I may have missed a step or two at some point, but the last thought I had about learning about art history came off a documentary about Rococo. Watching that was a bit like watching an anime in Japanese with an interest in it, but no knowledge of the language itself. It's pleasant and interesting and lovely but you just KNOW you're missing a lot at the same time.
Drawing and painting are fun, but as far as history, there are only a few famous pieces and names that get drummed into American school curriculums. My mother used to do a thing called Art Masterpiece in a local elementary school, where she got this pack of standardized sized prints of famous artworks and talked to little kids about them. Simple stuff and a few stories provided in the little half page of information she was given for each.
Understandably, the best that came out of it were keeping the names that were repeated and the rare chance for those poor teachers to finally get a toilet break while another adult watched them.
So I picked up Susie Hodge's How to Look at Art. It was published in 2014, and is a nice accessible book full of photos, pop-outs with handy tips, and overviews on different major types and material in art. It’s directed, from what I can tell, to aspiring artists in the early stages, people who are looking to learn from the masters in museums to widen their understanding of the art industry. While that’s not me - though I did get me some sketch books to relive my HS art class days - I still found it a good read.
I love museums. But the art sections were a challenge. Turns out, art history is a whole lot of the same questioning this happy lil goblin brain already asks:
“When considering any artwork, theme or style, look for several reasons why the artist worked in that way, used those materials or represented that subject. There’s rarely one answer.
“Don’t hold back! Consider crazy meanings and reasons behind artworks as well as sensible ones.
“Never judge a work of art simply because you don’t like the look of it (or you do), because you’ve never liked that artist, or because the work isn’t well known, for example.”
The lovely list of creative inquisition goes on.
YIS, fren. Yisssss.
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