Overview

What is it about modern life that causes us to see so much complexity in the visual image? In Why are our Pictures Puzzles? , James Elkins argues that the intricate meanings that are assigned to pictures are less a matter of insight than a symptom of our culture - a kind of excessive desire for understanding and a demand for clear solutions. He contrasts the abundant writings of contemporary scholars with writers from the ancient Greeks to the eighteenth century, and questions why earlier writers were satisfied with describing a picture in a few sentences. In his analysis, Elkins brings a wide variety of examples to bear, including detailed accounts of some of the most contentious works in art history, including Watteau's ""meaningless"" paintings, Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling, and Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper. Why are our Pictures Puzzles? is an intriguing book which challenges our perceptions and questions our beliefs about art.

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9780415919425

Table of Contents

Reviews

... Elkins argues that all our responses to pictures vacillate between conflicting desires to interpret, or read, and merely to see. He tracks these impulses from one extreme-- in ancient writing systems and mathematical notation-- to another, in modern abstract painting that tries to contrive a purely optical experience. The survey is arduous, but it is also fascinating. - The San Francisco Chronicle Elkin's book...is a gentle jab at his profession's habit of generating 'intricate and voluminous' interpretations of paintings. - Inside Publishing Cogent, conversational and lucid, this book provides a useful, nuanced understanding of what ordinary viewers today share with 'the discipline [that] thrives on the pleasure of problems well solved'. - Publisher's Weekly A daring challenge to all those who would continue to defend art history's status as a positivistic discipline... a dazzling intellectual achievement. -Keith Moxey, Barnard College Written with crystalline elegance and analytical rigor, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? will be of interest not only to students of visual culture, but also to anyone concerned with interpretation in the humanities as a whole. -Martin Jay, University of California at Berkeley

... Elkins argues that all our responses to pictures vacillate between conflicting desires to interpret, or read, and merely to see. He tracks these impulses from one extreme-- in ancient writing systems and mathematical notation-- to another, in modern abstract painting that tries to contrive a purely optical experience. The survey is arduous, but it is also fascinating. - The San Francisco Chronicle Elkin's book...is a gentle jab at his profession's habit of generating 'intricate and voluminous' interpretations of paintings. - Inside Publishing Cogent, conversational and lucid, this book provides a useful, nuanced understanding of what ordinary viewers today share with 'the discipline [that] thrives on the pleasure of problems well solved'. - Publisher's Weekly A daring challenge to all those who would continue to defend art history's status as a positivistic discipline... a dazzling intellectual achievement. -Keith Moxey, Barnard College Written with crystalline elegance and analytical rigor, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? will be of interest not only to students of visual culture, but also to anyone concerned with interpretation in the humanities as a whole. -Martin Jay, University of California at Berkeley

Once upon a time, pictures were simple - or at least were generally thought so. It used to be that relatively few words would suffice to describe an image. For ancient authors, a sentence or a paragraph was enough; Giorgio Vasari wrote a page or two at most. Given that history, what does it mean that pictures have come to require so much more explanation than in any previous century? Why do writers involved with images find it necessary to write at such length? This book - a meditation on the nature of art historical interpretation - questions the notion prevalent in art history today that paintings are complex puzzles in need of solving, that there are hidden meanings in images, and that volumes of interpretation of a single image are somehow warranted. Elkins explores the modern origins of pictorial complexity, explains why we have only recently become aware that pictures are complex and examines a variety of explanations for the intricate meanings we now take for granted. (Kirkus UK)

... Elkins argues that all our responses to pictures vacillate between conflicting desires to interpret, or read, and merely to see. He tracks these impulses from one extreme-- in ancient writing systems and mathematical notation-- to another, in modern abstract painting that tries to contrive a purely optical experience. The survey is arduous, but it is also fascinating. <br>- The San Francisco Chronicle <br> Elkin's book...is a gentle jab at his profession's habit of generating 'intricate and voluminous' interpretations of paintings. <br>- Inside Publishing <br> Cogent, conversational and lucid, this book provides a useful, nuanced understanding of what ordinary viewers today share with 'the discipline [that] thrives on the pleasure of problems well solved'. <br>- Publisher's Weekly <br> A daring challenge to all those who would continue to defend art history's status as a positivistic discipline... a dazzling intellectual achievement. <br>-Keith Moxey, Barnard College <br> Written with crystalline elegance and analytical rigor, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? will be of interest not only to students of visual culture, but also to anyone concerned with interpretation in the humanities as a whole. <br>-Martin Jay, University of California at Berkeley <br>

Author Information

James Elkins is Professor of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of many books, including What PaintingIs (Routledge, 1998) and The Object Stares Back: On theNature of Seeing (1996).

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