How to Understand Art

The visual arts enrich our lives in so many ways, presenting beauty, emotion, and ideas--but sometimes looking at art is confusing and challenging. This new volume in the Art Essentials series, How to Understand Art, sets out to enhance the viewer's experience by breaking down the elements of art to provide a firm basis for simple enjoyment as well as further understanding.With one hundred visual examples drawn from across the globe, the emphasis is on how to assess art objectively--a key skill for any art student, museum visitor, or cultural enthusiast. Art historian and museum lecturer Janetta Rebold Benton teaches the reader to reevaluate their experiences of looking at art by learning to move beyond "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like," toward an understanding of "why I like it."By looking at artists' materials and techniques, such as drawing, painting, printing, photography, sculpture, and decorative art, Benton makes it possible to assess what can (and cannot) be