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The Sight of Death
An Experiment in Art Writing
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The Sight of Death
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ideal for readers passionate about art history, painting, visual culture, and those interested in the philosophical and emotional impact of artworks. Also suitable for scholars, students, and anyone seeking a deeper, reflective engagement with visual imagery.
Addresses questions such as: Why do we find ourselves returning to certain pictures time and again? What is it we are looking for? And how does our understanding of an image change over time?
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
A renowned art historian confronts the specific powers of painting, and the hold of the visual image on the viewer's imagination.
Why do we find ourselves returning to certain pictures time and again? What is it we are looking for? How does our understanding of an image change over time? In his latest book, The Sight of Death, T. J. Clark addresses these questions—and many more—in ways that steer art writing into new territory.
In early 2000, two extraordinary paintings by Poussin hung in the Getty Museum in a single room, Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake (National Gallery, London) and the Getty's own Landscape with a Calm. Clark found himself returning to the gallery to look at these paintings morning after morning, and almost involuntarily he began to record his shifting responses in a notebook. The result is a riveting analysis of the two landscapes and their different views of life and death, but more, a chronicle of an investigation into the very nature of visual complexity.
Clark’s meditations—sometimes directly personal, sometimes speaking to the wider politics of our present image-world—track the experience of viewing art through all its real-life twists and turns.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Praised as "as compelling as a thriller" by John McEwan of The Tablet, this book is described as a lucid, sophisticated, and deeply thoughtful meditation on art by Tom Lubbock of The Independent. BBC Radio 3's Nightwaves calls it "an eloquent plea for a new way of experiencing and talking about art". Andrew Mead highlights the book's invitation to close, careful scrutiny, likening the experience to a detective story.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780300137583
Publisher: Yale University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 15 April 2008
Country: United States
Imprint: Yale University Press
Illustration: 17 b-w + 33 color illus.
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 148.0mm
Weight: 590g
Pages: 272
Collections
About the Author
T. J. Clark is George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of several books including the highly influential volume, The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and his Followers.
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