How To Think Like an Artist

An illuminating guide to history's most influential and inspiring artists - from Leonardo da Vinci to Frida Kahlo - and how they can teach us to see the world more clearly. How did the greatest artists in history look at the world through new eyes? And what can we learn from the imagination, boldness and originality of their art? From the allusive frescos of the Renaissance to the cool irony of conceptual art in the 20th century, this is the ultimate guide to the greatest artists of the human age. Curator and writer Catherine Daunt interweaves the lives and loves of these great artists with moving and enlightening descriptions of their most famous and important works. This book takes the reader on a whirlwind journey through the greatest art of all time, and shows us how we can understand and interpret them. Daunt re-examines the canon, traditionally dominated by Western, white and male artists, and makes space for major figures from other cultures and traditions, as well as those who have been traditionally overlooked because of their gender or class. Every artist in this book has made a revolutionary contribution to art, changing the way that we view, depict and navigate our world.

Catherine Daunt is an art historian and curator with a focus on modern and contemporary works on paper. She is currently the curator of modern and contemporary prints at the British Museum and has previously worked at the National Portrait Gallery, London and Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery.

Introduction 1 Apelles: The G.O.A.T. 2 Giotto: Painting the Human Experience 3 Hieronymus Bosch: (Poor) People are Terrible 4 Leonardo da Vinci: Re-presenting the World 5 Artemisia Gentileschi: Until her Work is Seen 6 Rembrandt van Rijn: Things for Which There Are No Words 7 William Hogarth: The First YBA 8 Francisco de Goya: Producing Monsters 9 Katsushika Hokusai: Old Man Mad About Art 10 J.M.W. Turner: Painting as Poetry 11 Rosa Bonheur: Art and Animals 12 Claude Monet: Making an Impression 13 Vincent van Gogh: Feeling Deeply 14 Käthe Kollwitz: Artist as Advocate 15 Henri Matisse: Seeking Colour and Light 16 Pablo Picasso: That Guy Missed Nothing! 17 Kazimir Malevich: Nothing in Common with Nature 18 Mark Rothko: Basic Human Emotions 19 Barbara Hepworth: Every Hill and Valley Becomes a Sculpture 2o Frida Kahlo: Identity and Self 21 Emily Kam Kngwarray: Life and Landscape 22 Jacob Lawrence: History Painting 23 Andy Warhol: The Same Thing, Over and Over 24 Yayoi Kusama: Self-Obliteration 25 Marina Abramovic: The Audience and I Become One 26 Ai Weiwei: An Artist Must Be an Activist 27 Keith Haring: Art in the City 28 The Guerrilla Girls: Collective and Covert 29 Rachel Whiteread: The Spaces In-Between 30 Wangechi Mutu: Beauty, Bodies and Optimistic Futures Conclusions Acknowledgements Endnotes Index