What Are You Looking At?

150 Years of Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye

By: Will Gompertz

Narrated by: Roy McMillan

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of What Are You Looking At? by Will Gompertz, read by Roy McMilllan.

What is modern art? Why do we either love it or loathe it? And why is it worth so much damn money? Join Will Gompertz on a dazzling tour that will change the way you look at modern art forever. From Monet's water lilies to Van Gogh's sunflowers, from Warhol's soup cans to Hirst's pickled shark, hear the stories behind the masterpieces, meet the artists as they really were, and discover the real point of modern art.

You will learn: not all conceptual art is bollocks; Picasso is king (but Cézanne is better); Pollock is no drip; Dali painted with his moustache; a urinal changed the course of art, why your 5-year-old really couldn't do it. Refreshing, irreverent and always straightforward, What Are You Looking At? asks all the basic questions that you were too afraid to ask. Your next gallery trip is going to be a little less intimidating and a lot more interesting.

Critic reviews

Will Gompertz is the best teacher you never had

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

Good book, explained

Now before going to see any kind of art need to see/watch/explore/experience the idea behind the art. The greatest outcome - be present when you are with Art.

A seamlessly woven story of modern art.

This is a very solid introductory book into modern art (and even a bit of contemporary art). Gompertz provides a systematic, clearly explained (though slightly oversimplified - but that is to be expected from a "popular" book) history of modern art and mentions all the most notable names, movements, dates, and works. But all of this is integrated into a series of stories which make the book fun to read and the information in it just so easy to remember.

I would definitely recommend reading it rather than listening to it even though all the works are easy to visualize the way Gompertz describes them. You can always look them up, but this is just an unnecessary complication and gets in the way of really enjoying the book.

Even though the book is quite basic, which is to be expected from something that covers such a broad range of subjects, I think a good number of professionals (art historians, art history students, museologists, gallery-workers, etc.) could definitely benefit from Gompertz's simple approach to art and, more importantly, his uncomplicated way of writing about art.

Good read for any level of art knowledge

Read this to refresh my knowledge of art, was very easy to listen to. Strongly recommended!

An insightful listen

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and highly recommend it.

I was a little sceptical as to how an art book would go as an audio book but as I have a bit of an art background I thought why not. So glad I did. Will covers in detail the movement and inspiration of the various art movements from the impressionists to today. Insightful, funny and a great performance by Roy McMillan. I did stop the book at times to google the various artworks he described but I found that did not impact on my enjoyment at all.

Five stars without a doubt.

Amazing and the most profound book for a beginner like me

I’ve read a lot of other books about the art history , but this one is the most profound and interesting . So many references and explanations of why the art piece is considered art. Why this art piece is there in terms of the history and art history context