Ernst H. Gombrich: The Story of Art

Two years ago, I met Kegham in Paris at a bar in Marais. He had recently finished his art studies and by talking with him I was surprised how much contemporary art was linked with philosophy. He gave me books and I have read, but I have found it difficult to find my orientation among all the possible theories. I also bought much more than I could read, and among those who was left standing in the shelves was Gombrich's The Story of Art. I have picked it up recently and I was amazed of how good it really was.

If you don't know anything about the arts, this is really the book to start with. It is not just the general introduction giving a chronological overview of major challenges and achievements from Egyptians to the modern art, but a powerful story. I include it precisely because it has a story structure and it reads sometimes like a good thriller. One just wants to read what was the major advancement brought by Michelangelo, Titian or Rubens. One turns the page wanting to know what happens next.

It is one of those books which serves as an inspiration and the first introduction to the subject. If I have read it when I was a teenager, I might have studied art history, it has such a power. I could only compare it to two other books, Carl Sagan's Cosmos which made me study physics later on, and Norman Davies' Europe: A History which made me feel like a true European in a political sense. With Gombrich, I have learned what to look for in a painting. Perhaps one of the most important sentences is There are not bad reasons why to like a painting, but there are bad reasons why to dislike it.

However, what proved to be a challenge is really the modern art, which comes after Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gaugin. This is where the unifying thread of the story is lost. Perhaps Gombrich didn't have enough of the historical distance (the book was first published after the WWII), but one still can appreciate the experimentation of various artists of this epoch.

I will read this book again when I find the time. It is huge, but it reads quickly. An important note is that the book was sold in over 7 million copies over the last six decades. But together with Sagan and Davies, it shows me that there is a wealth of such story-like introductory books hidden on the shelves. One just has to look.