The Art of Looking: How to Read Modern and Contemporary Art

About this book

A veteran art critic helps us make sense of modern and contemporary art The landscape of contemporary art has changed dramatically during the last hundred years: from Malevichs 1915 painting of a single black square and Duchamps 1917 signed porcelain urinal to Jackson Pollocks midcentury "drip" paintings; Chris Burdens "Shoot" (1971) in which the artist was voluntarily shot in the arm with a rifle; Urs Fischers "You" (2007) a giant hole dug in the floor of a New York gallery; and the conceptual and performance art of todays Ai Weiwei and Marina Abramovic. The shifts have left the art-viewing public (understandably) perplexed. In The Art of Looking renowned art critic Lance Esplund demonstrates that works of modern and contemporary art are not as indecipherable as they might seem. With patience insight and wit Esplund guides us through the last century of art and empowers us to approach and appreciate it with new eyes. Eager to democratize genres that can feel inaccessible Esplund encourages viewers to trust their own taste guts and common sense. The Art of Looking will open the eyes of viewers who think that recent art is obtuse nonsensical and irrelevant as well as the eyes of those who believe that the art of the past has nothing to say to our present.