Editorial Reviews
The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams
Mr. Elkins has been a painter and an art teacher, and seemingly remains a student of alchemy. He advises readers to consider painting--the attempt to make something meaningful out of powdered rock and water--as akin to alchemy, whose practitioners strove to make meaning and power out of chemical substances they did not understand by methods that were uncertain. "When nothing is known," Mr. Elkins points out, "anything is possible. An alchemist who added 'aqua regia' to 'luna' might not have had any idea what could happen. An artist who mixes salt into a lithograph, or beats water into oil paint, is taking the same kind of chance." In the author's view, substances, even colors, have character, and will exert it regardless of an artist's intention. This is a novel way of considering paintings, and excitingly different from standard art criticism.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Boston Globe
"A truly original book. It will make you look at paintings differently and think about paint differently."
What Painting Is
What Painting Is,James Elkins,Routledge,0415926629,Art,Art & Art Instruction,General,History - General,Techniques - Oil Painting,Techniques - Painting,Painting & paintings,Theory of art
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