This introduction to the critical tools for analyzing art aims to heighten readers' awareness of the historical context behind the ideas about art. The intention is to assist readers in developing their own informed criticism, based on an examination of the idea and context of art, instead of relying on formal analysis alone, thus broadening readers' appreciation of the diversity of artistic expression. This edition includes expanded coverage of women, including Emily Carr, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keefe, as well as discussion of ancient Chinese and Indian cultures to increase students' exposure to non-Western art. In addition, technical discussions on photography and lithography have been added to explain how these processes work.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Preface Introduction The Power of Images Viewing Art as Language Art and Its Codes A Vocabulary Lesson The Changing Face of Quality The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Making Amends Plotting the Course 1 The Beginnings of Art The Nature of Art Making Images in the Paleolithic Age Securing the Homefront: The Neolithic Age Prehistoric and Primitive Cultures Art and the Development of More Complex Societies Summary 2 The Art of the Classical World The Art and Ideas of Ancient Greece The Origins of Greek Art: 1000 600 BC Archaic Art: 600-480 BC Classical Architecture and the Acropolis Complex Classical Sculpture: 479-323 BC Plato and Aristotle Look at Art Late Classical and Hellenistic Art The Transition to Rome Augustus and the Empire Roman Wall Painting Summary 3 Art and Religion The Jewish Tradition The Christian Tradition Islamic Art Hinduism and the Cult of Images Aspects of the Buddhist Art Tradition Summary 4 Issues and Ideas in Renaissance Art The Rise of Learning Individuality and Humanism Art Patronage and the High Renaissance The "High" Renaissance in Rome Art Criticism in the Renaissance: Vasari Painting in Venice in the Sixteenth Century North European Painting Summary 5 Art, Issues, and Innovations in the Baroque Era "The Last Judgment" and Rome in 1541 Classicism versus Naturalism The Art Criticism of Bellori Baroque Architecture The Influence of Rome Dutch and Flemish Art The Decline of the Baroque Summary 6 Reason and Revolution Versailles and the Decline of the Baroque The Rococo Moralizing Tones: Discourses on Art The Birth of the Public Museum The Neoclassical Artist American Neoclassicism Art and Man's Inhumanity to Man Art and the Heroic: Romanticism Summary 7 The Modern World and Its Art The Ideological Ferment Photography and Painting The Artist at Mid-Century Impressionism The Art of Lithography Nineteenth-Century Sculpture The Liberation of Color Of Steel and Skyscrapers Nature in Flux Summary 8 Art in Americas Art in the Nomadic Communities Early Civilizations Two Worlds Collide The Early African-American Experience A Reverence for the Land The Artist as Social Critic Summary 9 Art In the Twentieth Century Flatness as an Idea Collage as an Idea Rethinking Another Old Idea Unlocking the Unconscious: Surrealism and Its Legacy The Quest for a Purer Art Modernism in Architecture The Avant-Garde in America The End of an Era Summary 10 Contemporary Art, Issues, and Ideas Prelude: Irony and The Decline of the Modern Art after Pop: Some Considerations The Rise of Postmodernism Neo-Expressionism and the Return of the Figure Women's Art and Feminist Criticism Ethnicity and Revisionism Some Closing Thoughts on Public Funding and Censorship Conclusions All chapter summaries include suggested readings, pronunciation guide and glossary