Awful Art

The Knowledge

by Michael Cox, Philip Reeve (Illustrator)

First cave-dwellers hid their mammoth doodles in dark, damp caves. Next - you name it, they painted it - from luscious landscapes and mouldy meat to diabolical dream-sequences. Now anything can be art - building bricks, half a cow, even a bin full of rubbish! In this imaginative guide, you'll meet rich artists, poor artists, dead artists and artists who really made an exhibition of themselves. Find out about some forgers and fraudsters who brushed with the law, palette loads of ancient artefacts, and how to create your own priceless masterpiece. 'Plus' are you the owner of an artistic temperament. If you want to know, get The Knowledge!

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Childrens, Humor

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 1997

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

This is Michael^Cox, where ^=space. (default profile)

About the Author:
Michael Andrew Cox was an English biographer, novelist and musician.
He also held the position of Senior Commissioning Editor of reference books for Oxford University Press.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

'......if you want to find out which artist liked to use toilet rolls as sketch pads, which one dyed his hair with boot polish and which one wanted to put dynamite in a duck's bottom - read on!

Included are:

'Fascinating facts about the art that is so horribly old and ancient that even your head teacher won't remember it!
Things about the art that is so new (and weird!) that the people who read the news on TV probably don't even know about it.
Stories about the artists whose work was so nightmarish and shocking it caused a riot.
Terrific tales of doxy fraudsters, fab finds, doomed daubers, jammy bodgers and genuine geniuses....

and......an interview with an apple!'

If you have read the 'TOP TEN' and 'DEAD FAMOUS' series of books, you will be aware of the way in which MICHAEL COX puts knowledge across, in a humorous way.
This book is no exception.

[Yue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been looking for this book for ages. The first time I've read it, I copied a lot of facts described in here in a little notebook I have. Because every single crazy fact was amazing, these artist were so mad. I have to get a copy. Amazing book for any age: adult, child, etc.

[Doroteja · Rating 5 out of 5]

It made me so excited about art when I was a child, and I'm still excited, so it worked really well for me:)

[Tarlan A. Latif · Rating 4 out of 5]

baby baby baby huuu huu

[Linda Carraro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le miglior peggiori atrocità del mondo dell'arte, degli artisti e dei collezionisti, il tutto condito da un umorismo che adoro mentre maschera da mera parodia piccole nozioni sul concetto di arte e artista, senza troppe pretesa se non quella di divertire il piccolo (e il grande) lettore per avvicinarlo ad un mondo meno serioso di quel che possa sembrare a prima vista.

[Il_mare_ghiacciato · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mio parere, il meno ben fatto tra quelli letti sinora... Nessuna cronologia, si salta qua e là a caso e soprattutto si confonde il lettore meno esperto. Va bene che è un testo per bambini, ma puntare tutto solo su aneddoti rivoltanti mi sembra riduttivo.

[Matylda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5