The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: How Painting Happens (and Why It Matters), Martin Gayford

How Painting Happens (and Why It Matters)

Martin Gayford

Painting is an almost inconceivably ancient activity that remains vigorously alive in the twenty-first century. Every successful painting creates a new world, which we inhabit for as long as we care to look at it. Paintings can incorporate profound ideas and paradoxes that can be grasped without words. For those who dedicate themselves to it, the art of painting can become an all-consuming, lifelong obsession. It is a subject on which painters themselves are often the most incisive commentators.

Martin Gayford's riveting and richly illustrated book deftly brings together numerous artists' voices, past and present. It draws on a trove of conversations conducted over more than three decades with artists including Frank Auerbach, Gillian Ayres, Frank Bowling, Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, Lucian Freud, Katharina Fritsch, David Hockney, Claudette Johnson, R. B. Kitaj, Lee Ufan, Paula Rego, Gerhard Richter, Bridget Riley, Jenny Saville, Frank Stella, Luc Tuymans, Zeng Fanzhi, and many more. Here too is Vincent van Gogh on Rembrandt, John Constable on Titian, Francis Bacon on Velázquez, Lee Krasner on Pollock, and Jean-Michel Basquiat on Picasso.

We hear the personal reflections of these artists on their chosen medium; how and why they paint; how they came to the practice; the influence of fellow painters; and how they find creative sustenance and inspiration in their art.

How Painting Happens crosses the centuries to give us a wealth of insights into the endlessly compelling phenomenon of painters and painting.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Thames & Hudson
  • Publish Date: Nov 12nd, 2024
  • Pages: 384
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.80in - 7.30in - 1.70in - 2.45lb
  • EAN: 9780500027424
  • Categories: Techniques - Painting - GeneralHistory - General

More books to explore

Book Cover for: Down Bohicket Road: An Artist's Journey. Paintings and Sketches by Mary Whyte, with Excerpts from Alfreda's World., Mary Whyte
Book Cover for: William Cather Hook: A Retrospective, Susan Hallsten McGarry
Book Cover for: Still Looking: Essays on American Art, John Updike
Book Cover for: Reinventing Comics: The Evolution of an Art Form, Scott McCloud
Book Cover for: The Shadow Drawing: How Science Taught Leonardo How to Paint, Francesca Fiorani
Book Cover for: Grant Wood: A Life, R. Tripp Evans
Book Cover for: Larry Poons, Michael Fried
Book Cover for: The Memory of Water, Allen Smutylo
Book Cover for: The British Surrealists, Desmond Morris
Book Cover for: Frida Kahlo. the Complete Paintings, Luis-Martín Lozano
Book Cover for: The 12-Hour Art Expert: Everything You Need to Know about Art in a Dozen Masterpieces, Noah Charney
Book Cover for: Richard Parkes Bonington: The Complete Paintings, Patrick Noon
Book Cover for: The Story of Art Without Men, Katy Hessel
Book Cover for: Portraits: John Berger on Artists, John Berger
Book Cover for: Monet: The Restless Vision, Jackie Wullschläger

About the Author

Gayford, Martin: - Martin Gayford is a writer and art critic. His books include Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud; Modernists and Mavericks: Bacon, Freud, Hockney and the London Painters; A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen and Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy, both with David Hockney; Shaping the World: Sculpture from Prehistory to Now, with Antony Gormley; Love Lucian: The Letters of Lucian Freud, 1939-1954, with David Dawson; Venice: City of Pictures; and How Painting Happens (and why it matters).

More books by Martin Gayford

Book Cover for: The Yellow House, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: Venice: City of Pictures, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: Michelangelo: His Epic Life, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: A History of Pictures for Children: From Cave Paintings to Computer Drawings, David Hockney
Book Cover for: The Pursuit of Art: Travels, Encounters and Revelations, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: History of Pictures, David Hockney
Book Cover for: Rendez-Vous with Art, Philippe de Montebello
Book Cover for: Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: Lucian Freud: The Copper Paintings, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: Love Lucian: The Letters of Lucian Freud, 1939 - 1954, David Dawson
Book Cover for: Modernists and Mavericks: Bacon, Freud, Hockney and the London Painters, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: Lucian Freud, Martin Gayford
Book Cover for: A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen, David Hockney
Book Cover for: Hughie O'Donoghue, Hughie Hughie O'Donoghue