Ways of Looking: How to Experience Contemporary Art

by Ossian Ward

Art has changed. Today's works of art may have no obvious focal point. Traditional artistic media no longer do what we expect of them. The styles and movements that characterized art production prior to the twenty-first century no longer exist.

This book provides a straightforward guide to understanding contemporary art based on the concept of the tabula rasa – a clean slate and a fresh mind. Ossian Ward presents a six-step program that gives readers new ways of looking at some of the most challenging art being produced today. Since artists increasingly work across traditional media and genres, Ward has developed an alternative classification system for contemporary practice such as 'Art as Entertainment', 'Art as Confrontation', 'Art as Joke' -- categories that help to make sense of otherwise obscure-seeming works. There are also 20 'Spotlight' features which guide readers through encounters with key works.

Ultimately, the message is that any encounter with a challenging work of contemporary art need not be intimidating or alienating but rather a dramatic, sensually rewarding, and thought-provoking experience.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Unfinished, Design, Art Design

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2014

Reviews

[Denn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find Ward’s systematic ‘way of looking’ (coined as tabula ) a very useful approach to understanding contemporary art. But there is a contradiction here. The tabula rasa method claims that it is based on ‘a clean slate and a fresh mind’, yet very much attention is given to B/background (which proposes already existing knowledge of the artist/artwork). In one of the case studies, Ward suggests that something as little as the nationality of the artist could communicate some kind of meaning. For Ward, the political climate in which the work is produced is also a crucial factor of deciphering art. But, in their presentational conditions, artworks (and more specifically, contemporary art) are very rarely accompanied by such kinds of information. In this respect, the tabula method doesn’t necessarily fail, but it certainly does not bust the myth that contemporary art requires some kind of research? prior to one entering the gallery space. This book is intended for the not necessarily art-trained viewer, as Ward suggests, and it stands as a very useful guide to approaching art. The tabula method encourages a very subjective reading of art, suggesting that – through these six steps – one can draw their own conclusions, informed by personal experiences and expectations.

[Tim Roast · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is meant to "transform a potentially intimidating encounter with cutting-edge art into a dramatic, sensually rewarding and thought-provoking experience." Well, does it?

If nothing else that sentence makes a good blurb. I must say I haven't felt intimidated by art before, although I haven't experienced many performance pieces (some of which are mentioned in the book) with artworks of that type in-particular having the potential to be excruciating I guess.

What this book does do is provide a tool to approach contemporary art pieces (contemporary being 2000 onwards) "as if it were your first experience with that format," so as to get the most from it - the TABULA tool. This is introduced at the book beginning, tabula rasa being Latin for fresh slate and TABULA standing for Time, Association, Background, Understanding, Look again, and Assess. The author then goes on to show how to use this approach in the following chapters where contemporary art is grouped in categories: entertainment, confrontation, event, message, joke, spectacle and meditation.

In truth these chapters could have been grouped by anything really, and there is also crossover between them, but they act as a classification to help you bring pieces of art such as big playground slides, an estate agent tour, and some copper boxes that get FedExed from gallery to gallery alive.

The tool is simple to remember and use, even for a more-than-casual art observer as myself, and would work with non-contemporary pieces too. The author is impressive when he delves into pieces through the book (see for example the spotlight features at the end of each chapter), although some art he brings up is glossed over quickly. Also not all the art mentioned has a visual image within the glossy full-colour pages of the book. Similarly video pieces, performance pieces and other "scheduled or timed" pieces are difficult to decipher from a still image so having an internet device handy when reading this book to reference these would be desirable. Even then you may still need to do what the author recommends which is to go and see the artwork in person to get the most out of it (I haven't done that though).

There may be a London bias given the author's past as chief art critic at Time Out London, but the artwork featured still covers the world, even including an out-of-the-way rural Thai province. Anyway you would expect London to feature prominently in such a book anyway so this is not a criticism.

Overall then this book introduces a useful tool that, if used, should help to bring out a finer appreciation of contemporary art (and non-contemporary too) even without being well-versed in any art history knowledge.

[Robert Kosara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, if a bit incomplete. Ward covers a lot of ground and his "tabula rasa" method makes sense. But he's also skirting around some of the questions that a reader of such a book will presumably have, and that he also raises in a few places. Like, what is and is not art? how do you assess (the last A in the tabula acronym) a work? what drives the artists that make some of these pieces? what do they want to express or achieve?

I get that there aren't any specific answers to most these questions, but I feel that there could be a bit more of an effort to at least try to address them. As it is, the book is a bit too much stream-of-consciousness description of a number of pieces without much to tie it all together.

[Shushan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In general, this book is highly informative and easy to read, which makes it a very good option for those who are just getting familiar with contemporary art.
The "Tabula Rasa" technique suggested by Ward can be really very useful. I did enjoy the first chapter with the detailed description of it. However, to be honest, I got a little bit bored by the end of the book, since all other chapters are very similar.

Overall, this book helped me to understand the basics of contemporary art and the ideology of that concept. Although, I still feel a little bit skeptical about its certain forms, it's more comprehensible to me than ever.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author introduces his own scheme for analysing art, which he calls "tabula rasa" - start with a clean slate, an open mind, and then consider the artwork in terms of Time, Association, Background, Understanding, Look again and Assessment. With this toolkit, he explores an interesting selection of contemporary art from different viewpoints. Art can be many things - an event, a message, a joke, a confrontation, a meditation etc - and the author examines artworks within these themes with a deeply personal experience, at the same time as his profession as an art critic shines through in every step.

[Cherniakhivska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Людяна книжка про те, як дати шанс сучасному мистецтву зацікавити, а собі дати шанс його сприйняти хоча б на рівні асоціацій чи відчуттів, якщо й не важливих концепцій.

[Emmett · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first chapter outlines the framework of looking and answers the question posed by the title in abstract, condensed form. Ward's way of looking is conducted through varying perspectives and angles to which one can approach art, and these perspectives are conducted through different questions that one can pose to oneself and gauge one's responses when engaging with an artwork. The chapters that follow explore contemporary art in a variety of mediums/forms, and constitute helpful and needful practice work for one to exercise the skills learned in chapter one - before heading to the museums, probably. All in all it is a useful book, but it would be more useful had it offered something more than everything in the first chapter.

[melbobyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ways of Looking is great for what it is: a basic, friendly introduction to contemporary art. As an artist myself--and an academic type--of course I find this book to be basic and unchallenging; however, I think that is this book's strength. Yes, it's a little prescriptive, but isn't that what we expect with a book such as this? It's an introduction and a field guide that will help readers approach and enjoy contemporary art with a little more confidence. Ward suggests some tools for the reading of contemporary art with a nice range of examples, and I will recommend this book to friends, family, and students who are interested yet timid in their approach to contemporary art.

[Carlos Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is good, but it is really hard to talk about art made in videos in a book... It is hard to get a feeling of those videos with only one image. It is a shame, I don't see either how to do it. HOWEVER, his intention goes further than explaining some pieces of art, he wants to help you understanding any kind of art and that was great in my opinion. In overall, it was a good introductory level book for someone like me who is not really into contemporary art. I ended up finding amazing contemporary art pieces that I hope one to see.

[kavreb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Resting at least partly on Ward’s ability to write about art in an interesting way (a skill he has most definitely honed through his career as an art critic), the book describes a way of approaching art that encourages second takes and meeting the work half-way. I don't feel like Ward’s descriptions of invoking his own mantraistic approach to art analysis do the best job of explaining how to implement it by one’s self in the wild, and he keeps repeating he doesn't want to add his own assessment of the works in the book, as if that's even close to truth, but they certainly are fun to read, and in essence I do find myself agreeing with Ward’s recommendation; I've already used the tabula rasa method with some works I've come in contact with, to some success, the greatest of which has been the encouragement to give a work of art a second chance, divorced from one’s first-glance prejudices and quick takes. You can't spend a lifetime analysing every work, but you can spend a second asking if maybe you were wrong. At the very least, it might be an interesting discussion with oneself; at best, lo and behold, a mind changed - a true miracle.

So, the book might not be quite what it sets out to be, but for the coherent approach to things that are often incoherent, and for the enticing reviews, I can't help but like the book. Now then, time to rip the old masters a new one (see: the sequel).

[Maia Palmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely disappointed thus far in the clearly biased opinions of the author who has little regard for female art. In the contemporary era, there is no excuse for citing work after work by male artists. I am on page 39, and of the 17 artworks featured, TWO were by female artists!!! We can no longer claim that women are not creating art or are not well known. There are, in fact, more practicing female artists graduating from art school than male, yet this book rarely touches on any contemporary works created by women.

I find his strategy to be interesting and offered alternative methods for viewing artwork (though frankly the classic method of describe, analyze, interpret, evaluate would effectively do the same) but I am so disgusted by his lack of thorough research and clear bias that I have no desire to finish this book. It's frankly embarrassing.

[Stefano Da Rui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ways of Looking is an essential book for art lovers, but also for those who feel like contemporary art is not their cup of tea; it is in fact a guided tour into the most diverse works of art through the so-called Tabula Rasa approach, a comprehensive and basic approach suitable to experience every work of art, be it a painting or a video installation, whatever. It is anyway recommended to have some sort of empathy and no prejudices towards the arts to fully experience this book and, obviously, works of art.

[Jawaher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book help to understand and appreciate contemporary art -a type of art Im not fan of most of it-. The first chapter was the best for me, the other chapters were just examples of the methodology Ossian Ward explain in the first one.
Also it was ironic to end a book about contemporary art by talking about a classical masterpiece -self portrait by Rembrandt-
I recommend this book to every one interested in contemporary art or want to understand it in an easy way.

[Aldo Aguirre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book to try and wrap your head around contemporary art.

Provides framework to appreciate (or try to) contemporary art: TABULA. Time, Association, Background, Understanding, Look Again, Assessment.

Also shares different ways that Contemporary Art is used. Contemporary Art as a Statement, as Meditation, as an Event, as a Joke, etc.

We'll worth the time and effort to explore different takes of contemporary art and learn about some of its key artists.

[Kirill Protasenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Presents comprehensive model to step up to contemporary pieces. Not an academic view but enough for those who want smth than just senselessly observing exhibitions of modern art. Tabula (time association background utilisation looking back analysis) rasa.

[Brandi Fox · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. This book epitomized everything I have to work against in the contemporary art world both in tone and content. Unless you want to be annoyed or have reasons to doubt the goodness of Art do not give this your time.

[Heath]

This is an excellent book for someone who wants an overview of how to interact with contemporary art. It's also a good book for teachers of art that want to introduce how to make and critique contemporary art.

[Daria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully and simply laid out. Easily accessible framework for interaction with contemporary (or even classic) art, I would especially give it to anyone who is sceptical

[Alsu Akhmetzyanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book to explain the way an amateur should observe and evaluate pieces of contemporary art

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good primer on contemporary art. Mostly stayed for all the art Ward mentioned.

[Raymundo Vázquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ossian Ward nos presenta aquí su método para contemplar el arte contemporáneo, el cual por cierto, al menos para fines didácticos, trata de delimitarlo a trabajos presentados a partir del año 2000. El método es "Tabula Rasa". la frase en latín que literalmente significa "tablilla rasa o limpia" pero que podríamos coloquialmente llamar "borrón y cuenta nueva".
Con la palabra TABULA crea un mnemónico, una frase para facilitar el memorizado de un conjunto de pasos donde cada letra significa algo.

- T por Time (Tiempo),
- A por Association (Asociación),
- B por Background (Trasfondo, Antecedentes),
- U por Understand (Entender),
- L por Look Again (Volver a mirar),
- A por Assessment (Valoración).

Con este método presente, Ossian Ward nos presenta 7 campos o formas de ver el arte contemporáneo: como entretenimiento, como confrontación, como evento, como mensaje, como broma, como espectáculo y como meditación. En cada uno nos presenta varios ejemplos y al final siempre hay 2 casos de estudio.

Aunque Ossian evita la jerga técnica propia del mundo del arte, la verdad es que mucho del vocabulario que utiliza aún resulta un tanto complejo y difícil para quienes, como yo, el inglés no es nuestro idioma nativo.
El método no es exclusivo del arte y se puede aplicar a varias otras cosas. Aunque en general me deja una sensación positiva y nuevos bríos para seguir visitando museos, galerías, 'performances', obras de teatro y películas, tampoco remueve de mi el hecho de seguir considerando algunos eventos y espectáculos como absurdos o vacíos por decir menos. Mi mayor argumento para ello sería que no podemos concluir que todo lo que la gente hace es arte. Definitivamente necesitamos algunos criterios.

Por otro lado, y creo que eso queda claro en el libro, el valor que le damos a un trabajo artístico es subjetivo y depende en gran parte de la persona, del grado de conexión que el espectador establece con la obra que esta presenciando. Tenemos entonces que ver el arte, como dice Ossian, con una mente abierta y darle una oportunidad de crear esa conexión, puede que suceda o puede que no, pero será hasta ese entonces que podremos sacar conclusiones.

[Samuel Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was about five minutes away from being banned from the Tate Modern by my wife. She had about enough of my mumbling about the art and was fed up with my attitude. I could not for the life of me comprehend how some of the amateurish looking work on offer should be displayed, never mind be worth lots of money. It was not until she began to explain some of the reasons behind the art that the scales fell from before my eyes; one artist produces coloured squares, but they actually represented classical paintings; the thicker the line, the more busy the painting was in that section. Suddenly, the art of was interesting. All I needed to do was stop for a moment and consider what it was trying to say.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to be married to a person with an Arts Degree, so to get a similar experience they could do far worse than read ‘Ways of Looking’ by Ossian Ward. This is a book that aims to simplify what Contemporary Art is and help the sceptics to embrace it more. The main concept is tabula rasa; an idea in itself that will put off some people, but it actually simply means arrive at the art with an open mind. Ward steps through how you can approach the work – give it some time to sink in, does it actually look good, what are the reasons behind the art. If you follow Ward’s ideas it can actually work to improve you appreciation of art of all kinds.

As well as having a practical guide to how to approach Modern Art, Ward also introduces some of the main criteria that the art may come under. Don’t expect a piece made to shock to automatically look good, or a humorous piece to be fine art. The sections are clear, easy to read and have some examples in full colour. The book itself is a paperback size and at times you feel it would have been nice to see the images in a coffee table size book. Also, on occasion, the words are a little highfaluting; ironically this happens in the section where Ward talks about the pitfalls of Art Speak. It is possible that some will be alienated by the language in a book that is designed to be inclusive.

[Adele Fasick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable book that I found by accident while browsing the new book shelves at the public library. The author, Ossian Ward, is a British art critic, formerly with Time Out London. The art he talks about is all 21st century art, most of which has been exhibited in the UK or other European venues. He has a"rule" of looking at a work--start with a mind wiped free of preconceptions about what art should be like, look at the art work in question for the time of 5 breaths--don't turn away too quickly. His rules are a great way to think about looking at art. Most of the pieces he covers in this book are installations or performances designed for museums or for special places. None of them (or very few) are pieces that could be moved from one venue to another, but they appear to have taken over the art world. Many of them I don't like at all, others I would love to see, but I am very glad to have had a chance to be introduced to them by Ossian Ward.

[Muath Aziz · Rating 4 out of 5]

How should you deal with and experience fine art?

Well first of all, you shouldn't need any certain prior information before getting exposed to a certain work of art. To me, a piece of art is a standalone, so you don't need to know a thing about the artist behind it or to know about the movement it belongs to.

A work of art talks to both your eyes and your mind. I like the eyes part, where I'm amazed by the aesthetics of the work. I still enjoy each single fine work from the Renaissance I look at. However, I don't mind works that are invoking thoughts, which most of modern art is trying to do. Painters became more of critical writers of 20th century than brilliant music composers of the Renaissance.

[Amar Pai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Who is this book for?

I enjoyed it as a breezy superficial catalog of contemporary art but kept getting annoyed by this guy telling me how "tackle" the works. He doesn't have anything interesting to say.

Funniest titles of pieces discussed in this book (these are all real):

160cm Line Tattooed on Four People

A Tax Haven Run by Women (in the Style of a Luna Park Game Show)

Lobbing Potatoes at a Gong

20-Inch Copper FedEx Large Kraft Box (c) 2005 FEDEX 333508) International Priority, Los-Angeles-London trk#868587728040, Date October 2-6, 2009. International Priority London-New York trk#863822956489, Date November 18-20, 2009

Tiger Licking Girl's Butt

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

ways of looking: a down to earth guidebook to analysing and comprehending contemporary art.

As someone who has studied art, and is very interested in contemporary art in general, I acknowledge that this book was not made for me. some parts were too simplified and i would have appreciated further discussion, but again, this book was not made for me. instead i used it to build on my own library of artworks, to be introduced to new artists and ways of looking (haha) at their art, to simply enjoy the joy myself and others feel when looking at and discussing contemporary art. I had a good time!

lesson learned: always look again

[massmarketbareback · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m a massive fan of contemporary art and have been around since before i can remember so i’ve never had a problem appreciating it. this has lead to me often being asked by friends to help them understand. when ever that happens now i refers them to this book.

you don’t have to like the art or understand the art but have a few routine questions to ask yourself when viewing the art will allow to feel less alienated.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ward poses an approach to viewing contemporary art abbreviated TABULA, and carries through several chapters devoted to the contexts in which art occurs (political, entertainment, humor, etc.) There are samples from a full spectrum of art and artists. I needed more help, I am afraid, or I wouldn't have consulted this book. Maybe a THIS/NOT THIS section that explains why a collection of string in my junk drawer is string, but on the floor of the Tate is something so much more.

[Fem Simms · Rating 4 out of 5]

T.A.B.U.L.A