Art History Book Suggestions

May 28, 2020 2:37 PM

I want to learn more about art history, and require your book recommendations. Assume I have a base level of knowledge (I've been to some museums here in the US and in Europe and took the audio tours, etc.), so something akin to a college-level textbook (though it doesn't need to be one). If you need more particulars, I'd probably prefer something about art history over a variety of periods vs. diving deeply into one. I'd also love for it to encompass art globally, but Western art would be were I'd concentrate if I had to narrow down the scale. What are your suggestions?
posted by po822000 to Education (13 answers total)

when I studied undergraduate art history the introductory survey Western Art textbook, which I recall being good and beautiful, was Janson's History of Art. You can get a used copy for cheap on abebooks. I can't imagine that it matters much which edition.
posted by fingersandtoes at 2:40 PM on May 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich was recommended by a tutor on a history of art course I did years back.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 3:02 PM on May 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

Less academic and more gossip but Vasari's The Lives of The Artists is just the best.
posted by saladin at 3:12 PM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

What a fun personal project! I 2nd Janson's History of Art, it was also my intro textbook.

There are a lot of cool online resources, too:
Here's a nice list of intro art history classes you can take online for free.

All of the Sister Wendy PBS specials are available on YouTube.

If your library offers access to Kanopy, you can also take Great Courses: How To Look At and Understand Great Art for free. It's a complete college Intro to Art History class with 36 lectures and supplementary materials. Heavily focused on Western/European art tho.
posted by apparently at 3:30 PM on May 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

Came in to recommend the same Great Courses How to Look and Understand Great Art mentioned by apparently. I watched it last year through Kanopy, and I thought the lecturer was very, very good. The first half of the course is how to really look at and think about what you are seeing. The second part is more of an historical survey of Western/European art.
posted by AMyNameIs at 5:37 PM on May 28, 2020

Hi, art history major here so forgive me if this isn't quite what you're looking for - for an understanding of modern art through the 20th century, I highly recommend The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes. (It was also a BBC TV series, if that sort of thing appeals.) It's an in-depth look at Western art from Impressionism onward. I read it for a seminar, but kept it for many years just as an attractive art book.
posted by Otter_Handler at 6:09 PM on May 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

I found H. H. Arnason’s History of Modern Art helpful.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:12 PM on May 28, 2020

I've enjoyed everything I've ever read by Craig Clunas. For your purposes, I would recommend his Chinese Painting and its Audiences. He also has a bunch of lecture videos posted on the Gresham College website.
posted by mustard seeds at 7:13 PM on May 28, 2020

I dislike Janson: dull. For a decent overview art history textbook, 'Stokstad & Cothren'.

For a nice dippin toes into the wide world of fine arts, 'The Art Book' by Phaidon is pretty fascinating.
posted by ovvl at 7:14 PM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've taught a bunch of 1st year art history courses. I really recommend Art History by Marilyn Stockstad and Michael W. Cothren. Art history is a living work in progress...it's always changing... and this book really helps bring to life that dynamic aspect of the study of art history itself. It's very up-to-date for a text book that gives such a broad overview. Plus, it's really well organized for various levels of browsing/reading and there are tons of great images. It has a global scope, with a subtle emphasis on the Western narrative. This textbook costs a lot of money new (about the same as Janson), but if you snoop around you can probably get a used version fairly cheap. I can vouch that the 2012 version is just as good as the 2020 version. (All this said, I'm not a huge fan of Pearson, who publish the book, because they try and push their own "courses" which miss most of the critical subtleties and historical nuances in the text, steer clear of that stuff.)
posted by aunt_winnifred at 7:17 PM on May 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Gombrich’s The Story of Art was my introduction to art history so I naturally assume it is still the best introduction to art history, even if that was 30 years ago.

I recently read Robert Hughes’ Shock of the New, which Otter_Handler described, and I enjoyed that. You can watch the TV series on YouTube (episode 1) - while I like Hughes’ writing I love his speaking. See also the one-off update episode he made later.
posted by fabius at 12:51 AM on May 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

While I’m on YouTube (I know you’re after books but I find TV documentaries about art can be really good; the mediums seem well suited in the right hands)...

I really like Matthew Collings’ documentaries about modern art. Here are the first episodes from three series, This is Modern Art, The Rules of Abstraction and Impressionism: Revenge of the Nice.
posted by fabius at 12:57 AM on May 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

In addition to a couple of basic art history surveys, consider the following:

Mary Anne Staniszewski, Believing is Seeing: Creating the Culture of Art. An accessible if sometimes too succinct overview of how the modern western idea of "art" came into being, including the culture of museums and galleries.

Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-century Italy. A classic study of what Renaissance Italian art that examines how the patrons and viewers of paintings thought of them and their creators.
posted by brianogilvie at 9:21 AM on May 30, 2020