Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0415148901, Paperback)

A critique of works of art dating from the early fifteenth century through to modern installations, Learning to Look at Paintings is an accessible guide to the study and appraisal of paintings, drawings and prints. Mary Acton shows how one can learn to look at and understand an image by analyzing how it works, what its pictoral elements are and how they relate to each other. She describes the ingredients of composition, space, form, tone and color which make up a painting, and discusses the importance of subject, function and setting in appreciating its visual meanings. Acton also suggests a series of questions to ask when looking at a painting in order to help develop a critical understanding of art.

Acton discusses work by a wide range of Western European and American artists, from the fifteenth century to the present. Learning to Look at Paintings is illustrated with over ninety images by artists ranging from Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Botticelli to Picasso, Matisse and Rothko. Also included is a glossary of critical and technical terms used in art history.