Learning to Look: A Handbook for the Visual Arts (Phoenix Books)

Sometimes seeing is more difficult for the student of art than believing. Taylor's thoughtful discussion of pure forms and our responses to them gives the reader a few useful starting points for looking at art that does not reproduce nature and for understanding the distance between contemporary figurative art and reality.. Taylor, in a book that has sold more than 300,000 copies since its original publication in 1957, has helped two generations of art students "learn to look."This handy guide to the visual arts is designed to provide a comprehensive view of art, moving from the analytic study of specific works to a consideration of broad principles and technical matters. Forty-four carefully selected illustrations afford an excellent sampling of the wide range of experience awaiting the explorer.The second edition of Learning to Look includes a new chapter on twentieth-century art

"Fantastic for beginners to the visual arts" according to Dylan Brown. Fantastic for beginners to the visual arts. If you have a trained eye - as in, you were explained this in art school about how to look through viewfinders, how to think about contours and forms - then don't buy it, you already know this. I bought it for a class and didn't even have to read it b it was so basic. But yeah, beginners, buy away. It's a real introduction into sight and doesn't give you the cheap and easy route to art, aka drawing circles and and building up, but a real understanding.. A classic guide to appreciating what you're really seeing This book will change the way you think about art. I love the way the author take pictures of the same thing (i.e. the crucifixion) and then shows how very different they really are, and why. I'm just a beginner in art appreciation, but I can see why someone I know who is a profesional in the field refers to this book constantly.. Good book for moving pass just "look" at art but writing about it from an analytical point of view Clear and concise book on how to write about art not just see it but really understand how to review it and analysis it beyond a survery

Taylor is director of the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.. About the AuthorJoshua C

Joshua C. Taylor is director of the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.