What Are You Looking At?
Will Gompertz · 2012 · 9 ideas · 9 min
Gompertz argues that modern art is not an elaborate con but a coherent, century-long argument among artists about what art can be, legible once you know the sequence of moves.
Why this book
Gompertz's core claim is that the bewilderment most people feel in front of modern and contemporary art comes from missing context, not from the art being meaningless. He argues that from the Impressionists onward, each major movement — Cubism, Dada, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art — was a deliberate response to the movement before it, an argument carried on in paint, sculpture, and later readymades and performance rather than in words. Seen as a sequence of moves and countermoves, the supposedly baffling trajectory toward urinals-as-art and blank canvases becomes a logical, traceable conversation.
Why it matters is that this reframing restores agency to the viewer: instead of feeling embarrassed for not "getting it," you can learn the specific historical problem each artist was reacting to and judge the work on those terms. Gompertz, a former Tate director turned BBC arts editor, writes as a translator between the art world's insider language and a general audience it too often alienates, arguing that curiosity about the backstory is the only prerequisite needed.
Who should read it
Museum-goers who've felt lost or irritated in a modern art gallery, and anyone curious how art moved from realistic paintings to conceptual gestures within a century, will find this a clear, entertaining map.
About the author
Will Gompertz is a British arts journalist who serves as the BBC's Arts Editor and previously worked as director of media at the Tate art museums in London.