Styles, Schools And Movements: The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide To Modern Art

by Amy Dempsey

A profusely illustrated, cross-referenced guide to more than a century of stylistic and conceptual revolution in art. Art in the modern era has come to be defined by its styles, schools, and movements. The three hundred discussed here provide an introduction and a guide to the major developments in Western painting, sculpture, architecture, and design during one of the most dynamic and exciting periods in art history. One hundred main entries are presented in broadly chronological order, from Impressionism in the nineteenth century to Earth Art, Sound Art, and Internet Art in the twenty-first. Two hundred supplementary entries provide fully cross-referenced summaries of essential styles and movements, tracing intriguing patterns of influence and development. A timeline shows at a glance how the evolution of art corresponds with historical events, providing a thorough overview of the entire period. A list of major international collections and carefully selected suggestions for further reading are given for all the main entries, and the comprehensive index features over 1,000 artists, architects, designers, impresarios, critics, collectors, and champions of modern art, linking the styles, schools, and movements with the people who created them. 266 illustrations, 159 in color.

Genres: Art, Art History, Nonfiction, Theory, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhaustive. Includes majors galleries associated with each school (modern and contemporary art): a smart thought. Although presented like an encyclopedia, reading the thing cover to cover makes you intimately aware of the impact art has had on all facets of society for the past couple of centuries -- not the least of which is the impact of art on art itself.

convention>subversion>convention

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to have if you love art. It was worth the extra weight in my luggage!

[Zel Polev · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose it was a good introduction to various art movements. I liked that it listed major and minor art movements and what they were about. However, the writing wasn't great. It wasn't terrible but I was expecting something better. Sometimes the book would write about the movement's styles and/or their ideology. What it never fails to do is list a block of artists in that movement. This bothered me a lot because it was just a paragraph dedicated to names. As I'm reading, my eyes glazes over and I get annoyed. It honestly felt like padding, especially when the movement is scarce on information. Some movements have a lot written about them, some not. What is consistent is that block of paragraph. Also, there are run on sentences and it didn't improve my impression of the book.

Another thing I disliked was the description of artworks and no accompanying image. I hate when books go on about how expressive or sensuous the brushstrokes are and not provide an accompanying image. How can I tell? I just have to go on blind faith that it is. This happens on multiple occasions and it was annoying.

I also had the feeling that the book was scraping for content near the end. The beginning had a lot written because they've been studied extensively. However, the last sections of the book contained sections such as photographic art and video art. The photographic art was art that had photographs as artworks and not just as documentation. Well...yeah.

I also didn't like the sections dedicated to architecture. A lot of it were just about embracing the new technology and I just wanted an overview of the visual styles of that period.

While I acknowledge that this book compiles a helpful list of art movements, I wasn't really a fan of the writing.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Přečtena je pouze kapitola 1945/65.
Dobre shrnutí hlavních hnutí
Nejde moc do hloubky, ale opravdu pěkný úvod do dejn moderního umění

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference, plan to buy it!