How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration

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Review ------ Featured in the New York Times and in the Wall Street Journal "Ambitious, covering everything from figurative paintings to abstract expressionism, tonal music, novels, and theatre. This is an engaging project, and How Art Works is exhilarating in part because Winner actually has some answers." -- The New Yorker "In this thoughtful, judicious, and fascinating book, you'll find our best current answers to all the questions that thinking people ask about art, including what it is, what makes it great, whether it is universal, why we make and enjoy it, and whether it is good for us. How Art Works will be the place to look for knowledge on how art works for years to come." --Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and Enlightenment Now "Never have the links between the world of the arts and the sciences of the mind been so carefully and fruitfully drawn as they are in Winner's new book." -- David Olson, University Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto "If you read one book on the psychology of art, make it this one. Ellen Winner gives us a book that celebrates the importance of art even as she remains grounded in experimental data and avoids hyperbole. She asks deceptively simple questions. What is art? Why do we make art? Does art make us better people? The clarity of her logic and the elegance of her prose as she answers these and other incisive questions makes this book a delight to read." --Anjan Chatterjee, MD, FAAN, Elliott Professor of Neurology and Director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics, Author of The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) About the Author ---------------- Ellen Winner is Professor of Psychology at Boston College and Senior Research Associate at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. She directs the Arts and Mind Lab, which focuses on in the arts in typical and gifted children as well as adults. She received the Rudolf Arnheim Award for Outstanding Research by a Senior Scholar in Psychology and the Arts from Division 10 in 2000. Read more ( javascript:void(0) )