AHST 209: Writing on Art: Home

The University of Rochester's Memorial Art Gallery is home to such diverse works as Thomas Hart Benton's raucous Boomtown and a relaxed, gilded Chinese Bodhisattva dating from the 13th century. This handsome catalogue, which celebrates the gallery's 75th anniversary, is a smorgasbord of treats, ranging from a mosaic of a Roman goddess excavated at Antioch, to a medieval French polychromed Doubting Thomas , to abstract sculpture by Beverly Pepper and Alexander Calder. Works by El Greco, Van Dyck, Eakins, Degas and Rodin are standouts, although most of the 316 illustrations are in black and white. The mini-essay accompanying Jean-Francois Millet's pastel drawing of a noble laborer notes, ``The peasant's earth-tone clothing . . . and potato-shaped nose ally him with the clumps of soil beneath him.'' All the commentaries are in this vein; down-to-earth, surprising and attentive to detail.

Seeing America is the first-ever catalog of the University of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery's American collection. Founded in 1913, the Memorial Art Gallery was created in conjunction with the University of Rochester so that it would function within a scholarly milieu, yet at the same time perform service as a community museum. From its conception it has been an ardent advocate for American art, which so many counterpart institutions snubbed until at least the 1930s, and more often until well after World War II, in favor of European and Asian art. The 336-page, full-color volume examines 82 objects and their connections to American history, culture, literature and politics. The 73 articles present a running commentary on each piece by knowledgeable and thoughtful contemporary scholars and artists writing with expertise and insight, ultimately presenting a new and deeper understanding that enhances the reader/viewer's appreciation of the work.

Over thirty pieces by seminal thinkers and writers from Winckelmann, Kant, and Hegel to Foucault, Carol Duncan, and Mary Kelly on such subjects as aesthetics and anthropology, postmodern automatons, semiotics and iconography, performative acts, the museum as ritual, digital art, and many others. Each of the book's eight thematic sections offers an introduction providing background information, further reading, and critical commentary on the issues at stake. This edition has been updated and expanded to include sixteen new selections by key figures from Giorgio Vasari to Walter Benjamin and Satya Mohanty, a new concluding essay from Donald Preziosi on the tasks of the art historian today, and an entirely new section on Globalization and Its Discontents.

Key Writers on Art: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century offers a unique and authoritative guide to theories of art from Ancient Greece to the end of the Victorian era, written by an international panel of expert contributors. Arranged chronologically to provide an historical framework, the 43 entries analyze the ideas of key philosophers, historians, art historians, art critics, artists and social scientists, including Plato, Aquinas, Alberti, Michelangelo, de Piles, Burke, Schiller, Winckelmann, Kant, Hegel, Burckhardt, Marx, Tolstoy, Taine, Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Ruskin, Pater, Wolfflin and Riegl. Each entry includes: * a critical essay * a short biography * a bibliography listing both primary and secondary texts.

The best-selling guide to writing about art   Sylvan Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing About Art guides students through every aspect of writing about art. Students are shown how to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture, and are prepared with the tools they need to present their ideas through effective writing. Coverage of essential writing assignments includes formal analysis, comparison, research paper, review of an exhibition, and essay examination. New to the 11th edition is a chapter on "Virtual Exhibitions: Writing Text Panels and Other Materials."