
What Are You Looking At?
The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art
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Narrated by:
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Matthew Waterson
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By:
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Will Gompertz
About this listen
For skeptics, art lovers, and the millions of us who visit art galleries every year - and are confused - What Are You Looking At? by former director of London's Tate Gallery Will Gompertz is a wonderfully lively, accessible narrative history of modern art, from Impressionism to the present day.
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.
You will learn: not all conceptual art is bollocks; Picasso is king (but Cezanne is better); Pollock is no drip; Dali painted with his moustache; a urinal changed the course of art; why your five-year-old really couldn't do it. Refreshing, irreverent, and always straightforward, What Are You Looking At? cuts through the pretentious art speak and asks all the basic questions that you were too afraid to ask. Your next trip to the art gallery is going to be a little less intimidating and a lot more interesting.
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- By: Philip Hook
- Narrated by: David Vickery
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Modern begins on a specific day—March 22, 1905—at a specific place: the Salon des Indépendants in Paris, where works of art we recognize as modern were first exhibited. Philip Hook illuminates how this new art came to be—and how truly shocking it was. We witness movement upon movement that burst forth in dizzying succession: Fauvism, Expressionism, Primitivism, Symbolism, Cubism, Futurism, and Abstract. His vivid accounts breathe new life into the work and times of nearly two hundred artists, and whose collective genius was understood and appreciated by few at the time.
By: Philip Hook
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The History of Western Art
- By: Peter Whitfield
- Narrated by: Sebastian Comberti
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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What is art? Why do we value images of saints, kings, goddesses, battles, landscapes or cities from eras of history utterly remote from ourselves? This history of art shows how painters, sculptors and architects have expressed the belief systems of their age: religious, political and aesthetic. From the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, to the revolutionary years of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the artist has acted as a mirror to the ideals and conflicts of the human mind.
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A whirlwind tour of Western art
- By Adeliese Baumann on 11-18-12
By: Peter Whitfield
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Brunelleschi's Dome
- How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Brunelleschi's Dome is the story of how a Renaissance genius bent men, materials, and the very forces of nature to build an architectural wonder we continue to marvel at today. Denounced at first as a madman, Brunelleschi was celebrated at the end as a genius. He engineered the perfect placement of brick and stone, built ingenious hoists and cranes to carry an estimated 70 million pounds hundreds of feet into the air, and designed the workers' platforms and routines so carefully that only one man died during the decades of construction.
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Great history with terrible narration
- By Whiskey Mike on 12-16-21
By: Ross King
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A Degree in a Book: Art History
- Everything You Need to Know to Master the Subject
- By: John Finlay
- Narrated by: Ruth Ollman
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning from the classical sculpture of Ancient Rome to contemporary performance art, this guide provides a rich overview of art history, covering many topics explored in a history of art degrees.
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Better for Beginners
- By Bonnie Mommy on 03-12-24
By: John Finlay
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Van Gogh
- The Life
- By: Steven Naifeh, Gregory White Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 44 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials. While drawing liberally from the artist's famously eloquent letters, they have also delved into hundreds of unpublished family correspondences, illuminating with poignancy the wanderings of Van Gogh's troubled, restless soul. Naifeh and Smith bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist.
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Empathy for a True Artist
- By Sojourning Hope on 05-04-21
By: Steven Naifeh, and others
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Will in the World
- How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning author Stephen Greenblatt is one of the most influential literary thinkers in the world. An acclaimed interpreter of Shakespeare's works, his ideas have changed the way countless people approach the classics. Now Greenblatt's uniquely brilliant voice delivers a magnificent biography of the Bard himself.
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Politically Motivated
- By Donald on 09-29-04
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All That Glitters
- A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art
- By: Orlando Whitfield
- Narrated by: Orlando Whitfield
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Orlando Whitfield and Inigo Philbrick met in 2006 at London’s Goldsmiths University where they became best friends. By 2007 they had started I&O Fine Art. Orlando would eventually set up his own gallery and watch as Inigo quickly immersed himself in a world of private jets and multimillion-dollar deals for major clients. Inigo seemed brilliant, but underneath the extravagant façade, his complicated financial schemes were unraveling. With debt, lawsuits, and court summonses piling up, Inigo went into a tailspin of lies and subterfuge.
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Gripping
- By Anonymous User on 09-01-24
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A Little History of Art
- Little Histories Series
- By: Charlotte Mullins
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Charlotte Mullins brings art to life through the stories of those who created it and, importantly, reframes who is included in the narrative to create a more diverse and exciting landscape of art. She shows how art can help us see the world differently and understand our place in it, how it helps us express ourselves, fuels our creativity, and contributes to our overall wellbeing and positive mental health.
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Give it a solid meh.
- By Amazon Customer on 09-05-24
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Make Your Art No Matter What
- Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles
- By: Beth Pickens
- Narrated by: Beth Pickens
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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If you are an artist, you need to make your art. That's not an overstatement - it's a fact; if you stop doing your creative work, your quality of life is diminished. But what do you do when life gets in the way? In this down-to-earth handbook, experienced artist coach Beth Pickens offers practical advice for developing a lasting and meaningful artistic practice in the face of life's inevitable obstacles and distractions. This thoughtful volume suggests creative ways to address the challenges all artists must overcome.
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Omg is it preachy
- By Amazon Customer on 02-17-22
By: Beth Pickens
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Get the Picture
- A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See
- By: Bianca Bosker
- Narrated by: Bianca Bosker
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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An award-winning journalist obsessed with obsession, Bianca Bosker’s existence was upended when she wandered into the art world—and couldn’t look away. Intrigued by artists who hyperventilate around their favorite colors and art fiends who max out credit cards to show hunks of metal they think can change the world, Bosker grew fixated on understanding why art matters and how she—or any of us—could engage with it more deeply.
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I Don’t think I Got the Picture
- By Emily J. on 03-23-24
By: Bianca Bosker
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Göring’s Man in Paris
- The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World
- By: Jonathan Petropoulos
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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A charged biography of a notorious Nazi art plunderer and his career in the postwar art world. Bruno Lohse (1911-2007) was one of the most notorious art plunderers in history. Appointed by Hermann Göring to Hitler's special art-looting agency, he went on to supervise the systematic theft and distribution of more than 22,000 artworks, largely from French Jews; helped Göring develop an enormous private art collection; and staged 20 private exhibitions of stolen art in Paris's Jeu de Paume museum during the war.
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Boring!!
- By Anonymous User on 04-28-25
What listeners say about What Are You Looking At?
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- kim
- 10-11-23
Loved it 🖼️
I learned so much and plan on sharing with my art docent friends.
Thank you
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- A. Galer
- 03-02-23
Brilliant and informative and pure pleasure
This is a really terrific book on the various modern and contemporary art masterpieces and artists. Normally this subject matter is quite annoyingly full of artistic phraseology and garbage that pulls the reader away, but not so here. He loves art and he lives what he does and he explains things both on the level of a newbie to a confirmed art expert. No ego here, just plain speaking and clear comprehension and a desire to share. This is the real deal. I’m very happy I bought the audible- very well read!
This is a tough topic and he is fabulous. Bravo.
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1 person found this helpful
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- 11104
- 05-02-21
A simply wonderful book with a serious flaw
I enjoyed this book immensely. Having visited the temples of modern art the authors mentions such as MoMA, the Pompidou and Tate Modern many times, I have often been bemused by the work on display - sometimes enjoying it greatly, sometimes being left cold - but often at a loss to grasp what's going on. Gompertz's book is a clearly written and intelligent survey of art from Manet to Banksy, describing the nature of trends and individual artists is a well-organized fashion. I learned a lot.
The flaw is that the book refers to so many artists and their work but, being an audiobook, we have no way to see them. It is, after all, a book about visual art. I mostly listen to audiobooks while driving. There is little chance I will remember all the details to look up when I get to a computer. If I happen to be listening to it on my laptop I can stop the narration and open a search engine but that can be tedious.
The Kindle edition is inexpensive. I bought it hoping it would have illustrations. No luck. There are a tiny number of B&W pictures. Ideally, there would be a copiously illustrated print edition. However, that might run into copyright problems.
The book leave a nagging question. The author lucidly discusses the context and meaning of scores of works. However, the meanings are often opaque even to an interested museum-goer. One of the difficulties of modern and contemporary art is that the viewer frequently needs a syllabus to begin to appreciate it. I am interested in art but I am not among the elect. The concluding chapter suggests that in the last few decades money and artistic quality have become equivalent. That is a premise most of us can easily reject.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-28-22
Informative, with dynamic storyline
The reader is ok. I am not proficient in art history, so I've learned quite a bit. The downside of this format is that you will have to search online for the images and videos. Sometimes it's hard to find an artist due to uncertainty about the proper name spelling. Therefore, this book might be better presented on paper, but I am still glad that I've stumbled upon it and listened to the whole thing.
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- Nathaniel Mc Mahon
- 01-22-22
Weird art is weird.
Ever wonder why post modernism is as weird as it is? This book will detail why art is art and where it came from.
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- bobbie
- 02-10-25
Very detailed
No mention of Jean Claude and Cristo? Other than that I was very impressed with how comprehensive it was and it the structure was great
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- Gregory S. Waddell
- 06-06-21
Excellent book ... Excellent narration!
My wife and I listened to a large portion of the book while on a road trip recently and we both looked at each other and commented on how much we were learning. The author weaves together anecdotes that tell the story of the development of modern art. Not finished with it yet, but I am already coming away with an enriched appreciation for modern art. As anyone who has listened to audible books knows, the narrator can make or break an otherwise excellent book. I would place Waterson at the very top of my list of great narrators.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Will Blakey
- 07-26-21
Great review of modern art
This book was so much fun to listen to. Opened up a whole new world for me (modern art). Will say, you will need to look up the pieces as you listen (which can be challenging at times) but well worth it in my opinion!
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3 people found this helpful
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- S. Pierson
- 03-31-23
Best I’ve ever ever read!
Ever! As an art historian, I couldn’t be more imp and learned EVER so much!!!!
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- Peter Garik
- 03-01-23
Great book, I recommend. Almost no women, a sad and unbelievable void
This book made me even more appreciative of visual arts and some wonderfully expressive artists. It is sad that, as pointed by the author, there are almost no women represented. A truly unbelievable absence. The book is well written and flows well. It is also entertaining, pleasant and occasionally funny. I like and recommend it.
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