Litsy

Chelseabillups30

Beauty: The Invisible Embrace (Perennial) | John O'Donohue

13 likes

Robotswithpersonality

Chromophobia | David Batchelor

so-so

And around and around we go! 😵‍💫 When the book started with a chapter about whitescapes, an apparent critique of minimalist architecture/interior design, I thought maybe we were going to consider individual colours, how people historically have reacted to them, how they might arouse fear, disgust, phobia, as much as praise, from an art-focused, rather than psychological basis. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? But after the first chapter, it was a bunch of chapters considering the idea of not liking colour or colours, as a unit, at all, largely from the perspective of writers from the 19th century or earlier, contrasting with what I guess the author saw as the clearest emergent vote for colour thereafter, the 1960s with psychedelia and pop art. Film also gets in there, too. 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? The 19th century opinions showcase a staggering amount of anthropocentric, hierarchical thinking, attempting to make line, form, architecture, superior to colour, and proving both racist and misogynist in the way colour and its associations/attributes are described as subordinated to form. 😬 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/? There was also a chapter discussing how different languages have different conceptions of basic colours, pitting colour against language, the idea that people react to colour before they have language, that describing colour is often beyond words. A side tangent that felt very tangential.
I guess if you're going to look at the range of opinions in art criticism and see what the reasoning was behind chromophobia you'll sample whatever period 2mo

See All 7 Comments

Robotswithpersonality 5/? of history such views hold sway, but it does feel somewhat truncated that there were some published dudes in the 1800s (not all anti-colour but majority of those quoted) and seemingly a reaction to this mindset by dudes in the 1960s, and this author decided in 2000 to quote a bunch of each group without touching on much time outside of what was either decades or hundreds of years' old writings, interviews. 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 6/? The paragraphs, the meanderings Batchelor gets into featuring his own thoughts did often seem to be repeats, paragraphs going round in circles.
So:
Some older people have not liked colour and their reasons are kind of sus, many people, artists, have worked with and discussed colour (some are recognized as trailblazers for doing so) in ways that might not be recognized as art by the older guys, but why should we care what they thought? 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 7/? And maybe modern minimalism is the backlash to the backlash depending on whether your tastes run that way, but I don't see it in danger of taking over the world based on the life of colour and creativity I'm witness to every day in person and online. 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 8/8 There were a number of 20th century artists and some art critics from both time periods quoted that I think I'd like to follow up on, but aside from fulfilling an essay requirement (with a hefty word count stipulation) for an art history course, I'm not sure why Batchelor would choose these angles on this topic. 🤷🏼‍♂️ 2mo

10 likes7 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Chromophobia | David Batchelor

“...nothing particularly original.“ 💅🏻

6 likes1 stack add

Night_Reader

Against Interpretation: And Other Essays | Susan Sontag

His current reads: all non-fiction.

15 likes

HeatherBookNerd

The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption | Katy Kelleher

pick

Interesting series of essays on the darker histories of beautiful things-silk, marble, make up, perfume, and more. The author is a confessed lover and collector of beautiful objects. For each chapter Kelleher shares a history of an item along with her own thoughts on the nature of desire, beauty, consumption, and the ethics of how these valued items came to be. This book is for folks that are fascinated by deep dives into the minutiae of stuff.

41 likes

TheLudicReader

On Beauty | Umberto Eco

I kinda love his take.

kspenmoll Oh I love this! Thanks for sharing!🩵💙🩵 9mo

TheSpineView Great!📚📚📚 9mo

Lesliereadsalot This is so exactly how it is! 🩷 9mo

See All 7 Comments

Ruthiella Books as medicine! Exactly! 👍 9mo

Kristy_K Love this! It‘s so true! 9mo

Lindy 100% 9mo

DogMomIrene 💯 8mo

50 likes7 comments

sakeriver

Art on My Mind: Visual Politics | bell hooks

pick

I think the thing that is most interesting but also most upsetting about this book is that it was written in 1995 but is still so relevant. Obviously hooks is brilliant, but it means that the state of discourse around art, race, and gender has really not progressed much in the past 30 years.

6 likes

sakeriver

Art on My Mind: Visual Politics | bell hooks

5 likes

mdemanatee

The Poetics of Aristotle | Aristotle

Sometimes I can't get a thought out of my head. Friday it was, “wait are we a greek Chorus on Taylor Swift's new album?“ And here we are. https://youtu.be/_wWM3xuShR4

9 likes

Welcome to Litsy!

Trending Hashtags

Trending Books