Art History Research and Discovery Guide

The Ancient Art of Transformation: Case Studies from Mediterranean Contexts examines instances of human transformation in the ancient and early Christian Mediterranean world by exploring the ways in which art impacts, aids, or provides evidence for physical, spiritual, personal, and social transitions. Building on Arnold van Gennep's notion of universal rites of passage, papers in this volume expand the definition of "transformation" to include widespread transitions such as shifts in political establishments and changes in cultural identity. In considering these broadly defined "passages," authors have observed particular changes in the visual record, whether they be manifest, enigmatic, or symbolic.

What is the place of architecture in the history of art? Why has it been at times central to the discipline, and at other times seemingly so marginal? What is its place now? Many disciplines have a stake in the history of architecture - sociology, anthropology, human geography, to name a few. This book deals with perhaps the most influential tradition of all - art history - examining how the relation between the disciplines of art history and architectural history has waxed and waned over the last one hundred and fifty years. In this highly original study, Mark Crinson and Richard J. Williams point to a decline in the importance attributed to the role of architecture in art history over the last century - which has happened without crisis or self-reflection. The book explores the problem in relation to key art historical approaches, from formalism, to feminism, to the social history of art, and in key institutions from the Museum of Modern Art, to the journal October. Among the key thinkers explored are Banham, Baxandall, Giedion, Panofsky, Pevsner, Pollock, Riegl, Rowe, Steinberg, Wittkower and Wölfflin. The book will provoke debate on the historiography and present state of the discipline of art history, and it makes a powerful case for the reconsideration of architecture.

This important new study reevaluates British art writing and the rise of formalism in the visual arts from 1900 to 1939. Taking Roger Fry as his starting point, Sam Rose rethinks how ideas about form influenced modernist culture and the movement's significance to art history today. In the context of modernism, formalist critics are often thought to be interested in art rather than life, a stance exemplified in their support for abstract works that exclude the world outside. But through careful attention to early twentieth-century connoisseurship, aesthetics, art education, design, and art in colonial Nigeria and India, Rose builds an expanded account of form based on its engagement with the social world. Art and Form thus opens discussions on a range of urgent topics in art writing, from its history and the constructions of high and low culture to the idea of global modernism. Rose demonstrates the true breadth of formalism and shows how it lends a new richness to thought about art and visual culture in the early to mid-twentieth century. Accessibly written and analytically sophisticated, Art and Form opens exciting new paths of inquiry into the meaning and lasting importance of formalism and its ties to modernism. It will be invaluable for scholars and enthusiasts of art history and visual culture.

The opulence of Byzantine art, with its extravagant use of gold and silver, is well known. Highly skilled artists created powerful representations reflecting and promoting this society and its values in icons, illuminated manuscripts, and mosaics and wallpaintings placed in domed churches and public buildings. This complete introduction to the whole period and range of Byzantine art combines immense breadth with interesting historical detail. Robin Cormack overturns the myth that Byzantine art remained constant from the inauguration of Constantinople, its artistic centre, in the year 330 until the fall of the city to the Ottomans in 1453. He shows how the many political and religious upheavals of this period produced a wide range of styles and developments in art. This updated, colour edition includes new discoveries, a revised bibliography, and, in a new epilogue, a rethinking of Byzantine Art for the present day.

While the connected, international character of today's art world is well known, the eighteenth century too had a global art world. Eighteenth-Century Art Worlds is the first book to attempt a map of the global art world of the eighteenth century. Fourteen essays from a distinguished group of scholars explore both cross-cultural connections and local specificities of art production and consumption in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The result is an account of a series of interconnected and asymmetrical art worlds that were well developed in the eighteenth century. Capturing the full material diversity of eighteenth-century art, this book considers painting and sculpture alongside far more numerous prints and decorative objects. Analyzing the role of place in the history of eighteenth-century art, it bridges the disciplines of art history and cultural geography, and draws attention away from any one place as a privileged art-historical site, while highlighting places such as Manila, Beijing, Mexico City, and London as significant points on globalized map of the eighteenth-century art world. Eighteenth-Century Art Worlds combines a broad global perspective on the history of art with careful attention to how global artistic concerns intersect with local ones, offering a framework for future studies in global art history.

What is the role of the humanities at the start of 21st century? In the last few decades, the various disciplines of the humanities (history, linguistics, literary studies, art history, media studies) have encountered a broad range of challenges, related to the future of print culture, to shifts in funding strategies, and to the changing contours of culture and society. Several publications have addressed these challenges as well as potential responses on a theoretical level. This coedited volume opts for a different strategy and presents accessible case studies that demonstrate what humanities scholars contribute to concrete and pressing social debates about topics including adoption, dementia, hacking, and conservation. These "engaged" forms of humanities research reveal the continued importance of thinking and rethinking the nature of art, culture, and public life.

Now thoroughly revised and updated throughout, featuring extended discussions of Mannerism and the expanding role of women in the visual arts and significant illustration program enhancements,Italian Renaissance Art is a readable, student-friendly, lavishly-illustrated introduction to one of the greatest periods of artistic genius in western history. Art historian Laurie Schneider Adams opens the text with the late Byzantine work of Cimabue and concludes with the transition to Mannerism. The author presents the most important and innovative artists and their principal works, with a clear emphasis on selectivity and understanding.Italian Renaissance Art also focuses on style and iconography, and on art and artists, incorporating different methodological approaches to create a wider understanding and appreciation of the art.

These biographies of the great quattrocento artists have long been considered among the most important of contemporary sources on Italian Renaissance art. Vasari, who invented the term "Renaissance," was the first to outline the influential theory of Renaissance art that traces a progression through Giotto, Brunelleschi, and finally the titanic figures of Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael. This new translation, specially commissioned for the World's Classics series, contains thirty-six of the most important lives and is fully annotated.

This beautifully produced survey of over a thousand years of Western art and architecture introduces the reader to a vast period of history ranging from ancient Rome to the age of exploration. The monumental arts and the diverse minor arts of the Middle Ages are presented here within the social, religious, and political frameworks of lands as varied as France and Denmark, Spain and Turkey. Marilyn Stokstad also teaches her reader how to look at medieval art-which aspects of architecture, sculpture, or painting are important and for what reasons. Stylistic and iconographic issues and themes are thoroughly addressed with attention paid to aesthetic and social contexts. Significantly updated, this second edition ofMedieval Artspans the period from the second to the fifteenth centuries and includes over 4000 illustrations, over 100 in color, detailed maps, a time-line, glossary, bibliography, and index-all in a larger 8 by 10 inch trim size.

If modernism initially came to Africa through colonial contact, what does Ethiopia's inimitable historical condition--its independence save for five years under Italian occupation--mean for its own modernist tradition? In Modernist Art in Ethiopia--the first book-length study of the topic--Elizabeth W. Giorgis recognizes that her home country's supposed singularity, particularly as it pertains to its history from 1900 to the present, cannot be conceived outside the broader colonial legacy. She uses the evolution of modernist art in Ethiopia to open up the intellectual, cultural, and political histories of it in a pan-African context. Giorgis explores the varied precedents of the country's political and intellectual history to understand the ways in which the import and range of visual narratives were mediated across different moments, and to reveal the conditions that account for the extraordinary dynamism of the visual arts in Ethiopia. In locating its arguments at the intersection of visual culture and literary and performance studies, Modernist Art in Ethiopia details how innovations in visual art intersected with shifts in philosophical and ideological narratives of modernity. The result is profoundly innovative work--a bold intellectual, cultural, and political history of Ethiopia, with art as its centerpiece.

This volume critically investigates how art historians writing about Central and Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries engaged with periodization. At the heart of much of their writing lay the ideological project of nation-building. These discourses around periodization - such as the mythicizing of certain periods, the invention of historical continuity and the assertion of national specificity - contributed strongly to identity construction.Central to the book's approach is a transnational exploration of how the art histories of the region not only interacted with established Western periodizations, but also resonated and 'entangled' with each other. In their efforts to develop more sympathetic frameworks that refined, ignored or hybridized Western models, they sought to overcome the centre-periphery paradigm which equated distance from the centre with temporal belatedness and artistic backwardness. The book thus demonstrates that the concept of periodization is far from neutral or strictly descriptive, and that its use in art history needs to be reconsidered. Bringing together a broad range of scholars from different European institutions, the volume offers a unique new perspective on Central and Eastern European art historiography. It will be of interest to scholars working in art history, historiography, and European studies.

Postwar Italian Art History Today brings fresh critical consideration to the parameters and impact of Italian art and visual culture studies of the past several decades. Taking its cue from the thirty-year anniversary of curator Germano Celant's landmark exhibition at PS1 in New York - The Knot - this volume presents innovative case studies and emphasizes new methodologies deployed in the study of postwar Italian art as a means to evaluate the current state of the field. Included are fifteen essays that each examine, from a different viewpoint, the issues, concerns, and questions driving postwar Italian art history. The editors and contributors call for a systematic reconsideration of the artistic origins of postwar Italian art, the terminology that is used to describe the work produced, and key personalities and institutions that promoted and supported the development and marketing of this art in Italy and abroad.

A distinctly Indigenous form of landscape representation is emerging among contemporary Indigenous artists from North America. For centuries, landscape painting in European art typically used representational strategies such as single-point perspective to lure viewers--and settlers--into the territories of the old and new worlds. In the twentieth century, abstract expressionism transformed painting to encompass something beyond the visual world, and, later, minimalism and the Land Art movement broadened the genre of landscape art to include sculptural forms and site-specific installations. In Shifting Grounds, art historian Kate Morris argues that Indigenous artists are expanding and reconceptualizing the forms of the genre, expressing Indigenous attitudes toward land and belonging even as they draw upon mainstream art practices. The resulting works evoke all five senses: from the overt sensuality of Kay WalkingStick's tactile paintings to the eerie soundscapes of Alan Michelson's videos to the immersive environments of Kent Monkman's dioramas, this art resonates with a fully embodied and embedded subjectivity. Shifting Grounds explores themes of presence and absence, survival and vulnerability, memory and commemoration, and power and resistance, illuminating the artists' engagement not only with land and landscape but also with the history of representation itself.

In western culture, rock art has traditionally been viewed as "primitive" and properly belonging in the purview of anthropologists rather than art scholars and critics. This volume, featuring previously unpublished photographs of Utah's magnificent rock art by long-time rock art researcher Layne Miller and essays by former Utah state archaeologist Kevin Jones, views rock art through a different lens. Miller's photographs include many rare and relatively unknown panels and represent a lifetime of work by someone intimately familiar with the Colorado Plateau. The photos highlight the astonishing variety of rock art as well as the variability within traditions and time periods. Jones's essays furnish general information about previous Colorado Plateau cultures and shine a light on rock art as art. The book emphasizes the exqui­site artistry of these ancient works and their capacity to reach through the ages to envelop and inspire viewers.

Since the 2011 Arab Spring street art has been a vehicle for political discourse in the Middle East, and has generated much discussion in both the popular media and academia. Yet, this conversation has generalised street art and identified it as a singular form with identical styles and objectives throughout the region. Street art's purpose is, however, defined by the socio-cultural circumstances of its production. Middle Eastern artists thus adopt distinctive methods in creating their individual work and responding to their individual environments. Here, in this new book, Sabrina De Turk employs rigorous visual analysis to explore the diversity of Middle Eastern street art and uses case studies of countries as varied as Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Palestine, Bahrain and Oman to illustrate how geographic specifics impact upon its function and aesthetic. Her book will be of significant interest to scholars specialising in art from the Middle East and North Africa and those who bring an interdisciplinary perspective to Middle East studies.

Nineteenth-century Mexico was a period of unprecedented political turmoil. One result of this instability was that many religious practices moved from the church to the home, and the retablo art form -- sacred paintings on tin -- flourished. With over 1,700 objects, New Mexico State University holds the largest collection of retablos of any museum in the United States. Eleven eminent Latin Americanists from the US and Mexico have studied this collection and placed it in a broad cultural context. They have looked at the retablos from the standpoint of art history, history, anthropology, folk art, and religion to bring a new understanding of and appreciation for these paintings. This interdisciplinary approach brings together multiple influences in considering, for example, Baroque images as popular icons, Aztec gods and home altars, popular images in nineteenth-century Mexico, European and viceregal paintings, and bultos and santos from New Mexico. In addition to essays, the book includes restoration philosophy and conservation methods, a glossary, chronology, maps, and a comprehensive section on the art and iconography of each object in the Art Gallery collection.

Becoming Modern, Becoming Tradition examines the relationships among women, nationalism, racial identity, and modernity before, during, and after the Mexican Revolution. In this innovative study, Adriana Zavala demonstrates that the image of Mexican womanhood, whether stereotyped as Indian, urban, modern, sexually "degenerate," or otherwise, was symbolically charged in complex ways both before and after the so-called postrevolutionary cultural renaissance, and that crucial aspects of postrevolutionary culture remained rooted in nineteenth-century conceptions of woman as the bearer of cultural and social tradition.

The first in a landmark series of three titles that assembles, documents, interprets and explores the rich diversity of craft, art and design being produced today by contemporary Native American artists. This first volume, on Native American art from the Southwest, includes works in a wide variety of media by approximately 90 artists.

Color attracts attention, evokes emotions, conveys information, carries complex meanings, and makes things beautiful. Color is so meaningful, in fact, that research on the color choices of Ancestral Pueblo people has the potential to deepen our understanding of religious, social, and economic change in the ancient Southwest. This volume explores museum collections and more than a century of archaeological research to create the first systematic understanding of the many ways Ancestral Pueblo people chose specific colors through time and space to add meaning and visual appeal to their lives.

This classic book uses an exceptional art program, featuring impeccable accurate five-color illustrations, to introduce readers to the vast world of painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and the minor arts. With its effectively written, balanced, and interesting narrative, this book presents art as a succession of styles--from Prehistory through the 20th century--and enlarges the readers' capacity to appreciate works of art individually. Written more than 40 years ago, this text has been constantly reworked to respond to the needs of this ever-changing field. A reference work suitable for those employed in all art media, including painters, sculptors, photographers, and architects.

H. H. Arnason was Vice President for Art Administration of the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York. From 1947 to 1961, he was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota.

"How do Japanese and Western aesthetics differ? In this comparative cultural study, TAKASHINA Shūji, a leading scholar of Western art history and insightful commentator on Japanese art, compares the two artistic traditions to reveal the distinctive characteristics of the Japanese sense of beauty

Whether at UFW picket lines in California's Central Valley or capturing summertime street life in East Harlem Latinx photographers have documented fights for dignity and justice as well as the daily lives of ordinary people. Their powerful, innovative photographic art touches on family, identity, protest, borders, and other themes, including the experiences of immigration and marginalization common to many of their communities. Yet the work of these artists has largely been excluded from the documented history of photography in the United States.

Mythic Beings brings together 80 outstanding works by 20 contemporary artists that powerfully interpret Northwest Coast myths and legends. These works include totem poles, argillite sculptures, jewelry in silver and gold, carved and painted boxes, painted drums, and masks. They depict beings of the forest, sea, sky, and spirit worlds: Raven, Thunderbird, Salmon Bringer, Volcano Woman, and many more. Accompanying each work are a retelling of the myth associated with it and comments from the artist on the myth's meaning, as well as stories related to the creation of the work. Gary Wyatt's introduction discusses the evolution of contemporary Northwest Coast art, touching on major international commissions and exhibitions, and landmark pieces. It also discusses the relevance of myth and legend in contemporary Native society, and the changes and interpretations that have been introduced over the past three decades.

Painting and sculpture flourished in nineteenth-century America and saw the rise of self-taught travelling artists and professional artists producing works for a growing number of wealthy patrons. This innovative introduction examines the profession of the artist alongside the reception of their work by nineteenth-century art audiences. Works of art by familiar names such as Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer are discussed in detail within the larger arena of visual culture, as are key works by recently discovered artists such as Harriet Hosmer. The thematic approach focuses on portraiture, landscape painting, the American West, commemorative art, and goes on to examine the ways in which painters responded to major social and economic changes resulting from the rapid change from an agriculturally-based former colony to an industrialized imperial power with an evolving democracy. Uniquely, Barbara Groseclose treats the embeddedness of American Art in its European heritage as continual and salutary, rather than intermittent and oppositional, and also explores the changing interpretations of art of this period.

A survey of painting by leading European and American artists.

The art and architecture of Greece and Rome lie at the heart of the classical tradition of the western world and their legacy is so familiar as to have become commonplace. The legacy may appear simple, but the development of classical art in antiquity was complex and remarkably swift. It ran from near abstraction in eighth-century BC Greece, through years of observation and learning from the arts of the non-Greek world to the east and in Egypt, to the brilliance of the classical revolution of the fifth century, which revealed attitudes and styles undreamt of by other cultures. After Alexander the Great this became the art of an empire, readily learned by Rome and further developed according to the Romans' special character and needs until it provided the idiom for the imaging of Christianity. In this book the story of this pageant of the arts over some 1500 years is told by five leading scholars. Their aim has been to demonstrate how the arts served very different societies and patrons-tyrannies, democracies, empires; the roles and objectives of the artists; the way in which the classical style was disseminated far beyond the borders of the Greek and Roman world; but especially the splendour and quality of the arts themselves. And their method is to engage the interest of the reader by a rich succession of illustrations on to which the narrative is woven.

The Oxford History of Western Art is the new authority on the development of visual culture in the West over the last 2700 years, from the classical period to the end of the twentieth century. OHWA is an innovative and challenging reappraisal of how the history of art can be presented and understood. Through a carefully devised modular structure, readers are given insights not only into how and why works of art were created, but also how works in different media relate to each other across time.

Accompanying a year-long exhibition at the University of Kentucky Art Museum, A Place Not Forgotten explores the distinctiveness of Southern landscape painting from the early nineteenth century through the 1940s. More than twenty-five color reproductions are accompanied by essays on southern art and culture by William W. Freehling, Singletary Professor of Humanities at the University of Kentucky; Jessie Poesch, professor emerita of art history at Tulane University; and J. Richard Gruber, director of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. Brief commentaries from Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport, John Egerton, James Baker Hall, Sally Mann, Bobbie Ann Mason, Ed McClanahan, Robert Morgan, Gurney Norman, Chris Offutt, Estill Curtis Pennington, and Sarah Tate on the nature of the southern landscape and its impact on literature and experience expand the project beyond that of a mere exhibition catalog."

The Story of Art, one of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, has been a world bestseller for over four decades. Attracted by the simplicity and clarity of his writing, readers of all ages and backgrounds have found in Professor Gombrich a true master, and one who combines knowledge and wisdom with a unique gift for communicating his deep love of the subject. For the first time in many years the book has been completely redesigned. The illustrations, now in colour throughout, have all been improved and reoriginated, and include six fold-outs. The text has been revised and updated where appropriate, and a number of significant new artists have been incorporated. The bibliographies have been expanded and updated, and the maps and charts redrawn. The Story of Art has always been admired for two key qualities: it is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to handle. In these respects the new edition is true to its much-loved predecessors: the text runs as smoothly as ever and the improved illustrations are always on the page where the reader needs them. In its new edition, this classic work continues its triumphant progress tirelessly for yet another generation, to remain the title of first choice for any newcomer to art or the connoisseur.