VISIONARY ART

The influence of the visionary - the ability of the artist to separate himself or herself from all material considerations in pursuit of something envisaged or imagined - has consistently been under-rated in accounts of 20th century art, which has been seen as the product of a quintessentially materialist society. This book, looking at both familiar and unfamiliar images, attempts to show that an altogether different approach is possible, and that it is artists, both tutored and untutored, who have attempted to preserve a space for the transcendental in contemporary life. Visionary elements in recent art have their roots in many different places, and this insightful text is an education in the eclectic nature of contemporary culture. 


Edward Lucie-Smith is an art critic and historian, who has additionally curated a number of national and international exhibitions, published poetry, and is a practising photographer. He has published more than two hundred books, more than one hundred about art - chiefly, but not exclusively, about contemporary work. He is a staunch supporter of digital art books and has written for a number of interactive iArtBooks published by Elizabeth Beecher Publishing.