The Structure of Art

by Jack Burnham

The Structure of Art

Genres: Art

195 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Frances K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I studied with Burnham at UMD in the late '80's. By that time he had largely disavowed details of this book, yet we still used it in class. For me it's one of the most important books I've read about art. It is, however, important to understand that it is simply a useful tool for thinking about artworks holistically; it's not THE way, it's A way. It's probably most useful for artists more than art historians, critics, or curators. An excellent method of self analysis to help one better understand what it is the art is about, as opposed to the largely intuitive way (not a bad thing!) most artists perceive their work. And that analysis can be incredibly useful to tease out how great art that is being used for information, inspiration, and fodder for an artist's own process and facture. In this last though there is a caution: it's probably bad to use this analysis method to previsualize a work that has not been made, the danger being overthinking one's process and intent.

Tex Andrews (the Frances K. is my wife; the Amazon account tied this to her name automatically)

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in one of those little libraries in Toronto and DAMN, I did not expect to get my mind ruptured. It is NOT an easy read, I had to write a list of all the new terms I learned and read about THEM. It's a deep art history read. It's philosophy, it's art itself and he proves it. It's mainly about how him coming up with a method that brings structure to the study and analysis of the structure of art. I still have no idea how it works, but the build up towards it is very fascinating. The main source of inspiration for the form of thinking comes from semiotics (the study of signs). It'll make you think, it'll make you for-head crinkle. You'll probably hate it.

[Natalie]

Tried to read but not enough art history / vocabulary knowledge to get very far into it without exploding some neurons. Might try again in the future...or not 🤷‍♀️