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

[ComingUpTrumps]

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?

But is it art? is good for an overview and for not getting bogged down in historical detail.
Tate Talks are short films about/interviews with artists. As well as the 'art museums,' walking around the independent commercial galleries can be a fantastic experience (assuming you're in or mear London). Keep your eyes open for what's on and you can see some amazing modern/contemporary stuff.

The OU has some open learn courses and here are loads of MOOTs on art and art history

Inspired by this threas I looked up online courses and here what |I found:

In English
www.class-central.com/mooc/2151/edx-european-paintings-from-leonardo-to-rembrandt-to-goya

Chronicle, which of those books has the most written content? Asking as I will buy it from audiobooks on iBooks as I can't see art work very well. I like it, I just can't see it :)

When I was in Spain, I went to the Prado Museum and they only had about 33 artworks on the audio description. Out of I don't know how many hundreds.

41 videos 8-10 min long, they are going to talk about European paintings 14-18th Century, European Paintings: From Leonardo to Rembrandt to Goya
I've just enrolled :)

hellokittymania, we went to Prado in March and I think there were many more paintings in English on audio,
I'd say close to 90
we spent there 7 hours

Sunny - I love those Klimts too. DP had never seen them, and was blown away when I showed him some online.

And thank you to the poster who reminded me about Yves Tanguy - they're odd imo, but in a good way. At a glance, they look like seascapes with boats or something and then you really look, there's nothing there you can recognise. They're like the converse of an optical illusion.

I never feel the need to explain why I love a certain painting or artist OP.

However, sometimes I do feel the need to express my feelings about a painting or artist.

That is actually the way to truly learn, in my opinion.

thank you for that. If I go again to Madrid, I will have another go at Prado.

p.s. I can't bear the sound recordings you drag around these art museums. They are telling you want to think and how to feel! I want to tear my hair out when I see these stoopid things.

I love to approach art as an innocent novice!

Occasionally, and very gingerly, I will read a little write up next to the painting. But sometimes they get it wrong in their stoopid art historian interpretation and I will flinch!!!!

Go as an innocent and a novice is my own advice and experience!

You never have to explain yourself with art. You can say things like "I love the colours", "I love how the brush strokes look", all the way up to "I love how the artist has captured the innocence of the subject. And how the colours represent peace fighting against restraint".

Art is, thank god, in the eye of the beholder. You take from art what YOU feel and see.

My favourite is max Ernst, he is a surrealist. I like his work for the juxtapositioning of content, as well as the colours.

Second PPs who suggest BBC 4 - I like series by Waldemar Janusczak - he's got quite an earthy attitude to art so I find him quite interesting - he did a series on the Renaissance last autumn. Also Neil McGregor is quite good - he was director of the NG.

I did a load of European galleries last year (fulfilment of a long held travel dream) so I did Prado and Reina Sophia in Madrid and began to see the connections between the old masters and the moderns. Dali doesn't look quite as weird when you look at Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and realise that Dali studied it too.

I also enjoy paintings with gorgeous textiles in them, so lots of Baroque and Renaissance portraits I could stare at for hours. This was a favourite from the Uffizi in Florence - check out the frock!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronzino#/media/File:Bronzino_-Eleonora_di_Toledo_col_figlio_Giovanni-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

I'm not well educated in art but after such a long immersion in it I began to spot things, so by the time I got to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, after 7-8 major galleries I finally felt like I had an idea what was going on. But I would still say that mainly I know what I like.

@TuppenceForYou Care to elaborate on your comment sometimes they get it wrong in their stoopid art historian translation ?

I love Kandinsky and Miro and Pabla Palazuelo and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy... Basically anything Bauhaus (German movement meaning 'construction house'), if you like Ikea you can see its roots! Early 20th century stuff: architecture, furniture, textiles, sculptures etc, real pared back minimalist modernist stuff thatbthey wanted to make both functional and affordable to those on a lower income.

I did A level art many many moons ago and used that as a stepping stone. Really 'oh, that's pretty... Why did s/he paint that subject that way?' get book out of library (pre-internet!), ask for books for birthday/xmas, visit galleries.

I loved the randomness of the name of this painting:
www.guggenheim.org/arts-curriculum/topic/selecting-images
(I Love You With My Ford, James Rosenquist, in case link doesn't work). Pop Art. Very random. But understanding what was going on at the time the painting (etc) was made helps appreciate the object.

I can still stand in front of a painting and think 'I like it cos it's pretty'

Well, what I said TripTrap.

I read the blurb next to the painting.

And sometimes there's some questionable "blurb" next to it. The interpretation is sometimes plainly wrong and the curator has overstepped the mark. I do appreciate a little bit of background, sometimes, but sometimes I think curators get carried away with their interpretations. It really is an art, and they can get it wrong as well as right!

I actually studied Englush literature at university. So many books (especially Penguins) had great art on their covers, really helping to capture the feeling if the words beyond.

The two i have attached:
Manhatten Transfer: 'Silver Dollar Bar' by Edward Burra, an upper-middle class Brit who lived in Rye! Can't really get less American!
1984: The Soul of the Soulless City by Christopher Nevinson, another Brit.

I actually just dragged these two off my shelf, googled the artists and have ordered books about them off Amazon

Art can pop out at you from anywhere

Mierda, cannot upload

Google is your friend!

Here we go...

But Tuppence how can you say their educated interpretation is clearly wrong' ? Because it's different to yours? Because you see something different to them?? Perhaps you are taking a more subjective view or have a differing interpretation based on how YOU see things? That doesn't make them wrong.