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Art History Books
Jesse Bryant Wilder
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Published:
April 19, 2022

Art History For Dummies

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Overview

Ready to discover the fascinating world of art history? Let’s (Van) Gogh!

Fine art might seem intimidating at first. But with the right guide, anyone can learn to appreciate and understand the stimulating and beautiful work of history’s greatest painters, sculptors, and architects. In Art History For Dummies, we’ll take you on a journey through fine art from all eras, from Cave Art to the Colosseum, and from Michelangelo to Picasso and the modern masters. Along the way, you’ll learn about how history has influenced art, and vice versa.

This updated edition includes:

  • Brand new material on a wider array of renowned female artists
  • Explorations of the Harlem Renaissance, American Impressionism, and the Precisionists
  • Discussions of art in the 20th and 21st centuries, including Dadaism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and today’s eclectic art scene

Is there an exhibition in your town you want to see? Prep before going with Art History For Dummies and show your friends what an Art Smartie you are.

An unbeatable reference for anyone looking to build a foundational understanding of art in a historical context, Art History For Dummies is your personal companion that makes fine art even finer!

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About The Author

JESSE BRYANT WILDER (CLEVELAND, OH) is the founder, publisher, and editor of NEXUS, a series of interdisciplinary textbooks used in high schools around the country. He has written several textbooks on art and art history and was an art critic for the Plain Dealer.

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art history for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Appreciating art is as easy as making a trip to your local museum where you can compare notes and make your own judgment about whether a work is any good or not. Art pieces recognized as great works today were produced by the up-and-coming artists of yesteryear, so it pays to keep an eye on today’s future classics.
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Appreciating art is as easy as making a trip to your local museum where you can compare notes and make your own judgment about whether a work is any good or not. Art pieces recognized as great works today were produced by the up-and-coming artists of yesteryear, so it pays to keep an eye on today’s future classics.
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The history of art is immense; the earliest cave paintings pre-date writing by almost 27,000 years! If you're interested in art history, the first thing you should do is take a look at the timeline table in this Cheat Sheet, which briefly outlines the artists, traits, works, and events that make up major art periods and how art has evolved to the present day.
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Many art historians will tell you that Romanticism slips through your fingers when you try to define it. That's partly because Romantic artists didn't have one style like the Impressionists or Expressionists. The movement was about intense personal expression, so artists could focus on whatever turned them on.
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Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known more simply as Caravaggio (1571–1610), was the greatest and most influential painter of the Baroque style. He was also a quick-tempered Bohemian who was often jailed for brawling and was forced to flee from the law and his enemies, escaping to Naples, Malta, and Sicily at various times.
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The bright colors and shocking contrasts of Paul Gauguin's paintings have amazed and perplexed artists and art lovers for over a century, and the story behind Gauguin's life and style is as interesting as his artwork.Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) tried to return to a primitive state through art and to find the proverbial "noble savage" or natural person.
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Some American artists followed traditions developed in Europe; others preferred homegrown styles. Realism — painting that is grounded in the ordinary and captures day-to-day life — was a natural for pragmatic Americans, especially when it celebrated majestic natural scenery or rural pleasures like boating and fishing or paintings of the sea.
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Impressionism began to take shape in the 1860s on the canvases of Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. But the actual birth of Impressionism was probably the summer of 1869, when Monet and Renoir painted views of a swimming resort at La Grenouillère on the Seine.That summer, they learned to catch the transitory moods of nature with quick, suggestive brushstrokes.
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Although the Rococo movement never got a foothold on British soil, English artists still felt its influence like a fresh breeze from across the English Channel. Without becoming flamboyant, a new, lighter look infused English art.The two leading British painters of the period, Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, were both influenced by French Rococo artist Jean-Antoine Watteau, as well as Italian Renaissance and Baroque artists, and Dutch and Flemish painting.
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