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Slow Art

The Experience of Looking, Sacred Images to James Turrell
By Arden Reed
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Slow Art explores the brief time Americans typically spend observing artworks—just six to ten seconds—and proposes ways to cultivate deeper, sustained engagement. Arden Reed examines this 'slow art' approach across diverse media including photography, painting, sculpture, performance, and digital art. Featuring works and ideas from figures such as Diderot, Emma Hamilton, Oscar Wilde, Jeff Wall, and Andy Warhol, the book presents slow art as a participatory practice that revitalises art appreciation, likening it to spiritual contemplation in historical faith traditions.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$5699
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This reflective exploration suits readers interested in arts and culture, museumgoers who wish to deepen their art experience, and those intrigued by the intersection of art, perception, and spirituality.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Americans, on average, spend between six and ten seconds with individual artworks in museums or galleries—hardly time enough. But how, in our culture of distraction, might we extend attention?

Slow Art models sustained ways of looking, through encounters with various media both present and past—including photography, painting, sculpture, “living pictures,” film, video, digital and performance art—even light and space. Works by Diderot, Emma Hamilton, Oscar Wilde, Jeff Wall, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Andy Warhol, and Richard Serra, among others, shape a new and distinct aesthetic field.

But rather than a collection of objects, slow art is participatory—it directly engages beholders to bring artworks to life. Against current orthodoxy, Arden Reed argues that, for contemporary viewers, the contemplation of slow art is akin to religious practices during the ages of faith.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Wall Street Journal praises Slow Art for transforming what could have been an academic treatise into a lively journey through cultural figures from Diderot to Andy Warhol. The Santa Fe New Mexican highlights Reed's use of engaging examples to prompt fresh thoughts on art. Scene Point Blank commends the book's insightful examination of the relationship between stillness, motion, and art appreciation, noting its relevance from ancient times to the present and beyond.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780520300583

Publisher: University of California Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 March 2019

Country: United States

Imprint: University of California Press

Illustration: 10 color photographs, 99 black

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Width: 178.0mm

Height: 254.0mm

Weight: 816g

Pages: 352

Collections

Arden Reed Arts & Culture Non-Fiction

About the Author

Arden Reed (1947–2017) was Arthur and Fanny Dole Professor of English at Pomona College. He wrote on the visual arts and literature, and his publications include Manet, Flaubert, and the Emergence of Modernism and Romantic Weather: The Climates of Coleridge and Baudelaire.

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