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History of British Art (Acclaim for the Book and Television Series)

By: Andrew Graham-Dixon
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520223764
ISBN-13: 9780520223769
Released: 01 Feb 2000
RRP: £13.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

A good primer, lacking scope - By: , 18 Aug 2004
This slim volume can only ever be selective so the author chooses to highlight the work of specific artists to illuminate whole eras. This only partly works because while he is very good on, for instance, the unique qualities of Stubbs, you do not get a strong sense of how Stubbs sat within the mainstream of British art at that time. Perhaps the best part, where he conjours up a good feel for the period as a whole, is in explaining the Reformation & it aftermath. Where the book lacks most is perhaps in the 20th century, where too much is attempted, simplified & rushed through. Most laudably this history does not try to talk up British art, but shows there is much of interest to be found within its peculiar confines.
Perhaps the greatest modern overview of British art - By: , 23 Nov 2001
For those of us who have had to endure the unspeakable banalities of Sister Wendy, Andrew Graham-Dixon's lucid, witty & staggeringly eloquent prose comes as a breath of fresh air.

Lavishly illustrated, this personal exploration of British art takes the reader on an enlightening journey that is as much a history of art itself as of our nation's visual culture.

As with Kenneth Clark's 'Civilisation' the ideas are dazzling in their originality & the facts extremely diverting, but it is Andrew Graham-Dixon's intoxicating writing style which propels this book into the very highest echelons of art history. A killer cyborg from the planet Zaarg would falll in love with art if he read only one paragraph of Andrew Graham-Dixon's prose.

I urge you to buy it: for yourself, for anyone.