Artists Who Changed History

by D.K. Publishing, Andrew Graham-Dixon (foreword)

This visual celebration of the world's most celebrated thinkers tells the fascinating stories of their lives and pioneering ideas.

Artists Who Changed History places well-known artists in their historical and cultural context, showing you how they came to influence Art as we know it today.

This illustrated guide is ideal for those interested in art, sculptures, and the history of art or who would like to broaden their general understanding of art and the lives of artists.

Inside this book on artists, you’ll

-An overview of the lives and works of around 80 of the world's most influential artists - Middle Ages to the present day

-Eight pages of brand-new content with 12 new entries, including Judith Leyster and Frank Bowling

-Lavishly illustrated portraits of each artist alongside photographs of their homes and studios, original sketches, notebooks, letters

In this Art guide, each artist is introduced with a realistic portrait and biographical entries that trace the friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired and influenced them. Entries explore each individual's key ideas and working methods and set their ideas in context, conveying a powerful sense of the place and the period of history in which they lived. Artists Who Changed History provides revealing insights into what drove each individual to develop new ways of understanding the world.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Reference, Art History

1277 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 14, 2024

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Heather Logsdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a tenured, Full Professor of Art & Design, and a former K-12 Art Teacher, I have taught art history at the elementary, middle, high school, undergraduate and graduate level, as well as being an award winning 2D artist. I teach art history from prehistoric through contemporary art history. I love this book, “Artists Who Changed History”, because it is concise and informative as well as engaging. I would put the reading at an AP high school level art history or introductory level undergraduate for freshman level. I particularly love the layout of the masterworks and the KEY MOMENTS for quick reference on the artist. This book covers almost every artist I would cover in a General Education aesthetics requirement of an Art Survey or Art Appreciation course. The quotes are well placed and this is visually stunning! Chapter 1 begins with pre-1500’s covering the ones that impacted the art movement like Giotto, who introduces atmospheric and beginning perspective to the world - in fresco, no less! It is a read that is in a chronically timeline from 16th century through 1945-to present day (contemporary). All the art movements I teach are identified and the most well-known artists are covered to give a broad view of art history. Excellent read! I think the most spectacular part is that it comes with TWO indexes: Index of Artworks and General Index - which makes it very easy to find and access information easily. I would consider adopting this for my general education art survey history course or even for a beginner painting course at a college level! It covers all the visual arts from the architectural structures to a variety of mediums to the stylistic developments. All the masters are present and their masterpieces stunningly displayed in a well organized book. It exceeds my expectations as an art history professor! I love it!

[TheDiversePhDReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 - 4.5 🌟

[Kacey Blackner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually enjoyed reminiscing on some of my fav artists and their masterpieces over the course of the past few hundred years