
How to See
Looking, Talking, and Thinking About Art
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Eric Michael Summerer
-
By:
-
David Salle
About this listen
How does art work? How does it move us, inform us, challenge us? Internationally renowned painter David Salle's incisive essay collection illuminates the work of many of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Engaging with a wide range of Salle's friends and contemporaries - from painters to conceptual artists such as Jeff Koons, John Baldessari, Roy Lichtenstein, and Alex Katz, among others - How to See explores not only the multilayered personalities of the artists themselves but also the distinctive character of their oeuvres.
Salle writes with humor and verve, replacing the jargon of art theory with precise and evocative descriptions that help the listener develop a personal and intuitive engagement with art. The result: a master class on how to see with an artist's eye.
©2018 David Salle (P)2018 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
Art Is Life
- Icons and Iconoclasts, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: Witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary listeners to fine art as few critics have.
-
-
WRONG for audio program
- By Karen Lehrer on 11-07-22
By: Jerry Saltz
-
How to Be an Artist
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art has the power to change our lives. For many, becoming an artist is a lifelong dream. But how to make it happen? In How to Be an Artist, Jerry Saltz, one of the art world’s most celebrated and passionate voices, offers an indispensable handbook for creative people of all kinds. From the first sparks of inspiration - and how to pursue them without giving in to self-doubt - Saltz offers invaluable insight into what really matters to emerging artists: originality, persistence, a balance between knowledge and intuition, and that most precious of qualities, self-belief.
-
-
Terrible Book Waste of Money
- By Classic on 04-22-20
By: Jerry Saltz
-
Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light, 100 Art Writings 1988-2018
- By: Peter Schjeldahl, Jarrett Earnest - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Schjeldahl
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hot Cold Heavy Light collects 100 writings - some long, some short - that taken together form a group portrait of many of the world’s most significant and interesting artists. From Pablo Picasso to Cindy Sherman, Old Masters to contemporary masters, paintings to comix, and saints to charlatans, Schjeldahl ranges widely through the diverse and confusing art world, an expert guide to a dazzling scene.
-
-
needs pictures
- By Petra Juarez on 02-19-20
By: Peter Schjeldahl, and others
-
Ninth Street Women
- Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
- By: Mary Gabriel
- Narrated by: Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 40 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times). Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of 20th-century abstract painting - not as muses but as artists.
-
-
Painful pronunciation issues!
- By Curious Artist Librarian on 05-20-19
By: Mary Gabriel
-
The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world.
-
-
Rick is Art
- By Ira Henke on 01-17-23
By: Rick Rubin
-
What Are You Looking At?
- The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art
- By: Will Gompertz
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is modern art? Who started it? Why do we either love it or loathe it? And why is it such big money? Join BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz on a dazzling tour that will change the way you look at modern art forever. From Monet's water lilies to Van Gogh's sunflowers, from Warhol's soup cans to Hirst's pickled shark, hear the stories behind the masterpieces, meet the artists as they really were, and discover the real point of modern art.
-
-
A simply wonderful book with a serious flaw
- By 11104 on 05-02-21
By: Will Gompertz
-
Art Is Life
- Icons and Iconoclasts, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jerry Saltz is one of our most-watched writers about art and artists and a passionate champion of the importance of art in our shared cultural life. Since the 1990s he has been an indispensable cultural voice: Witty and provocative, he has attracted contemporary listeners to fine art as few critics have.
-
-
WRONG for audio program
- By Karen Lehrer on 11-07-22
By: Jerry Saltz
-
How to Be an Artist
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art has the power to change our lives. For many, becoming an artist is a lifelong dream. But how to make it happen? In How to Be an Artist, Jerry Saltz, one of the art world’s most celebrated and passionate voices, offers an indispensable handbook for creative people of all kinds. From the first sparks of inspiration - and how to pursue them without giving in to self-doubt - Saltz offers invaluable insight into what really matters to emerging artists: originality, persistence, a balance between knowledge and intuition, and that most precious of qualities, self-belief.
-
-
Terrible Book Waste of Money
- By Classic on 04-22-20
By: Jerry Saltz
-
Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light, 100 Art Writings 1988-2018
- By: Peter Schjeldahl, Jarrett Earnest - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Schjeldahl
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hot Cold Heavy Light collects 100 writings - some long, some short - that taken together form a group portrait of many of the world’s most significant and interesting artists. From Pablo Picasso to Cindy Sherman, Old Masters to contemporary masters, paintings to comix, and saints to charlatans, Schjeldahl ranges widely through the diverse and confusing art world, an expert guide to a dazzling scene.
-
-
needs pictures
- By Petra Juarez on 02-19-20
By: Peter Schjeldahl, and others
-
Ninth Street Women
- Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
- By: Mary Gabriel
- Narrated by: Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 40 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this "gratifying, generous, and lush" true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times). Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of 20th-century abstract painting - not as muses but as artists.
-
-
Painful pronunciation issues!
- By Curious Artist Librarian on 05-20-19
By: Mary Gabriel
-
The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world.
-
-
Rick is Art
- By Ira Henke on 01-17-23
By: Rick Rubin
-
What Are You Looking At?
- The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art
- By: Will Gompertz
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is modern art? Who started it? Why do we either love it or loathe it? And why is it such big money? Join BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz on a dazzling tour that will change the way you look at modern art forever. From Monet's water lilies to Van Gogh's sunflowers, from Warhol's soup cans to Hirst's pickled shark, hear the stories behind the masterpieces, meet the artists as they really were, and discover the real point of modern art.
-
-
A simply wonderful book with a serious flaw
- By 11104 on 05-02-21
By: Will Gompertz
-
Talk Art
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Contemporary Art but Were Afraid to Ask
- By: Russell Tovey, Robert Diament
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz, James Corden, Russell Tovey, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Talk Art is an accessible celebration of contemporary art, and a guidebook to navigating and engaging with the art world. Informal and jargon-free, this book proves that art really is for everyone. With an informative and engaging narrative, Talk Art will become the must-have book that art lovers return to again and again.
-
-
Waste of Time
- By Dan Peterson on 03-04-23
By: Russell Tovey, and others
-
Art & Fear
- Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
- By: David Bayles, Ted Orland
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art & Fear explores the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. This is a book about what it feels like to sit in your studio or classroom, at your wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do. It is about committing your future to your own hands, placing free will above predestination, choice above chance. It is about finding your own work.
-
-
Amazing!
- By zozobraswife on 05-10-12
By: David Bayles, and others
-
Boom
- Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art
- By: Michael Shnayerson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The contemporary art market is an international juggernaut, throwing off multimillion-dollar deals as wealthy buyers move from fair to fair, auction to auction, party to glittering party. But none of it would happen without the dealers - the tastemakers who back emerging artists and steer them to success, often to see them picked off by a rival. Dealers operate within a private world of handshake agreements, negotiating for the highest commissions. Michael Shnayerson, a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair, writes the first-ever definitive history of their activities.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Clifford I. Davis on 07-04-19
-
The Secret Lives of Color
- By: Kassia St. Clair
- Narrated by: Kassia St. Clair
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of 75 fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from into a unique study of human civilization.
-
-
More about pigments than social history
- By Jason Toon on 12-13-20
By: Kassia St. Clair
-
The Story of Art Without Men
- By: Katy Hessel
- Narrated by: Katy Hessel
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what is the Baroque anyway? Guided by Katy Hessel, art historian and founder of @thegreatwomenartists, discover the glittering paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance, the radical work of Harriet Powers in the nineteenth-century United States, and the artist who really invented the "readymade." Explore the Dutch Golden Age, the astonishing work of postwar artists in Latin America, and the women defining art in the 2020s.
-
-
Great book, no pdf?
- By Amazon Customer on 08-11-24
By: Katy Hessel
-
The Art Spirit
- By: Henri Robert
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since its first publication in 1923, The Art Spirit has been a source of inspiration for artists and creatives, from David Lynch to George Bellows. Filled with valuable technical advice, as well as wisdom about the place of art and the artist in American society, this classic work continues to be a must-listen for anyone interested in the power of creation and the beauty of art.
-
-
Forever a classic.
- By YK akin on 11-09-19
By: Henri Robert
-
Picasso's War
- How Modern Art Came to America
- By: Hugh Eakin
- Narrated by: Mack Sanderson
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In January 1939, Pablo Picasso was renowned in Europe but disdained by many in the United States. One year later, Americans across the country were clamoring to see his art. How did the controversial leader of the Paris avant-garde break through to the heart of American culture? The answer begins a generation earlier, when a renegade Irish American lawyer named John Quinn set out to build the greatest collection of Picassos in existence. His dream of a museum to house them died with him, until it was rediscovered by Alfred H. Barr, Jr.
-
-
Better Books on Picasso Available
- By john burke on 08-17-22
By: Hugh Eakin
-
The Steal Like an Artist Audio Trilogy
- How to Be Creative, Show Your Work, and Keep Going
- By: Austin Kleon
- Narrated by: Austin Kleon
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Read by then author, this is an audio compilation of Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work and Keep Going, the bestselling and transformative series on how to unlock your creativity, find community and an audience in the digital age, and stay focused, creative and true to yourself—for life. Includes full text from Steal Like an Artist, on the ten things nobody ever told you about being creative; Show Your Work, on how to take that critical next step on a creative journey; and Keep Going, for anyone trying to sustain a productive life.
-
-
A boring non focus ramble
- By Kenneth Noel on 06-07-21
By: Austin Kleon
-
Find Your Artistic Voice
- The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic
- By: Lisa Congdon
- Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed
- Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author, artist, and illustrator Lisa Congdon brings her expertise to this guide to the process of artistic self-discovery. Featuring advice from Congdon herself and interviews with a roster of established artists, illustrators, and creatives, this one-of-a-kind book will show listeners how to identify and nurture their own visual identity, navigate the influence of artists they admire, push through fear and insecurity, and appreciate the value of their personal journey.
-
-
Almost perfect...
- By Ana Corina on 01-16-21
By: Lisa Congdon
-
Art Is My Career: How to Start an Art Business
- Step-by-Step Guide to Help You Find Your Customer, Grow Your Social Media, Build a Website, and Take Your Art Career to the Next Level
- By: Sema Martin
- Narrated by: Nikki Delgado
- Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do you dream of being a full-time artist? This friendly, practical guide shows you how to make your dream a reality, with expert advice on everything from writing a business plan to pricing your work and raising your profile as an artist. Learn how to start taking commissions and ensure your long-term success.
-
-
The content is great but the narration is ANNOYING
- By Ceilon Aspensen on 01-06-22
By: Sema Martin
-
33 Artists in 3 Acts
- By: Sarah Thornton
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
33 Artists in 3 Acts offers unprecedented access to a dazzling range of artists, from international superstars to unheralded art teachers. Sarah Thornton's beautifully paced, fly-on-the-wall narratives include visits with Ai Weiwei before and after his imprisonment and Jeff Koons as he woos new customers in London, Frankfurt, and Abu Dhabi. She meets Yayoi Kusama in her studio around the corner from the Tokyo asylum that she calls home.
-
-
Very interesting, not engaging read
- By Charles Olivier de Vezin on 04-23-15
By: Sarah Thornton
-
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark
- The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art
- By: Don Thompson
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored.
-
-
Repetitive & Dry
- By Phyllis on 01-21-19
By: Don Thompson
Critic reviews
“If John Berger’s Ways of Seeing is a classic of art criticism, looking at the ‘what’ of art, then David Salle’s How to See is the artist’s reply, a brilliant series of reflections on how artists think when they make their work. The ‘how’ of art has perhaps never been better explored.” (Salman Rushdie)
What listeners say about How to See
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nigel
- 09-19-18
The title felt like a lie
Well, I'd spent the money so I persisted to the end. But it was a slog.
Salle writes authoritatively. He writes with seemingly deep knowledge on modern art history. I appreciated his lucid and intelligent writing. I enjoyed his humorous use of metaphor.
Unfortunately for me, I was hoping for content that was consistent with the title. Perhaps a framework for seeing. Perhaps some timeless truths on tools for exploring the products of visual artists. Is there a general way to reach into visual art that would allow viewers to get the most out of what is presented? If that is what you are looking for then the book will likely disappoint you too.
The book needed a conceptual framework - a core thesis, carefully developed and laid out. This would have provided a great way to make use of Salle's undoubted knowledge and experience. With this, I would have felt less deceived by the title. Instead, the book had an unusual feel. It was not short on content. But it was like a personally curated encyclopaedia of modern art history mashed up with personal anecdotes. Much of the content was biographical on the large number of artists talked about. A surprising amount of the content was autobiographical. As audiobook it naturally comes without the support of images. The cataloguing of Salle's responses to dozens of artists' bodies of work requires a persistent listener.
The second big let down was the extent to which numerous responses contained put-downs of the work of other artists. These did not cast the author as an objective, dispassionate, nor compassionate member of his profession.
A more accurate title would not have tempted me to buy. Then I wouldn't have had to write this review. Sorry, David, but the title felt like a lie.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Denise
- 04-14-20
Not for the novice
I have been listening to a great number of audio books in my studio and I almost passed this one over because of some of the reviews. I am glad that I didn't. I have also made the mistake of using reviews here to guide me into books that I felt compelled to finish after purchasing but slightly resented having in my ear. To be brief - this book is not for the unschooled hobbyist artist looking for motivation or stepping up their creative game (plenty of those getting 5 stars).
It does provide an interesting perspective for the devoted practitioner who is wrestling with the trends in the last 70 years in contemporary art. It is a take from a painter who was apart of the insurrection of conceptual art via the inaugural CalArts class user the tutelage of Baldessari onwards through the decades. This isn't a luddite painting defense, but a perspective that is subjective, open and informed by decades of real experience both making work and consuming work, and knowing the players personally (artists, dealers, and collectors). I am glad to have it now and wish I had had this when I was in undergrad over 20 years ago (if it had existed). It is a nice counter in some ways to the recent books about the explosive contemporary art market, and from the critics (not that those aren't good too). Hope this helps!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cayenne
- 08-26-18
Bored to tears
If there was any entertaining info or story it was buried in polysyllabic pufferie .The writer overused his Thesaurus on steriods so much it became to boring and hard to follow.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- johnprestonchandler
- 07-29-24
For grad students and fellow art critics only
I had hoped for something more like Will Gompertz’ “What are you looking at?” This is not that. More like an in-house work for fellow critics. Did not advance my hunger to learn how to interpret and experience contemporary and modern art.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!