Art (Annotated Guides) - Hardcover

Cumming, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1564588483 ISBN 13: 9781564588487

Publisher: DK, 1995

Synopsis

Your eyes will indeed be opened, and what you see in works of art will come newly alive when you have Robert Cumming, the former chairman of Christie's International Art Studies, as your guide.

With tremendous erudition and tart, provocative opinions, Cumming zeroes in on the essential characteristics of more than 770 painters, showing us, for example, what it was that made Rembrandt's art unique. He explains the conventions of narrative and iconography in Western art, such as the representation of St. Lawrence, who is always seen lying on a hot griddle. And Cumming defines several hundred terms-- both technical (gouache, sfumato, craquelure) and critical/historical (Expressionism, Mannerism, the Hudson River School)-- that so often mystify a viewer.

Cumming's no-nonsense guide is enlightening and entertaining; lavishly illustrated with the key works of hundreds of artists; concise and portable enough to use in the "field" (museums and galleries); and so substantial you will refer to it often at home.

There is nothing like ART.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Cumming worked at the Tate Gallery in London before moving to Christie's. He is now an independent writer, lecturer, and organizer of exhibitions and television programs.

From Library Journal:

Cumming, chair of Christie's Education, London, takes readers on a guided tour of 45 of the Western world's great works of art. In typical Dorling Kindersley style?reflecting the influence of CD-ROMs, perhaps?each work is illustrated in full and surrounded by numerous excerpted details, sidebars, and annotations. Cumming succinctly discusses the subject, technique, symbolism, space and light elements, and historical style of each and adds his personal interpretation. For Hans Holbein's "The Ambassadors," for example, Cumming gives a short biography of the artist, explains the crises in Europe alluded to in the painting, and points out the odd form in the foreground. The latter, he explains, is a distorted death's-head that is meaningless if viewed from the front but from a certain angle takes the shape of a skull. While not as ambitious as Sister Wendy Beckett's The Story of Painting (LJ 11/15/94), this is an exciting introduction to painting for general collections at an attractive price.?Daniel J. Lombardo, Jones Lib., Amherst, Mass.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: DK
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1564588483
• ISBN 13: 9781564588487
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 104