The 12-Hour Art Expert
Everything You Need to Know about Art in a Dozen Masterpieces
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
"Brimming with examples from across the artistic spectrum, this is the perfect primer to hook future art enthusiasts." Publishers Weekly
Interested in art but feel under-informed? Curious but afraid you might not “get” it? Already a fan and wishing to immerse yourself in a fun, engaging, informative and informed read that will refresh and top up your Art History 101 and Introduction to Art courses from college?
The 12-Hour Art Expert: Everything You Need to Know about Art in a Dozen Masterpieces avoids the common approach of throwing hundreds of images at a reader and expecting them to learn from and memorize them all.
Instead, the book will guide its readers through a brief series of masterpieces of Western art—from cave paintings to sharks in formaldehyde. This book twelve chapters teach readers about art, the art trade, and art history in a thorough (though concise) fashion.
Each chapter is linked to one notable masterpiece, with references to others, giving readers a fixed, digestible number of objects that they will get to know in depth, and which they can use as a lens to understand the thousands of other, related objects that they might encounter in the future.
Museums can be daunting, and art presents a strange new language, one that certainly intrigues but is often intimidating and foreign. This book, written by one of the world’s best-known art historians uses entertaining stories to break down intimidating barriers and invites readers of all ages for a one-stop immersion into art.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"You do not need extensive training to understand art, much less to enjoy it," asserts art historian Charney (The Art of Forgery) in this enlightening crash course. Determined to buck the "intimidation problem" that's plagued the art world for centuries, Charney moves through 12 chapters organized around a specific masterpiece—from Bernini's 17th century Tomb of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni to Marcel Duchamp's subversive Fountain (1917)—to offer readers an amiable tour through art history, terminology, and styles, as well as the relationship between the price of an artwork and its desirability:"an equation for the value of art: value = perceived (rarity + authenticity + demand)." Charney also revisits his deep fascination with authenticity, dissecting the fuss around Leonardo da Vinci's famed works—which, he writes, have become a "cultural currency"—to illustrate how art connoisseurship has engendered a thriving forgery industry. While he writes exaltingly of the art world, Charney keeps his narrative refreshingly grounded, empowering lay readers to better appreciate and understand works of art, but to also trust their instincts: "Don't be afraid to call ‘hogwash' (or its synonym, BS) on artworks that you've given an honest chance.... I do it all the time." Brimming with examples from across the artistic spectrum, this is the perfect primer to hook future art enthusiasts.
