Book Description
One of the most complete references ever published for instant access to the world's great art! More than just the usual survey of Western art, ART captures the great artists, art movements, and cultures from all over the world. Filled with scores of gorgeous, oversized, full-color reproductions, readers will find over 500 pages of artists and their works, conveniently arranged from A to Z for quick and easy use. For those searching for detailed information, ART does not disappoint. It delivers comprehensive overviews highlighting the influences, art movements, and artists who followed them-all cross-referenced for easy searching. Readers will find extensive discussions on Western styles of art, as well as those from around the world, including the Far East, South America, Australia, and Africa. They will also discover a comprehensive glossary of terms defining the various art schools and movements, timelines covering both the major paintings of each period and the cultural context of the period, and more. Plus, a special section, "Methods and Techniques," offers broad descriptions of various art methods-for example, how the Impressionists attempted to convey light in a different way than their predecessors, or the way Turner created sublime movements of passion and beauty with his sweeping, expressionistic brushstrokes. For art lovers everywhere, ART is an unrivaled source of history, beauty, and culture-and one of the most complete references of the world's greatest works of art.
About the Author
Robert Belton taught history and aesthetic theory at the University of Western Ontario and at McMaster's University. He is currently the associate dean of arts at Okanagan University College in Kelowna, British Columbia. Belton is the author of The Beribboned Bomb: The Image of Women in Male Surrealist Art, and Sights of Resistance: Approaches to Canadian Visual Culture. He lives in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Art: The World of Art, from Aboriginal to American Pop, Renaissance Masters to Postmodernism FROM THE PUBLISHER
This new book, Art, covers the entire range of painted art from the thirteenth century to the modern day, reaching through the cradle of European discovery and the dynamo of North American art to traditional forms in the Far and Middle East. This unique approach and the powerful, arresting visual appeal of the wonderful paintings within provide a breathtaking degree of richness and diversity, unmatched by any comparable title. The core section is the A-Z by artist, giving equal prominence to traditional and modern artists from every part of the world. Each entry offers essential information about the artist, including influences, key works, and associated artists.
SYNOPSIS
Here's a fun, unusual art reference, nicely produced with several hundred good, page-size reproductions. What's unusual is the arrangement. Extended, in-depth essays on modern art, on painting techniques, and on world art precede a section of timelines. Then, about 25 art movements are profiled in one-page entries consisting of a representative painting and a few paragraphs of text. Finally, arranged alphabetically by name, similar profiles of about 50 individual artists, traditional and modernist and from all parts of the world, each include a painting and a capsule summary. So, browsers can have a ball with the visual impact of a painting by post Impressionist Toulouse-Lautrec juxtaposed with one by Australian Aborigini painter Tjapaltjarri, for example. Art historian and general editor Belton is affiliated with Okanagan University College in British Columbia. Christopher Rothko (son of artist Mark Rothko) provides the foreword. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Phaidon's The Art Book-with its simple one-image-per-page-per-artist layout and alphabetical organization-has given rise to many imitators but perhaps none as blatant and flawed as this work. In strictly quantitative terms, there are fewer than 370 artists represented (compared with 500 in The Art Book). Most of the choices are predictable and worthy, with a few quirks thrown in-there seems to have been an attempt to give greater weight than usual to artists from Commonwealth countries like Canada, where Belton has taught art history at various universities. The examples chosen to represent each artist are sometimes a bit harder to understand, though the vast majority seems to have been selected from the offerings of Christie's Images archives. More disappointing, the reproductions are not crisp. The book's most damning feature, however, is the jumble of essays and timelines that fills the first 130 pages. The mix includes Christopher Rothko on his famous father, an essay on modern art that is longer than the essay on all other art movements combined, a manifesto on "World Art" that seems entirely out of place in such an introductory book, and a section titled "Art Movements A-Z" that places the three-person Canadian artists collective General Idea on a par with Cubism. Not recommended.-Eric Bryant, "Library Journal" Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Art & Photography
Book Info
