Martin Gayford is my kind of art critic. His work is serious, but never pretentious, arcane, or inaccessible.  He wants to share with readers his love of art and his admiration of artists. He believes not only that art changes us, but that we change art by how and where we encounter it.  As someone who has grown increasingly dissatisfied by the experience of visiting traditional galleries and museums, I found Gayford’s appetite for searching out art in unusual settings and out-of-the-way places infectious. I finished reading his “travels, encounters, and revelations” (the subtitle of this book) a little more informed about the likes of Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, and Gilbert & George, and a little more determined to seek out art in my travels.

This is the third book by Gayford I’ve read and it follows on from Modernists and Mavericks which I read earlier this year. I’m looking forward to the history of pictures he has co-written with David Hockney.