 | | |
| What Painting Is | 
 enlarge | Author: James Elkins
Publisher: Routledge
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.96
You Save: $9.99 (40%)
Buy New/Used from $14.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  (13 reviews)
Sales Rank: 49705
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.7 x 0.6
ISBN: 0415926629
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN: 9780415926621
ASIN: 0415926629
Publication Date: March 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In What Painting Is , James Elkins communicates the experience of painting beyond the traditional vocabulary of art history. Alchemy provides a magical language to explore what it is a painter really does in the studio - the smells, the mess, the struggle to control the uncontrollable, the special knowledge only painters hold of how colors will mix, and how they will look. Written from the perspective of a painter-turned-art historian, What Painting Is is like nothing you have ever read about art.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 What Alchemy Is July 6, 2008
I think the title of this book is misleading. It should be, "What Alchemy Is". Most of the book is devoted to an overview of alchemy, with a few relatively modest observations about the nature of paint and how the artist relates to it and to the experience of painting. The book might have been more worthwhile if the author had at least been successful in demonstrating more clearly his point, which was to show the relationship between alchemy and painting, but the connection here between the two is not very convincing. I almost never write any of these reviews, but be forewarned if you think you are getting a book about painting, because this isn't it.
 Quirky, great read November 9, 2007
Although the author occasionally gets bogged down in the esoteric notions of alchemy this book may be just the thing you've been looking for if you need to see painting in a new light. There are many insights available here that you won't find in any other book on painting. I highly recommend this book to the serious painter.
Excellent May 10, 2007
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am not a painter, nor an artist. I am interested in the creative processes in life. I found this book entertaining and enlightning on many levels.
For painters who like to paint April 23, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book reminded me what I love about painting. After reading it I felt completely rejuvenated and excited to be in the studio. As I was painting, the language in the book kept flashing into my mind, increasing my mark-making vocabulary and providing me with creative juice.
Painter's perspective on painting August 14, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have been painting for nearly 20 years and this is the first book that I have encountered that has accurately described the material act of painting itself from a painter's perspective. I agree to some extent with other reviewers who complained that the discussions of alchemy were too long and obscure. However, in an age of digital images this foray into obsolete and arcane mucking about is absolutely necessary to explain why paint remains a vital medium. Even without the metaphoric parallels between painting and alchemy, delving into the alchemists kitchen seems like an excellent introduction into the mind of a painter.
I have one serious reservation about this book: I do not think that it would be useful for inexperienced painters. It is all too easy to be utterly seduced by the descriptions of lush thickets of paint and exquisite glazes. These must remain a means to greater understanding rather than an end in themselves. Elkins is aware of the problem and devotes a later chapter to self-reference and narcissism.
I am keen to try this book out on non-painting friends to see what impression it makes on them...
|
|
|
| | |
