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A képek története - A barlangtól a monitorig
"Képek vesznek körül minket: laptopon, telefonon, magazinokban, újságokban, olyan könyvekben, mint ez, és - még mindig - ott lógnak a falakon is. Legalább annyit gondolkodunk képekben, mint szavakkal, képekkel álmodunk, és rajtuk keresztül próbáljuk megérteni az embereket és a környezetünket. Ám a képeket eddig ritkán tekintették önálló kategóriának. A képek különböző fajtáinak, mint a festészet, a fotográfia vagy a film, sokszor megírták már a történetét. A képek történetét viszont nem."
David Hockney, a ma élő egyik legkeresettebb festő, akinek képei milliárdokért kelnek el, és Martin Gayford műkritikus, életrajzíró izgalmas beszélgetést folytatnak: feltérképezik, hogyan és miért készítenek több ezer éve képeket az emberek. A két szerző a magas művészetből és a popkultúrából egyaránt hoz példákat, és a különböző korok és médiumok meghökkentő egymásra hatásaira, kapcsolataira mutat rá. Unásig ismert képekre olyan friss szemmel nézhetünk most, mintha először látnánk őket.
David Hockney, a ma élő egyik legkeresettebb festő, akinek képei milliárdokért kelnek el, és Martin Gayford műkritikus, életrajzíró izgalmas beszélgetést folytatnak: feltérképezik, hogyan és miért készítenek több ezer éve képeket az emberek. A két szerző a magas művészetből és a popkultúrából egyaránt hoz példákat, és a különböző korok és médiumok meghökkentő egymásra hatásaira, kapcsolataira mutat rá. Unásig ismert képekre olyan friss szemmel nézhetünk most, mintha először látnánk őket.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
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2391 people want to read
About the author
David Hockney
206 books142 followersDavid Hockney was born in Bradford, England, on July 9, 1937. He loved books and was interested in art from an early age, admiring Picasso, Matisse and Fragonard. His parents encouraged their son’s artistic exploration, and gave him the freedom to doodle and daydream.
Hockney attended the Bradford College of Art from 1953 to 1957. Then, because he was a conscientious objector to military service, he spent two years working in hospitals to fulfill his national service requirement. In 1959, he entered graduate school at the Royal College of Art in London alongside other young artists such as Peter Blake and Allen Jones, and he experimented with different forms, including abstract expressionism. He did well as a student, and his paintings won prizes and were purchased for private collections.
Hockney’s early paintings incorporated his literary leanings, and he used fragments of poems and quotations from Walt Whitman in his work. This practice, and paintings such as We Two Boys Clinging Together, which he created in 1961, were the first nods to his homosexuality in his art.
Because he frequently went to the movies with his father as a child, Hockney once quipped that he was raised in both Bradford and Hollywood. He was drawn to the light and the heat of California, and first visited Los Angeles in 1963. He officially moved there in 1966. The swimming pools of L.A. were one of his favorite subjects, and he became known for large, iconic works such as A Bigger Splash. His expressionistic style evolved, and by the 1970s, he was considered more of a realist.
In addition to pools, Hockney painted the interiors and exteriors of California homes. In 1970, this led to the creation of his first “joiner,” an assemblage of Polaroid photos laid out in a grid. Although this medium would become one his claims to fame, he stumbled upon it by accident. While working on a painting of a Los Angeles living room, he took a series of photos for his own reference, and fixed them together so he could paint from the image. When he finished, however, he recognized the collage as an art form unto itself, and began to create more.
Hockney was an adept photographer, and he began working with photography more extensively. By the mid 1970s, he had all but abandoned painting in favor of projects involving photography, lithographs, and set and costume design for the ballet, opera and theater.
In the late 1980s, Hockney returned to painting, primarily painting seascapes, flowers and portraits of loved ones. He also began incorporating technology in his art, creating his first homemade prints on a photocopier in 1986. The marriage of art and technology became an ongoing fascination—he used laser fax machines and laser printers in 1990, and in 2009 he started using the Brushes app on iPhones and iPads to create paintings. A 2011 exhibit at the Royal Museum of Ontario showcased 100 of these paintings.
In a 2011 poll of more than 1,000 British artists, Hockney was voted the most influential British artist of all time. He continues to paint and exhibit, and advocates for funding for the arts.
source: http://www.biography.com/people/david...
Hockney attended the Bradford College of Art from 1953 to 1957. Then, because he was a conscientious objector to military service, he spent two years working in hospitals to fulfill his national service requirement. In 1959, he entered graduate school at the Royal College of Art in London alongside other young artists such as Peter Blake and Allen Jones, and he experimented with different forms, including abstract expressionism. He did well as a student, and his paintings won prizes and were purchased for private collections.
Hockney’s early paintings incorporated his literary leanings, and he used fragments of poems and quotations from Walt Whitman in his work. This practice, and paintings such as We Two Boys Clinging Together, which he created in 1961, were the first nods to his homosexuality in his art.
Because he frequently went to the movies with his father as a child, Hockney once quipped that he was raised in both Bradford and Hollywood. He was drawn to the light and the heat of California, and first visited Los Angeles in 1963. He officially moved there in 1966. The swimming pools of L.A. were one of his favorite subjects, and he became known for large, iconic works such as A Bigger Splash. His expressionistic style evolved, and by the 1970s, he was considered more of a realist.
In addition to pools, Hockney painted the interiors and exteriors of California homes. In 1970, this led to the creation of his first “joiner,” an assemblage of Polaroid photos laid out in a grid. Although this medium would become one his claims to fame, he stumbled upon it by accident. While working on a painting of a Los Angeles living room, he took a series of photos for his own reference, and fixed them together so he could paint from the image. When he finished, however, he recognized the collage as an art form unto itself, and began to create more.
Hockney was an adept photographer, and he began working with photography more extensively. By the mid 1970s, he had all but abandoned painting in favor of projects involving photography, lithographs, and set and costume design for the ballet, opera and theater.
In the late 1980s, Hockney returned to painting, primarily painting seascapes, flowers and portraits of loved ones. He also began incorporating technology in his art, creating his first homemade prints on a photocopier in 1986. The marriage of art and technology became an ongoing fascination—he used laser fax machines and laser printers in 1990, and in 2009 he started using the Brushes app on iPhones and iPads to create paintings. A 2011 exhibit at the Royal Museum of Ontario showcased 100 of these paintings.
In a 2011 poll of more than 1,000 British artists, Hockney was voted the most influential British artist of all time. He continues to paint and exhibit, and advocates for funding for the arts.
source: http://www.biography.com/people/david...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
November 7, 2024
Rating : for the zillion beautiful paintings and photographs in this big book, FIVE STARS
For the words that accompany them – hmmm, hmmm, not so much. This is David Hockney and his mate chatting about pictures from cave paintings to computer art. Now, little did I know that David Hockney back in 2001 had come up with a BIG THEORY about painters and explained it in a book called Secret Knowledge. I am told that this theory set the art world on its head. He had figured a mystery. Painters in the early 15th century like Jan van Eyck suddenly were producing ultrarealistic paintings like this famous one. The Arnolfini Portrait from 1434
or Robert Campin in 1438
DH thinks that this is because they started using optical lenses which projected images onto the canvas so they could be accurately copied. This theory is controversial. It is like saying these painters were just tracing, even that they were kind of cheating. Oh well, I don’t care one way or the other. Except that about half of this book is a continuation of this specialist tiresome argument. It’s technical. Like describing what guitars and what microphones they used in early rock and roll records. I don’t care.
As for the rest, there is some mystical gubbins, such as these comments about Chinese painting :
The aim was not…the portrayal of the outward appearance of a place, so much as a way of becoming attuned to the inner order and flow of the world. That primordial energy found visible shape in the brushstroke.
And some superfluous (for me) detail
The woman’s green dress in The Arnolfini Portrait is made up of two under-layers of Verdigris pigment mixed with lead white and tin lead yellow, with over the top a final translucent glaze of Verdigris in boiled linseed oil with additional pine resin.
But later on there is a very interesting section about the impact of photography on painting, whether photographs really do show us reality, whether painters had to go away and figure out something else to do (hint : abstraction). Suddenly it gets interesting.
AND FINALLY
A funny quote from Vincent Van Gogh. He is talking about a painting by Rembrandt called The Jewish Bride :
I should be happy to give ten years of my life if I could go on sitting here in front of this picture for a fortnight, with only a crust of dry bread for food.
AND FINALLY FINALLY
When I looked again at the Arnolfini Portrait I thought – I know that face… and I realised he looks eerily like Murray Melvin from A Taste of Honey in 1961 :
For the words that accompany them – hmmm, hmmm, not so much. This is David Hockney and his mate chatting about pictures from cave paintings to computer art. Now, little did I know that David Hockney back in 2001 had come up with a BIG THEORY about painters and explained it in a book called Secret Knowledge. I am told that this theory set the art world on its head. He had figured a mystery. Painters in the early 15th century like Jan van Eyck suddenly were producing ultrarealistic paintings like this famous one. The Arnolfini Portrait from 1434
or Robert Campin in 1438
DH thinks that this is because they started using optical lenses which projected images onto the canvas so they could be accurately copied. This theory is controversial. It is like saying these painters were just tracing, even that they were kind of cheating. Oh well, I don’t care one way or the other. Except that about half of this book is a continuation of this specialist tiresome argument. It’s technical. Like describing what guitars and what microphones they used in early rock and roll records. I don’t care.
As for the rest, there is some mystical gubbins, such as these comments about Chinese painting :
The aim was not…the portrayal of the outward appearance of a place, so much as a way of becoming attuned to the inner order and flow of the world. That primordial energy found visible shape in the brushstroke.
And some superfluous (for me) detail
The woman’s green dress in The Arnolfini Portrait is made up of two under-layers of Verdigris pigment mixed with lead white and tin lead yellow, with over the top a final translucent glaze of Verdigris in boiled linseed oil with additional pine resin.
But later on there is a very interesting section about the impact of photography on painting, whether photographs really do show us reality, whether painters had to go away and figure out something else to do (hint : abstraction). Suddenly it gets interesting.
AND FINALLY
A funny quote from Vincent Van Gogh. He is talking about a painting by Rembrandt called The Jewish Bride :
I should be happy to give ten years of my life if I could go on sitting here in front of this picture for a fortnight, with only a crust of dry bread for food.
AND FINALLY FINALLY
When I looked again at the Arnolfini Portrait I thought – I know that face… and I realised he looks eerily like Murray Melvin from A Taste of Honey in 1961 :
August 16, 2021
I have always appreciated David Hockney, but would never put him on my all time favorite artists list. This book of conversations between Hockney and art critic Martin Gayford in which they informally discuss aspects of art and photography is, however, just pure joy. The conversations seem so relaxed. They take an aspect of art, like ‘shadow’ or ‘photograph versus painting’ , and what follows is a gentle discussion with a few relevant art plates. Chapters are short and that makes them perfect for one chapter each night before sleeping. Loved it. Another to read over and over again.
March 28, 2018
Such a delightful wonderful book on history of pictures. A beautifully written in a simple dialogue an artist and an art historian, this book is easy to read for anyone without any prior knowledge on art or its history. A great side effect of reading this book is extreme desire to see all these painting mentioned, even if you saw them before, again and again! I'm too busy at work to allow a short trip to St Petersburg's Hermitage , so a short dash to local Moscow museum will suffice for now . I was also lucky to view an exhibit on Talbot early photography and to see for myself how these pictures look ( very very small ). Exciting and very approachable study on such a complex subject, a true gem of a book! Read this book and go see pictures in a very different light!
October 16, 2017
Hockney and Spectator art critic Martin Gayford pretend to sit down and have a long conversation about the visual arts. The book is actually a very deliberately organized argument for the primacy of the human eye and memory in the creation of art, something that has gotten lost in the couple hundred years since photography seemed to achieve "what things look like." The camera is indeed hard to shake off, but Hockney and Gayford are pointed on its limits, mostly in the way it sees quite unlike the human eye. They're not scolds, though—check Hockney's own extensive photographic work—and they don't seek to dismiss photography, or even that old shortcut the camera obscura, which they make clear required its own kind of skill (or in the case of Vermeer, genius). They simply want to escape the tyranny of photography, its domineering—and limiting—status. In their defense of eye and mind, they even question the advances of perspective, which also claimed to "correct" the picture. The book offers several examples of Byzantine and especially Chinese art, which often evoked experience more viscerally than later, perspective-enslaved works. (A secondary motive behind the book seems to be cultivating Hockney's own rep. He's identified as "perhaps the most critically acclaimed and universally popular artist of our age" on the jacket flap, and if you have a problem with his placing reproductions of his works beside those of Rublev or Dufy or Hopper, literally beside them, you probably better take a pass on this thing. It wasn’t a problem for me.)
Hockney and Gayford have their favorites (who doesn’t?)—van Eyck comes off better here than Caravaggio, Ingres better than Gérôme, and, addressing Nude Descending a Staircase, Hockney offers this concise little distinction in favor of Pablo: "Duchamp's picture is about the movement of the nude. Picasso's Cubism is more profound. He was concerned with the movement of the spectator"—but the book is extremely diverse, and generous, in its examples. There's even some good news: just as representational art eventually overcame what looked not so long ago like a sure triumph of abstraction, the coauthors predict a big comeback for painting in general, the domination of photography suddenly vulnerable in a digital era where the pliability of images is obvious to anyone.
Hockney and Gayford have their favorites (who doesn’t?)—van Eyck comes off better here than Caravaggio, Ingres better than Gérôme, and, addressing Nude Descending a Staircase, Hockney offers this concise little distinction in favor of Pablo: "Duchamp's picture is about the movement of the nude. Picasso's Cubism is more profound. He was concerned with the movement of the spectator"—but the book is extremely diverse, and generous, in its examples. There's even some good news: just as representational art eventually overcame what looked not so long ago like a sure triumph of abstraction, the coauthors predict a big comeback for painting in general, the domination of photography suddenly vulnerable in a digital era where the pliability of images is obvious to anyone.
April 21, 2024
Heerlijk boek met veel plaatjes waarin Hockney en Gayford lekker aan het babbelen zijn over kunst. Het Engels is simpel en ze doen rustig met het jargon. Zowel voor de leek als de liefhebber interessant. Dikke aanrader.
July 19, 2020
I really enjoyed the first 200 pages of this. Like really like them. And then I realised that the lack of diversity was not going to be addressed or overcome. Ancient and early modern art exists within a bubble or perpetuated bias. I understand. And a book that only talks about a handful of artists will only talk about those 'big players', I understand. But other than Chinese paintings and their use of lines, the vast majority of this book only talks about European men. EVEN when we then move to the use of photography and video they're still only writing about the same people who've had the stage for centuries. Not to mention, a book intended to explain the movement of pictures through time read like a 'painting is art, photography is not' towards the end. Even though they wrote that was not their intention; the constant message was otherwise.
Overall, I loved the first chapters of this book so much, and then found it a struggle to read the last half so much. I get that Hockney is an artist, but not every aspect of art history needs an example of how he is the best at it. Just let things he good, appreciate them. You don't have to prove you can do it too, I didn't buy the book for that.
Overall, I loved the first chapters of this book so much, and then found it a struggle to read the last half so much. I get that Hockney is an artist, but not every aspect of art history needs an example of how he is the best at it. Just let things he good, appreciate them. You don't have to prove you can do it too, I didn't buy the book for that.
January 1, 2022
Interesantísimo libro, construido en diálogo entre los dos autores. Una revisión apasionante de la historia de las imágenes, de su impacto en nuestra vida social. Me gusta cómo las reproducciones visuales acompañan el texto, que no sigue un orden cronológico, sino temático, al ritmo de la conversación.
February 13, 2023
Z tej książki nie dowiemy się, jakie nazwy nosiły kolejne epoki. Nie poznamy życiorysów artystów, ani głównych założeń poszczególnych nurtów w sztuce. Zamiast tego zostaniemy wciągnięci w porywającą dyskusję nad technikami pracy dawnych mistrzów, sposobami postrzegania przez nich świata oraz źródłami inspiracji.
Książka ta uwrażliwia czytelnika na sztukę, a przede wszystkim uczy jak patrzeć na obrazy. Polecam ją każdemu, kto sztukę kocha, chciałby pokochać lub chociaż trochę poznać i zrozumieć.
Książka ta uwrażliwia czytelnika na sztukę, a przede wszystkim uczy jak patrzeć na obrazy. Polecam ją każdemu, kto sztukę kocha, chciałby pokochać lub chociaż trochę poznać i zrozumieć.
December 3, 2020
Loved this book!! A lot of things in it were new and I really enjoyed the way every comment is supported by the art. There was a big section reiterating his findings on “the secret knowledge” about camera obscura. I had read a lot about it already, but enjoyed the pictures backing his theory. Love Hockney ❤️
July 17, 2024
کتاب در واقع گفت و گو بین هاکنی وگی فورد است که این سبک از نگارش گاهی اوقات برای من گمراه کننده می شد چون به نظرم در بخش هایی حرف های دیگری هم تبادل شده بود اما از کتاب حذف شده و به نظر می رسید موضوعی اتفاقی و بدون ربط به صحبت قبلی آورده شده است.
اما...اما چقدر این کتاب از نظر محتوا خوب بود. هاکنی و گی فورد از نقطه نظر متفاوت و جدیدی( حداقل برای من) در مورد نقاشی اروپایی صحبت می کردند. توصیفی که از پروسه ی نقاشی تقریبا از زمان امپراطوری روم تا اواخر قرن ۱۹ دارند بسیار زیاد شبیه به پروسه ای است که یک دانشمند علوم طبیعی ممکن بود از سر بگذراند. هنر یک کنش علمی بود.
برای من عجیب بود چون کتاب در مورد هنرهای تجسمی اروپایی خصوصا نقاشی زیاد خوندم و نقاشی هم نسبتا زیاد دیدم ولی هیچ وقت به پشت صحنه ی کار نقاش نگاه نمی کردم. یعنی به این شکل نگاه نمی کردم. جدا از زمینه های اجتماعی و تاریخی در نهایت تکنیک نقاشی مثل نوع رنگ ها، نحوه ی رنگ گذاری و ابزار نقاشی در کنار نوع نگاه نقاش، تفسیری که از دنیا داشت برایم مهم بود و همیشه هم تاکید روی این موضوعات بود. اما هاکنی و دوستش :)) یک بعد دیگه از کار نقاش ها را درک کرده بودند. اینکه نقاشی غربی خیلی درگیر واقع نمایی و پرسپکتیو بوده برای کسی که با آثار نقاشی روبه رو شده باشه خیلی راحت قابل تشخیص هست اما اینکه تا این اندازه نقاش ها درگیر ابزاری مثل آینه و عدسی و کمرا ابسکیورا بودند برای اینکه نقاشی کنند برای من نسبتا غیر قابل باور بود. خودشون ابزار می ساختند تا فضای مقابلشون را رام کنند. درکش کنند. در واقع "تاریخ تصویر "نشون داد که در نهایت نقاشی غربی به عکاسی ختم می شد. دیر یا زود دوربین ها ساخته می شدند و راهی برای ثبت آنچه که فکر می کردند می بینند پیدا می کردند. در این حد در این مورد وسواس فکری داشتند. اتفاقی که در چین، ژاپن، ایران، هند وخیلی جاهای دیگه نمی افتاد. نمی تونست. نمی دونم نهایت نقاشی ما به کجا می رسید ولی قطعا به عکاسی نمی رسید.
اما...اما چقدر این کتاب از نظر محتوا خوب بود. هاکنی و گی فورد از نقطه نظر متفاوت و جدیدی( حداقل برای من) در مورد نقاشی اروپایی صحبت می کردند. توصیفی که از پروسه ی نقاشی تقریبا از زمان امپراطوری روم تا اواخر قرن ۱۹ دارند بسیار زیاد شبیه به پروسه ای است که یک دانشمند علوم طبیعی ممکن بود از سر بگذراند. هنر یک کنش علمی بود.
برای من عجیب بود چون کتاب در مورد هنرهای تجسمی اروپایی خصوصا نقاشی زیاد خوندم و نقاشی هم نسبتا زیاد دیدم ولی هیچ وقت به پشت صحنه ی کار نقاش نگاه نمی کردم. یعنی به این شکل نگاه نمی کردم. جدا از زمینه های اجتماعی و تاریخی در نهایت تکنیک نقاشی مثل نوع رنگ ها، نحوه ی رنگ گذاری و ابزار نقاشی در کنار نوع نگاه نقاش، تفسیری که از دنیا داشت برایم مهم بود و همیشه هم تاکید روی این موضوعات بود. اما هاکنی و دوستش :)) یک بعد دیگه از کار نقاش ها را درک کرده بودند. اینکه نقاشی غربی خیلی درگیر واقع نمایی و پرسپکتیو بوده برای کسی که با آثار نقاشی روبه رو شده باشه خیلی راحت قابل تشخیص هست اما اینکه تا این اندازه نقاش ها درگیر ابزاری مثل آینه و عدسی و کمرا ابسکیورا بودند برای اینکه نقاشی کنند برای من نسبتا غیر قابل باور بود. خودشون ابزار می ساختند تا فضای مقابلشون را رام کنند. درکش کنند. در واقع "تاریخ تصویر "نشون داد که در نهایت نقاشی غربی به عکاسی ختم می شد. دیر یا زود دوربین ها ساخته می شدند و راهی برای ثبت آنچه که فکر می کردند می بینند پیدا می کردند. در این حد در این مورد وسواس فکری داشتند. اتفاقی که در چین، ژاپن، ایران، هند وخیلی جاهای دیگه نمی افتاد. نمی تونست. نمی دونم نهایت نقاشی ما به کجا می رسید ولی قطعا به عکاسی نمی رسید.
February 14, 2018
So many art books are written by art historians, and what they have to say offers a lot of context and insight. However, David Hockney is an artist, and artists provide entirely different ways of looking at art from art historians. It is always fascinating to visit an art gallery with a thoughtful artist! This book is like that. Martin Gayford is an art critic, also not an art historian. To me, the whole book is full of fresh insight (note: I have an art history degree).
February 12, 2019
While this was interesting and informative, it was exhausting to turn page after page and see the glaring omission of art made by women and non-white men. That the authors didn't acknowledge this made it all the more cringe-worthy.
And, while Hockney is progressive insofar as he doesn't miss an opportunity to mention that he sometimes draws on an iPad, he is quick to dismiss the legitimacy and power of photography and film.
And, while Hockney is progressive insofar as he doesn't miss an opportunity to mention that he sometimes draws on an iPad, he is quick to dismiss the legitimacy and power of photography and film.
January 12, 2019
An idiosyncratic look at art history, in the form of a conversation between a painter (Hockney) and an art critic (Martin Gayford). The book is illustrated by a young woman (Rose Blake) whose parents are Hockney's friends; she draws Hockney and Gayford as adults and herself as a much smaller child (at the time of the book's publication she was 29 or 30). Mmph. There are lots of Hockney's works depicted, way more than any other artist's; it's un peu celebratory of Hockney's genius. Like, de trop. That said, I do love the flow of the book -- it's never boring (that's a huge feat!), and organizing it around aspects of seeing (light, perspective, reflections, etc.) is really smart. I like the inclusion of photography and motion pictures, even though the treatment of them feels super-cursory. Which, OK, I get it, it's a survey book. BUT as you might expect from a book by two old white guys, the artists mentioned are overwhelmingly white and male. There are references to Asian art, but the artists are mostly unnamed, and Asian art is only discussed insofar as it influenced Western artists. There's a mini-handful of women, like mini-M&Ms. I don't think there are any African artists in here at all.
August 4, 2022
I’m always looking for interesting books about art. I found this one onboard a Viking cruise. (No, I didn’t steal it…though I was tempted to.) It’s a beautiful, full color book, one that is written more conversationally than most art books and which has loads of pictures so the reader always knows what the writer is referring to. Its take on pictures is unique, as far as I know. It’s not just a history of art…it’s a history of “pictures”, including paintings, photographs and films. Photography and paintings have more in common than I thought…cameras of a sort were used by artists as early as the early 19th century to project images onto canvas, which were then traced and painted as photorealistic images. It’s this type of info that caught my interest and make this a book I can highly recommend if art (or pictures) float your boat.
August 25, 2024
This book was so interesting! It’s such a good resource for anyone looking to have a good overview of what pictures (paintings, photography, film & so on) are and how they all came to be. As much as it is worth the read for its informative purposes, I mostly enjoyed it because of how much it made me reflect! It answered questions, created new ones and made me realize why it’s so difficult to capture reality as you want it to look and feel like (because everyone’s perception of reality is different!). Anyone who ever seen any pictures that made them linger… go read this book (and there’s so many in color pictures that you can look at it’s not only a reading experience but a museum like one)!
August 26, 2024
Loved it. Must admit I felt a bit disappointed for a while, having read his Spring cannot be cancelled and finding this one -previous- quite too similar; even so, I went on, and found out extraordinary details on how painting has developed throughout the last six centuries; how the study of optics and development of camera obscura and lucida precede photography; how photography does not, can not, never will substitute painting; how related both photography and cinema are to it, in terms of composing scenes. In the end, it's a very pleasant book on pictures -filled, indeed, with them-, why they matter, how we need them and how are they done, making the subject closer to our hearts and minds without diminishing the awe we feel in front of certain paintings.
September 14, 2020
The authors have spun magic in the span of sixteen chapters.
Well, not everyday of the week do you get to read an Art History book meant specifically for children.
A must read for every child. Open their minds to questions such as Why is the Mona Lisa beautiful and why are shadows so rarely found in Chinese, Japanese and Persian painting? How have the makers of images depicted movement? What makes marks on a flat surface interesting? -- and so on.
Cheers.
Well, not everyday of the week do you get to read an Art History book meant specifically for children.
A must read for every child. Open their minds to questions such as Why is the Mona Lisa beautiful and why are shadows so rarely found in Chinese, Japanese and Persian painting? How have the makers of images depicted movement? What makes marks on a flat surface interesting? -- and so on.
Cheers.
April 9, 2019
Абсолютно потрясающая книга.
Если коротко - очень большой диалог (хотя скорее повествование в два голоса) одного из лучших искусствоведов планеты и последнего живого живописца, которого хочется назвать легендой. Язык, иллюстрации, тематика - прекрасно все.
В общем очередной плюсик в карму издательства Garage и 10 звездочек из формальных 5.
Если коротко - очень большой диалог (хотя скорее повествование в два голоса) одного из лучших искусствоведов планеты и последнего живого живописца, которого хочется назвать легендой. Язык, иллюстрации, тематика - прекрасно все.
В общем очередной плюсик в карму издательства Garage и 10 звездочек из формальных 5.
Read
November 11, 2022Esta obra —una conversación entre David Hockney y el crítico de arte Martin Gayford— es quizás la más apasionante y aguda que he leído sobre cómo hemos creado (e interpretado) todas las imágenes que tratan de representar la realidad, desde las pinturas rupestres a los dibujos por ordenador. Solo por las ilustraciones ya merecería la pena, y la traducción de Julio Hermoso es además impecable.
August 24, 2025
lovely pictures
March 18, 2025
Very interesting conversation - illustrated with images from cave paintings to now - between David Hockney and art journalist
I found the painting section more interesting than the photo section, but the philosophical meanderings about image and representation are very thought provoking
I found the painting section more interesting than the photo section, but the philosophical meanderings about image and representation are very thought provoking
Read
December 5, 2020A broad view of history of pictures with not one woman in it I think!
December 12, 2020
очень красиво изданная гаражом книга-диалог художника Дэвида Хокни с арткритиком Мартином Гейфордом, в какой-то момент забываешь, что это диалог и тогда текст кажется таким письмом дяди Федора родителям из Простаквашино.
очень ценю издания, которые не жалеют иллюстрации, не приходится каждые 5минут лезть в интернет.
по сути это обзор основных техник в написании картин, много про фотографию и ее влияние, про изобретение отдельных цветов, про влияние восточного искусства на западное. например, тут же было о том, как внезапно пропали тени в искусстве второй половины 19 века или о том, как японские гравюры сформировали картинку Диснеевским мультфильмов
в продолжение рекомендую посмотреть фильм Хокни "secret knowledge"
очень ценю издания, которые не жалеют иллюстрации, не приходится каждые 5минут лезть в интернет.
по сути это обзор основных техник в написании картин, много про фотографию и ее влияние, про изобретение отдельных цветов, про влияние восточного искусства на западное. например, тут же было о том, как внезапно пропали тени в искусстве второй половины 19 века или о том, как японские гравюры сформировали картинку Диснеевским мультфильмов
в продолжение рекомендую посмотреть фильм Хокни "secret knowledge"
March 19, 2019
A fast read- I think because of the beautiful format it is written in: a conversation between David Hockney and Martin Gayford, taking you throught the history of Pictures. This book is both a random collection of thoughts and a well pieced together argument. While you read through the conversations, being struck by a clever insight or interesting fact or beautifully reproduced image, you wont even notice until you have finished that they are no longer talking about cabe art but renaissance, not the camera obscura but the kodak and not a painting but the film industry. How then can you argue that paintings and pictures are seperate? They are one and the human involvement with them is the same... theyare just different mediums. I read this in a day almost in one sitting(just stopping for tea, chats and food). Such a lovely coffee table book to have. I must say that although it seemed to have less information that Secret Knowledge, I felt its argument more convincing and its perusal more enjoyable.
June 13, 2017
I am really enjoying this book. You can find my full review, along with some pictures of different spreads, at my blog: http://www.flatandframed.com/history-pictures-david-hockney-martin-gayford/. In fact, I like the book so much that I didn't even finish it yet. Instead, I am taking my time to really explore the pictures and understand the arguments presented by the authors. In a system of alternating paragraphs, you are reading along with the conversation between Hockney & Gayford. This format really worked for me, it was like eavesdropping on two art lovers discussing pictures. The book is very accessible, also to people without art history knowledge, but will still give you new insights into the broad world of pictures (from painting, drawing, photography to movies, animations, etc.).
August 19, 2017
So fun to read! The format is an actual conversation - a long conversation - between the artist David Hockney and the art critic Martin Gayford. They don't consider art by genre or by century but more across genres and time periods. They find the most intriguing and exciting connections. At one point Hockney compares a camel in a painting by Giotto to work done at Disney studios! It's a delight to read, the writing and the ideas are fresh and thought provoking. Charming. The book is amply and generously loaded with good quality reproductions so you can see what they're talking about. I love this book. I recommend it highly.
July 8, 2021
More on Painting and Optics Interplay - Since I was quite taken by his [ Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters (Expanded)[ SECRET KNOWLEDGE: REDISCOVERING THE LOST TECHNIQUES OF THE OLD MASTERS (EXPANDED) ] By Hockney, David ( Author )Oct-05-2006 Paperback (see my review), I jumped at picking it up when I learned of this more recent Hockney book. My reading also corresponded with a retrospective by the artist at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in late 2017 and early 2018 which provided an opportunity to see his work (including dynamic electronic images on flat-screen displays) at the same time. With this background, I have come to see this volume as extending and rounding out many of Hockney’s ideas about the nature of pictures and heretofore little acknowledged use by artists of the camera obscura and other photo/visual aids and practices from around 1200 and earlier to the interplay of optics and painting today (see Johnson’s The Renaissance: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) for more details on that period).
This book is set-up as a dialog between Hockney and his co-author Martin Gayford, who is an art critic, alternating comments amidst 341 illustrations ranging from the Bull, Lascaux cave, France, 1500 BCE to Hockney’s 4 Blue Stools, 2014 (approx. 8.5 x 11 x 3.5” 360 pages and a few pounds). After a Preface and Introduction on Pictures, Art and History, our duo’s discussion proceeds through 18 chapters: (1) Pictures and Reality, (2) Making Marks, (3) Shadows and Deception, (4) Picturing Time and Space, (5) Brunelleschi's Mirror and Alberti's Window, (6) Mirrors and Reflections, (7) Renaissance: Naturalism and Idealism, (8) Paper, Paint and Multiplying Pictures, (9) Painting the Stage and Staging Pictures, (10) Caravaggio and the Academy of the Lynx-eyed, (11) Vermeer and Rembrandt: The Hand, the Lens and the Heart, (12) Truth and Beauty in the Age of Reason, (13) the Camera Before and After 1839, (14) Photography, Truth and Painting, (15) Painting with and without Photography, (16) Snapshots and Moving Pictures, (17) Movies and Stills, and (18) The Unending History of Pictures.
There are many great quotes, so I have selected some of my favorites that reflect its style and a few particular revelations for me. As Hockney states early on (on page 19), “The history of pictures begins in the caves and ends at the moment, with an iPad. Who knows where it will go next?” Gayford answers that “This book is about just how we see . . . and the diverse ways in which those experiences are translated onto a two-dimensional surface . . . a way of representing the world . . . of understanding and examining it . . . a form of knowledge and a means of communication. We can grasp a great deal from an image. But what do they show?” A little later (on page 24), Hockney comes back saying that “Reality is a slippery concept, because it is not separate from us. Reality is in our minds. So, ask yourself what are you getting in a picture? . . . All writing is fiction in some way, how can it not be? The same is true of pictures. None of them simply presents reality.” (see Eco's Six Walks in the Fictional Woods and Gladstone's The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time )
By the end of the book (on page 336), Hockney is letting us know that, “At the moment there is a lot more going on in picture construction than there has been for decades. It’s all changing. Photography came out of painting and as far as I can see that’s where it is returning. The photograph is becoming more like painting, although some photographers don’t know it. I can take a photograph on an iPad, alter it . . . [do] all sorts of things.” Gayford explains (on page 337) that “Throughout this book we have argued that there is a single history embracing all pictures that attempt to represent what we see around us. . .. In the mid twentieth century, there were theories that claimed . . . that painting and photography had completely different natures. In reality, as it is now easier to understand, they have been intertwined from the beginning, which is long before 1839.” He further indicates (on page 339) that “We are living through a revolution as profound as that brought by printing in the 15th century, photography in the 19th and moving pictures in the 20th. . . “ Hockney clarifies that “In the 21st century phones have become completely amazing . . . Moreover, the changes are greatly about pictures.” (see Staley’s Computers, Visualization, and History: How New Technology Will Transform Our Understanding of the Past )
Finally (on page 341), Hockney concludes that “People like pictures. They won’t go away. . . Drawing and painting will carry on like singing and dancing, because people need them. I’m quite convinced that painting will be big in the future. . .The world is exciting, even if a lot of pictures are not. . . Art hasn’t ended, and neither has the history of pictures . . .” Hopefully many others will have a similar gratitude to the artist and his co-author for this survey of picture making, its origins, influences, and prospects.
This book is set-up as a dialog between Hockney and his co-author Martin Gayford, who is an art critic, alternating comments amidst 341 illustrations ranging from the Bull, Lascaux cave, France, 1500 BCE to Hockney’s 4 Blue Stools, 2014 (approx. 8.5 x 11 x 3.5” 360 pages and a few pounds). After a Preface and Introduction on Pictures, Art and History, our duo’s discussion proceeds through 18 chapters: (1) Pictures and Reality, (2) Making Marks, (3) Shadows and Deception, (4) Picturing Time and Space, (5) Brunelleschi's Mirror and Alberti's Window, (6) Mirrors and Reflections, (7) Renaissance: Naturalism and Idealism, (8) Paper, Paint and Multiplying Pictures, (9) Painting the Stage and Staging Pictures, (10) Caravaggio and the Academy of the Lynx-eyed, (11) Vermeer and Rembrandt: The Hand, the Lens and the Heart, (12) Truth and Beauty in the Age of Reason, (13) the Camera Before and After 1839, (14) Photography, Truth and Painting, (15) Painting with and without Photography, (16) Snapshots and Moving Pictures, (17) Movies and Stills, and (18) The Unending History of Pictures.
There are many great quotes, so I have selected some of my favorites that reflect its style and a few particular revelations for me. As Hockney states early on (on page 19), “The history of pictures begins in the caves and ends at the moment, with an iPad. Who knows where it will go next?” Gayford answers that “This book is about just how we see . . . and the diverse ways in which those experiences are translated onto a two-dimensional surface . . . a way of representing the world . . . of understanding and examining it . . . a form of knowledge and a means of communication. We can grasp a great deal from an image. But what do they show?” A little later (on page 24), Hockney comes back saying that “Reality is a slippery concept, because it is not separate from us. Reality is in our minds. So, ask yourself what are you getting in a picture? . . . All writing is fiction in some way, how can it not be? The same is true of pictures. None of them simply presents reality.” (see Eco's Six Walks in the Fictional Woods and Gladstone's The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time )
By the end of the book (on page 336), Hockney is letting us know that, “At the moment there is a lot more going on in picture construction than there has been for decades. It’s all changing. Photography came out of painting and as far as I can see that’s where it is returning. The photograph is becoming more like painting, although some photographers don’t know it. I can take a photograph on an iPad, alter it . . . [do] all sorts of things.” Gayford explains (on page 337) that “Throughout this book we have argued that there is a single history embracing all pictures that attempt to represent what we see around us. . .. In the mid twentieth century, there were theories that claimed . . . that painting and photography had completely different natures. In reality, as it is now easier to understand, they have been intertwined from the beginning, which is long before 1839.” He further indicates (on page 339) that “We are living through a revolution as profound as that brought by printing in the 15th century, photography in the 19th and moving pictures in the 20th. . . “ Hockney clarifies that “In the 21st century phones have become completely amazing . . . Moreover, the changes are greatly about pictures.” (see Staley’s Computers, Visualization, and History: How New Technology Will Transform Our Understanding of the Past )
Finally (on page 341), Hockney concludes that “People like pictures. They won’t go away. . . Drawing and painting will carry on like singing and dancing, because people need them. I’m quite convinced that painting will be big in the future. . .The world is exciting, even if a lot of pictures are not. . . Art hasn’t ended, and neither has the history of pictures . . .” Hopefully many others will have a similar gratitude to the artist and his co-author for this survey of picture making, its origins, influences, and prospects.
October 1, 2021
Lovely, quite detailed overview of pictures -- from cave paintings to iPad art.
November 29, 2018
A history of pictures by David Hockney
The history of pictures begins in the caves and ends, with a computer screen. Who knows where it will go next? But one thing is certain, the challenge remains the same: how do you represent the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface?
David Hockney was born on July 9, 1937, in Bradford, England. He studied at Bradford Grammar School and then Regional College of Art. He won prizes and recognition. He began at that time painting with oils. He developed a personal artwork. In 1957 he took the National Diploma in Design Examination, and then he enrolled in the Painting School of the Royal College in London. Hockey began painting about his sexual orientation.
In the 1960s, he discovered and lived in America. He met contemporary famous artists. He particularly appreciated California. He taught at the University of Iowa. He used photography. In 1966, he met Peter Schlesinger and experienced his first true romance until 1971. The canvas Portrait of an artist (pool with two figures), comes within the scope of this period. After, David Hockney suffered from depression. In the 1980s he turned to photo collage, began series of self-portraits. In the 1990s he experimented with rising technologies.
A 1972 painting by David Hockney soared to $90.3 million at Christie's on Thursday, smashing the record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by a living artist.
With Christie's commission, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)," surpassed the auction house's pre-sale estimate of about $80 million, following a bidding war between two determined would-be buyers once the work hit $70 million.
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) is a large acrylic-on-canvas pop art painting by British artist David Hockney, completed in May 1972. It measures 7 ft × 10 ft (2.1 m × 3.0 m), and depicts two figures: one swimming underwater and one clothed male figure looking down at the swimmer. In November 2018, it sold for US$90.3 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by a living artist.
In the foreground, on the left-hand side, we can see a swimming pool with a swimmer. The water is really clear with a transparent effect. We can observe two slightly different shades of blue. The movement of water is symbolized by curved white lines. On the right-hand side, Peter Schlesinger, in a red suit, is standing up on pool side. He is looking at the swimmer but doesn’t look expressive.
In the middle distance and in the background, nature and green colours are dominant. It’s really verdant. In the vegetation we also have touches of ochre. However, the background is drabber as if it is foggy. It represents different hills and mountains that David Hockney could have seen in the south of France.
A horizontal line divides the canvas into two parts ; the bottom part is composed with geometric shapes. The swimmer represents a horizontal line too whereas Peter Schlesinger, figure draws a vertical line. Hills and tiling suggest oblique lines. The general atmosphere is rather harmonious, peaceful.
The 10 most expensive works of art sold at auction
15 November 2017
Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi sold for $400 million at Christie’s ($450.3m, including auction house premium)
2 May 2012
One of four versions of The Scream created by Munch and the only one that is privately owned. The painting sold for $119,922,500
30 April 2010
Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) sold at Christie's in New York for $106,482,500
12 January 2010
L’homme qui Marche I (1961) by Alberto Giacometti sold for £65,001,250 ($105,182,398) at Sotheby’s in London
5 May 2004
Picasso’s Boy With a Pipe (1905) sold at Sotheby's in New York for $104,168,000
8 November 2006
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912)went under the hammer at Christie’s New York and sold for $87,936,000
14 April 2008
Francis Bacon’s Triptych (1976) sold for $85.9m to oligarch Roman Abramovich
12 November 2010
A Chinese 18th century Qianlong dynasty porcelain vase sold for £53,100,000 ($85,921,461) at Bainbridge’s auction house in London
22 March 2006
Dora Maar au Chat (1941) by Pablo Picasso sold for £51,560,080 ($83,429,503) at Sotheby's in London
15 May 1990
Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet (1890) by Vincent van Gogh sold for $82,500,000 (£50,985,692) at Christie’s in New York
The history of pictures begins in the caves and ends, with a computer screen. Who knows where it will go next? But one thing is certain, the challenge remains the same: how do you represent the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface?
David Hockney was born on July 9, 1937, in Bradford, England. He studied at Bradford Grammar School and then Regional College of Art. He won prizes and recognition. He began at that time painting with oils. He developed a personal artwork. In 1957 he took the National Diploma in Design Examination, and then he enrolled in the Painting School of the Royal College in London. Hockey began painting about his sexual orientation.
In the 1960s, he discovered and lived in America. He met contemporary famous artists. He particularly appreciated California. He taught at the University of Iowa. He used photography. In 1966, he met Peter Schlesinger and experienced his first true romance until 1971. The canvas Portrait of an artist (pool with two figures), comes within the scope of this period. After, David Hockney suffered from depression. In the 1980s he turned to photo collage, began series of self-portraits. In the 1990s he experimented with rising technologies.
A 1972 painting by David Hockney soared to $90.3 million at Christie's on Thursday, smashing the record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by a living artist.
With Christie's commission, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)," surpassed the auction house's pre-sale estimate of about $80 million, following a bidding war between two determined would-be buyers once the work hit $70 million.
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) is a large acrylic-on-canvas pop art painting by British artist David Hockney, completed in May 1972. It measures 7 ft × 10 ft (2.1 m × 3.0 m), and depicts two figures: one swimming underwater and one clothed male figure looking down at the swimmer. In November 2018, it sold for US$90.3 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by a living artist.
In the foreground, on the left-hand side, we can see a swimming pool with a swimmer. The water is really clear with a transparent effect. We can observe two slightly different shades of blue. The movement of water is symbolized by curved white lines. On the right-hand side, Peter Schlesinger, in a red suit, is standing up on pool side. He is looking at the swimmer but doesn’t look expressive.
In the middle distance and in the background, nature and green colours are dominant. It’s really verdant. In the vegetation we also have touches of ochre. However, the background is drabber as if it is foggy. It represents different hills and mountains that David Hockney could have seen in the south of France.
A horizontal line divides the canvas into two parts ; the bottom part is composed with geometric shapes. The swimmer represents a horizontal line too whereas Peter Schlesinger, figure draws a vertical line. Hills and tiling suggest oblique lines. The general atmosphere is rather harmonious, peaceful.
The 10 most expensive works of art sold at auction
15 November 2017
Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi sold for $400 million at Christie’s ($450.3m, including auction house premium)
2 May 2012
One of four versions of The Scream created by Munch and the only one that is privately owned. The painting sold for $119,922,500
30 April 2010
Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) sold at Christie's in New York for $106,482,500
12 January 2010
L’homme qui Marche I (1961) by Alberto Giacometti sold for £65,001,250 ($105,182,398) at Sotheby’s in London
5 May 2004
Picasso’s Boy With a Pipe (1905) sold at Sotheby's in New York for $104,168,000
8 November 2006
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912)went under the hammer at Christie’s New York and sold for $87,936,000
14 April 2008
Francis Bacon’s Triptych (1976) sold for $85.9m to oligarch Roman Abramovich
12 November 2010
A Chinese 18th century Qianlong dynasty porcelain vase sold for £53,100,000 ($85,921,461) at Bainbridge’s auction house in London
22 March 2006
Dora Maar au Chat (1941) by Pablo Picasso sold for £51,560,080 ($83,429,503) at Sotheby's in London
15 May 1990
Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet (1890) by Vincent van Gogh sold for $82,500,000 (£50,985,692) at Christie’s in New York
February 7, 2018
A HISTORY OF PICTURES by David Hockney and Martin Gayford – Thames and Hudson
Review by Ian Smith
This book has a sub title inside “From the Cave to the Computer Screen”. No more apt sub title has there ever been. I chose this book after hours at Dymocks and to say I am pleased would be a gross understatement. It fulfilled my expectations and then some.
It is a study of “pictures” through the ages but they both have a belief that the word covers everything from cave man images to manipulating photos on the computer screen, something I’ve always held to be true. However, with the font of knowledge they have jointly accumulated over the decades they go into fascinating detail of artistic pieces, formulating opinions as to how they work and how man evolved into the many forms of pictures we can view today.
It’s surprising just how frequently light coming through a small hole and then supplanting a reverse image on a panel (see camera) comes into painting centuries before it had a name. The other thing is mirrors (see Van Eyck, Campin and Velasquez) and how they were included, utilized and offer a different perspective, especially when they’re not totally flat.
Comparisons with the lighting in a Caravaggio, for example, are readily made with that used in modern day film studios and indeed, having recently seen the latest incarnation of “Murder on the Orient Express”, it was like Caravaggio himself was organizing the lighting.
In fact, one of their quotes is that “Photography is a child of painting”. How techniques morphed into one another or artists digressed totally from the norm are all part of this insightful volume. That Chinese art does not have a fixed viewpoint, but is based on moving focus is another thing I learnt.
That Brunelleschi, the great Renaissance architect famed for the dome in Florence, was also the one who “discovered” perspective in painting was another revelation. How oil painting on canvas became the norm because there was plenty of the latter to be had in Renaissance Venice where they relied on sea freight.
And I loved the quote by Rembrandt, “If I want to relieve my spirit then I should seek not honour but freedom”. How that can be transplanted into so many of the activities of daily life!
We are living through an evolution of pictures as profound as anything in the past. What you can do with photoshop leads us into the future and the past at the same time and then more fertile minds than ours will come up with something we had never envisaged.
This is not, as you may have gathered, something to be read overnight. It is, like a gourmet meal, something to be savoured again and again in morsels that tantalize the brain. If you’re into art in any form, you will treasure this work and return to it throughout your life to dwell on the wonders within.
Review by Ian Smith
This book has a sub title inside “From the Cave to the Computer Screen”. No more apt sub title has there ever been. I chose this book after hours at Dymocks and to say I am pleased would be a gross understatement. It fulfilled my expectations and then some.
It is a study of “pictures” through the ages but they both have a belief that the word covers everything from cave man images to manipulating photos on the computer screen, something I’ve always held to be true. However, with the font of knowledge they have jointly accumulated over the decades they go into fascinating detail of artistic pieces, formulating opinions as to how they work and how man evolved into the many forms of pictures we can view today.
It’s surprising just how frequently light coming through a small hole and then supplanting a reverse image on a panel (see camera) comes into painting centuries before it had a name. The other thing is mirrors (see Van Eyck, Campin and Velasquez) and how they were included, utilized and offer a different perspective, especially when they’re not totally flat.
Comparisons with the lighting in a Caravaggio, for example, are readily made with that used in modern day film studios and indeed, having recently seen the latest incarnation of “Murder on the Orient Express”, it was like Caravaggio himself was organizing the lighting.
In fact, one of their quotes is that “Photography is a child of painting”. How techniques morphed into one another or artists digressed totally from the norm are all part of this insightful volume. That Chinese art does not have a fixed viewpoint, but is based on moving focus is another thing I learnt.
That Brunelleschi, the great Renaissance architect famed for the dome in Florence, was also the one who “discovered” perspective in painting was another revelation. How oil painting on canvas became the norm because there was plenty of the latter to be had in Renaissance Venice where they relied on sea freight.
And I loved the quote by Rembrandt, “If I want to relieve my spirit then I should seek not honour but freedom”. How that can be transplanted into so many of the activities of daily life!
We are living through an evolution of pictures as profound as anything in the past. What you can do with photoshop leads us into the future and the past at the same time and then more fertile minds than ours will come up with something we had never envisaged.
This is not, as you may have gathered, something to be read overnight. It is, like a gourmet meal, something to be savoured again and again in morsels that tantalize the brain. If you’re into art in any form, you will treasure this work and return to it throughout your life to dwell on the wonders within.
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