To ask you how I can educate myself about art??

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Hi everyone!

Sorry, yet again a rubbish AIBU (a bit of a running theme from me!)

I've just been to the National Gallery (I hardly ever go, which is a shame as it's free and amazing!) and thought I'd really like to know more about art.

There are some artists I really like in particular - Van Gogh, Breughel, Gauguin, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Renoir, Vermeer, Monet, Italian religious paintings from the Renaissance (probably the usual suspects! ) and I particularly like still life paintings with food - but I would love to find out much more.

I woud love to be able to say explain why I like paintings instead of sounding wishy-washy and non-commital and just saying something vague about the colours.

What are your favourite paintings? Who are your favourite artists? And what do you love and know about art?

And AIBU?

Use google.
Get some books.
Go to museums - Look at the art and decide for yourself what you like / dislike / think it is saying etc.

Art is different to each individual, that's the point. It's not like history with facts.

All of the major galleries run free guided talks most days. At the NG you just turn up. The guide will usually take you through 4-5 paintings from different periods and different styles/ artists. It's absolutely fascinating learning how to 'read' paintings and the background information about the artists is fabulous.

I would start with that. Then if you are still interested consider doing a foundation in art history course. If you live near London and want to join small group talks in the major galleries pm me and I will give you the contact details of the lady who runs the talks I now attend. She's amazing.

In the national gallery my fave picture is that massive one of the horse.
I'm no help, I look at pictures, read the blurb (love it when the old stuff lists how the paints were created) and sometimes have an audio guide but I don't worry about the why or who or explaining what I like.

Two books will change your art life forever...

The Story of Art, Gombrich - a classic and where every art student starts, the history of art from Egyptians til now. Easy to read.

The Art Book - Phaidon - a run down of arts famous and greatest hits.

Libraries will have both or buy new or 2nd hand ( the Gombrich has sold mre than 7 MILLION copies- so plenty around) - they're paperbacks so not big fancy expensive books.

Simon Shama the power of art dvds would be a great starting point.

My favourite painting is Tiger in a Tropical Storm by Henri Rousseau, which is in the NG. I love it for its detail, for the architectural quality of of the plants, for the way it makes me almost feel the humidity, and for the colours. I want it in my house, so I can look at it every day.

Some paintings almost give me synaesthesia, where I feel like I can smell the atmosphere. The Rousseau I mentioned gives me the smell of rain of hot, dry earth. Breughel's Hunters in the Snow does it tooat, and I've never even seen it in RL.

I also love Crivelli (loads in the NG), Whistler (some in the Tate, iirc), Eric Ravilious, Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer and works by this man www.petermesser.com/, who is a friend and has taught me a lot about art, primarily by telling me what I like and why. (I have one of his paintings, and that reminds me of the smell of autumn - damp and cool and slightly smoky).

I'd love to study art history. Maybe when I retire ...

YY to the Gombrich - for modern art, Will Gompertz's 'What are you looking at? 150 Years of Modern Art in the blink of an eye' is very readable.

I'd echo the suggestion to read the Gombrich book. I read it a few years ago - an easy read and it takes you through the development of art and why some painters were so remarkable and moved things on. Explains the ubiquity of all those Madonnas and Children!

I'm quite fond of John Singer Sargent (beautiful portraits, amazing fabrics, but some find him a bit chocolate boxy) and El Greco, while I wouldn't fancy much of his stuff round my house, I'm always amazed that he was painting in the 16th century, not the 19th or 20th.

One thing I do when I go to an exhibition is to use the audio guides most big exhibitions produce. They do cost an extra bit but you learn so much more about the artworks,the artists and the influences on them. And like a pp mentioned the free talks are wonderful. I also love the exhibitions the National does sometimes which just focus on one painting but set it in context.

If you like going regularly to galleries, and especially if you live near a big city with a number of galleries I recommend joining the art fund, it is a bit pricey to start out, but you get in free or at a reduced price to a lot of galleries, special exhibitions and other places eg Tower of London,Kensington Palace, Eltham Palace etc so if you are determined you can easily cover the cost. you also get sent a very informative magazine quarterly, and the bonus is that the art fund helps galleries and museums buy works of art so you are helping to fund new stuff and make sure old stuff stays available to everyone.Downside is you can't take a friend for free!

An evening course in art history?

I did one, not too intense and not a qualification, just enough to make me feeling I had a grounding in understanding art IYSWIM.

Lake lady, I love that picture too, I liked it even more when I found out Rousseau never left France and that his jungle inspirations came from the botanic gardens in Paris!

"What great paintings say" Vols 1&2 are fantastic books, with pictures of hundreds of famous paintings and a deconstruction of the 'meaning' within each one.

I did history of art at university and for a levels, so am the owner of many many hefty art books. Gombrich is a good suggestion for an overview, although my tutors at uni dismissed it as necessary for the course. All the artists you mention have biographies to give a more in depth look at their lives and how it influenced their work, you can pick them up second hand for not a lot of money at all. The Halls dictionary of subjects and symbols is probably the best if you want to be able to decode things from a wide range of work, as it applies to almost every piece of art you can think of. John Bergers Ways of Seeing is also very good and is a quick read. Audio guides are good too, as are the tours put on by guides at places like the national gallery. BBC four often have good documentaries on art and artists lives which is a nice easy way to learn.

For an introduction I really recommend this book, think it's out of print now so library or second hand. It says for 'young people' but I think it's a brilliant overview for anybody getting into art, very accessible and doesn't assume a lot of prior knowledge.

of Art for Young People www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0810941503/ref=cmswrcpapi_zYYizbDPJW00V

History of Art for Young People https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0810941503/ref=cmswrcpapi_zYYizbDPJW00V

Openlearn or Future learn courses are free.

Read 'The Yellow House' by Martin Gayford great book about Van Gogh and Gauguin

Any painting by Yves Tanguy. Hes a Surrealist. Did contemporary art at trento uni and I try to still surround myself in art by going to exhibitions by uni students quite often.

National Gallery talks are made available on their YouTube Channel. Just having a look now, there's a talk about the horse picture.

Some years ago, David Dimbleby did a TV series, A Picture of Britain, about the British landscape as represented in art, music and literature. Looks as if that's on YouTube too.

I studied history of art at a level. It was fascinating and I really enjoyed it. Would love to study it again actually. Sometimes I catch a good documentary on sky arts or YouTube.

Find some artists you really like and become obsessive about them - read everything about them, go and see their work, find out everything you can about them. If you really love something you will learn far more.

I did an art history degree.

The gombrich book is a good start as it maps out a structure which makes it less inaccessible. Also the world in 100 objects (by Neil Macgregor when he was at the British museum - after he had been at the national gallery) is written beautifully and gives a feel for what gets the author excited about artistic expression. He did a tv programme from the national gallery (in the late 1990s) which got me hooked as a young teenager - don't know if it might be accessible through the BBC? sir Kenneth Clarke (another former head of the national gallery) made a tv series in the 1970s (which my a level teacher used to quote often) which focussed mainly on Western Europe but is presented by someone who deeply loved the art he talked about. I think it is available on DVD.

If you are in London and would like to go around a smaller gallery presented beautifully so that you learn a lot, the courtauld institute is super.

Also, why not have a go yourself with a sketch pad or cheap paints. No one has to see it but you - I find it a good release.

BBC Four on iPlayer. Lots of really good art series to watch.

This is a brilliant thread- thanks OP for asking as I've often toyed with asking myself

Bbc4 art programmes :)