Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art

This is an important book for anyone who has looked at a painting and wondered "Why is this painting special, important, valuable,and thought of as brilliant?."It is a joy to read such a fascinating, informative and enjoyable book, written by an author so eminent and experienced and who certainly knows his 'stuff.' I bought this book because I learned so much from his earlier book "The Value of Art" and the two titles are invaluable and absolute 'musts' for the layman who has a love and appreciation of art but has 1001 questions. Mr. Findlay's books go a long way in educating the reader, pointing him/her in the right direction and making visits to museums much more enjoyable and worthwhile. Mr. Findlay's writing style is perfect for a book of this nature and his skill in selecting quotations is pure magic. This book, as well as his earlier one - "The Value of Art" should be pride of place in every art lover's bookcase.

Findlay has published a very elegant work. It's well-designed with an attractive layout and is full of excellent reproductions of fine art. He maintains that "the inescapable gift of art is its ability to stir our feelings". When visiting museums he encourages us to eschew the audio guide and smartphone apps telling us what to think and just look at art without any preconception. Otherwise we will suffer from "perceptual contraception". He advises not to read biographies of artists before we visit their works or read the labels and captions that are placed adjacent to their paintings. Rather than hug the walls like most visitors who spend on average ten seconds per painting (including three for reading labels) he recommends us to stand in the middle of the room and scan slowly until a painting beckons us. He berates the modern investor-collector whose opinions drown out the fading authority of curators and academics. It's all about the money! One final point - high quality art should equate to high prices but the reverse is not true. If there's a criticism about his book, it's the repetition of his point of view about the need to see art without preconception. But many of his stories highlighting his philosophy are amusing and alleviate the didacticism of his work.Review written by author of The Diplomatic Spy from Shawn Callon.

Try this method, it's an interesting way to approach an exhibit. Although Mr. Findlay repeats himself many times, making you wonder if a fine magazine article was fleshed out to make a book, it's still worth reading. An art-loving friend and I tried seeing slowly as prescribed herein at a Mark Tobey exhibit and for both of us (independently, as required by Findlay) found ourselves immersed in several paintings, and we came away from the exhibit with a great respect for and enjoyment of art we might otherwise have just glanced at.

A fascinating and inspiring book, and a worthy follow-up Findlay's "The Value of Art." As he so vividly points out, when you walk through a museum show today, most people are studying captions, taking photos with their iPhones and listening to headphone tours, and not really having any direct experience of what's in front of them. Findlay makes a cogent and inspiring argument for taking the experience of looking at art back to a personal and emotional place, and his inside knowledge of the art world adds some very interesting details, with flashes of humor along the way. The book is constantly making you think and re-examine belief systems, and brings you back to what's essential and powerful about great works of art.

Chaps. 1 and 3 focus on some introductory aspects about art works in general--e.g., the uses of art; factors in examining/assessing art. In the other chapters (7 in total in the book) Findlay mostly presents his views on how one best approaches and evaluates modern art. Sprinkled throughout the book are his recollections of experiences at various museums and other relevant occurrences. I found the content beyond the introductory chapters to be repetitious.--He keeps rehashing his guidelines (dos and don'ts) as how to best engage with the art. The book could have been shorter if the repetitions had been edited out. In fact, his message could've nicely been covered in a long article in a magazine like the New Yorker or The Atlantic. This book is more on how to interact with modern art than really trying to make sense of it.

Premise is good. Stories support the idea. Glad I read it. Appreciated confirmation to just look at what arrests my attention and set aside all the fact finding on the title card next to the artworks.

today I used your suggestions at NSW art Gallery. Brilliant! I would really recommend the book to anyone who wants to deepen their ability to appreciate art.

To be fair, I only got halfway through. That was because it seems as if the author makes the same point over and over again. So, for me, would have worked better as an essay than as a book.

Un livre qui vous remet en face de l’oeuvre et vous donne bonne conscience à ne pas vous embêter avec audioguides, etc.