Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees Book Summary

Dive into the intriguing world of Robert Irwin, a visionary artist whose unconventional perspectives on art and perception challenge everything we think we know. Lawrence Weschler's masterful narrative explores the fluid interplay between seeing, creativity, and the essence of art itself. With engaging anecdotes and profound insights, the book invites readers to reconsider their own relationship with what they observe. Irwin's journey reveals not just the act of seeing but the profound impact of context and interpretation. This thought-provoking exploration will leave you pondering the layers of reality that often go unnoticed.

By Lawrence Weschler

Published: 2008

""Seeing is not just a matter of perception; it's a dance between the observer and the observed, a constant negotiation of meaning that ultimately reveals more about ourselves than the world around us.""

Book Review of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees

"Robert Irwin, perhaps the most influential of the California artists, moved from his beginnings in abstract expressionism through successive shifts in style and sensibility, into a new aesthetic territory altogether, one where philosophical concepts of perception and the world interact. Weschler has charted the journey with exceptional clarity and cogency. He has also, in the process, provided what seems to me the best running history of postwar West Coast art that I have yet seen."--Calvin Tomkins

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"Seeing is not just a matter of perception; it's a dance between the observer and the observed, a constant negotiation of meaning that ultimately reveals more about ourselves than the world around us."

Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees

By Lawrence Weschler