Seeing Like an Artist

Praise for Seeing Like an Artist Perry covers 'how certain paintings and sculpture were made' in his conversational debut, a convincing 'plea to look closely.' Across 16 essays, Perry combines memoir and art criticism...'Reading Paintings' is a masterclass in technical components including color, shape, and what Perry calls velocity, or the speed with which the viewer is 'asked to read through the fictional space of the picture'....His guidance is well delivered: 'I'll try to evoke what I've come to love not because I believe it's what you should love, but, rather, because I hope my enthusiasm might inspire you to find what you love.' Budding art aficionados, take note. -Publishers Weekly Lincoln Perry has written an irresistibly readable, companionable, and quotable artist's memoir in this Grand Tour of commentary on museums (primarily European) and artists as varied as Rodin, Picasso, Corot, Bruegal, Veronese (the 'group figure narrative'), Bernini, Courbet, R.B. Kitaj, Masaccio and Masolino, Rubens, Pollock, and Rothko. There is no substitute for seeing art 'in situ,' as Perry tells us, but accompanying this ideal observer, a practicing artist with the sharp, sympathetic eye of a fellow craftsman, is an exhilarating experience. -Joyce Carol Oates, author of Babysitter So much writing about art seems like useless noise-abstract, pretentious, gassy. This is not that. Lincoln Perry takes us on a journey, showing us what he sees and how he sees, and it's wonderful. There is revelation on every page. -James Gleick, author of Time Travel: A History Lincoln Perry writes so clearly and sees everything in a state of wonder. His visual experience embraces ancient Greece, the Renaissance, African and Asian art, Modernism. He finds the abstractionist in Michelangelo and the storyteller in Picasso. No one knows how to cite quotations better than he. He has looked into museums all over the world and literally lived in a camper next to the Louvre. He is a wonderful companion on the page and an unintimidating expert: this book will open your eyes. -Edmund White, author of A Previous Life