The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern [Paperback]

Carol Strickland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2007

Like music, art is a universal language. Although looking at works of art is a pleasurable enough experience, to appreciate them fully requires certain skills and knowledge." --Carol Strickland, from the introduction to The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern

* This heavily illustrated crash course in art history is revised and updated.

This second edition of Carol Strickland's The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern offers an illustrated tutorial of prehistoric to post-modern art from cave paintings to video art installations to digital and Internet media.

* Featuring succinct page-length essays, instructive sidebars, and more than 300 photographs, The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern takes art history out of the realm of dreary textbooks, demystifies jargon and theory, and makes art accessible-even at a cursory reading.

* From Stonehenge to the Guggenheim and from Holbein to Warhol, more than 25,000 years of art is distilled into five sections covering a little more than 200 pages.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Carol Strickland has a doctorate in American culture from the University of Michigan. She is the Christian Science Monitor's art critic and contributes feature stories on the arts to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Art and Antiques. She is the author of The Annotated Arch: A Crash Course in the History of Architecture, The Illustrated Timeline of Art History, and numerous artists' monographs. Carol lives in New York City and Long Island.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; 2 edition (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740768727
• ISBN-13: 978-0740768729
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Prehistoric & Primitive
  • #10 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Modern

More About the Author

Carol Strickland has a doctorate in American literature and culture from the University of Michigan. She is the Christian Science Monitor's art critic and contributes feature stories on the arts to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Art and Antiques. She is the author of The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern (available in an updated edition), The Annotated Arch: A Crash Course in the History of Architecture, The Illustrated Timeline of Art History, The Illustrated Timeline of Western Literature, and monographs on the artists Paul Waldman and Aris Kalaizis. A former college professor who taught courses on literature, American studies, and writing, she is now completing an historical novel set in 6th-century Byzantium. Her screenplays for feature films have won numerous prizes in prestigious script competitions. Carol lives in New York City and Long Island. Her website is http://www.carolcstrickland.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding resource on art history!, May 27, 2009

By 

Judy K. Polhemus "Book Collector" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern (Paperback)

"The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern" is more than a crash course, a term used for its catchiness. Actually, the book is a synopsis of art history and provides the lay person concise and brief explanations of history, movements, schools, and individual artists and artwork.

I taught art history for several years at the high school level and relied on Janson's History of Art 7th Ed. and Wood's Art of the Western World: From Ancient Greece to Post-Modernism as my personal instructors. Every night I had to slog through pages of information when all I wanted was something concise and to the point. "The Annotated Mona Lisa" would have served me well.

I found this the other day and popped my forehead (as in V-8 commercials) and asked aloud: Why didn't I use this book for my background? Apparently, I bought it then promptly forgot/misplaced/had little time to use it.

Here's why this book will be a companion for anyone interested in teaching him/herself about art history:

1. Five time categories (ex. Prehistoric through Medieval) with very clear subtitles (ex. Mesopotamia: the Architects)

2. Short explanations per topic. For example, two pages are devoted to "Prehistoric Art: The Beginning," with these sub-categories: Sculpture, Cave Painting, First Architecture, Stonehenge: England's first rock group, accompanied by blocked paragraphs about Horse (cave painting), Prehistoric Treasure Trove (Lascaux cave finding), Easter island Monoliths, and photographs of the Venus of Willendorf, Stonehenge, and a horse from the caves.

3. More detail is provided as art progresses. For example, the unit on the Baroque is subdivided into Italian Baroque (3 pages), Flemish (2 pages), Dutch (5 pages), English (3), Spanish Baroque (2), and French (2).

4. To keep the reader grounded, a time line cross-sectioning world events and art history is placed at the beginning of each of the five time categories.

This is one of those must-have books for its brevity and utility. Whether you are learning from the very beginning or need a refresher course, "The Annotated Mona Lisa" will serve you well.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great study book, December 9, 2009

By 

J. Ward (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern (Paperback)

I go to an art college and I'm majoring in art education. I bought this book in order to study for the art history section of my state's standardized test for educators license and it's proved invaluable. I've taken quite a few actual art history classes (mostly surveys of Western Art History) and this book does focuses almost exclusively on Western AH - so if you need information on African Art, Eastern, Pacific Islands, etc....you'll need another book. But this is a great review book that's easy to read (I read 10 pages a day for 20 days to study for the test and it was very very easy) -- especially if you've taken AH courses and just need a refresher.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The History of Art, explained!, April 11, 2010

By 

Olivia James (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern (Paperback)

Carol Strickland has written one of the most entertaining, comprehensive, and comprehensible books on art history currently on the market. Not only does she provide soundbites on the meaning, style, and creation of selected works (which are produced in beautiful, truthful images) she gives information about the lives of the artists. This book is probably one of the most inclusive and up-to-date works on this subject you will find. I have found it extraordinarily helpful in studying for the AP Art History exam and for the class in art history I am taking. (Recommended: reading the book's summary and volunteering your information from it in class.) If you are looking for a book to help you in that test, look no further. Even for those reading the subject merely for fun, Strickland's writing style is easy and fun to read, and bridges the often yawning gap between the art world and the real world. She shows a true gift for taking an overwhelming, sprawling subject and making ordered, objective sense of it.