{"title":"Books by James Elkins","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780415970532","title":"Pictures and Tears","description":"This deeply personal account of emotion and vulnerability draws upon anecdotes related to individual works of art to present a chronicle of how people have shown emotion before works of art in the past.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56289336361333,"sku":"9780415970532","price":42.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780415970532_823117f5-d3b5-4c04-8668-03930594d0cb.jpg?v=1786013762"},{"product_id":"9781138319899","title":"What Painting Is","description":"\u003cp\u003eWritten from the perspective of a painter-turned-art historian, this anniversary edition includes a new introduction and preface by Elkins in which he further reflects on the experience of painting and its role in the study of art today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57688194908533,"sku":"9781138319882","price":42.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56297401811317,"sku":"9781138319899","price":171.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781138319882.jpg?v=1792686113"},{"product_id":"9780252069505","title":"Why Art Cannot Be Taught","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this smart survival guide for students and teachers--the only book of its kind--James Elkins examines the \"curious endeavor to teach the unteachable\" that is generally known as college-level art instruction. This singular project is organized around a series of conflicting claims about art: \"Art can be taught, but nobody knows quite how.\"\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \"Art can be taught, but it seems as if it can't be since so few students become outstanding artists.\"\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \"Art cannot be taught, but it can be fostered or helped along.\"\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \"Art cannot be taught or even nourished, but it is possible to teach right up to the beginnings of art so that students are ready to make art the moment they graduate.\"\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \"Great art cannot be taught, but more run-of-the-mill art can be.\"\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Elkins traces the development (or invention) of the modern art school and considers how issues such as the question of core curriculum and  the intellectual isolation of art schools affect the teaching and learning of art. He also addresses the phenomenon of art critiques as a microcosm for teaching art as a whole and dissects real-life critiques, highlighting presuppositions and dynamics that make them confusing and suggesting ways to make them more helpful.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Elkins's no-nonsense approach clears away the assumptions about art instruction that are not borne out by classroom practice. For example, he notes that despite much talk about instilling visual acuity and teaching technique, in practice neither teachers nor students behave as if those were their principal goals. He addresses the absurdity of pretending that  sexual issues are absent from life-drawing classes and questions the practice of holding up great masters and masterpieces as models for students capable of producing only mediocre art. He also discusses types of art--including art that takes time to complete and art that isn't serious--that cannot be learned in studio art classes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhy Art Cannot Be Taught\u003c\/i\u003e is a response to Elkins's observation that \"we know very little about what we do\" in the art classroom. His incisive commentary illuminates the experience of learning art for those involved in it, while opening an intriguing window for those outside the discipline.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311663329653,"sku":"9780252069505","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780252069505_f31e9221-4218-4a6e-a384-86aa7f110777.jpg?v=1786012524"},{"product_id":"what-heaven-looks-like","title":"What Heaven Looks Like","description":"\u003cp\u003eSomewhere in Europe—we don't know where—around 1700. An artist is staring at something on the floor next to her worktable. It's just a log from the woodpile, stood on end. The soft, damp bark; the gently raised growth rings; the dark radial cracks—nothing could be more ordinary. But as the artist looks, and looks, colours begin to appear—shapes—even figures. She turns to a sheet of paper and begins to paint. Today this anonymous artist's masterpiece is preserved in the University of Glasgow Library. It is a manuscript in a plain brown binding, whose entire contents, beyond a cryptic title page, are 52 small, round watercolour paintings based on the visions she saw in the ends of firewood logs. This book reproduces the entire sequence of paintings in full colour, together with a meditative commentary by the art historian James Elkins. Sometimes, he writes, we can glimpse the artist's sources—Baroque religious art, genre painting, mythology, alchemical manuscripts, emblem books, optical effects. But always she distorts her images, mixes them together, leaves them incomplete—always she rejects familiar stories and clear-cut meanings. In this daring refusal to make sense, Elkins sees an uncannily modern attitude of doubt and scepticism; he draws a portrait of the artist as an irremediably lonely, amazingly independent soul, inhabiting a distinct historical moment between the faded Renaissance and the overconfident Enlightenment. \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhat Heaven Looks Like\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e is a rare event: an encounter between a truly perceptive historian of images, and a master conjurer of them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57613234307445,"sku":"9781946053022","price":7.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781946053022.jpg?v=1790608335"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-james-elkins.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}