Real Spaces

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David Summers is the William R Kenan Jr Professor of the History of Art at the University of Virginia. Internationally recognized as one of the most distinguished historians of art and ideas of his generation, he is the author of two major, groundbreaking studies, Michelangelo and the Language of Art (1981) and The Judgement of Sense: Renaissance Naturalism and the Rise of Aesthetics (1987). Judgement of Sense won the Forkasch Prizefor the best book in intellectual history published in 1987. In 1996 Professor Summers was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

'If we were justified in judging a book by its cover and page design, Real Spaces would stand as one of the wonders of the world...Phaidon has surpassed itself in the production of this book.' (The New York Sun Newspaper) 'If all the world's art was ever to be understood properly, and from a common perspective, the only solution, Summers concluded, was to shred the old lexicon of art terminology and write it anew. Real Spaces is the culmination of that labour: it is humongous, compendious and staggeringly erudite. Summers wants to be remembered for this book, and he probably will be...This is an imposing work of scholarship which makes great demands of its readers, but ultimately Summers sees it as having a wider purpose in attempting to make right a few of the world's imbalances. They all say that, of course, but Summers may just well be good enough to make that difference.' (Morgan Falconer, Modern Painters) 'Summers' stated approach in Real Spaces is unorthodox in the manner in which he chooses to disregard many formal and iconographical principles which have been mainstays of art history...In stark contrast to the current era of dumbed-down and politically correct(ed) textbooks, Summers here weaves an intricate array of intellectual arguments around some essential landmarks of art history...Perhaps this will be a useful guide for either the interested reader on art (if such beings exist and I certainly hope they do) or for the art professional who seeks a more inclusive text in terms of portraying and relating the past.' (Martin Patrick, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History at Illinois State University, Art Monthly) 'Deeply pondered arguments on big topics, substantial accumulations of soberly researched and intricately categorized material; and a notable range of detailed cultural reference...an extraordinary and demanding tour de force in the history of art...a radically new conceptual framework for a contextualist and cross-cultural art