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bbbia's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliantly written with such a positive approach that we forget we are reading about bad writing. The authors humour will make you laugh out loud while making pertinent statements.
Here are two quotes that stayed with me after reading this book that in no way reflect the book’s content but rather set the tone for a fun to read artwork.
“Only on hard copy do I notice unwanted adverbs;(…) weird cut-and-paste accidents (‘the her art’) and misspellings (‘artits’ is a recurring favorite) (…)”
“Like writing about sex, verbalising an art experience always verges on the overwritten embarrassment.”
Hope was restored on the future of contemporary art critique thanks to Gilda Williams
Here are two quotes that stayed with me after reading this book that in no way reflect the book’s content but rather set the tone for a fun to read artwork.
“Only on hard copy do I notice unwanted adverbs;(…) weird cut-and-paste accidents (‘the her art’) and misspellings (‘artits’ is a recurring favorite) (…)”
“Like writing about sex, verbalising an art experience always verges on the overwritten embarrassment.”
Hope was restored on the future of contemporary art critique thanks to Gilda Williams
givethatbooknerd's review against another edition
4.0
A handy guide to art writing, that encourages you to not use pretentious art-speak, full of neatly dissected examples. Great book, at least for a beginning art writer!
mugren's review against another edition
4.0
Many lessons in this book can be attributed to almost every type of writing.
mooreahall's review against another edition
5.0
Williams finishes her book with the phrase: "Good art-writing knows that art is meaningful; therefore meaning does not have to be forced upon it, only discovered, enjoyed, and put into plain words."
I finished her book feeling inspired and refreshed. It is one of the most helpful tomes I've ever come across, and while loved reading it novel-style in a long sitting, I know I'll be coming back to it over and over again to claim advice from specific pages.
I finished her book feeling inspired and refreshed. It is one of the most helpful tomes I've ever come across, and while loved reading it novel-style in a long sitting, I know I'll be coming back to it over and over again to claim advice from specific pages.
ydolemmiller's review against another edition
5.0
When I first started reading this book, my first thought was that I wished I had it when I first changed my major to art history. Would I have read it back then? Probably not. But now that I have a decent amount of experience reading and writing about contemporary art, I can appreciate this. How to Write About Contemporary Art is literally a how-to on how to write anything about contemporary art, whether it be an academic paper or an entry for an auction catalog. Williams brings in excellent examples of "good" writing - which, while subjective, I agreed with. I definitely recommend this for any student of art history, whether or not they are interested in contemporary art.
alecmadelene's review against another edition
5.0
Whatever stage of writing you're in--figuring out where to begin, developing an existing idea, or editing an already finished work--this book offers invaluable and well-structured advice on writing in general. Highly recommending it to everyone.
sasuma's review
4.0
The passages about writing academic essays should be recommended reading on every undergraduate fine art course. Williams offers pragmatic, clear and unpatronising advice on how to do scholarly research, strengthen an argument and still keep the text engaging.
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