2nd Edition

Learning to Look at Paintings

By Mary Acton Copyright 2009
304 Pages
by Routledge

304 Pages
by Routledge

Learning to Look at Paintings is an accessible guide to the study and appraisal of paintings, drawings and prints. Mary Acton shows how you can develop visual, analytical and historical skills in learning to look at and understand an image by analysing how it works, what its pictorial elements are and how they relate to each other. This fully revised and updated new edition is illustrated... Read more

Introduction to the Second Edition  List of Figures  List of Plates  Preface Acknowledgements  Introduction  1. Composition  2. Space  3. Form  4. Tone  5. Colour  6. Subject Matter  7. Drawing and its Purposes  8. Looking at Prints.  Conclusion: The Use of Comparison as an Aid to Looking.  Appendix 1: Some Questions to Ask Yourself When Standing in Front of a Painting  Appendix 2: Glossary of Art Terms.  References and Further Reading.  Index

Biography

Mary Acton was Course Director of the Undergraduate Diploma and Advanced Diploma in the History of Art at Continuing Education, University of Oxford. She continues to teach at Oxford University and works as a freelance lecturer, and Learning to Look at Paintings is based on her experience over many years as an art historian and teacher. She is the author of Learning to look at Modern Art (2004)

'Each of the six chapters has a succint introduction and a short but useful summary... Recommended.' – CHOICE