The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials & Techniques in Art - Hardcover

Ward, Gerald W. R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195313917 ISBN 13: 9780195313918

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

Synopsis

The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art offers the most comprehensive, up-to-date information on all aspects of this fundamental area of the visual arts. In a convenient one-volume format, this encyclopedia provides fascinating historical and current uses of materials and techniques in a wide range of areas from painting and sculpture to non-traditional media such as digital and video art. Combining scholarly rigor with lively, clear writing this book is an accessible and indispensable resource for anyone who studies, creates, collects, or deals in works of art.

Coverage includes materials in art practice (e.g. ink, enamel, digital materials); materials in conservation (e.g. adhesives); classes of artifacts (e.g. wallpaper, mosaic, ceramic); techniques and methods (e.g. book binding, gilding, printing, weaving), terms (e.g. rustication), tools (e.g. easel, laser), theory (e.g. technical examination, conservation controversies), fakes & forgeries, and conservation theorists and practitioners.

About this title

About the Author:

Gerald W. R. Ward is the Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Art of the Americas, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He holds degrees from Harvard University and Boston University and formerly served as a curator at the Yale University Art Gallery and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. He has curated numerous exhibitions and published widely on American art, furniture, and decorative arts. He has also taught at Boston University and the University of Delaware.

From Booklist:

Any genuine work of art is born of the interaction between the artist, his or her materials, and the methods used to create the finished product. This hefty volume is “aimed at providing an introduction . . . to the enormous range of materials and methods used to create works of art from ancient times to the 21st century and . . . to the various techniques used to examine and conserve them by conservators and others.” The comprehensive treatment is unusual in a literature generally devoted to single materials or crafts. Considering both fine arts and crafts—without designating crafts as a lesser art form—the alphabetically arranged articles have been abridged from either the Dictionary of Art (1996) or Grove Art Online, with the sections on history and usage either eliminated or severely edited. Thus, although the content is not new, the focus on materials and techniques is sharper. Each article begins with a succinct introductory paragraph that amounts to a definition of the material or technique. Related terms are noted in small capitals, thus providing internal cross-referencing. The body of each article is detailed, clear, and well written. Entries conclude with extensive updated bibliographies of print works, many published within the last 10 years. Well-placed black-and-white illustrations are augmented by a center section containing color plates, alphabetically arranged, of selected artworks demonstrating the use of materials and techniques, from alabaster to wax encaustic. Beginning with a key to abbreviations, the volume closes with an extensive and accurate index. Because of its focus, even libraries that already own Dictionary of Art or subscribe to Grove Art Online will find this to be a useful supplemental purchase, especially if they have substantial fine arts collections. --Ann Welton

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0195313917
• ISBN 13: 9780195313918
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 864