Books, Journals, Web & Film
Art and Politics: A small history of art for social change since 1945 by Call Number: MTL Main Coll. 701.03 MESISBN: 9781848851108Publication Date: 2013Contemporary art is increasingly concerned with swaying the opinions of its viewer. To do so, the art employs various strategies to convey a political message. This book provides readers with the tools to decode and appreciate political art, a crucial and understudied direction in post-war art. From the postwar works of Pablo Picasso and Alexander Deineka to the Border Film Project and web-based works of Beatriz da Costa, Art and Politics: a Small History of Art for Social Change since 1945 considers how artists visual or otherwise have engaged with major political and grassroots movements, particularly after 1960. With its broad definition of the political, this book features chapters on post colonialism, feminism, the anti-war movement, environmentalism, gay rights and anti-globalization. It charts how individual artworks reverberated with enormous ideological shifts. While emphasizing the West,Art and Politics takes global developments into account as well - looking at art production practiced by postcolonial African, Latin American and Middle Eastern artists. Its case-study approach to the subject provides the reader with an overview of a most complex subject. This book will also challenge its readers to consider often devalued and marginalized political artworks as properly part of the history of modern and contemporary art.
Art Beyond Borders: Artistic exchange in communist Europe (1945-1989) [e-version] by ISBN: 9633860830Publication Date: 2015With 36 contributions by scholars from 14 countries, the present volume gathers an unusually high number of texts as a result of a collaborative process over several years. Most of them are case studies of a single artist, an image, an exhibition, or an encounter. Tile project was conceived as a kaleidoscopic research undertaking with the purpose of accounting for the heterogeneity of the historical material and to reflect the diversity of the academic community writing on art history across present-day Europe. The volume highlights the fluctuation of exchanges in the visual arts during the Cold War period, thanks to in depth contextualized analysis, paying particular at-tem ion to the discrepancy between the production and the reception of art. It offers a reflection on the historical sources available, the issue of languages, and the various geographical levels. It innovates a geographical narrative of shifting realities and expanding borders and abandons any kind of archetypal map. Academic publications on both the capitalist and communist: side have shown the relevance or distinct universalizing ideologies. As a consequences, a large part of the art involved in exchanges that actually occurred has become mutually invisible. The authors scrutinized all tendencies of the art scent, without isolating the avant-garde from socialist realists, but tracking their coexistence at the heart of communist movements. Book jacket.
Art from the Trenches: America's Uniformed Artists in World War I [e-version] by ISBN: 9781623492021Publication Date: 2015Since ancient times, wars have inspired artists and their patrons to commemorate victories. When the United States finally entered World War I, American artists and illustrators were commissioned to paint and draw it. These artists' commissions, however, were as captains for their patron: the US Army. The eight men--William J. Aylward, Walter J. Duncan, Harvey T. Dunn, George M. Harding, Wallace Morgan, Ernest C. Peixotto, J. Andre Smith, and Harry E. Townsent--arrived in France early in 1918 with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). Alfred Emile Cornebise presents here the first comprehensive account of the US Army art program in World War I. The AEF artists saw their role as one of preserving images of the entire aspect of American involvement in a way that photography could not.
Critical Approaches to Ancient near Eastern Art [e-version] by ISBN: 9781614510352Publication Date: 2013This volume assembles more than 30 articles focusing on the visual, material, and environmental arts of the Ancient Near East. Specific case studies range temporally from the fourth millennium up to the Hellenistic period and geographically from Iran to the eastern Mediterranean. Contributions apply innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to archaeological evidence and critically examine the historiography of the discipline itself. Not intended to be comprehensive, the volume instead captures a cross-section of the field of Ancient Near Eastern art history as its stands in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The volume will be of value to scholars working in the Ancient Near East as well as others interested in newer art historical and anthropological approaches to visual culture.
Rattling Spears: A history of Indigenous Australian art by Call Number: BUN Main Coll. 704.039915 MCL / MTL Main Coll. 704.039915 MCLISBN: 9781780235905Publication Date: 2016Large, bold, and colorful, indigenous Australian art--sometimes known as Aboriginal art--has made an indelible impression on the contemporary art scene. But it is controversial, dividing the artists, purveyors, and collectors from those who smell a scam. Whether the artists are victims or victors, there is no denying the impact of their work in the media, on art collectors and the art world at large, and on our global imagination. How did Australian art become the most successful Indigenous form in the world? How did its artists escape the ethnographic and souvenir markets to become players in an art market to which they had historically been denied access? Beautifully illustrated, this full stunning account not only offers a comprehensive introduction to this rich artistic tradition, but also makes us question everything we have been taught about contemporary art.
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Art BulletinThe Art Bulletin publishes leading scholarship in the English language in all aspects of art history as practiced in the academy, museums, and other institutions. From its founding in 1913, the journal has published, through rigorous peer review, scholarly articles and critical reviews of the highest quality in all areas and periods of the history of art. Articles take a variety of methodological approaches, from the historical to the theoretical. In its mission as a journal of record, The Art Bulletin fosters an intensive engagement with intellectual developments and debates in contemporary art-historical practice.
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Art HistoryArt History is an international forum for peer-reviewed scholarship and innovative research. Founded in 1978, the journal publishes essays, critical reviews, and special issues that engage with path-breaking new developments and critical debate in current art-historical practice. Art History covers all kinds of art and visual culture across all time periods and geographical areas.
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Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual CultureCritical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture is a forum for advanced research and writing that investigates African and African Diaspora art and cultural identities in the age of globalization. As an arena for rethinking African art history and interrogating the value of African art and cultural knowledge in the global economy and how that knowledge is transmitted, Critical Interventions is particularly interested in the politics of the commodification of African artworks and of their reception. The journal also inaugurates a formal discourse on the aesthetics, politics and economics of African cultural patrimony as it affects African ownership of the intellectual property rights of its indigenous systems of knowledge and cultural practices.
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Textile HistoryTextile History is an internationally recognised, peer reviewed journal and one of the leading publications in its field. It is viewed as an important outlet for current research. Published in the spring and autumn of each year, its remit has always been to facilitate the publication of high-quality research and discussion in all aspects of scholarship arising from the history of textiles and dress.
Since its foundation the scope of the journal has been substantially expanded to include articles dealing with aspects of the cultural and social history of apparel and textiles, as well as issues arising from the exhibition, preservation and interpretation of historic textiles or clothing
Art themes & movements
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Themes at Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
Art Essays and blogs
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbronn Timeline of Art History.
Select by time period or geographical region or theme
Art history documentaries
How to describe, analyse and interpret artworks
Original source is Barrett, T. (1994). Criticizing art: Understanding the Contemporary. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company
Check out our films on Art History.
A brief selection follows:
Reveals how the first big artistic discoveries were made and how they have cascaded down the centuries to define the look of the present day. Encompassing everything from cave paints to ceramics and pyramids to palaces, this film explores the global trend for unrealistic depictions of the human body; the secret powers of the feature film; how politicians manage to manipulate people so easily; visions of the afterlife; and why we use imagery at all.
This is an exceptional look at Australia's rich history of art, from Colonial art to Nationalism, Modernism to the Modern Movement through to the Abstract Movement and beyond. Featuring hundreds of examples of the genuine artworks and a comprehensive set of support notes, this is an essential educational tool for students of Art History and practice in one comprehensive package.
This award-winning series reveals the full and fascinating stories behind famous works of art, not just how they came to be created, but also how they influenced others and came to have a life of their own in the modern world. The works of art featured here are both instantly familiar and profoundly mysterious. Revolutionary in their conception, and iconic years after their execution, they each have their own compelling stories. For behind the beautiful canvases and sculptures are tales of political revolution, wartime escapes, massive ego clashes, social scandal, financial wrangling and shocking violence.