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Can contemporary art say anything about spirituality? John Updike calls modern art "a religion assembled from the fragments of our daily life," but...

Can contemporary art say anything about spirituality? John Updike calls modern art "a religion assembled from the fragments of our daily life," but...

Stories of Art is James Elkins's intimate history of art. Concise and original, this engaging book is an antidote to the behemoth art history textb...

Art Does art leave you cold? And is that what it's supposed to do? Or is a painting meant to move you to tears? Hemingway was reduced to tears in...

In this smart survival guide for students and teachers--the only book of its kind--James Elkins examines the "curious endeavor to teach the unteach...

"... visually stunning and mentally stimulating."—Scientific American"…the author of What Painting Is (1998) has written a fascinating new book fil...

In What Photography Is, James Elkins examines the strange and alluring power of photography in the same provocative and evocative manner as he expl...

In What Photography Is, James Elkins examines the strange and alluring power of photography in the same provocative and evocative manner as he expl...

In this classic text, James Elkins communicates the experience of painting beyond the traditional vocabulary of art history. Alchemy provides a str...

Our Beautiful, Dry, and Distant Texts examines art historical writing as an expressive medium, capable of emotion and reflection - and therefore de...

"Weak in Comparison to Dreams... is the most courageous and fascinating debut I have read since Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves." —Full Stop ...

James Elkins has shaped the discussion about how we—as artists, as art historians, or as outsiders—view art. He has not only revolutionized our thi...

James Elkins has shaped the discussion about how we—as artists, as art historians, or as outsiders—view art. He has not only revolutionized our thi...

In the domain of visual images, those of fine art form a tiny minority. This original and brilliant book calls upon art historians to look beyond t...

In this bracing engagement with the many versions of art history, James Elkins argues that the story of modernism and postmodernism is almost alway...

In this bracing engagement with the many versions of art history, James Elkins argues that the story of modernism and postmodernism is almost alway...

Art Does art leave you cold? And is that what it's supposed to do? Or is a painting meant to move you to tears? Hemingway was reduced to tears in...

How do psychoanalytic, semiotic, deconstructive, and other interpretations represent works of art? What can they see, and what must they miss? In O...

In his latest book, James Elkins offers a road map through the field of visual studies, describing its major concerns and its principal theoretical...

In his latest book, James Elkins offers a road map through the field of visual studies, describing its major concerns and its principal theoretical...

In the domain of visual images, those of fine art form a tiny minority. This original and brilliant book calls upon art historians to look beyond t...

With bracing clarity, James Elkins explores why images are taken to be more intricate and hard to describe in the twentieth century than they had b...

Art criticism was once passionate, polemical, and judgmental; now critics are more often interested in ambiguity, neutrality, and nuanced descripti...

The End of Diversity in Art Historical Writing is the most globally informed book on world art history, drawing on research in 76 countries. In add...

A thoughtful, engaging, and intimate history of art that offers a critical analysis of the assumptions on which the entire discipline of art histor...

A thoughtful, engaging, and intimate history of art that offers a critical analysis of the assumptions on which the entire discipline of art histor...

In this classic text, James Elkins communicates the experience of painting beyond the traditional vocabulary of art history. Alchemy provides a str...

Visual Cultures is the first study of the place of visuality and literacy in specific nations around the world, and includes authoritative, insight...