Art: A Brief History (4th Edition) [Paperback]

Marilyn Stokstad (Author), Michael W. Cothren (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0136059090 | ISBN-13: 978-0136059097 | Publication Date: October 12, 2009 | Edition: 4th

For courses in Art History, World Art, Art Appreciation.

 

Art: A Brief History provides students with the most student-friendly, contextual, and inclusive art history survey text on the market. The most popular choice for the one-semester survey market, Art: A Brief History is a condensation of the best-seller, Art History. 

 

This new edition of Art: A Brief History is the result of a happy and productive collaboration between two scholar-teachers (Marilyn Stokstad and Michael Cothren) who share a common vision that survey courses on the history of art should be filled with as much enjoyment as erudition, and that they should foster an enthusiastic, as well as an educated, public for the visual arts. 

 

Like its predecessors, this new edition seeks to balance formal and iconographic analysis with contextual art history in order to craft interpretations that will engage a diverse student population.  A such, throughout the text, the visual arts are treated as part of a larger world, in which geography, politics, religion, economics, philosophy, social life, and the other fine arts are related components of a vibrant and cultural landscape.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marilyn Stokstad, teacher, art historian, and museum curator, has been a leader in her field for decades and has served as president of the College Art Association and the International Center of Medieval Art.  In 2002, she was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the National Women’s Caucus for Art.  In 1997, she was awarded the Governor’s Arts Award as Kansas Art Educator of the Year and an honorary degree of doctor of humane letters by Carleton College.  She is Judith Harris Murphy Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Kansas, Lawrence.  She has also served in various leadership capacities at the University’s Spencer Museum of Art and is Consultative Curator of Medieval Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri

 

Michael W. Cothren is Professor of Art History at Swarthmore College, where he has also served as Art Department Chair, Coordinator of Medieval Studies, and Divisional Chair of the Humanities.  Since arriving at Swarthmore in 1978, he has taught specialized courses on Medieval, Roman, and Islamic art and architecture, as well as seminars on theory and method, but he most enjoys teaching the survey to Swarthmore beginners.  His research and publications focus on French Gothic art and architecture, most recently in a book on the stained glass of Beauvais Cathedral entitled Picturing the Celestial City.  Michael is consultative curator of medieval stained glass at the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. He has served on the board of the International Center of Medieval Art and as President both of the American Committee of the International Corpus Vitrearum and of his local school board. When not teaching or engaged in art historical research, you can finding him hiking in the red rocks around Sedona, Arizona.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 4th edition (October 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0136059090
• ISBN-13: 978-0136059097
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Educational and Easy, August 11, 2010

By 

K. Wellman (New York) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Art: A Brief History (4th Edition) (Paperback)

For anyone who needs or wishes to learn about art and design, this book helps. I did a course assignment about greek art, then saw "My Life In Ruins" {movie}. I felt so incredible watching a movie about a place I just read about, and I knew things before the piece was described.

5.0 out of 5 stars Art History book, October 10, 2011

By 

Airwave - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Art: A Brief History (4th Edition) (Paperback)

This book arrived just in time for my second class of art history. It's a beautiful text with a plethora of pictures and wonderful writing.
It was in perfect condition when I received it.

4.0 out of 5 stars ART - A Brief History, August 22, 2011

By 

barry - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Art: A Brief History (4th Edition) (Paperback)

A great 600 page summary of the more comprehensive Art History Book of 1200 Pages book by the same authors. Have both but use the "brief" book at my college classes because the larger 1200 page book is too heavy to carry around the campus. It is a great summary book that makes the point and then I refer to the more comprehensive book later when doing homework at a greater depth.
The "brief" book and the "comprehensive" book have exactly the same chapters so you can refer to one and be sure the same chapter material will be in the "other" book