Average customer rating:
|
The Oxford History of Western Art
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0192804154 |
Book Description
The Oxford History of Western Art is a unique and authoritative account of 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 takes a fresh look at how the history of art is presented and understood. It uses a carefully devised modular structure to offer readers powerful insights into how and why works of art were created. This is not a simple, linear 'story' of art, but a rich series of stories, told from varying viewpoints. Carefully selected groups of pictures give readers a sense of the visual 'texture' of the periods and movements covered. The 167 illustration groups, supported by explanatory text and captions, create a sequence of 'visual tours' - juxtapositions of significant images that convey a sense of the visual environments in which works of art were produced and viewed. The reader is invited to become an active participant in the process of interpretation. Another key feature is the redefinition of traditional period boundaries. Rather than relying on conventional labels such as Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, etc., five major phases of significant historical change are established that unlock longer and more meaningful continuities: The foundations: Greece and Rome c.600 BC-AD 410 Church and state: The establishing of visual culture 410-1527 The art of nations: European visual regimes 1528-1770 The era of revolutions 1770-1914 Modernism and after 1914-2000 This framework shows how the major religious and secular functions of art have been forged, sustained, transformed, revived, and revolutionized over the ages; how the institutions of church and state have consistently aspired to make art in their own image; and how the rise of art history itself has come to provide the dominant conceptual framework within which artists create, patrons patronize, collectors collect, galleries exhibit, dealers deal, and art historians write. The text has been written by a team of 50 specialist authors working under the direction of Professor Martin Kemp, one of the UK's most distinguished art historians. While bringing their own expertise and vision to their sections, each author has also related their text to a number of unifying themes and issues, including written evidence, physical contexts, patronage, viewing and reception, techniques, gender and race, centres and peripheries, media and condition, the notion of 'art', and current presentations. Though the coverage of topics focuses on European notions of art and their transplantation and transformation in North America, space is also given to cross-fertilizations with other traditions - including the art of Latin America, the Soviet Union, India, Africa, Australia, and Canada. The applied arts and reproductive media such as photography and prints are also covered. The result is a fresh and vibrant account of Western art, which serves both as an inspirational introduction for the general reader and an authoritative source of reference and guidance for students.Customer Reviews:
A step beyond the usual.......2002-09-14
Wonderful images, but a shame about the writing.......2000-11-08
Espousing a new approach to art history which is image based, Kemp has provided us with a text that is filled with glorious reproductions. Alongside the old favourites are many new discoveries, and the inclusion of areas of design and the attention to the history of photography is not just welcome but a breath of fresh air. Yet, there is very little text accompanying the imagery, and a complete lack of architecture.
Why? Kemp and his contributors don't offer an explanation. Where complicated art require an explanation for the uninitiated, the reader is left with little to rely on. This may be due to the fact that Oxford is currently publishing an excellent series of detailed texts on specific periods and ideas (though not all are that good... avoid the volume on Modernism at all costs), but I would think that Kemp's book should be self-sufficient. It isn't.
Most of these large volumes are published with introductary art history classes in mind. As a professor, I look to have material which will enhance my teachings. Kemp fails to provide this. I loved looking through the book, but it would be impossible to teach from this, in that little information is provided for an audience who will be mostly ignorant of that which they're looking at.
Truly, its a beautiful book to look at, and I recommend purchasing it on that basis alone, but don't buy it to read anything substantial. Oxford should think about a second edition quickly if they wish to bite into the market that Gardner, Janson, and Stockstad have established on campuses in this country.
Oxford History of Western Art a must have reference book.......2000-09-20
Kemp and the other contributors describe the age artists lived in, the motivations for their creations and the technical details involved in the creation of different kinds of art. There is the perfect combination of art theory and history and Kemp is careful not to impose modern prejudices and understandings (theory, techniques, world view) on the past.
The particular strength of the book is the Renaissance and its weakness may be a longer than necessary examination of the last 200 years (although, unlike earlier ages, there are more areas to cover with the advent of different kinds of art such as photography and splintering of many styles).
The Oxford History of Western Art is must reading for anyone nominally interested in art, but also religion, history and philosophy. We cannot understand art without understanding the context in which it was created. The flip-side, however, is also true. Our understanding of our world is enhanced when we see it through the eyes of our best artists.
Average customer rating:
|
Landscape and Western Art (Oxford History of Art)
Malcolm Andrews Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0192842331 |
Book Description
What is landscape? How does it differ from 'land'? Does landscape always imply something to be pictured, a scene? When and why did we begin to cherish images of nature? What is 'nature'? Is it everything that isn't art, or artefact? This book explores many fascinating issues raised by the great range of ideas and images of the natural world in Western art since the Renaissance. Using a thematic structure many issues are examined, for instance: landscape as a cultural construct; the relationship between landscape as accessory or backdrop and landscape as the chief subject; landscape as constituted by various practices of framing; the sublime and ideas of indeterminacy; landscape art as picturesque or as exploration of living processes. These issues are raised and explored in connection with Western cultural movements, and within a full international and historical context. Many forms of landscape art are included: painting, gardening, panorama, poetry, photography, and art. The book is designed to both take stock of recent interdisciplinary debates and act as a stimulus to rethinking our assumptions about landscape.Customer Reviews:
Excellent Smart Study.......2007-08-27
Average customer rating:
|
The Dutch Republic : Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall 1477-1806 (Oxford History of Early Modern Europe)
Jonathan Israel Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0198730721 |
Book Description
The `Dutch Golden Age', the age of Grotius, Spinoza, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and a host of other renowned artists and writers was also remarkable for its immense impact in the spheres of commerce, finance, shipping, and technology. It was in fact one of the most spectacularly creative episodes in the history of the world. In this book, Jonathan Israel gives the definitive account of the emergence of the United Provinces as a great power, and explains the subsequent decline in the eighteenth century. He places the thought, politics, religion, and social developments of the Golden Age in their broad context, and examines the changing relationship between the northern Netherlands and the south, which was to develop into modern Belgium. One of the principal aims of the book is to counter the oversimplification which characterizes so much history writing today, and to provide a new type of integrated history which draws the different dimensions of the discipline firmly together in strictly non-technical language.Customer Reviews:
Truly Splendid.......2005-08-12
For all of you Dutch I have only one word "READ !!!!!".......2003-02-10
And so many Dutch that earn the right to be named here, so many founders of our nations. Perhaps to them this is the most honarable a man could ever do to them, since they are all named in the book and how !!! I think about John Van Oldenbarnevelt, Hugo De Groot, John & Cornelius De Witt, Micheal De Ruyter, Rembrandt Van Rijn and last but not least Spinoza !!
An amazing achievement that will set out to be THE standard work about the Republic for years to come.
I have read the Dutch version, and that one is a really special one, seperated in 2 books, hardcover !! And everty page printed on photopaper, beautifully released !!! So when you are Dutch you can beter go to a local bookstore to get the Dutch version, since its simply more beautifull, although the price (about $ 130,- is another thing that can keep you away from it.) is worth it every penny !! You will not be regreted.
For non Dutch people, when you want to come over and tour our little nice country, be sure to read this book from beginning till end and back. It will tell you everything you ever need to know to understand our culture & history.
Flawed but Interesting Book.......2001-08-27
Comprehensive, learned but dull history.......2000-02-13
Not for beginners.......2000-01-27
I learned a lot, which was my goal, but not without some, in my judgment, unnecessary frustration. Too often, Israel assumes that the reader has a much deeper knowledge of the subject matter than I believe is warranted. He frequently makes use of terms and refers to historical characters that are not explained until much later in the text. The organization of the chapters within each section does not help. It would have been better, I think, to begin each section with an overview of political events and follow with broader commentary on Dutch society and religious development, for example. This way the reader could put the latter into the context of the former. Israel does this in his section, "The Early Golden Age", but not with "The Later Golden Age." The narrative flow suffers as a result. Someone more expert in Dutch history would not find this a problem, but if this is to be the definitive and most accessible account of the rise and fall of the Dutch Republic, as the professional critic suggests, then it is a serious flaw.
I have a bias towards maps. I think history books should include a lot of them. They help readers place events. This book could use more, but the real problem here is that the maps Oxford's editors did produce for Israel are of poor quality.
In short, this is a book for the serious student of Dutch history and not for those looking for a good, accessible introduction to the subject. Turn to Israel after reading a book that provides such an introduction.
Average customer rating:
|
Art in Europe 1700-1830 (Oxford History of Art)
Matthew Craske Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0192842064 |
Book Description
Hogarth's pugnaciously xenophobic `Gates of Calais', Giambattista Tiepolo's grandiose murals at Wurzburg, Goya's satirical engravings, Los Caprichos, and Canova's chastely classical sculptures could hardly be more different but all are aspects of the same period. In an era of unprecedented change - rapid urbanization, economic growth, political revolution - artists were in the business of finding new ways of making art, new ways of selling art, and new ways of talking about art. Matthew Craske creates a totally new and vivid picture of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century art in Europe, taking a critical view of such conventional categorizations as the `Rococo', the `Neo-Classical', and the `Romantic'. He engages with crucial thematic issues such as changes in `taste' and `manners' and the impact of enlightenment notions of progress, and at the same time goes well beyond the usual geographical limits of surveys to take in St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Warsaw, and Madrid. The result is a refreshingly holistic survey which sets the art of the period firmly in its social history.Customer Reviews:
Good Historical Overview.......2003-01-25
An excellent art history book.......2000-06-20
Average customer rating: |
Symphonies and Other Orchestral Works: Essays in Musical Analysis (Oxford Paperback Reference)
Donald Francis, Sir Tovey Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items: ASIN: 0193151472 |
Average customer rating: |
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Western Medieval Manuscripts of St John's College, Oxford
Ralph Hanna Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0199202397 |
Book Description
St John's College owns one of the largest collegiate collections of medieval manuscripts in Oxford. Ranging from the early eleventh century to the early sixteenth century, the collection is particularly rich in mid-twelfth-century monastic books. Some are rare, and some are of great beauty. This a detailed and excellent catalogue of a valuable collection, compiled on up-to-date principles. It replaces the monumental work of Henry O. Coxe (1852), and uses materials assembled by the late Jeremy J. Griffiths.
Average customer rating: |
The Kantian Sublime: From Morality to Art (Oxford Philosophical Monographs)
Paul Crowther Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items: ASIN: 0198248482 |
Book Description
With this, the first volume in the Oxford Philosophical Monographs series, Paul Crowther breaks new ground by providing what is probably the first study in any language to be devoted exclusively to Kant's theory of the sublime. It fills a gap in an area of scholarship where Kant makes crucial
Average customer rating:
|
The Oxford Companion to Western Art
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items: ASIN: 0198662033 |
Book Description
This work replaces Harold Osborne's Oxford Companion to Art (1970), which has been continuously in print for thirty years. Though originally commissioned as a new edition of Osborne's book, it is effectively a completely new work, planned and written afresh for new generations of art lovers. Apart from a handful of classic articles by Harold Osborne mainly on aesthetics, and a few others which needed only minor change, the text is entirely new. Unlike Osborne, it focuses on Western art rather than the whole of world art, concentrating primarily on painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts, leaving architecture to be covered separately. With not only a tighter focus but also a greater extent than Osborne's, the new Companion offers far deeper coverage of the subject than previously; it includes many more artists and their works, and also pays proper attention to new topics of interest focused on patronage, taste, theory and criticism, materials and techniques, and the new art history. There are over 2600 entries, alphabetically arranged. Almost half of them cover artists, from classical times to the twentieth century. Other entries discuss art styles and movements, art forms (such as battle painting, landscape, caricature, or stained glass), specialist terms, and materials and techniques in all media. There is strong emphasis on location as a focus for art: not only are there regional and cultural surveys, but also entries on specific places of importance such as Paris or Urbino; and, in addition, entries on museums and galleries are arranged under the their city headword so that the reader can easily survey the major sites within a particular locality, such as New York, Boston, or Madrid. Patronage receives imaginative treatment: here, rather than focusing on a limited number of individual patrons, the Companion has entries on towns and cities as centres of patronage and collecting - such as Nuremberg, Dresden, or Prague. In addition, there is a novel series of entries on the critical fortunes of the art of the major European countries, covering, for example, patronage and collecting of Italian art in France, Spain, Britain, Germany and Central Europe, the USA, and in Italy itself. A further category of entry covers topics in the theory of art, such as iconography, perspective, and synaesthesia; and there is wide-ranging coverage too of art scholarship and criticism from Aristotle and Pausanius to Sartre, Panofsky, and Michel Foucault. All this is supplemented by entries on general topics as varied as reproduction, anatomy, guilds and confraternities, frames, and the conservation and restoration of paintings and sculpture. This is a work for everyone who loves art, whether actively engaged in the subject professionally or as one of the countless amateurs visting sites and cities, galleries, and exhibitions, churches, libraries, country houses, and palaces in pursuit of beauty and cultural enrichment.Customer Reviews:
Everything You've Wanted to Know about Jean de Marville.......2006-03-11
extremely helpful companion.......2003-11-25
Average customer rating: |
Oxford History of Western Art
Martin Kemp Manufacturer: EASTON PRESS ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000UDJBYS |
Average customer rating: |
The Oxford History of Western Art
Manufacturer: Easton Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Leather Bound ASIN: B000FW3W6C |
Product Description
leather bound book is accented in 22kt. gold.Books:
Recommended Books