Great Art Explained : Members’ Book Club

Thin online lecture from the National Gallery introducing the book, “Great Art Explained” by James Payne.

I say thin as the book seems to be a good introduction to art but I suspect most of the audience, being National Gallery members, had a greater level of knowledge than those to who it was aimed. It is structured around giving the background to 30 well known works of art and in the talk Payne outlining some which are in the gallery’s own collection. I think I had heard hour long lectures on most of the works he talked about.

More interesting was when he described how the book came about and his process. It grew out of a YouTube channel he started in lockdown for his own amusement discussing a painting in 15 minutes. As a tour guide he has found that this was about the optimum time for a group to look at a work.

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