Professor Dr. Safa Lutfi published her book “Art Criticism and a Reading in the Art of Modern Painting”, published by Maktabah Lubnan Nashiron, which talks about the eternal tendency of man to protect himself, glorify his heroes and his societies, and how the combination of graphic symbols and architectural structures left by humans provided us with a valuable repertoire that illuminated us in the past. In her research, the author pays attention to the art of the Italian Renaissance, the art of Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, the romantic movement in France, and then realism as the schools of the modern era are influential, brutal, cubist, futuristic, expressionist, and abstract. Dada and Surrealism too. The author deals with the subjects of metaphysical painting, naive painting, and the pop art. She ends her book with a study on beauty. Professor Safa Lutfi does not fail to address, within the topics of her book, with some reduction and simplification, the fact that visual arts may take the place of language, and that the source of communication and delivery in this language is the artist and his artistic work, corresponding to the recipient who is the viewer. Like the case in the text reader, the viewer must distinguish and deduce the symbols and their patterns before an understanding takes place between him and the artistic effect that is not necessarily going to give him aesthetic pleasure. In order to be achieved, a number of conditions must be met, the most important of which is the mixing of subjective tendencies with perceived abilities. The author believes that the process of artistic appreciation can be considered as a process of communication between two parties. The first party is the artist represented in his artistic works and the second party is the taster or recipient. The success of the communication process between the two parties does not occur at one level of success, but rather usually comes at different levels. Here we can talk about the role of the artist and his responsibility to ensure that his works of art have a distinctive character and expressing the characteristic of the era in which you live with comprehensive nature. On the other hand, the recipient must realize the nature of the artistic work entrusted to him is an important process for expressing reality not just recording it. It is likely to use abstract symbols that are related to reality which makes art emotionally more expressive of truth than reality. The recipient must also be aware of the relationship between the artwork and its subject matter, its technology, its size, the time it takes to complete it, as well as a number of other circumstances. Professor Safa Lutfi moves on to talk about contemporary art starting with the art of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. She clarified that the latter is the early century of the Renaissance which witnessed the launch of the intellectual renaissance that changed the course of European life as it linked ancient sciences with modernity and art activity with thought. It is the era in which big names appeared, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. The author reads in depth the features of the experiences of a variety of creative people in this regard, including the illumination of realism led by Gustave Courbet. She shows how Cubism, Abstract, Dada, Surrealism, and other schools of modern art have emerged.

2021-01-09 1430