History Of Art

Back in the early 1970s, "Janson"--as 'History of Art' is universally known--was a hefty but manageable 616 pages, illustrated mostly with black-and-white photographs. It also famously contained not a single work by a female artist and devoted a scant eight pages to non-Western art. Five editions and three decades later, the art history student's stone age-to-20th-century Bible has swelled into a massive, slipcased, 1,000-page tome studded with 865 color reproductions and subheadings that account for individual artists whose achievements used to flow together like some mighty art historical river. Women artists (from 17th-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi to contemporary photographer Cindy Sherman) now make the cut, and the focus is purely Western, extended to include 20th-century photography and postmodernism (with a scant two pages on postmodern theory). The timeline charting landmarks in art alongside key events in history, science, and the arts has been redesigned. Each historical period now has its own world map and selection of excerpts from primary sources. Changes in scholarly interpretations have been made in subsequent editions. The writing remains clear and intelligent, making it an invaluable reference.