- Overview
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How to comprehend life and humans as seen in paintings, guided by art explorer IlSoo Lee.
- Book Intro
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Life stories discovered in Eastern and Western artworks reinterpreted for today’s viewers.
Inspecting the figures and their lives in paintings of the East and West, the contemporary politics and social reality as well as the culture and ideas of the time, this art-humanities book guides readers to reflect on their own life in depth.
Although the paintings from different eras and countries deal with various themes, such as a drunken politician unable to reach sound judgments, deeper learning in a period of upheaval, someone who saves humans who have fallen into despair, and the human right to play, they all have human beings as their common subject matter. Appreciating the same object or theme in two works that are compared, viewers may notice that the lives of figures in artworks are connected to their own lives. The author who explored humans in Korea’s old paintings in People’s Lives in Old Paintings now guides readers in how to comprehend life and humans in works of art.
Many viewers miss the essence of a painting, worrying about how to appreciate an artwork. Paintings Revisited shows what to appreciate in a picture and how to appreciate it, instead of mulling over the style and methods of the paintings. True appreciation is conveyed not through knowledge but feeling and comprehending the painting as it reveals itself. Depending on the trends, some works of art are more appreciated as they are, or seen with the eyes of others, or with one’s own eyes, but the appreciation ultimately completes itself in the eyes of the viewers.
- About the Author
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Lee Ilsoo
IlSoo Lee, a writer, curator, and lecturer, guides the public to experience intellectual pleasure as well as emotional healing through works of art. She has been director of Hanako Gallery and worked as chief curator for the broadcaster SBS. A curator of several exhibitions, she always asks how aesthetic activities in a certain space can benefit the lives of its viewers. She has given lectures on art management at universities and graduate schools. She also has lectured on art and humanities and run a humanities reading academy at the National Library and at city libraries.
She has published 13 books, including Small but Strong Instruments of a Curator, An Enthusiastic Curator, A Guide for Visiting Museums, People’s Lives in Old Paintings, and Invitation to the Studios of Artists.