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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just for art's sake..., May 17, 2003
Art of the Western World, from Ancient Greece to Post-Modernist art, is covered admirably in this companion volume to the PBS series of the same name. Perhaps one of the reasons I find this book so interesting is that I have met the authors, as Bruce Cole and Adelheid Gealt are both part of the Art programmes here at Indiana University, and the book is dedicated to Herman Wells, recently deceased, but powerful administrator who built in his 50 years of work with the university an Ivy-League-like atmosphere and, for many departments and schools, reputation.The text is beautifully illustrated, with full-colour plates and glossy photographs of paintings, sculpture, stained glass, furniture, jewelry and architecture on every page. This is also a comprehensive volume of Western art - chapters include the art of Greece, Rome, Christian Art (including a special chapter devoted to cathedrals), Renaissance art (with special chapters on Italian and Dutch art), eighteenth and nineteenth century art, and then several chapters on modern artistic movements from Impressionism forward. This book is clear in writing and procedure - it avoids technical jargon whenever possible, and is good at explaining the necessary elements to increase appreciation of the art being shown. Often, a true appreciation of art requires a knowledge of the history and culture of the artists, and this volume provides some of the background to fill in the historical gaps. `Our art is part of us; in it flows the spiritual and intellectual lifeblood which still nourishes and sustains our ancient civilisation. It is also a living, redemptive force in an age that has witnessed the madness and destruction which is also, unfortunately, our Western heritage. Art can embody and transcend both its creators and its times to reveal enduring truths about the human condition; the more we understand art, the more we understand ourselves and the complexities of our world.' The volume features an introductory essay by Michael Wood, who served as the on-screen narrator of the PBS television series. Wood, a journalist, historian and filmmaker, is also author of the best-selling In Search of the Trojan War. In this essay, Wood argues that the tradition of Western art is not simply a tradition, but a series of complementary traditions that cross-pollinate with cultural, religious, and aesthetic differences. The flows toward and away from realism over time can often be explained in cultural-influence terms as well as aesthetic terms. He also asks the question, `Whither the future for Western art?' `There are more working artists and more consumers of art than ever before. As a business, art is booming. But it is plain now, with the spread of an electronic global culture, that we face the prospect of the erosion of all differences, the prospect of great conformity and simplification.... Now, with modernism, the West has become a state of mind, rather than a geographical region, and is perceived as such by other cultures-Islam, Africa, India, and the rest-who have felt its often destructive impact.' This is a fair warning, but this book by no means belittles the achievements and influence of Western art - it celebrates it gloriously, and looks forward to continuing developments and achievements, as the future may hold yet more creation and originality - while the West influences the rest of the world, the rest of the world is influencing the West, which throughout history has shown itself particularly susceptible to original influences from out.
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