See What You’re Missing

Author Will Gompertz
Narrator Matt Addis
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Run Time 10 hours and 2 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Biography: arts and entertainment, History of art, Individual artists, art monographs, Philosophy: aesthetics, Popular culture, Theory of art.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Artists have learnt to pay attention. The rest of us spend most of our time on auto-pilot, rushing from place to place, our overfamiliarity blinding us to the marvellous, life-affirming phenomena of our world. But that doesn't have to be the case.

In his typical engaging style, Will Gompertz takes us into the minds of artists - from contemporary stars to old masters, the well-known to the lesser-so, and from around the world - to show us how to look and experience the world with their heightened awareness.

In See What You're Missing we learn, for example, how Hasegawa Tohaku can help us to see beauty, how David Hockney helps us to see colour, and how Frida Kahlo can help us see pain. In doing so we come to know the exhilarating feeling of being truly alive.

© Will Gompertz 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

Offers a tidy lesson in not just getting more from art, but more from life itself . . . lucid and revealing . . . Gompertz is at his best

The Times

Art can amaze us into changing our minds. This remarkable book teaches us how

Es Devlin

Highly engaging and thought-provoking

Philip Hook, author of Breakfast at Sotheby's

By going straight to the essence of each one’s work, Will Gompertz provides a fluent and refreshing introduction to the way art can enable us, in the most unexpected ways, to see the world anew

Michael Peppiatt

Gompertz insightfully explores the processes and personalities of a remarkable roster of artists . . . effortless prose and laser focus on the communicative potential of art make this a worthwhile read

Library Journal

Thorough and diverse . . . Gompertz’s illuminations of artists’ lives and minds are accessible and full of valuable information. This is an exhilarating resource for personal growth, a consciousness-raising exploration for artists and art lovers, and an asset for anyone interested in the who, what, and why of great artworks

Booklist

Gompertz doesn’t have it in him to be boring

The Times

He is a natural communicator whose passion for art is expressed with wit and verve

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England

Will Gompertz is the best teacher you never had

Guardian

Hugely accessible . . . writes about difficult things without letting on that they are difficult

Independent on Sunday on What Are You Looking At?

The Shock of the New redone à la Bill Bryson . . . richly detailed and highly entertaining

Daily Telegraph on What Are You Looking At?

Lively, fresh, energetic . . . He explains movements and “isms” with clarity and humour

Scotsman on What Are You Looking At?

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