Keeping an Eye Open Essays on Art [Paperback]

Flaubert believed that great paintings required no words of explanation. But, as Barnes notes, it is a rare picture that stuns, or argues, us into silence. And when this does happen, we feel compelled to explain the very silence into which we have been plunged. In this illuminating collection of essays on art, Barnes turns his narrative gifts toward some of the most important paintings in the Western canon, eloquently voicing our reactions to these images—what they cause us to think and feel, and why. From Gericault’sThe Raft of the Medusato Degas’sThe Dance Lessonto Braque’s Cubism to the “good soft fun” of Oldenburg, Barnes effortlessly fits these pieces into the larger dramas of the artists’ lives and works. Taken together, these essays give us a wonderful overview of art from Romanticism onward—and are a true pleasure to read.“Eloquent. . . . This is a novelist’s criticism, full of motion and drama.” —The Washington Post

“An engaging and empathetic volume.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Perceptive. . . . Generous and discerning.” —The Boston Globe
 
“Fascinating and brilliant. . . . This magnificent survey draws its strength from its intensely personal focus, each piece reverberating off the others.” —The Financial Times  

“Illuminating. . . . Avid and thoughtful. . . . [Barnes] chatters like the gifted novelist he is, using his eye for the telling detail, his narrative intuition and his understanding of the creative process to help us see familiar artists like Degas, Braque and Magritte afresh, and to appreciate the work of lesser-known masters as well.” —The New York Times

“[A] superb collection. . . . Barnes’s observations and expression prov[e] equally adept and satisfying.” —Minneapolis Staló5