Sensations: The Story of British Art from Hogarth to Banksy
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Sensations: The Story of British Art from Hogarth to Banksy Details
What is the artistic impulse uniting Robert Hooke's drawings of insects, George Stubbs's studies of horses, and Damien Hirst's pickled shark? In this new and spirited account of British art, Jonathan Jones argues for empiricism. From the Enlightenment to the present, British artists have shared a passion for looking hard at the world around them. Jones shows how this zeal for precision and careful observation paved the way for Realism, Impressionism, and the birth of modern art Read more
Reviews
Sensations by Jonathan Jones is a free Netgalley ebook that I read in late April.Ironic or deliberate modern art pieces/exhibits starting in the 17th century with portraits that skew a little left of classic and show someone from a different angle, light, clarity of colors, scientific perspective, and/or portraits that seem more spontaneous than posed. Jones' casual, yet detailed narration makes history seem approachable and even interesting with such subjects as anatomy/specimen drawings and diagrams, bondage, slavery, wartime, realistic and fantastical landscapes, book illustrations (I personally found out about and really appreciate Richard Dadd), the dawn of photography, influence of other global cultures, trading cards and magazine/newspaper illustration, sculptures with machinery, and surrealism (though I already knew how awesome Francis Bacon is). It seems to culminate with the influence of 1960s pop and drug culture, before turning comparatively bleak and utilitarian during the 1980s & 1990s before, sure enough, finishing off the tome with Banksy.
