Learning to Look at Paintings [Paperback]

Mary Acton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415148901 | ISBN-13: 978-0415148900 | Publication Date: March 23, 1997

This is a critique of works of art dating from the early fifteenth century through to modern installations. Suggesting a series of questions to ask when looking at a painting this will help develop a critical understanding of art.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an easy-to-read guide ... [that] allows you to put your visual experiences into words. - www.bbc.co.uk

About the Author

Mary Acton is Co-Director of History of Art Certification Course at Oxford University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (March 23, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415148901
• ISBN-13: 978-0415148900
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #970,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine introduction, November 9, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Learning to Look at Paintings (Paperback)

Composition, space, form, tone, color, subject-matter, and other pictorial elements of the plastic arts are considered and their interrelationships explained in this handy introduction, with over ninety well-chosen illustrations, some in color.
The author, an experienced art teacher, has also included illuminating essays on drawing and its purposes, looking at prints, a handy glossary of art terms, and references for further reading.
Highly recommended as eminently suitable for an Introduction to Art course, and for anyone else interested in learning to see more in paintings.

(The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative, August 23, 2001

By 

Ramona J. Brenneman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learning to Look at Paintings (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book on the principles and elements of design. I think she selected exemplary pictures to illustrate her point. I especially enjoyed the chapter on "subject matter". The only drawback of this book was having to flip back and forth from the reading to the painting. Also, she talked about some of the paintings color combinations that were printed in black and white. In the paperback version some of the details of the paintings were lost because they were reproduced on a small scale. Overall, though I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about design elements.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How to assess color from black & white pictures?, March 22, 2010

By 

efftee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learning to Look at Paintings (Paperback)

Mary Acton organizes her technique of appreciating art well. Breaking the parts down to Composition, Space, Form, Tone, Color and Subject Matter, the reader is taken on a systematic course to discerning a work of painted art. With plenty of examples to illustrate her points, and the clear, straightforward manner of writing, it is easy to understand and follow.

I have 2 issues with this book -- neither of which targets the writer. (1) I appreciate the handy size, making this book very portable, but it is too small to properly show the works of art. Reproducing master works on offset printing with any appreciable quality is already a tremendous challenge without the size compromise. And more grievously, (2) there are only 29 color pages, with 1 image per those pages. For a book on Art, that is woefully under par. Mary discusses points on color against black and white images, many of which lack contrast data, especially in shadow regions, rendering her notes impossible to grasp. I had to refer to other books and the Internet to supplement this publication.

Frankly, at the prices that Routledge charge for their books, I'd expect more than what I got. Yet, the content more than made up for the production shortcomings. So much so that I also ordered Mary's other book -- Learning to Look at Modern Art. I'd recommend this to anyone who is interested to learn how to better appreciate art. Just keep the Google Images page open. ;)