Understanding Art

Have you ever been stopped in your tracks by an image? That's where this book begins. "Understanding Art" starts with your intuition and helps you build on it. Learn to recognize how artworks are constructed, interpret their meanings and connect them to larger contexts. With reproduced images spanning cultures and centuries, you'll explore how artists use the elements and principles of design to create meaning. Special features help you develop visual literacy: Theory + Practice shows the creative process, Compare + Contrast trains observational skills and the Visual Culture section expands your understanding to ceramics, textiles, fashion and architecture. The text gives you tools to look deeper and think critically, proving that understanding doesn't diminish pleasure -- it multiplies both the mystery and the pleasure.