Customer Reviews

History of Modern Art

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having taken art history in college, I wish this was the addition of Arnason I bought. Kalb is a gifted editor. The original text is streamlined and energized with beautiful new plates. I thought the later chapters that Kalb wrote on contemporary art brought this classic to the 21st century. I bought it again.

I have several big survey-type art books, but this is the best. The pix are great, as you'd expect, but what delights me is how well-written and edited it is. Even though it's a big book, it has to cover a lot of topics, and you can read right along, enjoying the developments, without tripping over the author's use of English. That's getting rare these days.

The only thing I object to is their occasional use of black-and-white photos, especially on pages where they're already printing in color. I guess maybe that saves them a little time when they're proofing the book, but it sure doesn't serve the reader well. With a computer nearby, though it's easy to look up anything they reference, though -- and they mention plenty that they don't have space for, even though the book is almost 2" thick.

This is a fascinating subject, and they present it that way. I had to buy it for a modern-art class, and saved a bunch with a used one.

Oh dear me! I feel I must come to this books rescue. I am not an academic nor am I doing any arts courses.

In 2005 I went to New York, with a friend more knowledgable about art than I, to see the Cezanne and Pissarro exhibition at MoMA. When I arrived back in the UK I was bursting for more knowledge and information about modern art in particular. My husband, who IS an academic, went The Barber Institute Library, Birmingham and brought home half a dozen books for me to decide upon. This book was one of them. I bought several, the above in hardback, it is a physically large book. I have never looked back, it was a joy to read and I did read every word. Nor did I feel it to be a dry, dusty academic book but one written by someone with enthusiasm and a huge amount of knowledge to impart to me. ...."Two deep-rooted convictions underpin Arnason's 'History': first, that understanding art is a matter of fundamental importance; second, that the way to learn about art is to look for yourself....." a quote from the preface to the fifth edition. What I remember most about reading this excellent book was the NEED for all of us to LOOK at art. Then go and look again, and again.

The fifth edition covers painting, sculpture, architecture and photography. So, not only did I learn to LOOK at paintings again I looked anew at sculpture, architecture and photography .... again and again.

I thought this book was exciting and it whetted my appetite for much more!

I lost my old copy of Janson's History of Art, so I took a chance and brought this one. It is very good, similar to Janson 's method of presenting straightforward descriptions of art and artists. There are lots of illustrations and is an excellent book to help you get situated in current art - although if you visit some Chelsea galleries recently, it looks as if contemporary art is going off on a tantrum. I meant to write tangent, but actually tantrum seems to describe the art scene today. But get this book and see what went before. Maybe everything is a tantrum.

Although this review is only of the third edition of this book, it is already a monumental work of artistic scholarship. It covers in a most comprehensive fashion, the history of paintings, sculpture, architecture and for the first time in this edition, has added, photography.

The author's main focus is paintings. His strategy of explanation has been to locate the essence of each new movement, reveal its characteristics to the reader in clear, non-academic prose, and in this he has succeeded beyond the reader's fondest expectation. In each case he attempts to go back to the beginning and then "walks" the reader up through each movement and thus through the ages, covering all of the schools and trends along the way. Although architecture and photography are added on at the end, they nevertheless serve to complete the overall artistic picture.

Beginning with a thorough account of the influential 19th Century academies of art; i.e., the Romantics, the Realists, the Impressionists, and post-impressionists, among others, Arnason provides a detailed analysis of what was accomplished and how the breakthroughs they represented, prepared the way for subsequent innovations such as Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism. The plates are carefully annotated with background situating them properly in the movement that they apply to. All of the artistic giant's entries are presented in full-color glossy prints.

After the Dada period of WW-I, the new emerging anti-war sentiments, with its counter-cultural tinge, were viewed skeptically as unorthodox and the beginning of a generation-long anti-artistic trend. This shocked the art world into stunned acceptance of a new era of almost completely anti-cultural forms of expression. Surrealism took center stage and the young turks of that era -- led by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, etc., reigned until the renaissance of post-WW-II. Since then we have seen the flowering of the modern and post-modern era. Fortunately for the author (and art critics) the artistic parts all fit together and provide one of the surest indexes of the grand movement of cultural history. Five stars

The book was used and was just like new as quoted in the description. I will be using Amazon for my future class books and recommend Amazon highly. I also have to add that I saved $50.00 on a new book and $25.oo on a used book if I had purchased it from the college bookstore.

I bought this book for an online course I'm taking. It arrived on time and in perfect condition. I will definitely be buying all of my books for college from Amazon.com, It's so much cheaper! In the bookstore at my university this would have cost around $120 and I bought it here on amazon for $79!

this textbook of sorts is super informative with great color and black and white pictures of paintings discussed in the readings.

Academic reading and art criticism, well suited for undergraduate and graduate coursework. Dry reading for aficionados, on the bombastic side descriptive. This book speaks to art as a critic would describe the sunset.

Blah blah blah - Good quality blah blah. You know the drill, just BUY IT already!