A classic work that offers the reader an ideal overview of the ideas that marked out Read as a seminal and hugely influetial figure in the cultural life of the twentieth century.

Sir Herbert Read'S Introduction To The Understanding Of Art Has Influenced The Taste Of Several Generations. It Provides A Basis For The Appreciation Of Pictures, Sculpture And Art-Objects Of All Periods By Defining The Elements That Went Into Their Making. In Compact And Elegant Form The Book Gives An Illustrated Survey Of The Subject From Cave Paintings To The Canvases Of Jackson Pollock, And Summarizes The Essence Of Schools, Genres And Movements In The History Of Art.

This is the first full biography from childhood of the eminent British Architect Sir Herbert Baker. Written with the full cooperation of his family and with access to his archive and private papers, it gives an account of his remarkable life as the leading architect to the British Empire. From London, through the commemoration of the empire's war dead in France, via South Africa and Australia to India, he celebrated the might of an empire that once ruled a quarter of the world. He was an intimate friend of many of most fascinating men of his age, including Cecil Rhodes, Lawrence of Arabia, John Buchan, Jan Smuts and, of course, his fellow architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. After a Victorian architectural apprenticeship in London and on to becoming the most prolific architect of his age in South Africa, he built the new imperial capital of New Delhi in India with Lutyens, before returning to London. These built or rebuilt such landmark buildings as the Bank of England, South Africa House, India House, Rhodes House, and the stands for Lords Cricket Ground, as well as numerous churches and private houses.

As a poet and critic of art and literature, and as a social and political philosopher, Sir Herbert Read exerted an important influence on the culture of his time. Not only did he assist and inspire many writers and artists, but through his work for the idea of ‘education through art’, he greatly influenced education, in particular the teaching of art and literature in schools. For this symposium, first issued in 1969 as the ninth number of The Malahat Review, Professor Skelton has gathered together original essays, poems and drawings which illustrate many aspects of Sir Herbert Read’s life and work.