Synopses & Reviews
Focusing on the dynamic connections between art history and real life, this introductory survey of Western art history introduces readers to the complexity of issues and approaches that characterize the discipline today in a unique, multi-perspective anthology that covers everything from the power of images to shape the way we know things, to the political and policy debates about the place of the arts in our society. Pairs short readings of contrasting views on specific issues and themes in art history, helping readers think critically about differences in interpretations and approaches, and realize that in our increasingly visual world, art history is a vital discipline that is closely tied to the most challenging debates in other disciplines and in society at large—including post-modernism, feminism, “political correctness” , multi-culturalism, and censorship. Features readings from many diverse contributors with different backgrounds and experiences—including critics, literary scholars, political figures, journalists, and art historians. Separates readings into classical, medieval, renaissance and baroque, and modern periods. For art historians and general readers interested in a contemporary and dynamic study of the history of Western art and visual studies.
Synopsis
Critical Perspectives on Art History introduces the complexity of issues and critical debates that characterize art history today:
- Presents themes including postmodernism, feminist theory, gender and racial stereotypes, "political correctness," multiculturalism, and censorship
- Provides a wide range of authors/critics, literary scholars, art historians, and journalists
- Contrasts different points of view and perspectives
- Encourages critical analysis and debate
- Reflects the dynamic force of art in our lives
Synopsis
Critical Perspectives on Art History introduces the complexity of issues and critical debates that characterize art history today:
- Presents themes including postmodernism, feminist theory, gender and racial stereotypes, "political correctness," multiculturalism, and censorship
- Provides a wide range of authors/critics, literary scholars, art historians, and journalists
- Contrasts different points of view and perspectives
- Encourages critical analysis and debate
- Reflects the dynamic force of art in our lives
Table of Contents
I. CLASSICAL. 1. Democracy and the Greek Ideal.
Introduction to The Greek Miracle: Classical Sculpture from the Dawn of Democracy, Nicholas Gage. The Masterpiece Road Show, Robert Hughes. Introduction to The Reign of the Phallus, Eva C. Keuls. 2. The Parthenon and Patrimony.
Keeping Our Marbles, Gavin Stamp. 1986 Speech to Oxford Union, Melina Mercouri. 3. The Classical Tradition.
What Is Classicism?, Michael Greenhalgh. Classicism as Power, Henri Zerner. 4. Portraits and Politics.
How to Read a Roman Portrait, Sheldon Nodleman. Political Images: Public Relations, Advertising, and Propaganda, Ann Marie Seward Barry.
II. MEDIEVAL. 5. The Gothic Cathedral.
The Meaning of Gothic, James Snyder. In the Margins of the Cathedral, Michael Camille. 6. Iconoclasm, Vandalism and Fear of Images.
Idolatry and Iconoclasm, David Freedberg. Disputed Madonna Painting in Brooklyn Is Defaced, Robert D. McFadden. 7. Iconography.
Jan van Eyck, Erwin Panofsky. Introduction: Iconography, Texts, and Audiences, Brendan Cassidy. Prologue to Worldly Goods, Lisa Jardine. 8. Anti-Semitism and Stereotypes.
Anti-Semitism in Medieval Art, Henry Kraus. Introduction to White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture, Jan Nederveen Pieterse.
III. RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE. 9. The Renaissance Portrait.
Women in Frames: The Gaze, the Eye, the Profile in Renaissance Portraiture, Patricia Simons. Renaissance Images and Ideals, Bruce Cole. 10. The Female Nude.
The Naked and the Nude, Kenneth Clark. Ways of Seeing, John Berger. 11. Viewing Michelangelo's David .
The Male Nude: Identity and Denial, Richard Leppert. Florence: The Renewed Republic and the Return of the Medici, John T. Paoletti and Gary M. Radke. 12. Women Artists.
Women and Art during the Renaissance, Paola Tinagli. Sexist Texts Boycotted: Interview with H.W. Janson, Eleanor Dickinson. My Case for the New Sexism, Camille Paglia. 13. Northern Art vs. Italian Art.
The Mean and Measure of All Things, Martin Kemp. Art History and Its Exclusions: The Example of Dutch Art, Svetlana Alpers.
IV. MODERN. 14. Gender and Representation.
Virility and Domination in Early Twentieth Century Vanguard Painting, Carol Duncan. How Do Women Look? The Female Nude in the Work of Suzanne Valadon, Rosemary Betterton. 15. Modernist Architecture.
Social Imagination, Sigfried Giedion. Trouble in Utopia, Robert Hughes. 16. Art and Popular Culture.
The Varnedoe Debacle: MOMA's New “Low,” Hilton Kramer. Art and Culture Today, Mary Anne Staniszewski. 17. Postmodernist Art.
Introduction to Art of the Postmodern Era, Irving Sandler. Excellence and Postexcellence, Darby Bannard. Questions for Jeff Koons; Puppy Love, Deborah Solomon.
V. THE INSTITUTIONS OF ART. 18. Censorship.
Against the Male Flood: Censorship, Pornography, and Equality, Andrea Dworkin. The Sex Panic and the Feminist Split, Nadine Strossen. The Female Nude: Pornography, Art, and Sexuality, Lynda Nead. 19. Public Funding for the Arts.
To Earn Subsidies, Must Art Be Useful? Must It Be Sweet?, Paul Goldberger. What to Do about the Arts, Joseph Epstein. 20. The Museum.
Art Museum as Ritual, Carol Duncan. The Assault on the Museums, Hilton Kramer. The Divided House of the American Art Museum, Neil Harris. 21. Culture Wars and the Canon.
The Multicultural Challenge, Dinesh D'Sousa. What Is the Canon?, Gill Perry. Mapping, Lucy Lippard. 22. The Art History Course.
What Are They Doing to Art History?, Scott Heller. Introduction to Tenured Radicals, Roger Kimball. Afterword.