What is Painting?: Representation and Modern Art Book

In recent years art critics and historians have tended to shy away from the "big" questions, content instead to cultivate more manageable areas of artistic creation. It is therefore very refreshing to read Julian Bell's book What is Painting?, which, as its title suggests, reconsiders basic questions relevant to the practice and contemplation of painting. As a successful painter in his own right, it is fascinating to watch Bell's mind cut through the dense foliage of art history to produce a compelling account of the ways in which the personal and social significance of painting has changed over the centuries. Beginning with Aristotle and ending with the so-called "death of painting", Bell boldly tackles ideas and concepts central to an understanding of painting. Imitation, representation, form, modernity, abstraction and deconstruction are all explored through Bell's account of painters ranging from the Greeks to Lucian Freud. Running throughout What is Painting? is a passionate belief in the importance of painting as a means of private and public expression. For a book by a painter, it is rather light on colour illustrations (only 16 in all), and ironically the subtlety of Bell's argument often diminishes its polemical force as a statement on the current status of painting; but perhaps that says more about the nature of art historical polemic than the quality of What is Painting? --Jerry BrottonRead More