Learning to Look at Paintings

by Mary Acton

This is a critique of works of art dating from the early fifteenth century through to modern installations. Suggesting a series of questions to ask when looking at a painting this will help develop a critical understanding of art.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Greta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was a very nice primer on how to look at paintings, like the title suggests, and the author did provide enough all-round information to help the reader/observer see more than just a flat surface with something on it. The thing I wasn't too fond of, however, was when she goes all esoteric. Sometimes art enthusiasts are a bit like wine connoisseurs. They get all into "the bouquet" and the subtle nuances and the aspects of the thing, which end up seeming like personal interpretations and/or tastes, that make the average person wonder what the hell they're talking about. They may be right, and they may have a point that's worth considering, but unless they can tone it down a bit and talk to Joe and Betty Sixpack, they're going to lose the interest of many in their audience which is what happened to me several times while reading this book.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting description of the various elements that make up a painting and how you can recognise them. Four stars for the text. Minus one star for the very poor black-and-white reproductions that do the paintings no justice. But read it anyway.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breakdown of Star Rating as follows:

Breadth of analysis: 5, covered a wide variety of aspects of paintings generally (composition, space, form, tone, color, and subject-matter) as well as two specific types of paintings/painting-type works (drawings and prints) which (at least as a non-art and non-art history person) seemed like a really good spread of topics.

Depth of analysis: 5, felt (again, to a non-art and non-art history person) like the analysis went really far in on most works, sometimes beyond what I could understand but always at least as much as I wanted/expected.

Quality of analysis: 5, I feel like as a non-art and non-art history person I can’t really speak to this as much, but I definitely feel like everything that I read has held up when applied to pieces that I’ve seen since reading the book and that the analyses of works in the book seemed to hold up there.

Reproductions of Paintings: 4, when you get past the fact that the paintings are in black and white and not to scale (although the actual size is listed in the description of each piece and every piece where color is a main component of the analysis is in the colored section), all of the important parts of each work still comes across in the reproductions and they still look really good. Additionally, it isn’t hard to google the paintings in color if it is really that important to the individual in the way that they interpret and process the paintings.

Accessibility: 4, as someone who is not really accustomed to art/art history language, I did not at any time feel so lost in the lingo and jargon that I could not understand what was being said. There were a lot of artistic and art historical terms thrown around, but most were either explained on the spot or in the glossary at the end of the book. The only terms not consistently well defined were the names of art movements, which did not make the text much harder to understand.

Writing Style: 4, it was certainly clear that Acton is not a professional writer, but her voice and writing style were professional and clear in a way that got what she wanted to say across without being superfluous or overzealous.

Content: 4, the paintings, while representative of the themes discussed and analyzed, are overwhelmingly European (and within that are overwhelming Western European and Italian). The book could probably benefit from a more diverse palette of pieces, but that does not really take anything away from the overall effectiveness or enjoyability of the text.

Effectiveness: 5, using the concepts from this book have significantly and noticeably affected the way that I look at and think about paintings in a positive way. As a beginner/amatuer it feels like a really big leap from where I was (literally just looking) to where I am now (being able to evaluate beneath the surface in a few different, albeit elementary, ways).

[Luca Frasca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lo spunto del saggio è assai originale, cercando di offrire al lettore strumenti eterogenei per poter leggere ed interpretare un quadro da una pluralità di prospettive: storico-sociale e di contesto, contenutistica, simbolica, formale e di composizione, tecnica, coloristica.
Peccato che la scrittura sia approssimativa e la trattazione superficiale, al punto da sovrapporre i vari approcci in maniera confusa e sommaria.
Un’occasione sprecata.

[Mass · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scritto (o forse tradotto) male, con un incedere farraginoso e concetti troppo spesso confusi o enunciati sommariamente. Si vuole aiutare il lettore a capire come meglio osservare un quadro in tutte le sue componenti, ma la trattazione risulta fredda, macchinosa, accademica nel senso peggiore del termine. Utile per chiarire e fermare alcuni punti nell'analisi di un'opera, ma niente di più.

[Tony Wainaina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most informative and clearly written book about understanding art that I have ever read. Outstanding.

[Luca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is easy to read, complex enough, beautiful and does exactly what it says in its title.

[Michael Pennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. Shame the photos are black and white.

[Heleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for uni, good book about paintings, really helped

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introduzione piuttosto basica, con un approccio empirico, morfologico e infine tecnico alla pittura. For dummies.

[Evgeniya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very dry, heavy-going book

[Bianca 🍥 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amato questo saggio che mi ha permesso di introdurmi a un nuovo modo per approcciarsi all’arte.

[Divvy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly organized! A great companion to Sylvan Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing About Art for the inexperienced art history student. If I ever got the opportunity to teach an art appreciation class, this would be the required text.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is basically an essential book for art students and everyone who is interested in art. Mary Acton uses simple language to teach the readers all the elements in a painting: form, tone, color, space, value... After reading this book, you are going to have so much more fun while visiting museums!

[Whitney L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to buy this book for my art and architecture class at an Oxford summer program. I loved my Italian professor and this book was a great way to start to learn how to analyze paintings.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely wonderful book for Art History beginners. Clear and concise, but also detailed and specific with just enough background information.