Arthur Efland puts current debate and concerns in a well-researched historical perspective. He examines the institutional settings of art education throughout Western history, the social forces that have shaped it, and the evolution and impact of alternate streams of influence on present practice.A History of Art Education is the first book to treat the visual arts in relation to developments in general education. Particular emphasis is placed on the 19th and 20th centuries and on the social context that has affected our concept of art today. This book will be useful as a main text in history of art education courses, as a supplemental text in courses in art education methods and history of education, and as a valuable resource for students, professors, and researchers. “The book should become a standard reference tool for art educators at all levels of the field.” —The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism “Efland has filled a gap in historical research on art education and made an important contribution to scholarship in the field.” —Studies in Art Education

History as Art, Art as History pioneers methods for using contemporary works of art in the social studies and art classroom to enhance an understanding of visual culture and history. The fully-illustrated interdisciplinary teaching toolkit provides an invaluable pedagogical resource—complete with theoretical background and practical suggestions for teaching U.S. history topics through close readings of both primary sources and provocative works of contemporary art. History as Art, Art as History is an experientially grounded, practically minded pedagogical investigation meant to push teachers and students to think critically without sacrificing their ability to succeed in a standards-driven educational climate. Amid the educational debate surrounding rigid, unimaginative tests, classroom scripts, and bureaucratic mandates, this innovative book insists on an alternate set of educational priorities that promotes engagement with creative and critical thinking. Features include: A thought-provoking series of framing essays and interviews with contemporary artists address the pivotal questions that arise when one attempts to think about history and contemporary visual art together. An 8-page, full color insert of contemporary art, plus over 50 black and white illustrations throughout. A Teaching Toolkit covering major themes in U.S. history provides an archive of suggested primary documents, plus discussion suggestions and activities for putting theory into practice. Teaching activities keyed to the social studies and art curricula and teaching standards Resources include annotated bibliographies for further study and lists of arts and media organizations. This sophisticated yet accessible textbook is a must-read resource for any teacher looking to draw upon visual and historical texts in their teaching and to develop innovative curriculum and meaningful student engagement.

The first volume in the series Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and the Arts offers a range of responses by distinguished philosophers and art historians to some crucial issues generated by the relationship between the art object and language in art history. Each of the chapters in this volume is a searching response to theoretical and practical questions in terms accessible to readers of all human science disciplines. The editors, one a philosopher and one an art historian, provide an introductory chapter which outlines the themes of the volume and explicates the terms in which they are discussed. The contributors open new avenues of enquiry involving concepts of 'presence', 'projective properties', visual conventions and syntax, and the appropriateness of figurative language in accounting for visual art. The issues they discuss will challenge the boundaries to thought that some contemporary theorising sustains.

Through a series of cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary interventions, leading international scholars of history and art history explore ways in which the study of images enhances knowledge of the past and informs our understanding of the present. Spanning a diverse range of time periods and places, the contributions cumulatively showcase ways in which ongoing dialogue between history and art history raises important aesthetic, ethical and political questions for the disciplines. The volume fosters a methodological awareness that enriches exchanges across these distinct fields of knowledge. This innovative book will be of interest to scholars in art history, cultural studies, history, visual culture and historiography.

Historians and art historians provide a critique of existing methodologies and an interdisciplinary inquiry into seventeenth-century Dutch art and culture.

DIV Fictions of Art History, the most recent addition to the Clark Studies in the Visual Arts series, addresses art history’s complex relationships with fiction, poetry, and creative writing. Inspired by a 2010 conference, the volume examines art historians’ viewing practices and modes of writing. How, the contributors ask, are we to unravel the supposed facts of history from the fictions constructed in works of art? How do art historians employ or resist devices of fiction, and what are the effects of those choices on the reader? In styles by turns witty, elliptical, and plain-speaking, the essays in Fictions of Art History are fascinating and provocative critical interventions in art history. /div

The present volume gathers together a selection of the editorials, articles, conference papers and essays, though which he has furthered his own attempts to renew art history and participated in those of others. They reflect the influence of many personal contacts built up during three decades of teaching and lecturing in many countries in Europe, America, Asia and Australia. Contents: Theory. Art history, Kunstgeschichte and historia Art and ritual. The biological connection Architecture, metaphor and the mind I wonder. . . A short history of amazement World Art Studies and the need for a new natural history of art; Architecture and painting: the biological connection Inside the brain: looking for the roots of art history Gombrich and the biological explanation of art Prehistory. The origins of art The biological and geographical bases of cultural borders: the case of the earliest Palaeolithic art Ancient world. From the double crown to the double pediment Tabernacle and Temple and the Cosmos of the Jews War, mathematics and art in Classical Greece Idea and product: potter and philosopher in Classical Athens The Greek temple and the Greek brain Quintilian and the idea of Roman art Abstraction and imagination in Late Antiquity Renaissance. Alberti and Filarete Brunelleschi: humanist or nationalist Leon Battista Alberti: the problem of personal and urban identity How to listen to Renaissance art The biological basis of Renaissance aesthetics Alberti and the neuropsychology of style China. Chinese painting in the Twentieth Century and in the context of World Art Studies The Nature of art in Lin Fengmian's China: a neuropsychological perspective Additional Notes Index.

Why is something a masterpiece? Art History 101 . . . Without the Exams is about revisiting famous works of art that we may have studied in an art history class or seen in a textbook. Each discussion delves into one great masterpiece and asks the questions that help us understand how it has shaped history. What is the piece about? How did the original owner look at this piece? Where was it originally placed? Why is it in this museum now? How did it get famous? From the sixth-century mosaics of Ravenna and the painted bulls of Altamira, Spain, dated 12,500 BCE, to an incense burner from twelfth-century Seljuk Iran, frescoes from a Late Byzantine funerary chapel, and masterworks by Botticelli, Caravaggio, Monet, and Sargent, this book shows readers how to look closely. It welcomes us to the joy of art history—but without the papers, notes, and exams.

Find original research and interpretive studies of the relations between homosexuality and the visual arts. Evidence for the role of homosexuality in artistic creation has often not survived, in part because the direct expression of homosexuality has often been condemned in Western societies. Gay and Lesbian Studies in Art History presents examples of contemporary art historical research on homoeroticism and homosexuality in the visual arts (chiefly painting and sculpture) of the Western tradition from the ancient to the modern periods. Chapters explore the dynamic interrelation of sexuality and visual art and emphasize problems of historical evidence and interpretation and the need to reconstruct social and cultural realities sometimes quite different from our own.Gay and Lesbian Studies in Art History addresses contemporary art historians’interest in studying sexuality in the visual arts, examining such questions as: What are some of the present-day reasons for, and problems of, this research? How is it related to other research areas within art history and to wider public debates about the meaning, value, and propriety of works of art? While the book examines a variety of research problems and theoretical perspectives, most chapters focus on the historical interpretation of a particular work of art, artist, or visual convention. Chapters present new documentation of the importance of homosexuality in the production and reception of artworks in the Western tradition, develop models for approaching the question of how sexuality and visual creation are related, and explore researchers’experiences and obligations in working in the area of gay and lesbian studies in art history today.Contributing authors stress problems of historical evidence and reconstruction; the social and cultural construction of homosexuality; and the active role of visual conventions in shaping perceptions of homosexuals, homosexuality, and homosexual desire. They discuss both the biography of artists and the significance of individual works of art and the social reception and circulation of works of art in the context of wider religious, legal, medical, political, and economic relations. The book may revise readers’beliefs about the significance and value of a number of works of art hitherto forgotten, neglected, under-appreciated, or misinterpreted. Gay and Lesbian Studies in Art History is an enlightening and informative book for art historians, museum professionals, scholars in the field of lesbian and gay studies, and art history students and professors.