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Art History

    Art History Editor's Picks

    • How to Cram for an Art History Test

      The art history exam approaches and you have before you books of paintings, each image with a date, artist, medium and school of art. Somehow, all these statistics must be committed to memory. You are going to need clarity, attention to detail, focus, creativity and a little humor to cram in the information and make it stick, at least... more »

    • The Art History of Salvador Dali

      Salvador Dali, an early 20th century Spanish artist, is associated with the Surrealist movement, though it had been founded many years before Dali became a popular artist. Surrealism was concerned with expressing the workings of the unconscious mind and its supposedly superior thought process. more »

    • Mexican Folk Art History

      The history of Mexico's folk art spans more than 2,000 years and has been influenced by numerous cultures. Ancient Mexican art was primarily intended for religious ritual purposes, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. "The Olmec, Zapotec, Toltec, Maya, Mixtec, and other indigenous people of ancient... more »

    • How to Use Press Releases

      In 2004, the Annual Report on American Journalism noted that 54% of Americans read a newspaper on a weekly basis. The number is higher for Sunday newspapers. Businesses, artists and entrepreneurs connect with the media and get their stories printed in magazines, on leading web sites and in newspapers by writing and sending press... more »

    • How to Defend Abstract Art

      You are standing before an abstract painting at a museum with Uncle Bert when he turns to you and says, “a five year old could do that.” Rather than sending your self into a downward spiral of depression by assuming that 99 percent of the people on this earth have no clue about art history, here is your chance to kindly inform. more »

    Art History Quick Guides

    Art History Articles

    • Art History Jobs

      There was a time when getting a degree in art history meant you had great conversation at cocktail parties. Times have changed--there are fewer... more »

    • What is the Study of Art History?

      Essentially, studying art history entails examining artists, art philosophy and works of art. The history aspect pertains not only to learning,... more »

    • How to Become an Art History Teacher

      There is a high demand for art history teachers in colleges around the world. Students need to know the link between the practical application of... more »

    • How to Have a Career in Art History

      Art history is the study of the visual arts and their place in civilization. Art history scholars learn about painting, photography, sculpture,... more »

    • How to Study Art History

      Art history is the study of sculpture, painting, architecture, photography and film throughout the ages. Art history examines the cultural,... more »

    Wikipedia

    Art history

    Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and look."". WordNet Search - 3.0, princeton.edu This includes the "major" arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as the "minor" arts of ceramics, furniture, and other decorative objects. The historical backbone of the discipline is a celebratory chronology of beautiful creations funded by upper class men in western Europe. Such a "canon" remains prominent, as indicated by the selection of objects present in art history textbooks. Nonetheless, since the mid-20th century there has been an effort to re-define the discipline to be more inclusive of non-Western art, art made by women, and vernacular creativity.

    As a term, Art history (also history of art) encompasses several methods of studying the visual arts; in common usage referring to works of art and architecture. Aspects of the discipline overlap. As the art historian Ernst Gombrich once observed, "the field of art history much like Caesars Gaul, divided in three parts inhabited by three different, though not necessarily hostile tribes: (i) the connoisseurs, (ii) the critics, and (iii) the academic art historians".Ernst Gombrich (1996). The Essential Gombrich, p. 7. London: Phaidon Press

    As a discipline, art history is distinguished from art criticism, which is concerned with establishing a relative artistic value upon individual works with respect to others of comparable style, or sanctioning an entire style or movement; and art theory or "philosophy of art", which is concerned with the fundamental nature of art. One branch of this area of study is aesthetics, which includes investigating the enigma of the sublime and determining the essence of beauty. Technically, art history is not these things, because the art historian uses historical method to answer the questions: How did the artist come to create the wor read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art+history

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