The Art of Wonder: A History of Seeing by Spalding, Julian (2005) Hardcover

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YZLUJS8/?tag=2022091-20

The Eclipse of Art: Tackling the Crisis in Art Today by Spalding, Julian (2003) Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YZLSP0W/?tag=2022091-20

The Eclipse of Art: Tackling the Crisis in Art Today

(An exploration of the modern public's alienation from con...)

An exploration of the modern public's alienation from contemporary art, by outspoken critic Julian Spalding. Spalding makes a powerful plea for the revival of communication, accessibility and traditional skills in the art field. In a forthright manner, Spalding examines the key ideas underpinning modern art and finds them wanting. He illustrates how artistic craft, learning, content and judgement have each been compromised by commercialism, cynicism and politics, and argues for the revival of an art whose ambition is to communicate, as profoundly and elegantly as it can, with everyone. The author's hope is that readers, when they close this book, will not only think "I knew I was right not to like modern art, and now I know why", but will also be enabled to look for the art of today that is of lasting quality.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3791328816/?tag=2022091-20

The Poetic Museum: Reviving Historic Collections (Art & Design)

(In the rush to modernize, this book argues, some museums ...)

In the rush to modernize, this book argues, some museums have replaced almost all their collections with interactive exhibits and computers, while others have put everything they can on display, turning their museums into pastiche cabinets of curiosity. Author Julian Spalding maintains that both approaches devalue visiting museums and galleries. The frontiers of knowledge, he argues, are no longer collectible as they were during the Enlightenment, when museums became a central way of understanding natural and human history. Using examples as varied as the Louvre in Paris, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, the State Museum of Political History in St Petersburg and the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore, Spalding illustrates how to use objects and artefacts to create profound and poetic insights into the past. Writing for the visitor as well as the professional, Spalding investigates every aspect of museum work from collecting to financing, buildings to displays, revealing entrenched habits which must be reformed to reach a wider and increasingly sophisticated public. Most importantly, Spalding describes how his own ideal, the Poetic Museum, would transform traditional museums and greatly extend their audiences. Jonathan Spalding has served as director of numerous museums in Great Britain, most recently Glasgow Museums and Galleries. He is the founder of such award-winning museums as the Ruskin Gallery, the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, and the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3791326783/?tag=2022091-20

The Art of Wonder: A History of Seeing

(Destined to become an indispensable classic, this fresh a...)

Destined to become an indispensable classic, this fresh and invigorating guide to appreciating the world's art encourages readers to trust their own instincts, tastes, eyes and experiences. Renowned curator, award-winning museum director and controversial art critic Julian Spalding has never been part of the academic establishment. He is not bound by the burden of scholarly trends - deconstruction, post-structuralism or post-Marxism. As a connoisseur and a practising curator, he helps us reconsider our relationship with the arts and makes us aware that seeing is the true gift. He shows us how mankind's early vision of the sun and moon, the seasons and death is reflected in art and draws striking parallels between apparently disparate cultures, eras and peoples. Reaching across continents and back through time to study the earliest known works as well as the modern world's most memorable accomplishments, Spalding offers a highly original and revealing history of art. The wonders of the world have changed little, what has changed through history is our way of understanding, approaching and seeing them and our role in it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3791331507/?tag=2022091-20