- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard; Reprint edition (Oct 6 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1593760396
- ISBN-13: 978-1593760397
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 11.9 x 1.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #324,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Darian Leader is one of the finest popular writers using the psychoanalytical insights of Freud and Lacan to understand the contemporary state of love, life and letters, and in Stealing the Mona Lisa he turns his attentions to art. The book is not really about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. For Leader, the story of the theft provides a leitmotif for his elegant discussion of why we find art so seductive, but ultimately as so frustrating and perhaps disappointing. Leader begins by asking if "the story of the 'Mona Lisa's' disappearance can tell us something about art and why we look at it". He is fascinated by the fact that the painting's absence drew crowds, and asks, "might this give us a clue as to why we look at visual art? Are we looking for something that we have lost?".
This is an elegant and witty book that uses the insights of Freud and primarily Lacan to offer a range of amusing but often striking accounts of why we look at art, the importance of the gaze and the look, the significance of emptiness and incompleteness in art, and why artists create what appear to many to be incomprehensible works of art. Erudite and wide-ranging, Leader moves from a comparison of Leonardo's painted smile to a symbolic penis, to the artist Yinka Shonibare's observation that painting "was a way of staying out of hospital", which leads Leader to conclude that "the only people who don't sublimate are artists". Stealing the Mona Lisa doesn't always convince, but Leader's ability to explain complex theoretical ideas without oversimplification makes this a fascinating psychoanalytical version of John Berger's classic Ways of Seeing. For Leader, the point is to understand what art stops us seeing.--Jerry Brotton --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
He has read widely and looked widely, and packs a lot into a short book. . . (Its) packed with interesting stories and questions. -- Independent, 19 March 2002
He nimbly anticipates each sneer and objection, leaping in to show the way to some new and provoking thought. -- Daily Telegraph, March 2002
It is fascinating reading for anyone who has ever stood in an art gallery wondering what on earth they are supposed to be doing there. -- Harpers and Queen, April 2002
It’s complex, arcane and demanding, but it’s also marvellously suggestive, witty, and maddening and inspiring by turns. -- Hampstead and Highgate Express, March 2002
When it’s good it’s intelligent and witty and has cracking good anecdotes. . . it can tell you things about art you had never thought of. -- Evening Standard, March 2002 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
He nimbly anticipates each sneer and objection, leaping in to show the way to some new and provoking thought. -- Daily Telegraph, March 2002
It is fascinating reading for anyone who has ever stood in an art gallery wondering what on earth they are supposed to be doing there. -- Harpers and Queen, April 2002
It’s complex, arcane and demanding, but it’s also marvellously suggestive, witty, and maddening and inspiring by turns. -- Hampstead and Highgate Express, March 2002
When it’s good it’s intelligent and witty and has cracking good anecdotes. . . it can tell you things about art you had never thought of. -- Evening Standard, March 2002 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unique and well written, Mar 7 2009
By Magda S. - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Stealing the Mona Lisa: What Art Stops Us from Seeing (Hardcover)
Here's a fascinating meditation on art, desire, value, and beauty as seen from the lens of the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. The author, who is most obviously incredibly smart, uses a casual yet colorful voice that never reeks of self-importance or self-consciousness. So many great observations, this is a book I'll dip into again and again.The only complaint I have is that I wish it had been broken up into chapters, rather than one long narrative.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A rare treat, Nov 26 2007
By Eggert Ragnarsson "amanda and eggert" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Stealing The Mona Lisa (Paperback)
this book is great and I would recommend it to anyone. Its really rare to find a book written on art that manages to be fun and well written, this is both. Amazingly I couldnt put this book down, a total breath of fresh air, thank you Darian Leader!
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