Slow Looking can lead to unexpected and huge rewards. In Book One - Learning to Look Robert Cumming shares his own slow discovery of the pleasures of looking and aesthetic experience, and in so doing encourages you to explore art through your own eyes. He takes you to Madrid to explore Velazquez's Las Meninas, travels with you to Cortona in Tuscany to look at a Fra Angelico altarpiece, takes you to St Petersburg to immerse yourself in Canaletto's Venice, and examines with you the minute details of a Jackson Pollock in New York. You will have your eyes truly opened by this artistic odyssey with Robert as your fellow traveller. With illustrations by the artist Gino Ballantyne, Slow Looking - Book One is the start of an eye-opening adventure. In Book Two - Continuing to Look Robert and Gino continue the journey by casting fresh eyes on the Mona Lisa and paintings by Brueghel, Matisse, Turner, Constable, Poussin and Manet. Book Three - Seeing is Believing concludes with Rembrandt, Picasso, Rubens, Degas, Sir Luke Fildes and Bridget Riley.



by Robert Cumming



Preface Foreword Early Years First tastes of aesthetic experience Learning to look The Paintings Introduction Velazquez Las Meninas (Madrid, Prado) Fra Angelico The Cortona Altarpiece (Cortona, Museo Diocesano) Canaletto The Arrival of the French Ambassador in Venice (St Petersburg, Hermitage) Jackson Pollock One: Number 31, 1950 (New York, MoMA) Thanks and Acknowledgements