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How to Look at a Painting
Françoise Barbe-Gall
#UE6292 Paperback, 311 pages; 2010 $24.95
Members' Price: $21.21

  This magnificent and insightful guide to viewing works of art champions, above all, the "power and relevance" of the observer's--that is, of your--own personal reaction to a painting. "Believe [your] own eyes!" says art historian Françoise Barbe-Gall, as she takes you on a splendidly penetrating tour of thirty-six masterpieces. Each beautiful work is represented in full color with several detailed close-ups. Together with the keenly observant and delightfully enthusiastic Barbe-Gall, you'll enjoy "confronting the truth of emotions" through Caravaggio'sThe Death of the Virgin; "flirting with the idea of perfection" via Botticelli's Primavera; "glimpsing primitive nature" in Rousseau's Child with Doll; "welcoming a new freedom" through Kandinsky's With the Black Arch; "seeing life unravel" with Munch's The Scream; "learning to wait" via Rothko's The Ochre; and so much more! How to Look at a Painting makes a gorgeous and enlightening gift for anyone eager to enhance her artistic perceptivity. (CH)