The Art of Reading: An Illustrated History of Books in Paint (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781606065860)

"Why do artists love books?" This volume takes this tantalizingly simple question as a starting point to reveal centuries of symbiosis between the visual and literary arts. First looking at the development of printed books and the simultaneous emergence of the modern figure of the artist, The Art of Reading appraises works by the many great masters who took inspiration from the printed word. Bringing together more than one hundred paintings that include books as part of their subject matter, this lively and companionable survey examines how the book became the single most ubiquitous feature of our cultural lives and, in large measure, of everyday existence.

Authors Jamie Camplin and Maria Ranauro weave together an engaging cultural history that probes the ways in which books and paintings represent a key to understanding ourselves and the past. Paintings contain a world of information about religion, class, gender, and power, but they also reveal details of everyday life often lost in history texts--and all the more so when books are depicted. Such artworks show us not only how books have been used and valued over time but also how the significance and practice of reading have evolved in Western society.

Featuring work by artists from across Europe and the United States and all painting genres, The Art of Reading explores the two-thousand-year story of the great painters and the preeminent information-providing, knowledge-endowing, solace-giving, belief-supporting, leisure-enriching, pleasure-delivering medium of all time: the book.


Author: Jamie Camplin, Maria Ranauro
ISBN-10: 1606065866
ISBN-13: 9781606065860
Publisher: Getty Publications
Language: English
Published: 10/02/2018
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.90lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.80w x 1.40d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/15/2018 pg. 60
Foreword 10/26/2018