Thread 7696470

/ic/ has a lot of instructional art book recommendations, but do you guys read art theory books too? What are your recommendations? I've been reading William Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty and it's very interesting

mogs me

Rogers Scruton's
Beauty: a very short introduction
and the Aesthetics of architecure are both bangers. almost everything else is commie drivel unless it was written 2k years ago like Vitruvises work

This is just name-dropping. I have barely read a whole book of these. I just love downloading stuff and rummage through a pile of interesting topics/books. They're all availabe on AA or zlib - maybe even in your preferred language.

Albers - Interaction of Color
Alberti - De pictura
Arnheim - Kunst und Sehen
Benjamin - Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit
Berger - Sehen
Brassat - Handbuch Rhetorik der bildenden Künste
Büttner - Einführung in die frühzeitliche Ikonografie
Cenini - Buch von der Kunst
Ganz - Kunst und Kunsttheorie
Kuhn - Komposition und Rhythmus
Mogilevtsev - Fundamentals of Composition
Panofsky - Dürers Kunsttheorie
Utitz - Bemerkungen zur altgriechischen Kunsttheorie

>>7696470 (OP)
If your interest extends to art history, I can throw some other titles in as well. I haven't read any art history that wasn't also art theory.

Oh cool, a thread about the theory of art, I'd love a few recommenda-

>>7696508
>Alberti - De pictura
>Arnheim - Kunst und Sehen
>Benjamin - Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit
>Berger - Sehen
>Adolf Hitlet - Mein Kampf
>Brassat - Handbuch Rhetorik der bildenden Künste
>Büttner - Einführung in die frühzeitliche Ikonografie
>Cenini - Buch von der Kunst
>Ganz - Kunst und Kunsttheorie
>Kuhn - Komposition und Rhythmus
>Mogilevtsev - Fundamentals of Composition
>Panofsky - Dürers Kunsttheorie
>Utitz - Bemerkungen zur altgriechischen Kunsttheorie
Ugh, you fucking weebs and your esoteric japanese texts!
I can't read this shit!

>>7696513
Go talk to ChatGPT, stupid.

Available in English

Josef Albers – Interaction of Color
Widely available in English. The 50th Anniversary Edition (2013) includes Albers's full original text and around 60 color studies; it's considered a staple in learning color theory
Neue Galerie New York
David Zwirner
.

Leon Battista Alberti – De pictura ("On Painting")
Yes—English translations include J. Spencer's On Painting (1956, 1966) and a dual Latin-English edition (On Painting and On Sculpture) by Cecil Grayson (1972)

Rudolf Arnheim – Art and Visual Perception
Originally published in English as Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye (1954); revised edition came out in 1974. It’s been translated into multiple languages and remains in print

Walter Benjamin – The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Yes, this influential essay is widely available in English, including standalone editions like Penguin's Great Ideas series. It also appears in larger collections like Illuminations and Reflections

John Berger – Sehen (original German for Ways of Seeing)
The English version is Ways of Seeing, published in 1972, both as a book and a TV documentary, and remains in print

Erwin Panofsky – Panofsky: Dürer’s Kunsttheorie
This is likely The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer, published in English (Princeton, 1955)

Cenini obviously as well

>>7696511
I'm interested in art history recommendations too, post them

there are few books i think should be a required reading for any serious artist.

understanding comics - scott mccloud
art and illusion - e.h. gombrich
the image and the eye - e.h. gombrich
ways of seeing - john berger (already mentioned, seconding)

some other texts that are good to know, but might not be wholly relevant to the picturemaking practice

the story of art - e.h. gombrich
ion - plato
introduction to aesthetics - g.w.f. hegel
the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction - walter benjamin
the will to power as art - martin heidegger

art theory is seldom spoken of compared to technique despite it being its complement. my biggest gains came from studying theory. don't sleep on this shit, bros

how about posting some excerpts or quotations or do you guys only speed-read these

>no Henri
depressing state of affairs

seconding everything Gombrich.

Michalski - Einführung in die Kunstgeschichte
Shone - 16 Klassiker der Kunstgeschichte
Vasari - Künstler der Renaissance

can't trust anything these historians, critics or theorists say unless they actually drew/painted well.

>>7697817
such a stupid take

>>7697828
One hour of actually drawing will trump hundreds of hours of theory, unless they actually the experience to back up what they are saying.

>>7697848
Hard disagree. Nowhere in this thread was mentioned that the goal is to improve their art. It's about understanding and experiencing art.

But even if so, go ahead and reinvent the wheel. Waste your time and throw your life out of the window. No one got time to make every possible mistake, not even (You) - despite being a very particular individual, I am sure. For everyone else: We're standing on the shoulders of giants.

Lastly, your approach will lead to Kitsch. There are rules, nuances, history and knowledge about everything you do. You don't need to follow any of these, but at least know where you fit the picture. Else you'll just be a laughingstock.

>>7697852
I'm not anti-theory or anything. There plenty to learn from that could talk the talk and walk the walk. Philip Leslie Hale and Robert Hale Ives Gammell to name a few.

>>7697817
>>7697848
Not sure if I am talking to the same person, but I wouldn't know how to interpret this as anything else than anti-theory.

>>7697856
(pic related) See, now you said something interesting. Good job. Keep doing that.

>>7697861
Those are all me, your reading comprehension is poor
>unless they actually drew/painted well.
>unless they actually the experience to back up what they are saying.

>>7697862
mhm

I'm not sure if this question/request deserves its own thread, so I'll ask here first:

Is there any collected work that compares the different methods of drawing/creating an image? I'm not talking about media (e.g. graphite versus charcoal), I'm talking about different methods of for example showing form, doing rendering, creating luminosity, etc. Pic related, it shows comparison of Caravaggio and Michelangelo respectively.

Bonus points if there is actual text and explanation given next to the images, even if this means only a few drawings are actually shown, I'd rather have a small selection of well explained drawings than a huge one without any.

(also I say "image" because the exact form or medium is less important, but I do prefer drawings).

>>7698137
Good question/request! Sadly I can't help you. I'd be interested as well. I'm a total sucker for these study drawings of the great masters. Someone really needs to make an open catalog about all of these. Doesn't even need to include the images themselves (only hashes or whatever). Now let an AI analyze them for body part, perspective, medium, etc. We really need open data catalogs for all sorts of media. With some open platform that a whole community can extend and work with it. Somehow find a solution to prevent big tech to scrape everything and you made the world a better place.

>>7698198
made a thread
>>>7699465

>>7697934
>they all look like him