I don't think I ever aspired to go to art school, but despite its title, this excellent little book has as much to say about appreciating and engaging with art as about actually creating it. 101 short insights, focusing variously on the concept of art, its formal and compositional elements, and its practice, and each illustrated by a line drawing, many of which are 'after' (ie in the style of) an illustrative famous work. I got a bit out of this one, particularly the more compositionally-focused ones, which have given me some new ways of thinking about my own experience of art.
Some examples (somewhat out of context without their elaborating text and illustration):
3. "To return to things themselves is to return to that world which precedes knowledge, of which knowledge always speaks." - Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 'Phenomenology of Perception'
12. Perception is a reciprocal action.
14. All images are abstractions.
25. Style is the consequence of something being described in the way most appropriate to its content.
26. Abstraction comes from the world.
41. Porosity, not solidity, now defines our view of the world.
54. Time is an essential element in all media.
69. Color is not neutral.
89. Eliminate the nonessential.
92. The shape of an image carries a hidden metaphor.
100. Art is the means by which a culture describes itself to itself.
Some examples (somewhat out of context without their elaborating text and illustration):
3. "To return to things themselves is to return to that world which precedes knowledge, of which knowledge always speaks." - Maurice Merleau-Ponty, 'Phenomenology of Perception'
12. Perception is a reciprocal action.
14. All images are abstractions.
25. Style is the consequence of something being described in the way most appropriate to its content.
26. Abstraction comes from the world.
41. Porosity, not solidity, now defines our view of the world.
54. Time is an essential element in all media.
69. Color is not neutral.
89. Eliminate the nonessential.
92. The shape of an image carries a hidden metaphor.
100. Art is the means by which a culture describes itself to itself.
