revisiting the old masters

Civilization

by Kenneth Clark

   Ways of seeing

by John Berger

   The Shock of the New

by Robert Hughes

It was just as I had expected: Clark's narrative of the Western art history was a great treat. There was not so much to learn, as the book was modeled after the BBC series he created and had just all the well-known highlights within a general sketch of hundreds of years. But it was absolutely a joyful journey back in time to revisit those artworks and artists I've come to love. 

Ways of seeing, on the other hand, was a complete annoyance, and its writer the ultimate "wet blanket". I had never got so upset by a book, with my stomach literally turning with each turning of a page. Truth hurts; how I hate this naughty little messenger.

Ways of seeing are ways of questioning the conventional view of art, as represented by Kenneth Clark, which reminded me of how science was "indicted" by Yuval Noah Harari in "Sapiens: a brief history of mankind". In short, science is not "pure" and art is not "pure". The highest human achievements are tainted by human follies, may even be part of human follies. Art, Western art in particular, serves the powerful, the sexual fantasy of men and the market. The end.


"The Shock of the New" provided a historical narrative of how modern art has come to being. It's a fun book to flip through, if one has already become receptive to the apparent absurdity and craziness, which is modern art. The most rewarding thing is that I believe I've learned how to tell Picasso and Braque apart - look forward to testing this "skill" of mine in my future museum goings.

It should not have come as a surprise that art has evolved as the human history turns left and right, forward and backward, and become craziest in the twentieth century when humanity was in its most volatile, violent, confused and disillusioned period. But I had not been consciously mindful of this fact when I looked at artworks.

I also flipped through two more art books but didn't find the content particularly insightful to read carefully, one traced Picasso's life to account for his art; the other was a series of essays on a Miro exhibition of his large wall art.

fantastical and fantastically fake

The Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

Read it years ago.

i have mixed feelings about this book. it is crafted beautifully with an apparently very unique story, at least a unique angle of a sea-travelling disaster; yet the writing is so sentimental and deliberate that it feels forced and fake.