Product Description

'Great art has dreadful manners...' Simon Schama observes at the start of his epic exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. 'The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things, visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your sense of reality...' With the same disarming force, "Power of Art" jolts us far from the comfort zone of the hushed art gallery, as Schama closes in on intense make-or-break turning points in the lives of eight great artists who, under extreme stress, created something unprecedented, altering the course of art forever.The embattled heroes - Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko - each in his own resolute way faced crisis with steadfast defiance. The masterpieces they created challenged convention, shattered complacency, shifted awareness, and changed the way we look at the world.With powerfully vivid story-telling, Schama explores the dynamic personalities of the artists and the spirit of the times they lived through, capturing the flamboyant theatre of bourgeois life in Amsterdam, the passion and paranoia of Revolutionary Paris, and the carnage and pathos of civil-war Spain. Most compelling of all, "Power of Art" traces the extraordinary evolution of eight world-class works of art. Created in a bolt of illumination, such works 'tell us something about how the world is, how it is to be inside our skins, that no more prosaic source of wisdom can deliver. And when they do that they answer, irrefutably and majestically, the nagging question of every reluctant art-conscript..."OK, OK, but what's art really for?"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134085 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Customer Reviews

Vintage Simon Schama
This is vintage Simon Schama. I was transfixed during all of his excellent series on the History of Britain a few years ago and as a result bought and read the three books that accompanied that series. Simon Schama has a wonderful knack of writing in the same droll, ironic, knowing style that he uses to present his TV series. The style of the writing really draws the reader in just as Schama the TV presenter pulls the viewer into the subject.

The book itself very closely follows the TV series which is currently being broadcast. OK so this is not a huge intellectual tome and neither was "History of Britain". But to me this is irrelevant. What Schama is really good at is popularising a subject that some of us were previously unfamiliar with. Those who are really into art in a big way will probably know the material anyway, but for those of us who aren't experts Simon Schama provides an excellent gateway into the subjects he cares about. If we are stimulated to read more then all the better, there are plenty of other sources for those who want more detail.

The book is, as you'd expect from a BBC publication, beautifully illustrated. It's a nice read, never demanding but always enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on David and Rothko as I knew next to nothing about them whereas Rembrandt, Turner, and Picasso are a little more familiar.

This would make an ideal Christmas present. A good book to accompany an excellent series.

powerful stuff
Although this has a `TV tie-in` feel to it (especially it`s glossy, superficial cover art), it`s a sumptuous book to handle and look through, with pristine reproductions from the 8 artists discussed. Schama uses his rough-house, slangy style (which could occasionally be wearing were it not for the man`s obvious enthusiasm backed by learning) to the full here, which suits his approach, which is to awaken readers to the sinewy, troublesome, uncontainable aspects of great paintings and sculptures, whether Caravaggio`s grubby but gorgeously lit urchins, Bernini`s orgasmic saints or Rothko`s grave blocks of ecstatic colour. This is, I suppose, art criticism-lite - but the better for it. There is, thankfully, not too much `interpretation` (for example, discerning what a character in a painting may be thinking or feeling, which dear old Sister Wendy, among others, loves to do, and which tabloid-ish practice usually drives me to distraction) and he certainly gets one excited about art, making you want to get on down to your nearest gallery and grab some eye-food. (Sorry, his style`s catching.)
All art is for the people - you and me - and Schama realises this, as did most artists worth the name. (It`s always struck me as oddly absurd that we go to `art galleries` to see hung rows of paintings etc. in hushed formal settings.) This is a timely tome, and I was glad to learn more about David, Bernini and Rothko, the latter leaping up further in my estimation. It`s understandable that he has become the poster-darling, but his chapter suggests why he might resonate with so many people. `Power of Art` is apt. A powerful, whirlwind story lurks within this coffee-table-covered book. Four-and-a-half stars, I`d say.

There is so much more to art that just paint and canvas!
After being totally addicted to the BBC series, I was given this book as a present by my long-suffering partner and I can honestly say it's one of the best coffee table/non-fiction books I've ever owned. Schama is an amazingly engaging writer, he has you there, focused on everything he says - you take in the information - just like the best teacher you ever had at school - you just cant help it. If school had been half as interesting as this I would have had a degree in art!! And as a post script, I dragged the afore mentioned, long suffering partner round the Louvre for nearly four hours tracking down the paintings in this book and he had to listen to me waxing lyrical about the artist/painting - OK, he's probably questioning the day he bought this book for me but you know what I think I actually have him interested in art as more than just a piece of canvas and paint!