Sedgwick John P. Jr. Art Appreciation Made Simple

Doubleday & Company, 1959. — 236 p.Art is what we say it is.
Appreciation is what we make it.
This book puts primary emphasis on art as something of permanent value created above all for its own sake; and appreciation as our active experience of it.
Because the conception and execution of works such as the statues of the Acropolis, the cathedral at Chartres, the Sistine Ceiling, Rembrandt's portraits, or Cezanne's paintings of Mont St. Victoire are taken here to stand among the most complex, difficult profound and far-reaching of human accomplishments, it would immediately appear a contradiction in terms to attempt to oversimplify the experience of art This in itself must be pursued by the individual ultimately on his own: it is up to his capacity and effort. The critic can only suggest possible approaches or point to things that ought not be missed.
If we really mean to "appreciate" art, we must go to the museums, to the galleries, public and private, or if possible to the studios of serious artists. The best alternative is to obtain the finest possible reproductions of works that interest us or even that we think ought to, and put them on our walls. For it is only through constant looking at objects under varying conditions that we begin to "see" more than the immediate appearance. Thus, slowly but quite surely we discover which paintings come to change our lives, as against those which—as Gertrude Stein once put it—tend to disappear into the wall.
This book aspires to indicate routes of approach to certain kinds of major art; to provide historical and other clarifying information; to correct some popular misconceptions and emphasize other conceptions; to consider notable works of Western art as part of an overall evolution; and perhaps above all to convey to the reader some continuing enthusiasm for the wonder of art creation.