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book review


Contemporary drawing research thumb

Contemporary drawing research

I wanted to bring together a short summary of the most recent book in the Drawing series – Vitamin D2, focusing particularly on some of the artists featured whose drawing practices it might be interesting and useful for students to look at.

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Book Review: Anne D’Alleva’s 'How to Write Art History' thumb

Book Review: Anne D’Alleva’s 'How to Write Art History'

Writing about works of art can be tricky, especially if you’re trying to build up a body of knowledge from a standing start as well as link it — perhaps at the repeated behest of your tutor — to work that you’ve made. Finding a way to turn the experience of looking at something into meaningful text isn’t easy, but developing a way of clearly writing about the visual is an important skill to acquire when studying art.

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Book review: How to Write About Contemporary Art by Gilda Williams thumb

Book review: How to Write About Contemporary Art by Gilda Williams

This is an important book for anyone who writes about art and its related disciplines. From Textile Foundations to Sustaining Your Practice as a textile student you are asked to comment on the work of others and your own creative output. This is a skill that does not necessarily come naturally, and many students struggle with it. It is therefore important to get some help. This book is different from the many “how to” writing books because it makes a strong case for knowing your subject and writing creatively about it.

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A History of Pictures by David Hockney and Martin Gayford thumb

A History of Pictures by David Hockney and Martin Gayford

Anyone interested in pictures and representing the world ought to find something here of value. As an accessible primer on those issues it’s hard to beat. Read it, go and look at some of the work discussed in it, then re-read it.

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Book review: A new dictionary of art thumb

Book review: A new dictionary of art

A New Dictionary of Art is an absurd project, but a serious one and, to paraphrase a final definition from page 131, ‘makes the ordinary seem extraordinary’.

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