Visual Culture 1: Gateways to Art and Culture
Books
The REQUIRED TEXTBOOK for this course is History of Art: A Global View (W.W. Norton, 2021). We have a copy on reserve* within the library, which you can access by asking for help at the Circulation Desk. There is also the ability to preview portions of this text for free through the publisher's website.
*Please note: Items on reserve cannot circulate (i.e., be checked out/taken out of the library), but you can use them for few hours at a time within the library. We have scanners available if you want to create PDFs of content from the book (please be mindful of copyright restrictions).
You may view this book's record through our catalog below:
History of Art: A Global View by Call Number: RESERVE SHELF N5300 R58 2021ISBN: 9780500022375Publication Date: 2021-08-01"The History of Art: A Global View" is the first major art history survey textbook--written by a team of expert authors--with a global narrative in mind. A chronological organization and "Seeing Connections" features help readers make cross-cultural comparisons, while brief, modular chapters (with on-page definitions) offer instructors unparalleled flexibility.
Finding Other Art History Books:
Browsing the Stacks: Books related to visual culture will primarily be within the N class (Fine Arts). The N section has subclasses: N = Visual Arts; NA = Architecture; NB = Sculpture; NC = Drawing / Design / Illustration; ND = Painting; NE = Print media; NK = Decorative arts; NX = Arts in general. For more on Library of Congress classifications, see this guide.
Art history survey textbooks are good reference materials, as they typically have detailed images and contain a wide range of artworks (as well as design and architecture) spanning time and place. They are typically in the N5300 section. Generally, in the US, Helen Gardner, Fred Kleiner, Marilyn Stokstad, and H.W. Janson are taught in conventional art history curricula.
Print books from our collection are featured below. Some of these titles, among others, are also available digitally through the Open Library (links at the bottom of the page). Note: The addition of REF at the end of the call number indicates that it is in the Reference Collection housed at the front of the library.
Art History by Call Number: N5300 S923 2002 (REF)ISBN: 9780131455276Volumes 1-2. Exceptional in scholarship and pedagogically in tune with today's students, this is the art history text of choice for a new generation of teachers and students. Presenting a broad view of art through the centuries, it sympathetically and positively introduces beginning students to the works of all artists. This includes women, artists of color, and the arts of other continents and regions, as well as those of Western Europe and the United States.
Gardner's Art Through the Ages by Call Number: N5300 G25 2001 (REF)ISBN: 9780534610920Designed for undergraduate art history survey courses, the text is devoted to Western art, including the eastern Mediterranean, from ancient times through the present.
History of Art by Call Number: N5300 J3 1991 (REF)ISBN: 9780133893885Fourth edition, revised and expanded by Anthony F. Janson. This classic book uses an exceptional art program, featuring impeccable accurate five-color illustrations, to introduce readers to the vast world of painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and the minor arts. With its effectively written, balanced, and interesting narrative, this book presents art as a succession of styles--from Prehistory through the 20th century--and enlarges the readers' capacity to appreciate works of art individually. Written more than 40 years ago, this text has been constantly reworked to respond to the needs of this ever-changing field. A reference work suitable for those employed in all art media, including painters, sculptors, photographers, and architects.
Art Across Time by Call Number: N5300 A3 2002ISBN: 9780072450064Seeks to inspire students in their study of art through a combination of large-scale reproductions, extensive use of color photographs, and effective incorporation of contextual material. Large format illustrations, 80 per cent in color, allow students to appreciate delicacies of technique and detail that are lost in smaller or black and white representations. Similarly, the writing emphasizes the motivations and environment of the artists to give students a sense of the intent or purpose of work. The arts of cultures beyond the West are presented thematically and at points of cross-cultural contact - Japan and the Impressionists, and Africa and the European Avant-Garde - in Windows on the World sections. In all, Art across Time, presents the history of art as a dynamic narrative grounded in scholarship, a narrative that is a dialogue between modern viewers and the past.
History and Its Images by Call Number: N5300 H285 1993ISBN: 0300055404Over the last few centuries, historians have increasingly turned to images in their attempts to understand and visualize the past. This book surveys the various ways that they have adopted for making use of this material, and examines the specific objects that became available to them through excavation, the creation of private collections and public museums, easier means of travel, and the startling displacements brought about by vandalism and art exhibitions.
Art: A New History by Call Number: N5300 J63 2003ISBN: 0060530758This narrative account, from the earliest cave paintings up to the present day, has new things to say about almost every period of art. Taking account of changing scholarship and shifting opinions, Johnson draws our attention to a number of neglected artists and styles, especially in Scandinavia, Germany, Russia and the Americas. He pays particular attention to key periods: the emergence of the artistic personality in the Renaissance, the new realism of the early seventeenth century, the discovery of landscape painting as a separate art form, and the rise of ideological art. Though challenging and controversial, Paul Johnson is not primarily a revisionist. With 300 colour illustrations, this book is vivid, evocative and immensely readable….
Art: History: Visual: Culture by Call Number: N72 S6 A7447 2005ISBN: 9781405119658This innovative collection of essays offers exciting new research and thoughtful reflection on the subject of visual culture and its relationship to art history. Brings together innovative scholarship by major scholars. Engages with cross-cultural questions, asking if attention to visual culture is a western preoccupation. Draws on a wide range of cultures, locations and historical periods, from the eighth century China to contemporary South Africa, from Byzantium to early modern and modern Europe. Covers a wealth of visual forms and media including photography, film, painting, sculpture, drawing, installation and the decorative arts
Social History of Art (v. 1-4) by Call Number: N72 S6 H3613 1999ISBN: 0415199468v. 1. From prehistoric times to the Middle Ages -- v. 2. Renaissance, mannerism, baroque -- v. 3. Rococo, classicism and romanticism -- v. 4. Naturalism, impressionism, the film age.
Writing about Art by Call Number: N345 D24 2012ISBN: 9780205645787This straightforward guide prepares students to describe, interpret, and write about works of art in meaningful and lasting terms. Designed as a supplement to Art History survey and period texts, this efficient book features a step-by-step approach to writing-from choosing a work to write about, to essay organization, to research techniques, to footnote form, to preparing the final essay. For beginners as well as more advanced students.
Writing about Art by Call Number: N345 A33 2019ISBN: 9780500841815Writing About Art walks students through every step of the writing process--from looking critically at art, to researching, to developing a thesis, to revising and polishing a final draft. Questions and examples prompt readers as they study artworks, develop a thesis, structure an argument, and cite research.
Practices of Looking by Call Number: N72 S6 S78 2018ISBN: 9780190265717Practices of Looking, Third Edition, bridges visual, communication, media, and cultural studies to investigate how images and the activity of looking carry meaning within and between different arenas in everyday life. The third edition has been updated to represent the contemporary visual cultural landscape and includes topics like the increasingly rapid global circulation of media, the rise of design and DIY cultures, digital media art and activism, and challenges to photojournalism and news media. Challenging yet accessible, Practices of Looking, Third Edition, is ideal for courses across a range of disciplines.
Our Databases
Databases help you discover eBooks and articles. When searching for articles, your results might include links to digitally access the full text, or you might find citations to locate the article within the corresponding print periodical. Periodicals are publications like journals, magazines, and newspapers (i.e., items printed periodically, identified as different issues).
The following databases are subscribed to by the library, which you will use your Otis credentials to access, or they are available freely on the internet:
- ArtSource + OmniFile This link opens in a new window
Full-text articles from 630 art and design magazines, 220 books, and 63,0000 images + 3,100 multidisciplinary periodicals.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Expanded access is now permanent. Access over 54,000 books and 2,600 journals from scholarly publishers across the fields of literature, music, film studies, folklore, performing arts, religion, art and architecture, and more. - ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new window
General reference multidisciplinary. Full text with graphics. Overall dates of coverage: 1971 - present. Total titles covered: 2,600+. - ProQuest Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
More than 230,000 full-text searchable books aimed at undergraduates. With citation assistance. Optional: You can set up a personal account. - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History This link opens in a new window
Developed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Timeline of Art History is a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of global art history for students and scholars.
Other Digital Resources:
Digital Content
- Smart History This open educational resource for art history provides text, video, and study tools prepared by scholars and professionals from the field (including Otis faculty).
- Getty Research Portal Access digitized art history publications, rare books, and related literature. The Getty Research Portal is a free online search platform providing worldwide access to an extensive collection of digitized art history texts from a range of institutions. This multilingual and multicultural union catalog affords art historians and other researchers the ability to search and download complete digital copies of publications devoted to art, architecture, material culture, and related fields.
- Oxford Bibliographies for Art History The Oxford Bibliographies compile relevant scholarship, including books and articles, on various topics. Entries are updated annually to keep up-to-date with new scholarship. While our institution does not have full access, the limited information provided is still quite useful.
Open eBooks
Some of these canonical art history textbooks are available as eBooks through the Internet Archive's Open Library (create a free account to digitally "borrow"):
- Gardner's Art Through the Ages (several editions)
- Stokstad's Art History, v. 1 (Prehistoric-14th century) (fifth edition, 2014)
- Janson's History of Art, v. 1 (Prehistoric, Ancient, Middle Ages) (fourth edition, 1991)
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