S. J. Hodge

Having been happily married to the Permanent Roommate (a university trained artist who has made her career in art) for 39 years, I have always been rather puzzled as to what she's talking about. In all fairness, I bet she's a bit lost when my buddies and I talk about fly fishing). I've absorbed quite a bit over the years, but this book really helped to bring things into perspective.
I honestly had no idea that art had different elements! At least not until I read this book. It was like someone pulling back the curtain on what my wife talks about. Now I know just enough to MAYBE chime in with an opinion or observation once in awhile. Kind of like George Costanza at an art gallery exhibition, haha.
This would be a great book for any youngster interested in the arts, or any other person who just wishes to appear a bit more knowledgeable. It's an easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to digest book.
I just wish I would have found it 40 years ago!… (mehr)

I've not actually read this but I've flicked through it a few times. it purports to be a defence of modern art by showing how seemingly simple art pieces could not have been produced by a child but it utterly fails at this. every piece of art has a section answering the question "could a child have done this" and for like half she's like "yeah of course they could but it wouldn't be with the same intentions as the artist" which is hilarious to me in how unconvincing it is. for the other half its clearly technically sophisticated so it's a pointless question anyway. this doesn't mean I think the art is bad! just if you're writing a book with a very particular framing it's pretty embarrassing to fail to make a good argument on your terms. "any child could slash a knife across the canvas but they wouldn't do it for the same reasons as the artist" mentioning what the artist "aimed to explore" and saying what an artwork "conveys" based on nothing about the artwork itself... it's just a stupendous failure to understand why people feel alienated by this kind of art. I dunno. just needed to say something about it… (mehr)