Lincoln Perry Seeing Like an Artist

Saturday, October 22 from 4:00pm to 5:00pm

Join us for a reading and book talk with Lincoln Perry, author of Seeing Like an Artist.

Join us for a reading and book talk with Lincoln Perry, author of Seeing Like an Artist: What Artists Perceive in the Art of Others. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.

About the Book: Artists visit museums both for pleasure and to learn. Tag along with Lincoln Perry and discover how a painting’s composition and content or a sculpture’s spatial structure influence the experience of what you’re seeing. With an artist as your guide, you can begin to see art as an artist does.

A visit to view art can be overwhelming, exhausting, and unrewarding. Lincoln Perry wants to change that. In fifteen essays—each framed around a specific theme—he provides new ways of seeing and appreciating art.

Perry is a disarmingly charming tour guide who makes art approachable and accessible. Along the way, he weaves in personal stories, from his own artistic journey as a painter and sculptor to the days when he could still spend nights in his beaten-up VW Bus in the Louvre’s parking lot.

Drawing heavily on examples from the European traditions of art, Perry aims to overturn assumptions and asks readers to re-think artistic prejudices while rebuilding new preferences. Included are essays on how artists “read” paintings, how scale and format influence viewers, and how to engage with sculptures and murals, as well as glimpses into some of the great museums and churches of Europe.

Seeing Like an Artist is for any artist, art-lover, or museumgoer who wants to grow their appreciation for the art of others.

About the Author: Lincoln Perry’s distinctive landscapes, figurative paintings, and sculptures have been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions across the country. His large-scale murals can be found in landmark buildings such as the Met Life building in St. Louis and Old Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia. The monograph Lincoln Perry’s Charlottesville includes an essay and interview by his wife, Ann Beattie. His essays on art have appeared in The American Scholar, Arion, Salmagundi, The Yale Review, and other journals. Mr. Perry divides his time among Maine, Virginia, and Florida.

Seeing Like an Artist will be released on October 4. To order the book, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.

"Meticulously reveals the interplay of light, color, and spatial planes hidden beneath a wealth of important paintings. Perry’s lessons are revelatory."

—Kirkus Reviews

New Dominion Bookshop Book Order Form

Shop local and support your community bookstore! Order books from New Dominion Bookshop by filling out the contact form below. Please make sure that you list the book title(s) that you would like to order. We will give you a call when your order is ready. If you are placing a pre-order for a book that has not yet been released, your book will be ready on or soon after the book’s release date. There is no need to pre-pay. We will collect your payment when you pick up your order or when your order is shipped. If you would like your book(s) to be signed and/or inscribed, please include that information in the “Message for Our Booksellers” field.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Lincoln Perry Photo Credit: Ann Beattie