Customer Reviews

Painting as an Art

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Painting as Art by Richard Wollheim (Princeton University Press) provides the first sustained discussion of the complex of perceptions, design, pigments, biography, social history, and lived experience that becomes the experience of a painting as a work of art. Wollheim is well conversant with the philosophical issues while bringing a depth and expertise to the appreciation of the art and craft of painting within both broad historical contexts and the minutiae of a particular artist and this unique painting. So that what he says about any painting becomes a phantasmagoria of informed facts and conjectures that is a marvel approaching Keats' truth, beauty; beauty, truth. Wollheim's interpretations are intrepid corrections of received wisdom and well-argued virtuoso interpretations. His scientist's appreciation of the subtle effects of perception blends well with an informed style; not an easy read, but one likely to educate one's sensibilities anew.

There is a wealth of crunchy cake to digest in Wollheim's, Mellon Lectures, packaged here as, 'The Art of Painting'. If you are at all seduced by the act of painting, whether as a practitioner or as a spectator(painters fill both roles) the arguments and perceptions, so brilliantly and patiently elucidated, will nurture your eye. This is a resource book I've returned to over and again during the last decade, and that's a very high recommendation for any text. The reproductions are thoughtfully laid before us where and when they count against the writing. The insights on Bellini, Manet, and de Kooning in particular I found arresting and novel, pushing the boundaries at all times. The notion of appropriation, so relevant during recent decades, is cogently unravelled. Wollheim writes for,'Modern Painters' magazine and has books on psychology still in print. But this elegant book is the one that most nurtures me. For more on art visit>rodmoss.com

What makes this book so delightful and passionate to read, is the enormous enthusiasm and febrile cogence of the author in order to explain seriously what makes painting an art, a philosopher who has dared to make a real journey around the tradition of the painting in the western hemisphere.

An admirable essay plenty of invaluable, conveying and mesmerizing information that will engage you from start to finish.

This book was very heavy going, but the ideas presented were worth it.
I found many new ideas among the lectures.