When Art Worked


Book Description

Commemorates the achievements of the artists put to work by the government and explores how their art repaired the national sense of self. From publisher description.




When Art Really Works


Book Description

(back cover) Why do some artworks stand head and shoulders above others? Exceptional art somehow satisfies viewers at a deeper level than more ordinary paintings and sculptures. WHEN ART REALLY WORKS showcases a selection of eighty outstanding masterworks from around the world and spanning the millennia, assessing just what it is that makes each of them so great. Some owe their greatness to composition or color, others offer profound insights into their human subjects, and some convey their message with extraordinary emotional impact. Andy Pankhurst and Lucinda Hawksley's succinct appraisals will open your eyes to the unique defining qualities of these key works, enabling you to appreciate groundbreaking talents that have emerged in every age.




Making Art Work


Book Description

The creative collaborations of engineers, artists, scientists, and curators over the past fifty years. Artwork as opposed to experiment? Engineer versus artist? We often see two different cultural realms separated by impervious walls. But some fifty years ago, the borders between technology and art began to be breached. In this book, W. Patrick McCray shows how in this era, artists eagerly collaborated with engineers and scientists to explore new technologies and create visually and sonically compelling multimedia works. This art emerged from corporate laboratories, artists' studios, publishing houses, art galleries, and university campuses. Many of the biggest stars of the art world--Robert Rauschenberg, Yvonne Rainer, Andy Warhol, Carolee Schneemann, and John Cage--participated, but the technologists who contributed essential expertise and aesthetic input often went unrecognized.




Social Works


Book Description

‘a game-changer, a must-read for scholars, students and artists alike’ – Tom Finkelpearl At a time when art world critics and curators heavily debate the social, and when community organizers and civic activists are reconsidering the role of aesthetics in social reform, this book makes explicit some of the contradictions and competing stakes of contemporary experimental art-making. Social Works is an interdisciplinary approach to the forms, goals and histories of innovative social practice in both contemporary performance and visual art. Shannon Jackson uses a range of case studies and contemporary methodologies to mediate between the fields of visual and performance studies. The result is a brilliant analysis that not only incorporates current political and aesthetic discourses but also provides a practical understanding of social practice.




Art and How it Works


Book Description

This engaging introduction to art appreciation for kids explores art history, themes in art, and art techniques, from cave paintings to modern art. Art and How It Works takes children on a journey through the history of art, from prehistoric paintings, Impressionism, and abstract art, through to the art of today. This bright and colorful book includes biographies of major artists, such as Fra Angelico and David Hockney, and cuts through the jargon that surrounds the art world to offer a fresh and accessible approach for children. Young readers will begin to notice and explore shapes, colors, patterns, styles, themes, and techniques. By taking a close look at famous paintings and answering the open-ended question prompts dotted throughout the book, kids will discover a new way to see and appreciate the art all around them.




How Art Works


Book Description

"How Art Works explores puzzles that have preoccupied philosophers as well as the general public: Can art be defined? How do we decide what is good art? Why do we gravitate to sadness in art? Why do we devalue a perfect fake? Could 'my kid have done that'? Does reading fiction enhance empathy? Drawing on careful observations, probing interviews, and clever experiments, Ellen Winner reveals surprising answers to these and other artistic mysteries. We may come away with a new understanding of how art works on us."--Jacket.




Working Conditions


Book Description

Texts by Hans Haacke that range from straightforward descriptions of his artworks to wide-ranging reflections on the relationship between art and politics. Hans Haacke's art articulates the interdependence of multiple elements. An artwork is not merely an object but is also its context—the economic, social, and political conditions of the art world and the world at large. Among his best-known works are MoMA-Poll (1970), which polled museumgoers on their opinions about Nelson Rockefeller and the Nixon administration's Indochina policy; Gallery-Goers' Birthplace and Residence Profile (1969), which canvassed visitors to the Howard Wise Gallery in Manhattan; and the famously canceled 1971 solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, which was meant to display, among other things, works on two New York real estate empires. This volume collects writings by Haacke that explain and document his practice. The texts, some of which have never before been published, run from straightforward descriptions to wide-ranging reflections and full-throated polemics. They include correspondence with MoMA and the Guggenheim and a letter refusing to represent the United States at the 1969 São Paulo Biennial; the title piece, “Working Conditions,” which discusses corporate influence on the art world; Haacke's thinking about “real-time social systems”; and texts written for museum catalogs on various artworks, including GERMANIA, in the German Pavilion of the 1993 Venice Biennial; DER BEVÖLKERUNG (To the Population) of 2000 at the Berlin Reichstag; Mixed Messages, an exhibition of objects from the Victoria and Albert Museum (2001); and Gift Horse, unveiled on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2015.




Works and Worlds of Art


Book Description

In this book the author treats art as an action performed by the artist as agent, rather than examining it from the point of view of its audience as contemplators.




How Art Works


Book Description

What goes into creating art? How can we learn to "read" paintings? What are the key elements of composition? An art ebook like no other, How Art Works uses practical graphics to demonstrate the techniques, styles, materials, and concepts that lie behind great art. It shows you how to interpret paintings, drawings, and sculptures, and reveals how art is made, laying out the key techniques and materials in visual detail. It also explains the nuts and bolts of the technical aspects behind art, such as perspective and composition, and shows how to identify major artistic styles and movements. Providing all you need to know to build on your artistic understanding and appreciation, this is the perfect ebook for art lovers - and for anyone who wants to know more about art but isn't sure where to begin.




100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age


Book Description

Bold and engaging predictions of which artists and artworks from the past two decades will endure through their power to question, provoke, and inspire Just as Picasso’s Guernica or Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa survive as powerful cultural documents of their time, there will be works from our own era that will endure for generations to come. Kelly Grovier curates a compelling list of one hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, performances, and video pieces that have made the greatest impact from 1989 to the present. The global cast includes Marina Abramovic , Matthew Barney, Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, Andreas Gursky, Cristina Iglesias, On Kawara, Jeff Koons, Ernesto Neto, Gerhard Richter, Pipilotti Rist, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei. Many of the pieces reflect the cultural upheavals of recent times, from the collapse of the Berlin Wall to the blossoming of the Arab Spring. A daring yet convincing analysis of which artworks best capture the zeitgeist of our time, Grovier’s list also provides a much-needed map through the landscape of contemporary art. Illustrations of key works are supplemented by comparative images, and short texts offer a biography of each artwork, tracing its inception and impact, and offering a view not only into the imagination of the artist but into the age in which we live.