The Uses of Images: Studies in the Social Function of Art and Visual Communication - Hardcover

Gombrich, Leonie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714836559 ISBN 13: 9780714836553

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 1999

Synopsis

In this new volume - the tenth in the series of his collected essays - Professor Gombrich returns to themes that have long preoccupied him in his study of visual imagery of all kinds. Central to these essays is a consuming interest in the functions of images, and how these functions - and the images - change over time.

In wide-ranging studies of both 'high' and 'low' art, from fresco painting, altar painting, the International Gothic Style and outdoor sculpture to doodles, pictorial instructions, caricature and political propaganda, Gombrich discusses the role of supply and demand, competition and display, the 'ecology' of images and the idea of 'feedback' in the interplay of means and ends, as developing skills in turn stimulate new demands. He explores further aaspects of the uses of images in his essays on the hanging of pictures and on the use (or misuse) of images as historical evidence.

About this title

Review:

'It is, of course, wonderful.' (Paris Free Voice)

'He makes his lateral thinking and writing accessible to everyone, from politically-minded students to Sunday gallery visitors to the most rococo academics (the kind who never learn from his style)... The range of illustrations, though all black and white, is enormous; the range overall is that of a great teacher’s mind at work and at play.' (RTE, Ireland)

'Gombrich has a genius – for once that is the mot juste – for presenting complex and highly original arguments not just with exceptional lucidity, but also with wit. For any reader who has heard him lecture, the mesmerising charm of his inimitable if much imitated speaking voice leaps off the page ... ' (Apollo)

Synopsis:

In this volume Professor Gombrich returns to themes that have long preoccupied him in his study of visual imagery of all kinds. Central to these essays is a consuming interest in the functions of images, and how these functions - and the images - change over time. In wide-ranging studies of both "high" and "low" art, from fresco painting, altar painting, the International Gothic Style and outdoor sculpture to doodles, pictorial instructions, caricature and political propaganda, Gombrich discusses the role of supply and demand, competition and display, the "ecology" of images and the idea of "feedback" in the interplay of means and ends, as developing skills in turn stimulate new demands. He also explores further aspects of the uses of images in essays on the hanging of pictures and on the use (or misuse) of images as historical evidence. Gombrich writes in a clear style, without losing his reader in jargon, and in this volume he discusses some of the most fundamental and contentious issues: how and why does art change and develop?; what does the idea of "progress" mean in art?; and can art be used as evidence of the "spirit" of an age?

His answers emerge not through abstract formulations but through an empirical and undogmatic attempt to understand what has actually happened in the history of art.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0714836559
• ISBN 13: 9780714836553
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304