Lectures on Art

by John Ruskin, Bill Beckley (introduction)

Reflecting Ruskin's belief that art is not an isolated pursuit, but one intimately connected with all aspects of human life, Lectures on Art explores the relation of art to religion, morals, and practicality as well as the significance of line, light, and color. This edition includes a new introduction by Bill Beckley, a widely exhibited artist who teaches semiotics at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, 19th Century

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1870

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

John Ruskin was an English writer, philosopher, art historian, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
Ruskin was heavily engaged by the work of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc which he taught to all his pupils including William Morris, notably Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionary, which he considered as "the only book of any value on architecture". Ruskin's writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural structures and ornamentation. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art gave way in time to plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society.
Ruskin was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J.M.W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". From the 1850s, he championed the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today.

Reviews

[AiK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Некоторые суждения имеют явный колониальный оттенок, либо превознесение английской культуры. Довольно интересна классификация школ.

[Kateryna Hora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a compilation of lectures for visual art students with a few contemplations on the role of art for morale and religion. If the latter was a rather shallow Plato copywriting, the former was very interesting. Ruskin discussed the importance of lines, shadow and colors and analyzed the works of (own categorized) Greek school of light and Gothic school of color. The whole idea was that art representation should be as loyal to the object as possible (which I don’t really agree with), but the observations on the importance of mass and lines for this agenda was very precise and interesting. Also there’s a theme of British supremacy and invocatory colonialism that runs like a thread (imo without a just need) through the whole text, makes it super hard to get past.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another preliminary read for In Search of Lost Time. It is said that Proust based his writer Bergotte on John Ruskin. I expect to see Ruskin rhythm and phraseology when I get to Proust.

[Daria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Не информативно

[Tech Nossomy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A series of lectures given by the famous art historian and art teacher John Ruskin.
Textually hard to get used to the endless flow of far-fetched metaphors, platitudes and simplistic symbology. Many sentences do not make sense at all. Mr Ruskin speaks from a pedestal, authoritatively, not on art in general, but art specifically produced in Victorian England, as well as preferentially by artists he is personally acquainted with. And of course lavish praise in the obligatory references for the arts from Greek / Roman antiquity throughout.

For historical purposes only.

Available on Project Gutenberg.

[Thing Two · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Ruskin was a 19th century art critic who lectured at Oxford University on a variety of topics - art being one. Ruskin offers his opinions on art in relation to religion, morals, and the world around us. I am not an artist, so I'm sure I missed the significance of a majority of his talk, but parts of it were interesting to me.

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A handful of lectures concerning the relation of art to religion, morality and technical instruction like line, color and light. A pleasant read and low-barrier entry point to the overwhelming Ruskin canon of modern art criticism.

[Velvetink]

ebook version

[Vija Neprosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

цікава книга, взяла її спеціально для того щоб трохи дізнатись про мистецтво, щоб мати загальне принаймні уявлення. сподобалась мова викладу. багато інформації почерпнула, бо рідко звертала увагу на ті чи інші речі в архітектурі