The Story of Art (1950)

Good copy. Softcover

Just a dozen or so pages into this book, I knew that it was one I wish I would have had access to when I was first seriously exposed to art. While in many respects, it is a conservative textbook (being first published in 1950), it is fundamentally meant for someone who has little to no previous formal contact with art history. Of course, if you have some, this can make you seriously engage some of your previously held assumptions about what you like and why you like it, but I got the distinct impression while reading that it was meant to initiate a teenager – a teenager who very much reminded of me of myself – into a whole new world.

The inclusions and exclusions of certain artists are, of course, always arbitrary. However, Gombrich’s choices do not deviate too much from a standard art history text. What particularly drew me to the book was what I perceived to be its inordinate focus on medieval and especially Renaissance art. Of the twenty-eight chapters included in the book, about five mostly focus on Western medieval images (6 and 8-11). Another six chapters (13-18) focus on the art of the Western Renaissance. Most surveys of art history to which I had been previously exposed paid scant attention to medieval art and they sometimes did not give the Renaissance the space that I felt it deserved. There is no doubt the medieval and Renaissance art Gombrich’s pet periods here (and, admittedly, they’re mine, too.)

What makes it so special is that, instead of spending the first chapter in an abstract exercise of thinking about what “Art” is, he forces you over and over again to take the art on its own terms. While discussing the various visual perspectives painted by the artist of “The Garden of Nebamun,” he says: “To us reliefs and wall-paintings provide an extraordinarily vivid picture of life as it was lived in Egypt thousands of years ago. And yet, looking at them for the first time, one may find them rather bewildering. The reason is that the Egyptian painters had a very different way from ours of representing real life. Perhaps this is connected with the different purpose their paintings had to serve. What mattered most was not prettiness but completeness. It was the artists’ task to preserve everything as clearly and permanently as possible. So they did not set out to sketch nature as it appeared to them from any fortuitous angle” (p. 60). It is the occasional insight like this that makes the book most worthwhile for a neophyte. After all, how many of us have measured something we saw by the standards of our particular narrow time and place? He really drives home the point that thinking about art seriously means thinking about other perspectives (both literally and figuratively), other preoccupations, and other aesthetic modus operandi. This is a lesson that should be lost on none of us, about art, or about anything else. ( )

"It is the job of the historian to make intelligible what actually happens, it is the job of the critic to criticise what happens."

E H Gombrich (30-03-1909 to 03-11-2001) was both an art historian and an art critic. He was asked to write a text book on the history of art for young people, however his love of art and experience as an art critic resulted in this being much more than a mere text book. He said he wanted to "open eyes and not set tounges wagging" and so he kept technical details to a minimum. His modus operandi was to demonstrate, with reference to the many superb illustrations, what the artist was trying to achieve and what we the viewer should be looking for when we view a painting, sculpture or building.

Gombricht does not stray far from the western canon and guides the reader through primitive art, Egyptian art, Classical art, Medieval art, the Renaissance (where he is particularly strong), Northern European art, Neo classicism, Pre-Raphaelites, the Impressionists, Expressionism, Modern Art and Experimental Art. He is keen to point out that art has not developed through all of these phases, but that they are links in a chain. He manages to pack into his story enough historical context so that he can demonstrate why artists painted as they did, why art has changed through the ages and what the viewer of art demanded from the artists. It is a full and well rounded history.

He tackles head on issues for the beginner in art appreciation, encouraging them to go and see as much art as possible. He explains that much great art is not so concerned with an accurate depiction of its subject; it does not aim to look "like real". The artist is more concerned with showing a thought, a feeling, or an idea and in addition will have issues in separating out what he sees from what he knows. The arrangement of form and the selection of colours are of prime concern to the painter.

It has been said that Gombrich was no lover of modern art, but you would never guess this from his book. His writing about the impressionists and those that followed is extremely interesting and his thoughts on the influence of the art critics gives much food for thought. Throughout the book the thoughts and ideas expressed will be of interest to the art lover as well as the beginner and his point about the crisis for the art critic in todays art world bears repetition. He says that the critics got it horribly wrong when they denigrated the impressionists at their first few exhibitions in Paris and ever since they have been afraid of missing the boat again. He laments that today (1960's when he was writing) critics are little more than chroniclers of art, more concerned with not making a false step than indulging in serious criticism. He says in his postscript to the 1966 edition:

"I took it for granted it was the duty of the critic and of the historian to explain and to justify all artistic experiments in the face of hostile criticism. Today the problem is rather that the shock has worn off and that almost anything experimental seems acceptable to the press and the public. If anybody needs a champion today it is the artist who shuns rebellious gestures".

He goes on to say:

"We have no guarantee that our new responsiveness will not lead us to neglect a real genius among us who forges ahead regardless of fashion and publicity. Moreover the absorption in the present could easily cut us off from our heritage if we came to regard the art of the past as the mere foil against which the new conquests acquire meaning".

In this postscript Gombrich the art critic takes the reins from Gombrich the historian, but it no less fascinating for that. This is a superb story of art, full of insight and an excellent introduction for the beginner and still thought provoking for the art lover.

A final word from Gombrich

"There is really no such thing as Art. There are only artists - men and women, that is, who are favoured with the wonderful gift of balancing shapes and colours till they are "right" ( )

I read this cover to cover for a History of Art course at Uni. Very readable and a good introduction but a bit out of date now. ( )

Why am I limited to only 5 Stars? Read it! ( )