Twilight of Painting (Paperback)

~ R. H. Ives Gammell (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Parnassus Press (IL) (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940160455
• ISBN-13: 978-0940160453
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,767,477 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Painter's Treasure, October 30, 2000

By	Ilene Skeen (Farmingdale, NY USA) - See all my reviews

If you have ever wondered what gave rise to modern art, and you have ever questioned why standards of workmanship declined from the excellence of the 18th century to the shoddiness of the 20th, then this is the book for you. If you would like to have art history explained by a painter, in terms of painting, then this is the book for you. If, like me, you have been searching all your life for some rational explanation to our "Modern Art", then this is the book for you.

Gammell was a competent, if not renowned, painter. This book was written in 1946. By that time, all of the most accomplished painters of the 19th century had died and no one alive could create out of imagination the heroic work that had been so prized since the Renaissance. Gammell explains the real meaning of impressionism and the unfortunate hostility of the two major "schools", the impressionist vs the academics. He explains why the impressionists won and how art degenerated into the current chaos.

He explains why impressionism has the unfinished look. First because it seems appropriate for the artists' purposes, but more importantly, because starting is easy and finishing is difficult. With the revolt of the impressionists against the academies, they never finished their academic training, (so in fact, they didn't know how to finish a painting to the degree of the prior centuries).

For the non-painter, this books gives you the sanction to look at modern art and say, it may be art, but it's not finished enough, interesting, polished, challenging or important enough for me.

I recommend it highly.