The Methodologies Of Art: An Introduction - Softcover

Adams, Laurie Schneider

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0064302318 ISBN 13: 9780064302319

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

Since the 19th century, when art history became an established academic discipline, works of art have been “read” in a variety of ways. These different ways of describing and interpreting art are the methodologies of artistic analysis, the divining rods of meaning.

Regardless of a work's perceived difficulty, an art object is, in theory, complex. Every work of art is an expression of its culture (time and place) and its maker (the artist) and is dependent on its media (what it's made of). The methodologies discussed here—formal analysis, iconology and iconography, Marxism, feminism, biography and autobiography, psychoanalysis, and structuralism—reflect the multiplicity of meanings in an artistic image.

About this title

About the Author

Laurie Schneider Adams teaches undergraduate and graduate students at John Jay College, CUNY and the Graduate Center. She has previously taught at Sarah Lawrence College, University of Florida, Columbia University, and Mount Holyoke College. She is the author of Art Across Time, The Methodologies of Art, A History of Western Art, Art and Psychoanalysis, Art on Trial, and editor of Giotto in Perspective. She is the editor or the quarterly journal Source: Notes in the History of Art.

Reviews

Because works of art can be interpreted in a variety of ways, this book surveys "methodologies," diverse approaches to artistic analysis used by art historians, philosophers, and critics to enlighten viewers. The author, whose works include Art and Psychoanalysis (LJ 9/15/93) and A History of Western Art (LJ 3/15/94), then relates these methods to masterpieces of Western art. Adams's well-crafted, thoughtful essays consider biography and the presence of such artists as Gauguin, van Eyck, and Raphael in their paintings; Marxist readings of Giotto and Delacroix; a deconstructionist analysis of van Gogh's "Shoes"; the feminist approach to O'Keeffe and Chicago; a Freudian analysis of Donatello's "David"; and much more. With 70 black-and-white photos and four color plates, this is a good choice for introductory college art history courses. Libraries needing a more scholarly study should consider Art History and Its Methods (LJ 12/95), which contains excerpts from original sources.?Joan Levin, MLS, Chicago
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0064302318
• ISBN 13: 9780064302319
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256