See What You're Missing

Oct 12, 2024 12:23 AM

Author:Will Gompertz

'Art can amaze us into changing our minds. This remarkable book teaches us how' Es Devlin

Artists have learnt to pay attention. The rest of us spend most of our time on autopilot, rushing from place to place, our overfamiliarity blinding us to the marvellous, life-affirming phenomena of our world. But it doesn't have to be this way.

In his typically engaging style, Will Gompertz takes us into the minds of artists - from emerging stars to old masters - to show us how to look at and experience the world with their heightened powers of perception.

In See What You're Missing we learn, for example, how Rembrandt can help us see ourselves, how David Hockney helps us to see nature, and how Frida Kahlo can help us see through pain. Each artist has their own unique way of looking, which when applied to our own lives stimulates our senses so we might know the intoxicating feeling of being truly alive.

'Highly engaging and thought-provoking' Philip Hook, author of Breakfast at Sotheby's

'Lucid and revealing' Michael Prodger, The Times

'Will Gompertz is the best teacher you never had' Guardian

Reviews

Such a dazzling version of the boo phenomenon that as readers turn the pages they will be rooting for the company to survive even though they know the story ends in disaster.

—— The Sunday Times

Boo Hoo is an engrossing account of how two childhood friends persuaded some of the world's savviest investors and fashion houses - including Bernard Arnault's LVMH and the Benetton family - to fund a sports and designer clothing company to the tune of $100m.

—— The Guardian

[his] tale captures the hype and excitement of developing what was seen by many as a ground-breaking company with state-of-the-art technology- Along the way, it tells of endless rounds of raising finance, glamorous parties, staff clashes and bitter sparring with the press.

—— BBC.co.uk

The game would be to bring boo.com to market, when it would soon be worth more than $1 billion and make its backers rich. Can all this have happened last year? It seems more like a tale from a different aeon, but the lessons it teaches are timeless.

—— The Spectator

Reading [this] has the fascination of watching a high-speed car crash replayed in slow motion. You know what's going to happen, you can see the confident glow on the drivers' faces, but can't warn them about the curve in the road that is coming to unstick them. Schadenfreude is irresistible. And yet everyone walks away unhurt.

—— The Independent

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