From a carved mammoth tusk (c. 40,000 BCE) to Bosch's Garden of Earthly
Delights (1505-1510) to Duchamp's Fountain (1917), a remarkable
lexicon of astonishing imagery has imprinted itself onto the cultural
consciousness of the past forty thousand years.
Author Kelly Grovier devotes himself to illuminating these and more than
fifty other seminal works in this radical new history of art. Stepping
away from biography, style, and the chronology of "isms" that
preoccupies most of art history, A New Way of Seeing invites
interaction with art, learning from the artworks and not just about
them. Grovier identifies that part of the artwork that bridges the
divide between art and life and elevates its value beyond the visual to
the vital. This book challenges the sensibility that conceives of
artists as brands and the works they create as nothing more than
material commodities to hoard, hide, and flip for profit.
Lavishly illustrated with many of the most breathtaking and enduring
artworks ever created, Grovier casts fresh light on these famous works
by daring to isolate a single, often overlooked detail responsible for
its greatness and power to move.