Seeing Slowly Looking at Modern Art [Hardcover]

In this highly engaging and empowering book, Michael Findlay, an internationally respected art dealer, urges museum goers to unplug from the audio tour, ignore those information labels, and really see art with all of their senses. When it comes to viewing art, living in the information age is not necessarily a benefit. So argues Michael Findlay in this book that encourages a new way of looking at art. Much of this thinking involves stripping away what we have been taught and instead trusting our own instincts, opinions, and reactions. Including reproductions of works by Mark Rothko, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, Jacob Lawrence, and other modern and contemporary masters, this book takes readers on a journey through modern art. Chapters such as What Is a Work of Art? Can We Look and See at the Same Time? and Real Connoisseurs Are Not Snobs, not only give readers the confidence to form their own opinions, but also encourages them to make connections that spark curiosity, intellect, and imagination. The most important thing for us to grasp, writes Findlay, is that the essence of a great work of art is inert until it is seen. Our engagement with the work of art liberates its essence. After reading this book, even the most intimidated art viewer will enter a museum or gallery feeling more confident and leave it feeling enriched and inspired.“I highly recommend Michael Findlay’s new book,Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art,published in September by Prestel. A longtime director at New York’s Acquavella Galleries and, before that, the longtime head of Christie’s department of Impressionist and modern art, Findlay is a veteran of the most specialized art speak and practical matters of history, condition, provenance – the works. Nevertheless, he believes that an appreciation of great art does not depend on knowledge of context and, in some cases, can actually be hindered by it.” – Sarah Douglas, Editor-in-Chief,ArtNewl£