The Secrets of Painting: The Hidden Art of the Masterpiece from Prehistory to Today - Hardcover

by Lachlan Goudie (Author)

When looking at a work of art, the first question that painter Lachlan Goudie considers is not why but how was it created?

Goudie knows from experience that masterpieces don't simply emerge from an artist's studio. They are the result of a long tussle between dirty hands and crushed pigment, hog's-hair brushes and linseed oil, rabbit--skin glue and pulverized chalk. Great paintings are the product of a struggle involving artists and their materials, one that pushes the practitioner to the very limits of technical ability.

Above all else, the secrets of painting lie in the physical elements from which an image is crafted. The nature of these elements has changed over time and across continents. And as each generation of painters exploits the new materials and technical innovations of their era, they define the essence of their work and shift the course of art history.

Goudie traces this story all the way back to the original "big bang" in the story of art: the very first painting pigments, made from charcoal and minerals, and used to paint extraordinary art on the walls of the caves at Chauvet thirty--six thousand years ago. He goes on to explore the impact of numerous new inventions and discoveries over the centuries, including ink, fresco, egg tempera, oil paint, canvas, watercolor, gouache, impasto, tubes of manufactured oil paint, collage, household gloss, acrylic, digital media, and AI. Each chapter focuses on a technical turning point, as embodied in the work of artists including Giotto, Artemisia Gentileschi, Alma Thomas, Anselm Kiefer, David Hockney, and many more.

Front Jacket

How do you paint a masterpiece? In The Secrets of Painting, artist and broadcaster Lachlan Goudie seeks the answer to this question by exploring how twenty of the greatest paintings in human history were created, from a blank surface to the finishing brushstroke.

Beginning at the dawn of civilization with prehistoric cave paintings and ending with the arrival of AI, Goudie unveils the methods and techniques employed by individual artists, bringing their studios to life at the very moment they produced their most celebrated works. Along the way, a bigger picture emerges, charting how the evolution of painting materials has changed the course of human creativity.

As a practitioner himself, Goudie offers a lively and engaging perspective on the international story of painting and traces how, over the centuries, a succession of creative "big bangs" reverberated across generations and continents, helping to transform the story of art itself.