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A review by jerryw
Art History: A Very Short Introduction by Dana Arnold
4.0
Ok, the title is kind of misleading. This isn't what I expected it to be: a short run through of the history of art. I don't know if I like it or not, but this isn't that. A lot of interesting and thought-provoking things were brought up by Arnold, such as what is art? how to evaluate art? or how we perceive art all differently.
"In particular, there is the idea of art as illusion - what we are really looking at is brushstrokes on canvas; the rest is made up of our cognitive and intellectual processes that give the picture its meaning..."
This book is, weirdly, written with quite a bit of first person's view, or a lot of "I think..." is used, given that it is nonfiction. It is by no means going to inform you about specific things that you might be expecting and Arnold herself did say so clearly in the beginning of the book. Also, I appreciate how she admits that she's biased in the sense that she is usually generalizing about Western art and can't say the same thing about other art (and the very idea of "art" could be something that's just a Western idea).
There's actually quite a few references to philosophy too. She talks about Kant and Hegel but I think the most intriguing points she brought up in reference to art were Marxism and Feminism. Marxism because the style and intention of art is very much related to the classes of people in society and Feminism because a woman's position is really, quite looked down upon in art.
Good informative read, so it's a 4 star.
"In particular, there is the idea of art as illusion - what we are really looking at is brushstrokes on canvas; the rest is made up of our cognitive and intellectual processes that give the picture its meaning..."
This book is, weirdly, written with quite a bit of first person's view, or a lot of "I think..." is used, given that it is nonfiction. It is by no means going to inform you about specific things that you might be expecting and Arnold herself did say so clearly in the beginning of the book. Also, I appreciate how she admits that she's biased in the sense that she is usually generalizing about Western art and can't say the same thing about other art (and the very idea of "art" could be something that's just a Western idea).
There's actually quite a few references to philosophy too. She talks about Kant and Hegel but I think the most intriguing points she brought up in reference to art were Marxism and Feminism. Marxism because the style and intention of art is very much related to the classes of people in society and Feminism because a woman's position is really, quite looked down upon in art.
Good informative read, so it's a 4 star.