In this short, but inspiring work, the author suggests five alternative themes to take into consideration when engaging with a work of art. Rather than starting with the rational question of what the artist has attempted to make manifest with their work of art, the author urges the reader towards a more visceral reaction. Certainly, you can pat yourself on the back for having recognised in a painting the characters of an obscure Greek myth, or a 16th century pope, and move on from there, but this would be robbing yourself of the experience of experience. As the author so nicely puts it, why would you ask such a closed question of an artwork? The author devotes a chapter to illustrate each theme in a number of well-known or lesser known artworks covering paintings, sculptures and photography, from Fra Angelico to the abstract art of Mrinalini Mukherjee. The themes range from the rather obvious "colour" and "scale" to "process", "placement" and finally "content".

I consider myself an avid enthousiast when it comes to art, and have spent many an hour wandering through the Louvre, Hermitage, Met and Prado. Having read this book, I've realised that art for me has indeed always leant more towards an experience of recognition. The author is dismissive of the importance of labels and I similarly wonder what he thinks of my constant use of audio-guides to "rationalise" my way through a museum. For my next visit to a museum, whenever that may be, I have promised myself to spend less time reading the accompanying labels and spend more time travelling down the inroads of Street's suggested themes.

This book is highly recommended for anyone, like me, who considers themselves an enthousiast deserving of a subtle nudge in re-assessing their appreciation of art.

#HowtoEnjoyArt #NetGalley ( )

Full disclosure: I have a degree in art history, worked in a major American art museum, and have haunted art museums and art books for much of my life. The concept of this book appealed enormously, but... I didn't get quite what I was expecting.

Street is a widely experienced art historian and educator, so has way more cred than I do when it comes to helping people understand and/or enjoy art. I loved the idea of ways that *anyone* and *everyone* (his words) can enjoy art. So I expected the book to be one that anyone and everyone with even a mild interest in art could pick up and benefit from his expert guidance - I did. He articulates ways to look at a piece of art, what kinds of questions it might pose, how you might recognize what arouses your own responses, and how to further explore them. As someone who is usually baffled by a lot of contemporary art, I found this useful. When I turned the page to a photo of a huge street installation consisting of 1550 wooden chairs in a pile wedged between two buildings, I stopped and looked and asked myself questions, gave myself answers, and decided it was actually impressive and even moving because of the thoughts it prompted. I went from befuddlement to admiration, even in a few minutes with a photo.

That said, if I were to give this book to, say, my sister, an educated, literate person with relatively little experience looking at art, I'm not sure she would get the same benefit I did. Describing a large contemporary sculpture of a blue rooster, Street says [it]: "...generates a productive tension within the traditional way of seeing. By shaking colour loose from description - literally using colour against its description - it's allowed to stand on its own, and might seem to be speaking in a completely different register from its surface." This kind of language is intelligible to someone who already is already comfortably familiar with art talk, but to the "everyone" or "anyone" the book is ostensibly aimed at... maybe not so much. I also take some issue with Street's objection to the "story" a work of art may be telling: he doesn't find "depiction" very helpful, and is brisk (but interesting) on the topic of wall labels. Personally, looking back at my teenaged years poring through art books, what really deepened and expanded my experience with the images (and yes, Ben, we know photographs don't ever do justice to the real thing) was learning the stories - of the subject of the painting, of the artist, how it came to be made, what the artist actually did in order to make it do what it did. So I'd hesitate to dismiss that kind of information as blithely as he does. Still, my value for it came after my initial emotional / visual reaction to the art itself, and Street's focus is on that primary response.

A worthwhile read for those exploring how people respond to art, for educators who want to help them do it better, and to possibly enhance what some of us already do but want to do it better. But not an "Enjoying Art 101" text. And once again, I register my usual gripe about the tiny, not-very-good illustrations - but then, Street stresses that photos are never worthy of the originals anway. ( )