Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Eno (A Year with Swollen Appendices) gets to the heart of art's purpose in this playful and concise illustrated guide. Drawing on his career as a songwriter, composer, and producer, he explores art's key functions--engendering emotions; sparking empathy; and expanding worldviews. Even art that is ostensibly purely escapist illuminates a "better" reality that provides a "richer understanding" of what this one might be missing, Eno writes. In the face of such pressing crises as climate change and intolerance, art is less an escape hatch than a means to create the blueprints for a better world. For instance, Eno points out that musicians in the 1960s helped broaden the acceptability of different forms of gender expression with music in which men "embrace feelings previously regarded as 'unmasculine' and... women embrace feelings previously regarded as 'unfeminine.' " Eno also makes trenchant points about how art is a fundamentally empathetic practice that celebrates differences while offering a "reservoir of shared experiences" people can use to exchange "complex feelings and ideas with each other." The result is an inventive and energetic defense of art as far more than the navel-gazing "pretty luxury" it's often portrayed to be. Illus. (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Short essays on how art affects those who create and/or experience it. Eno, the distinguished British musician, begins this book with the observation that "making art seems to be a universal human activity." But the question he seeks to answer, apart from why people need it, is what art actuallydoes. Beginning with a definition, Eno suggests that art is the product of anything that is done beyond what is strictly necessary "for the sake of the feeling" that the creative act engenders--which includes anything from painting to cutting hair. Throughout the book, feeling is in fact at the heart of his considerations. For Eno, art is unique for the way it can safely allow observers to experience potentially life-changing feelings, including negative ones, without "real-world consequences." Art also invites engagement with "fragments" of different worlds that can stimulate the imagination and amplify the richness of individual existence. People not only learn to identify what they like or enjoy best but also participate in what Eno calls "a reservoir of shared experiences." Art is "the lifeblood, the lubricant, the circulatory system of community." It is thus a catalyst for transformative change. "Art allows us to share complicated concepts and feelings with each other," Eno writes. "This cultural conversation opens doors to shifts--in ourselves and in society." Set in inventively arranged type that alternates between black and pink, and illustrated throughout with Dutch artist Adriaanse's playful, watercolor-enhanced black ink drawings, this accessible, intelligent book invites readers to think deeply about the function of art in their lives and the wider world around them. A slim but idea-rich volume that is as visually engaging as it is intellectually stimulating. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
