Customer Reviews

Art: A New History

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This work is far better than the reviews, some of which make it sound as if the author has peculiar ideas. I find his attitude sensible and valid. For example, it is true that art is taught widely nowadays, and yet the practical skills are not. It is certain that a tradition of skilled craftsmanship, once broken, is almost never completely revived.

Johnson's writing is remarkable for his ability to condense into a single sentence, with clarity, an idea which would take others a paragraph to state. As an historian, he is better able than most art critics to place art in its historical context. In order fully to understand and appreciate art, one must see it in relation to culture, history, and ideas.

Johnson is an excellent writer: his prose is lively, compact, and he makes it easy - and a pleasure - to read.

The selection of illustrations is good, with the pictures placed in the text for easy association with the discussion. The trade-off is that the pictures are not large and glossy, and the reader may feel moved to visit a library to see reproductions at higher-resolution.

By today's standards, the book - an education in one volume - is a bargain for its price.

I would give this book 10 stars if I could! Paul Johnson's clear, engaging writing style, his experience as an historian, combined with his obvious love of art make this book a unique and valuable contribution to art literature/history. While there are several great comprehensive/encyclopedic books on art history, who has ever been able to read one from cover to cover? This is a book that pulls you into a story and captivates you, and yes, I read it from cover to cover.

Even though you know what's coming (historically speaking---most of the "big names" are covered), you can't wait to hear what Mr. Johnson has to say. Is he opinionated? Absolutely! But that's a great part of the fun. He has obviously devoted a great amount of his time and impressive intellect studying art. He is also a practicing artist, thereby incorporating an appreciation for the technical aspects into his views. You may not agree with everything he has to say, but it is well worth your time to read his perspective.

From his narrative of the pre-historic cave paintings in Chapter 1 to his narrative of modern architecture (dominated by bridges) in Chapter 32, Mr. Johnson captivates and illuminates. I have struggled with appreciating modern art and found the author's view that most modern art is "fashion art" to be most helpful, although I am sure there are countless others screaming in protest. I found myself chuckling at each mention of Picasso ("What made Picasso so successful professionally and financially was not so much skill as commercial inventiveness, artistic originality, ruthlessness and extreme cunning, sometimes supplemented by intelligence of an unusual kind.") and rolling my eyes when he commented that Balthus (and others) "would have produced better pictures if they had drawn the human form as it is, rather than as seen through post-Cubist spectacles". (Who knows if they were capable of doing so?) But I was totally absorbed and thoroughly entertained.

My only complaints are the lack of a bibliography and the lack of illustrations for many of the objects mentioned (particularly paintings). Thank you, Mr. Johnson, for sharing your passion.

"Art: A New History," by historian and arts writer Paul Johnson, takes the reader on an ambitious survey of Western art (non-western art is touched upon only briefly, and then only as it impinges upon European consciousness.) Johnson, although not a professional art historian, both knows and loves his subject, and proves throughout to be an urbane and enthusiastic, if rather opinionated, guide. (Johnson has seen the 20th century, and does not approve.) Painting, sculpture, and architecture are included. The book's 300 color photo illustrations are a little small, but finely printed.

In terms of coverage, the book tries to do too much; it crams in numerous items of secondary import, but does not leave adequate room to discuss the most important topics in depth. The result is almost paradoxical - a lengthy, yet rapid and shallow, run-through. There are only ten pages on the Impressionists, and no mention of Raphael's "School of Athens" or Masaccio's seminal frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. Johnson explains in his preface that he had wanted to include much more material, which presumably would have gone to redress such imbalances, but was unable to do so for practical reasons (the publisher balked at making the book any larger than it already is.) Unfortunately, one of the parts that got eliminated was the book's notes and bibliography, and this makes the book less than useful for scholarship or study.

There are some errors in the book which seem to have been propagated from older reference works: Shah Jehan actually built the Taj Mahal for himself, not for his wife; and the Vatican's "Apollo Belvedere" is now considered to be a Roman copy, not a Greek original. Definitions of technical terms are not always careful. For example (page 84), the book's definition of "contrapposto" asserts baldly that "the bent leg is forward." Actually, in contrapposto, the foot and lower part of the bent leg is set back, relative to the straight leg, with only the knee and thigh projecting slightly forward.

In terms of suggested audience, the book does not seem suitable for students or beginners, because it readily assumes that the reader is already familiar with the artists and works discussed; nor is it likely to please the professionals, since it offers no new contributions to scholarship. This leaves, as a potential audience, the hypothetical cultured reader who has seen much art, who would like to run through it again in chronological order, and who might find in Johnson a congenial and philosophically compatible guide.

As a professional artist, I have been annoyed for years by art historians focused only on their largely faddish views. What is wonderful about Paul Johnson's Art:A New History is that he gives me the information I have craved: what were the artist's life and times like, what were his or her techniques, what was the popular art of the day. This is more useful to me than an art historian's fantasies about where he himself fits into art history. It is clear, and refreshing, that Mr. Johnson loves beauty and knowlege.
I would have given this book five stars if it had had a bibliography and more reproductions. I hope that we can hear more from Mr. Johnson on the vast subject of modern art, especially the fine modern realism that is not covered in the mainstream art magazines.
This book spoke to me like a friend about what I have loved and sought in art all my life.

Undoubtly, one can find many faults to this book. For instance, the author comments on many works that are not illustrated, there is no bibliography and the topic of modern art is touched partially. However, despite these drawbacks, the book deserves the 5 stars. There are many reasons for this. First, "Art: A New History" is not merely a description of art in chronological order but an intelectual explanation of art. The way in which the author explains and exemplifies the concept of art as a "force" to produce aesthetic order is unbeatable. Then, Johnson avoid the clichés on too-commented topics giving a deeper thought. For example, "propaganda art cannot be good because it is just propaganda" sounds silly after reading this book. Even more interesting, Johnson confront modern art demostrating that most of this period is just fashionable art and uncovering (for those that do not know how art operates in modern times) the procedures of the artistical establishment.

Maybe, one can agree or not with the author's opinion but in any case, he makes you think and that is what makes this book remarkable. Finally, many excellent painters that are ommitted in other books of the genre are mentioned in this one. Specially, female artists are presented, giving a "plus" to the work.

In my opinion, this book is a "must"!

As the attendance at museum shows increases each year, at least attendance to the blockbusters like Impressionism, Van Gogh, Lucien Freud, John Singer Sargent, etc, there seems to be an encouraging awakening to the importance of art here in the USA. And for those who have boarded the bandwagon as well as those who are intimidated by the vastness of knowledge believed necessary to enjoy art, welcome to Paul Johnson's immensely readable tome ART: A NEW HISTORY. The operative word here of course is 'New' and plays a fine bit of anachronism; how can 'History' be 'New'? Read the opening page of this huge tome and the answer (as a consistent beginning to a novel-like history book) is there. "I argue here that art predated not only writing but probably structured speech, too, that it was closely associated with the ordering instinct which makes society possible, and that it has therefore always been essential to human happiness. The artist was the first professional.....if we succeed in recovering the context [of art], we still have to see through the work into the mind of the artist who made it. This is where the real business of appreciating art begins. Artists are real people....etc"

And so Johnson begins his magical journey through the entire history of art. "...it must never be forgotten that art was instinctively created by humanity to assist the process of ordering, and so understanding and mastering, the wild world of nature....For once art loses its fundamental order, it becomes disorderly and therefore ceases to sustain a moral society and may, in fact, become a menace to our happiness." He then sums up his very personal views about the book he has created by stating: "..the love of art is a subjective phenomenon, which comes to us through our sympathetic eye, and no expert should be allowed to mediate......We should use our own eyes, train them, trust them. This book is specifically designed to aid the process."

From this warm and encouraging stance, Johnson then launches into a thorough, historically accurate survey of art history. He does this with a profound understanding of History of Civilization and embroiders his discussion of artists and art pieces, architecture, sculpture, etc with this rich background while he visits many individual artists with humorous and very personal insights. While extolling the majesty of such greats as Michelangelo, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Eakins, Hockney etc he slips in tales of their sexual preferences and how those preferences affected their art and their lives. And he always keeps his writings in the context of the times he is visiting. For instance, "It was one of the virtues of the Italian ruling class, and a great source of strength for her artists, that rulers loved them, understood their work, gave them not only money but friendship and support in times of need - indeed, often put up with tantrums and rages."

It is this style of writing that allows, indeed encourages, the reader to discover the magnificence of art while learning enough about the creators to find memory associations that will make the contents of this massive book last far beyond the closure of the last page. He chooses his well-reproduced illustrations wisely. His discussion of Caravaggio's visceral vision, of Sargent's preoccupation with light source and reflection, of Turner's preference for watercolor over oil, of many 20th century artists forgetting the paths to representing order when it was most needed - all of these become conversations that read like a fine novel. One could write for pages praising the warmth of this very significant book, but the better choice would be to simply encourage everyone who is in any way involved with art and art appreciation to buy this book. Here are hours of re-readable information that will serve us well for years to come. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Paul Johnson has previously written definitive histories of the US and the 20th Century (Modern Times) it is only fitting that he turn to this subject.

Your personal tastes will probably determine to what degree you like this book - the earlier chapters covering Ancient and Medievel and Renaaissance periods are bring new insight to this much covered area but where he really sheds new light is on the modern age:

He is confident enough to compare Norman Rockewell to Vemeer and call Disney a great innovator and Picasso largely a fraud. He has articulated the feelings of many who have thought that abstract experssionism and the other 'art movements' were what the old folk tale 'the emperor's new clothes' warned us about.

This is a good comprehsenive art history, that compares favorably to the Jansen I read in college.

In the final section of this work Johnson speaks about the present situation in the study of Art History. He says that the wealth of the modern world has greatly benefited the study of Art. He indicates that there have been more fine art history books published in the past forty years than in all previous history. He says that the appreciation of Art is part of the lives of far more people than ever before. He only regrets that there has been a decline in the quality of the training of fledgling artists, and there is not the teaching of drawing and painting technique in the way there once was. But he speaks enthusiastically, optimistically about the future of Art and its appreciation.

And this though he clearly in this History shows such little sympathy for ' modern art' and gives the impression that for him Art pretty much stopped developing close to a century ago.

As a number of reviewers have said this History of Art does not have the objective authority of Gombrich's or Janson's histories. It has the idiosyncratic and often highly interesting taste and judgment of Johnson behind it. One reviewer mentioned the short shrift he gives to the Impressionists. I looked with vain with one mention of the work of a great favorite of mine, Chagall. Yet Johnson writes with enthusiasm about many neglected corners of Art, and gives new relevance to artists ordinarily neglected. His knowledge and passion are great, and so there are treasures of insight on each page. Johnson can be 'off' as he was in the ranting he did in his book on 'Intellectuals' but he usually is forceful and insightful. In this History his great knowledge and love set the tone, and he provides an intellectual feast of very high quality.

This excellent, irreverent survey of art history is a breath of fresh air for those struggling artists and art historians who are dissenters from the contemporary art establishment. I hope that Johnson's emphasis on training, technique, and realism will aid in the post-modern renaissance that is now quietly occuring, especially among younger artists who are burnt out on the stifling sameness of the arts community and want a return to classical training, beauty, and order in an arts climate that has for decades been inhospitable to those values. This book is must reading for artists and art scholars, as well as for interested laypeople who are ready for a whirlwind tour. Regardless of one's approach to art, this will be rewarding and provocative reading.

Paul Johnson is arguably the most gifted popularizer writing today. He's certainly among the most wide-ranging, whether you consider his work to be writing or just typing.

The title obviously intends to set up the book as a competitor to Anthony F. Janson' _History of Art_. Johnson needn't have done so, for, educational as the book is, it is too personal to serve as a general reference. But Johnson's opinions, insights, and pointers to further reading are the draw for his fans anyway, so that is no barrier for their enjoyment of this book. His strong but fair opinions about art from Cubism on will probably be the first section of the book friend and foe alike will turn to.

The reproductions are excellent, a first-rate selection of the familiar and seldom-seen. Thanks to the internet, this is a good resource to go searching for new desktop wallpaper with!

There are inevitable omissions, and some that shouldn't have been so inevitable. No mention of the 1913 Armory show, when Cubism in the form of DuChamp's _Nude Descending a Staircase_ hit America? Whatever one thinks about 20th Century modern art, such a watershed event deserves inclusion in any art history.

There's no need to agonize: the author's name already tells you whether you want this book or not. I found it absorbing and educational, your mileage may vary.