Written from the perspective of a painter-turned-art historian, this anniversary edition includes a new introduction and preface by Elkins in which he further reflects on the experience of painting and its role in the study of art today.

James Elkins is Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of many books, including How to Use Your Eyes, What Photography Is,Visual Literacy,and Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction, among other titles.

Preface

Introduction to the 20th Anniversary edition

Introduction

1. A Short Course in Forgetting Chemistry
2. How to Count in Oil and Stone
3. The Mouldy Materia Prima
4. How do Substances Occupy the Mind?
5. Coagulating, cohobating, macerating, reverberating
6. The Studio as a Kind of Psychosis
7. Steplessness
8. The Beautiful Reddish Light of the Philosopher's Stone
9. Last Words