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Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars
From the best-selling author of Sexual Personae and Break, Blow, Burn and one of our most acclaimed cultural critics, here is an enthralling journey through Western art’s defining moments, from the ancient Egyptian tomb of Queen Nefertari to George Lucas’s volcano planet duel in Revenge of the Sith.
America’s premier intellectual provocateur returns to the subject that brou...more
America’s premier intellectual provocateur returns to the subject that brou...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
October 16th 2012
by Pantheon
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Camille Paglia has had a great influence on me ever since I stumbled across a used copy of "Sex, Art and American Culture" in high school. I'm pretty sure she saved me from a narrow, feminist way of thinking with that book. Then "Break, Blow, Burn" taught me how to read poetry, something you think I would have picked up after graduating from a liberal arts college.
After five years, she has finally published "Glittering Images," written in short, easily accessible essays that force the reader to...more
After five years, she has finally published "Glittering Images," written in short, easily accessible essays that force the reader to...more
Reading this book brought home how terrible visual arts education is in our public school system. I'm guessing that due to our Protestant heritage -- with its emphasis on the written word -- we focus almost exclusively on written artistic works while visual art and music fall by the wayside. In my public K-12 education, I had zero -- ZERO -- instruction in art history. It wasn't until I got to college and on a whim took took Introduction to Western Art, taught by Dr. Pat Craig at CSU Fullerton,...more
I read (and re-read) all of Paglia's books voraciously. I date my intellectual independence from the point when I read her first chapter of Sexual Personae (1990). After a 5 year break following her brilliant poetry book (Break Blow Burn), I ordered this book as soon as I heard about the release date. I have a Kindle but I ordered the physical paper version because the painting reproductions are beautiful and the paper quality is glossy, and indeed the book is well-made overall; a rare example....more
Paglia makes a solid attempt at providing a suitable raison d'etre for the art book in our era -- in an "age of vertigo," wherein "mass media are a bewitching wilderness," Paglia reasonably asserts that "we must relearn how to see." However, this is not The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction, and Paglia is no Walter Benjamin. Despite this somewhat promising introduction, which soon devolves into a curious and surprising curmudgery about how film is better than digital and painting is...more
This is a fun book. Natuarlly. I do not think Camille Paglia knows how to be boring. Whereas most histories of art focus on schools and eras, she picks a representative work and focuses on a series of single works of art. This gives her discussion greater concreteness and an immediacy lacking in most such histories of art. The first half of the book deals with art before the twentieth century. The next quarter with Picasso to Warhol and the final quarter with contemporary art. The closer she mov...more
I thought this book was great. I love art history, particularly when commented on by someone other than art historians. Passionately argued, brilliantly written, and filled with Paglia’s trademark audacity, Glittering Images takes us on a tour through more than two dozen seminal images, some famous and some obscure or unknown—paintings, sculptures, architectural styles, performance pieces, and digital art that have defined and transformed our visual world. She combines close analysis with backgr...more
Paglia é assumidamente panfletária neste Glittering Images. Escrito em reacção às opiniões públicas e ao que a autora considera um sistema educativo que deixa de lado quaisquer referências às artes para lá de um pequeno aspecto lúdico, negando às massas o acesso aos milénios de tradição erudita da cultura, este livro é uma jornada muito pessoal por momentos-chave da história da arte. Paglia pega em obras centrais, não necessariamente as mais conhecidas, para abordar com uma invejável erudição vá...more
Camille Paglia's "Glittering Images" is a well-written, thoroughly researched, thoughtful introduction to western art.In the introduction of the book, she bemoan "The current caferteria-style curriculum" found in even some of America's best colleges and universities. Instead,she argues for a common core remiscent of E.D. Hirsch's "culutural literacy or the Allan Bloom's emphasis on the classics. As she said in her recent book talk at the Louisville Public Library, she values and prefers a chrono...more
I knew loving this book would be inescapable from the moment I heard that infamous art critic Camille Paglia was coming out with a new book declaring George Lucas as the world's greatest living artist. This book takes the reader on a grand tour through millennia of Western art and ends with refreshingly serious analysis and glowing praise for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005). What could be better?
The book's short-chapter format makes it highly accessible and a fast read. Every few pages you...more
The book's short-chapter format makes it highly accessible and a fast read. Every few pages you...more
Good book . The best part is the introduction where Paglia advocates for art education and argues against the elitism of the art world with convincing arguments. Then she proceeds to comment over a short selection of pieces from a selection of historical styles . Her analysis are interesting even when sometimes she lingers too much on the symbolic and even when she seems to enthuse too much towards the end, especially regarding George Lucas as an artist. She considers religious art an essential...more
I’ve never read Camille Paglia before, so I was unaware of the fuss. There are rumors of controversy, or at least of controversial utterances. Some of it is definitional apparently, like this nugget on the Goodreads author page for Paglia:
She has been variously called the "feminist that other feminists love to hate," a "post-feminist feminist," one of the world's top 100 intellectuals by the UK's Prospect Magazine, and by her own description "a feminist bisexual egomaniac."
I’m reminded that Jerr...more
She has been variously called the "feminist that other feminists love to hate," a "post-feminist feminist," one of the world's top 100 intellectuals by the UK's Prospect Magazine, and by her own description "a feminist bisexual egomaniac."
I’m reminded that Jerr...more
14 likes · like · see review
1) I may agree with Paglia's opinion but it's not a persuasive argument for someone who doesn't already agree with Paglia's opinion on art education.
2) Paglia is an agnostic who wants to preserve religious art because its symbols are important to humanity (my paraphrase).
I'd like to suggest that there is a deeper reason why the symbols are important to humanity. Paglia ought to ask the philosophical and theological questions that this brings up.
3) Good writing doesn't make up for superficial t...more
2) Paglia is an agnostic who wants to preserve religious art because its symbols are important to humanity (my paraphrase).
I'd like to suggest that there is a deeper reason why the symbols are important to humanity. Paglia ought to ask the philosophical and theological questions that this brings up.
3) Good writing doesn't make up for superficial t...more
As usual, Camille Paglia impresses with her erudition and thorough understanding of multiple subjects. This book can be read through, in the manner of an Art History 101 course, or read in small doses over time, with the reader taking time to contemplate each individual work of art. I have two qualms with Glittering Images . First, as Paglia is wont to do, she occasionally overreaches in her analysis, especially in regard to supposed sexual interpretations of various artworks. Second, I am left...more
A pleasant, if not strikingly original, introduction to art through specific examples from different styles and periods. At least Paglia mostly avoids her usual tendency to provoke for provocation's sake and to obsessively focus on sex. The one exception to the former is her claiming that "George Lucas is the world's greatest living artist." Great artist? Maybe. Greatest?? Anyway the one essay that I really liked was the one on 100 boots--though this was perhaps more because I really liked a wor...more
Mar 15, 2013
Virginia Bryant
added it
note
Orientation toward painterly concerns, ending the book with the molten lquidity of Lucas’s “Revenge ofthe Sith’s” makes a sort of sense, though it does cater to the trend to overglorification of technical scientific mastery over content balancing empiric and spiritual concerns more fully. It is a strictly painterly and technical reading of one scene which hints at the future technical possibilities of painting. Whether our continued technical brilliance continuing to outstrip spiritual matur...more
Orientation toward painterly concerns, ending the book with the molten lquidity of Lucas’s “Revenge ofthe Sith’s” makes a sort of sense, though it does cater to the trend to overglorification of technical scientific mastery over content balancing empiric and spiritual concerns more fully. It is a strictly painterly and technical reading of one scene which hints at the future technical possibilities of painting. Whether our continued technical brilliance continuing to outstrip spiritual matur...more
Ahhh Camille...Miss Paglia, if you're nasty, Professor Paglia if you're delinquent...
I don't know all that much when it comes to art, to be honest. I know enough maybe to be conversant in it but not for very long. The good rule of thumb, I find, when you're going through a topic you're not super-versed on is to be guided by someone whose work you know well. At least, that way you can separate the gold from the dross, the inquisitiveness from the prejudices, the rants from the chamber music.
Wi...more
Camille Paglia has a direct, plain-sensical way of writing that I've always admired. Glittering Images is essentially an abbreviated art history course, great for those of us who never took art history but have over the years gained a fair amount of knowledge of the subject matter. She chooses 29 key images, a somewhat idiosyncratic selection, but not wacky, and gives us a few pages on the artist, the world in which he or she lived, his or her other works, key features of this work, and why it's...more
This was a fascinating, unusual book, and my first by Camille Paglia. In a relatively small, slim volume, she takes the reader on a sweeping tour of the history of Western art. Each chapter contains a photograph of a piece of art, and then a short essay. Although I diverged with Paglia in some of her opinions, her insights were invariably illuminating. I really loved that she devoted an unusually large portion of the book to more modern art, and most of the modern pieces she used were new to me....more
Such exuberant authority. Paglia's introductory essay calls us all "to arms" towards broader, deeper, and wider reaching visual arts education for all. She's wrong, of course, about all kinds of stuff (most notably re. Andres Serrano's substantial, engaging, and forever provocative cibachromes). That being said, this lovely picture book should be on everyone's coffee table. Buy it for the five-year old in your life who's beginning to tire of Eric Carle's caterpillars.
I found this book a bit of a disappointment. But that is perhaps because I was hoping for a different book. She says that she was writing for people who were not familiar with the visual arts, whereas I found too much of it was at a too introductory level. I enjoyed the introduction,and I like it when she is making outrageous statements, and is challenging and provoking. But I felt I wanted the chapters on the various artists to be taken a bit further than they were.
As usual, Paglia makes me realize how unobservant and ignorant I am.
Nevertheless, it's a pleasure to read such brilliant no-BS analyses.
As brilliant as, say, 'Break,Blow, Burn' - her analyses of some well-known (mostly) poems.
Why/how she selected her art pieces to analyze is hard to say ... probably answered in her Preface - which I've forgotten; but given how much art there is to choose from, that question could always be asked.
Nevertheless, it's a pleasure to read such brilliant no-BS analyses.
As brilliant as, say, 'Break,Blow, Burn' - her analyses of some well-known (mostly) poems.
Why/how she selected her art pieces to analyze is hard to say ... probably answered in her Preface - which I've forgotten; but given how much art there is to choose from, that question could always be asked.
A survey of different genres of art from Egyptian tomb paintings to cinematographic art of George Lucas. Surprisingly readable (except for parts of the introduction and a couple of the later chapters) and pretty diverse introduction to Western Art. Her analyses are pretty thorough and informative. I would get this book or one like it for my homeschooled kids, along with one on architecture and landmarks. The explanations are really helpful for those of us who aren't really art-aware and who need...more
I give it 5 stars as opposed to 4 because I always learn from Camille Paglia and she always makes you think. She is also one of the few writers from whom I learn new words on many of her pages. It is typical of a Paglia book in the in-depth research she has done and the crystalline writing. But I wish the book was 300 pages instead of less than 200. Even if I didn't agree with everything she said, I wanted more.
The selection of artwork and artists in this overview is interesting and the individual essays provide an introduction to different artists and artistic movements. However, about halfway through the book, the essays start to refer to other artwork and other artists, changing the focus of the book from an overview for anyone who is interested into a book that can only be understood by someone with some previous knowledge of modern art.
Beautiful pictures, and a concise overview of art history. I wish there were more to it. And I wish she'd gone a little deeper with her critique. This is the Miller 64 version of art history/criticism, and of Paglia in general, but her intro makes it clear that this is exactly what she intended to produce. All in all,though, a beautiful little book.
I loved the introduction, and was hoping more of the rest of the book... She arbitrarily selected 29 artworks to cover thousands years of Art... but the artworks were well located in their historical and stylish contexts. It's a great book to have an overview of art history, even though I had to read it with Google open to check the mentioned artworks... And what a disappointing end... George Lucas "supreme artist" of the 21st century... Seriously??
My new favorite non-fiction book of the year! One isn't just dazzled by Paglia's scholarship, but also illuminated by the broad spectrum of art works she focuses on. Show-offy academia at its best; the slick pages glitter. Borrowed it from the library; I'd like to own this book.
Short essays on notable works and why they're notable. Mostly interesting reading, but aimed, as the author says, at an introductory level. Still, some good points and some unconventional choices, with analysis clearly informed by an independent thinker.
Very nice. Engineers should spend more time interacting with fine arts.
The scope of the book is by necessity covering just a sliver of what's relevant, but I agree with the author's choices. I am somewhat surprised by the conclusive piece, but Camille presents a pretty convincing argument :-)
The quality of the pages is really good, it reminded me of the art books at home; it is really worth it to own it in hardcover.
The scope of the book is by necessity covering just a sliver of what's relevant, but I agree with the author's choices. I am somewhat surprised by the conclusive piece, but Camille presents a pretty convincing argument :-)
The quality of the pages is really good, it reminded me of the art books at home; it is really worth it to own it in hardcover.
I liked this book - a series of short essays on various art works. This way you feel like you learned something without being bored. Clearly was written for a general audience.
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Camille Anna Paglia is an American social critic, author and teacher. Her book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, published in 1990, became a bestseller. She is a professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She has been variously called the "feminist that other feminists love to hate," a "post-feminist fe...more
More about Camille Paglia...
She has been variously called the "feminist that other feminists love to hate," a "post-feminist fe...more
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Oct 17, 2012 09:02am