Visual taste

Author: James Elkins (USA), translated by Ding Ning
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Let us open this book with the heart of opening a gift. Grass, night sky, stamps, the cracks on the road, shoulders—ordinary things in daily life. When we truly look at them, what can we see? In this book, Professor James Elkins invites us to watch—perhaps to see the surrounding world for the first time and make breathtaking discoveries. This book pushes the lens into the everyday things (including artifacts) that people often overlook or misinterpret, telling you that you can identify the identity of a butterfly from its wings, that a cloudless sky will gradually change colors at sunset in precise layers, that a bridge can reveal the relationship between people and that place, and that the cracks in an oil painting can tell you its age, while the cracks in the road also reveal some secrets. With the sharp eyes of an artist and the passion of a detective, Elkins also examines complex things, such as Buddhist and Hindu mandalas, the periodic table of chemical elements, hieroglyphs, etc., turning the world into an observant's treasure chest.