Art and Illusion : A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Presentation

Art and Illusion : A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Presentation

An attempt to explain rationally the shifting styles of art, from antiquity to the present, employing modern concepts of visual perception, information theory, and learning.

Customer Reviews

- A great book, it is a bit long but filled with information, so take your time when reading and prepared yourselve for an epiphany

- Art & Illusion is an altogether brilliant text - one of the most profound discussions of fine art in the 20th century. No matter what one's field - whether painting, film, new media, performance art - it is a book both timeless and essential.

- When asked to recommend an art book, I frequently compare art books to chemistry books or math books. These books usually assume you understand, at the minimum, the symbol for salt or the math equation to measure an area. For this book, it would help if you are familiar with the main phases of representational styles in art. For this is not a picture book, but rather reading material with explanatory pictures on the psychology of perception. But, Dr. Gombrich wrote for the general public and nobody does it better. Having read all his books more than once, he takes you by the hand, leads you down his primrose path, and entices you by way of his poetic language; much like walking in a garden with a gardener. You may not know all the plant's latin names, but the experience is rewarding.

- In this now classic work, Gombrich uses his command of the history of art to reflect deeply on how creators and viewers of illusionistic, that is representational art, do what they do. While he wrote this in the 50's, and is deficient when it comes to issues of abstract art (which is really outside his stated purview) he comes close to what might now be termed a post-structuralist view of seeing, certainly an extremely careful and sophisticated one. Old-fashiioned as some of the language is, the book remains fresh and well worth reading or re-reading. The numerous and very well-chosen illustrations are unusually well coordinated in their placement, so that the reader rarely is forced to lose her place while thumbing back and forth in search of them.