Towards A New Art History

The Essays Here, Challenging The Boundaries And Assumptions Of Mainstream Art History, Question Many Preconceived Notions About Meaning In Representations Artistic And Art Historical. Emphasizing On Specific Visual Cultures Within The Dynamics Of Historical Processes, They Raise Critical Issues Of Art Production, Circulation And Consumption And Attempt To Rescue Traditional Arts From A Past That Is Hermetically Sealed Off From The Present.

In this excellent book, Jonathan Harris explores the fundamental changes which have occurred both in the institutions and practice of art history over the last thirty years.

In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. In this book, Cynthia Freeland explains why innovation and controversy are valued in the arts, weaving together philosophy and art theory with many fascinating examples. She discusses blood, beauty, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, clarifying contemporary and historical accounts of the nature, function, and interpretation of the arts. Freeland also propels us into the future by surveying cutting-edge web sites, along with the latest research on the brain's role in perceiving art. This clear, provocative book engages with the big debates surrounding our responses to art and is an invaluable introduction to anyone interested in thinking about art.

Written to engage and inspire students with little or no previous experience in studio art or art history, the third edition of Approaches to Art: A New Introduction to Art History employs an accessible postmodern approach to a general education course, introducing readers to seminal works of art throughout time. This edition features increased coverage of art by people of color and women, exposing students to diverse artists and restructuring the ways in which "key figures" and "important artists" are introduced to them. The text features more than 100 new images and a timely focus on issues of agency, identity, and social equity. The book includes the essential information presented in an introductory art history course--visual elements, principles of design, style, media, and historical context--in a compelling format that encourages critical thinking and multicultural visual literacy. Students learn not only the parts of art, but also develop a deeper understanding of art's power to communicate on multiple levels--universal, cultural, and personal.

An exemplary survey that reassesses the impact of the most important books to have shaped art history through the twentieth century Written by some of today’s leading art historians and curators, this new collection provides an invaluable road map of the field by comparing and reexamining canonical works of art history. From Émile Mâle’s magisterial study of thirteenth-century French art, first published in 1898, to Hans Belting’s provocative Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art, the book provides a concise and insightful overview of the history of art, told through its most enduring literature. Each of the essays looks at the impact of a single major book of art history, mapping the intellectual development of the writer under review, setting out the premises and argument of the book, considering its position within the broader field of art history, and analyzing its significance in the context of both its initial reception and its afterlife. An introduction by John-Paul Stonard explores how art history has been forged by outstanding contributions to scholarship, and by the dialogues and ruptures between them.

"In this authoritative book, the first of its kind in English, Christopher 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 book shows that the pioneering chroniclers of the Italian Renaissance--Lorenzo Ghiberti and Giorgio Vasari--measured every epoch against fixed standards of quality. Only in the Romantic era did art historians discover the virtues of medieval art, anticipating the relativism of the later nineteenth century, when art history learned to admire the art of all societies and to value every work as an index of its times. The major art historians of the modern era, however--Jacob Burckhardt, Aby Warburg, Heinrich Wölfflin, Erwin Panofsky, Meyer Schapiro, and Ernst Gombrich--struggled to adapt their work to the rupture of artistic modernism, leading to the current predicaments of the discipline. Combining erudition with clarity, this book makes a landmark contribution to the understanding of art history."--from book jacket

This is the first book to consoloidate the field of African Canadian Art History. In this book, the authors argue for an African Canadian Art History that can simultaneously examine the artistic contributions of black Canadian artists within their unique historical contexts, critique the colonial representation of black subjects by white artists, and contest the customary racial homogeneity of Canadian Art History. Challenging the traditional notions of artistic value, this book examines art, artists, and visual and material culture from the eighteenth century to the present, analyzing "high," "low," and popular art across various media, with a focus to offer a new perspective on Canadian Art History.