Art & Art History

Provides a categorical foundation for an international discourse on design.

The book includes over thirty pieces by seminal thinkers and writers from Winckelmann, Kant, and Hegel to Foucault, Carol Duncan, and Mary Kelly on such subjects as aesthetics and anthropology, postmodern automatons, semiotics and iconography, performative acts, the museum as ritual, digital art, and many others.

This anthology is a guide to understanding art history through critical reading of the field's most innovative and influential texts over the past two centuries. Each section focuses on a key issue: art as history; aesthetics; form, content, and style; anthropology; meaning and interpretation; authorship and identity; and the phenomenon of globalization.

A Global History of Architecture provides a comprehensive tour through the ages, spinning the globe to present the landmark architectural movements that characterized each time period. Spanning from 3,500 b.c.e. to the present, this unique guide is written by an architectural all-star team who emphasize connections, contrasts and influences, reminding us that history is not linear and that everything was 'modern architecture' in its day. Unique in its non-Eurocentrism, this book provides a fresh survey of architectural history with a truly global perspective, fulfilling the National Architectural Accrediting Board's requirements for 'non-Western' architecture in history education.

In this book, Wood tracks the evolution of the historical study of art from the late Middle Ages through the rise of the modern scholarly discipline of art history. Synthesizing and assessing a vast array of writings, episodes, and personalities, this original and accessible account of the development of art-historical thinking will appeal to readers both inside and outside the discipline.

The Companion provides an accessible critical survey of Western visual art theory from sources in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance thought through to contemporary writings.

"Theory for Art History" provides a concise and clear introduction to key contemporary theorists, including their lives, major works, and ideas. This volume provides information on the major theoretical thinkers of the past century, from Marx to Foucault, from Badiou and Agamben -- through their particular relevance to art history.

Designed to help the student develop a comprehensive view of art, this book moves from the analytic study of specific works to a consideration of broad principles and technical matters. The carefully selected illustrations afford an excellent sampling of the wide range of experience awaiting the explorer in the world of art.

Reflecting the dynamic creativity of its subject, this definitive guide spans the evolution, aesthetics, and practice of today’s digital art, combining fresh, emerging perspectives with the nuanced insights of leading theorists.

Video Art Theory: A Comparative Approach demonstrates how video art functions on the basis of a comparative media approach, providing a crucial understanding of video as a medium in contemporary art and of the visual mediations we encounter in daily life. A critical investigation of the visual media and selected video artworks which contributes to the understanding of video as a medium in contemporary art. The only study specifically devoted to theorizing the medium of video from the perspective of prominent characteristics which result from how video works deal with time, space, representation, and narrative.

The Historical Dictionary of Contemporary Art illuminates important artists, styles, and movements of the past 70 years. Beginning with the immediate post-World War II period, it encompasses earlier 20th century masters, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Jean Dubuffet, Stuart Davis, Georgia O’Keeffe, and other well-known figures, who remained creatively productive, while also inspiring younger generations. The book covers subsequent developments, including abstract expressionism, happenings, pop art, minimalism, conceptual art, arte povera, feminist art, photorealism, neo-expressionism, and postmodernism.

The baroque period deals with the art created roughly between the end of the 16th and the early years of the 18th centuries. The masters of the era include Caravaggio, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Diego Velazquez, and Nicolas Poussin. The Historical Dictionary of Baroque Art and Architecture, Second Edition covers the most salient works of baroque artists, the most common themes depicted, historical events and key figures responsible for shaping the artistic vocabulary of the era, and definitions of terms pertaining to the topic at hand. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Baroque Art and Architecture contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography.

The art of the Renaissance is usually the most familiar to non-specialists, and for good reason. This was the era that produced some of the icons of civilization, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Last Supper and Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling, Pietà, and David. Marked as one of the greatest moments in history, the outburst of creativity of the era resulted in the most influential artistic revolution ever to have taken place. The period produced a substantial number of notable masters, among them Donatello, Filippo Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Sandro Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, and Tintoretto. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Renaissance Art contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography.

Works by women of the colonial era represent treasured accomplishments of American culture and still impress us today, centuries after their creation. The breadth of creative expression is as impressive as the women themselves. In American Colonial Women and Their Art: A Chronological Encyclopedia, Mary Ellen Snodgrass follows the history of creative expression from the early 1600s to the late 1700s. Drawing upon primary sources—such as letters, diaries, travel notes, and journals—this timeline encompasses a wide variety of artistic accomplishment, such as: Stitchery, quilting, and rug hooking Painting, sculpture, and sketches Essays, poems, and other writings Dance, acting, and oratory Musical composition and performance Individual talents highlighted in this volume include miniature portraits.

In Frontier Women and Their Art: A Chronological Encyclopedia, Mary Ellen Snodgrass explores the rich history of women’s creative expression from the beginning of the Federalist era to the end of the 19th century. Focusing particularly on Western artistic style, the importance of cultural exchange, and the preservation of history, this book captures a wide variety of artistic accomplishment, such as: Folk music, frontier theatrics, and dancing Quilting, stitchery, and beadwork Sculpture and adobe construction Writing, translations, and storytelling

Artist Scholar: Reflections on Writing and Research is part history, introduction, and discussion for artists and designers entering, graduating, and employed by the contemporary art academy in the United States. The evolution of art education in the university continues to expand in the 21st century as the variables of craft, skill, technique, theory, history and criticism shift and expand as the perspective of arts-based research is introduced into this professionalized environment

Art and design students today face a wide range of writing tasks - from reflective and self-promotional pieces to reviews, essays and dissertations. This book is an answer to art and design students and staff, disheartened by negative past experiences, who say that they loathe writing, and encourages different approaches to writing - integrating it into studio practice, and promoting the notion of 'warm up' preparations.

This book is intended for art courses where there is a writing component. This text guides art students through the writing process. Students are shown how to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture. The text includes: coverage of essential writing assignments including formal analysis, comparison, research paper, review of an exhibition, essay examination; clear step-by-step writing instructions guiding students though the research and writing processes; sample essays, with analytic comments by the author, demonstrating the virtues of effective writing.

Visual Literacy acquaints students with the critical issues that shape the discipline of art and teaches them to write about art from a variety of scholarly and rhetorical perspectives.

What does it mean to be visually literate? Does it mean different things in the arts and the sciences? In the West, in Asia, or in developing nations? If we all need to become "visually literate," what does that mean in practical terms? The essays gathered here examine a host of issues surrounding "the visual," exploring national and regional ideas of visuality and charting out new territories of visual literacy that lie far beyond art history, such as law and chemistry. With an afterword by Christopher Crouch, this groundbreaking collection brings together the work of major art and visual studies scholars and critics to explore what impact the new concept of "visual literacy" will have on the traditional field of art history.

Writing About Art walks students through every step of the writing process—from looking critically at art, to researching, to developing a thesis, to revising and polishing a final draft. Questions and examples prompt readers as they study artworks, develop a thesis, structure an argument, and cite research.

The book explains the different approaches college students encounter in undergraduate art history classes. Each chapter outlines the characteristics of one type of visual or historical analysis and briefly explains its history and development. Passages by well-known art historians provide examples of each method. Sample essays by students are accompanied by extensive explanations of suggested revisions. The book also includes a step-by-step guide to researching art historical topics and a section about correctly citing sources.

David Carrier examines the history and practice of art writing and reveals its importance to the art museum, the art gallery, and aesthetic theory. Artists, art historians, and art lovers alike can gain fresh insight into how written descriptions of painting and sculpture affect the experience of art. Readers will learn how their reading can determine the way they see painting and sculpture, how interpretations of art transform meaning and significance, and how much-discussed work becomes difficult to see afresh.

This book addresses one of the most exciting and innovative developments within higher education: the rise in prominence of the creative arts and the accelerating recognition that creative practice is a form of research.

Interpreting Art highlights the norms, premises, and patterns that tend to guide interpretation along the way. Interpreting Art reveals subtle features of art writing central to the often unnoticed interpretative practices through which we understand works of art. In doing so, the book also sheds light on possible alternatives, pointing to how writers on art might choose to operate differently in the future.