Art and Scandal

The Naked Truth

“Art and Scandal: The Naked Truth”  is a collection of 23 short essays  and images designed for contemporary audiences who want to know more about art history but don’t have time for classes or traditional art tomes. This concise, engagingly written eBook takes you inside the scandals that shook—and shaped—the art world dating to the early 16th Century. Some seem tame by today’s standards while others are as risqué as they were in their time. Written by art historian Sally Whitman Coleman, this Art Minute Guide (based on her blog, The Art Minute: Short lessons in Art History®) makes the art, the artists and their backstories come alive. In the author’s words, “It may be hard to imagine that Michelangelo’s powerful frescos and John Singer Sargent’s lovely portraits were as controversial as artworks by today’s artists. Yet from the Renaissance on, artists, with their vision and craft, have threatened tradition and created a public uproar. This type of daring creativity is the artists’ agent of change that ultimately generates and defines the shape of art history.” After reading this book, you’ll sound really smart, be ready for informed museum-going and perhaps even be the hit of the cocktail party.