Customer Rating: 
Summary: The Art Spirit Is The Real Thing/Compulsory.
Comment: The Art Spirit is the best book about art ever written.
Since "The Art Spirit" was given to me by my girlfriend's mother in high school (what was her name?),
it has ridden my shelves, and my hands- as I have given it and bought it many times. I read it to my students weekly. It is the essential and quintessential hearthplace wherein the flaming art spirit of Robert (Cozad) Henri ("Hen-rye"- his preferred mispronounciation- how American!) still lives. How often, even in dreams, have I intoned, "Art, when really understood, is he province of every human being".?
To be clear: ALL ARTISTS SHOULD HAVE A COPY OF "THE ART SPIRIT".
Like many of the best "books", The Art Spirit (TAS) was not written by Henri, nor was meant to be published necessarily- I think of van Gogh's heartwrought letters to brother Theo, Hammarskjold's hidden diary while Sec. General of the UN; "Markings", and of Gerard Manley Hopkins' groundbreaking poems published by friend Robert Bridges years after his death. One of RH's students took good notes- and in spite of all else, published them! Thank God for all of us!
It , TAS, has comforted, consoled, angered, made me cry, inspired, and taught philosophy, skills, and
design/color fundamentals for more than 30 years of my life as an artist and teacher. Henri was, perhaps, our country's greatest art teacher- look at all those he directly taught, as well as all those he has indirectly (me, etc.) taught. And I pass it on to mine- nearly every day- along with many others. Manifesting the elusive fire of "being", which Henri worked to capture as he painted what he called, "my people", is still the core of the visual experience as it becomes art. We contain it- but it is elusive and difficult to see much less paint . You are "my people". They are us. The artist paints what never changes. WHOIAM.
Finally, a confession: at every bookstore visit, anywhere I am in the USA, when I find their copy of TAS, I place it out, front and center, with that remarkably painted child's face meeting perusers. Amid the Manga mediocrity and "how to" drawing/painting "manuals", and other worthless ego hallucinations, I hope to remind of the ongoing, unchanging, core Beauty of the human spirit- maybe in a young child who always finds a pencil in his hands; or in the eyes of the retired banker who is attracted to paint the sunset on the golf course. May they pick it up! (and may it never cost more than 20 bucks! I found a first edition, hardcover, of TAS at a bookstore for $3 in Little Switzerland, NC last summer)) Then, at every bookstore, I take all of the big, shiny Thomas Kincaid ("Master of Light") books and turn them to face away- hidden. If you've noticed this, I did it. Onward.
The Art Spirit is the best book about art ever written. Amen.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Art Spirit
Comment: I love the book, but I thought it would have more of Robert Henri's paintings inside.
Great buy anyway.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Deepening of Perception
Comment: Henri would not relate directly to his students while they were working; instead he would return to the classroom when it was empty, observe the various works of his students, and leave them notes to encourage and give direction to their work. Mostly these notes were poetic, metaphorical, oblique to the actual work. Henri, this great artistic soul, spoke through the work of his students, to the essential artist in them, deepening their connection to this in themselves and opening the doors for this essential artist to a truer expression. This book is a collection of those notes, to read cover to cover, or to open and read a page for insight into one's art or one's life. I myself have found that I have no apparent artistic ability, but through this much read and much appreciated little book, I have been made into an artist in my own inner and outer life and expression. I live a little deeper and with a greater clarity. My heart is opened with each reading. Every artist, philosopher and Lover of life should have the pleasure of this , the heart of Robert Henri.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Art Spirit
Comment: This book is recommended reading by my art teacher...I have only just started reading it, but it appears to be really interesting so far.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Classic
Comment: 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.
|
