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The Art Spirit: Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks to Students, Bearing on the Concept and Technique of Picture Making, the Study of Art Generally, and on Appreciation (Icon Editions)

The Art Spirit: Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks to Students, Bearing on the Concept and Technique of Picture Making, the Study of Art Generally, and on Appreciation (Icon Editions)
By Robert Henri, Janet J. Le Clair, Robert Henri, Margery Ryerson (Editor)

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Product Description

In this book are the essential beliefs and theories of a great teacher and American artist, Robert Henri. While it embodies the entire system of his teaching, with much technical advice and critical comment for the student, it also contains inspiration for those to whom the happiness to be found through all the arts is important.No other American painter attracted such a large, intensely personal group of followers as Henri, whose death in 1929 brought to an end a life that has been completely devoted to art. He was an inspired artist and teacher who believed that everyone is vitally concerned in the happiness and wisdom to be found through the arts. Many of his paintings have been acquired by museums and private collectors. Among them are the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Wichita Art Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #135402 in Books
  • Published on: 1984-05-01
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 288 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Robert Henri was born in Cincinnati in 1865 and died in 1929. He led the Ashcan School movement in art, and attracted a large, intensely personal group of followers. His paintings are shown at major museums across the United States.

Customer Reviews

The Classic5
The Art Spirit is a classic. No artist should ever be without a copy. This book invites reading time and time again. It brings us back to the principles. The value of things. Right thinking. Relationships. As a practicing artist, I can think of few books that have meant so much.

The title says it all5
Any artist who does not have this book in his or her library is being cheated out of great insights:

"There are mighty few people who think what they think they think."

"Be willing to paint a picture that does not look like a picture."

"...pictures which do not represent intense interest cannot expect to create an intense interest."

"Effects of perspective are made or defeated by sizes of strokes or by their tonality."

And this is just the teaser.

Every painter should own this book.5
George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Patrick Henry Bruce, Stuart Davis, Rockwell Kent, Guy DuBois, Alfred Maurer, Carl Sprinchorn and countless others studied with Henri and went on to do great work. There are too many for this to be simply coincidence. The "Art Spirit" is the closest thing we can get to the Kool-Aid that flowed in Henri's classroom. One can glean quite a bit from the pages of this book. It is both practical and inspirational. I have to say that it can be a bit frustrating not being able to see anything or ask a question, but its much better than nothing (thank you Ms. Ryerson!). Buy a copy and read it.