more. After this learning experience, you'll bring smarter eyes to your museum wandering, deeper enjoyment to your collection and purchases, and surprising new skills and creativity to your weaving of fibers . . . and of life.


How to Look at and Understand Great Art

How to Look at and Understand Great Art

Author: Teaching Company

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9781598037364

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sharon Latchaw Hirsh, the president of Rosemont College, is an internationally recognized scholar of Western European art. This course introduces the most essential features of every work of art, including color, line, perspective, composition, and shape as well as point of view, time and motion, and light and texture examining different art media including drawings, prints, paintings and sculptures.


The Art of Explanation

The Art of Explanation

Author: Lee LeFever

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-11-08

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1118417313

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Your guide to becoming an explanation specialist. You've done the hard work. Your product or service works beautifully - but something is missing. People just don't see the big idea - and it's keeping you from being successful. Your idea has an explanation problem. The Art of Explanation is for business people, educators and influencers who want to improve their explanation skills and start solving explanation problems. Author Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft, a company known around the world for making complex ideas easy to understand through short animated videos. He is your guide to helping audiences fall in love with your ideas, products or services through better explanations in any medium. You will learn to: Plan: Learn explanation basics, what causes them to fail and how to diagnose explanation problems. Package: Using simple elements, create an explanation strategy that builds confidence and motivates your audience. Present: Produce remarkable explanations with visuals and media. The Art of Explanation is your invitation to become an explanation specialist and see why explanation is now a fundamental skill for professionals.