Product Description

For one semester courses in Art Appreciation.

A World of Art teaches students how artists create by helping them understand that creativity starts with critical thinking. By guiding students through a rich array of aesthetic elements and artistic media, along with an overview of art history, this text encourages students to develop an appreciation for a diverse range of art. Author Henry M. Sayre demystifies the creative process by showing how artists use critical thinking and problem solving to create great works of art. Studying art also requires critical thinking and problem solving, and this text shows students how to use these skills to understand and explore the world of art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18422 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

From the Publisher
An exceptionally lively and varied introduction to art appreciation, this text -- and outstanding multimedia supplements package -- is designed around the cornerstones of the Western artistic tradition but juxtaposes other not-so-well-known works and works from other traditions to show how special and unique the Western tradition is in many of its assumptions.

From the Back Cover
Key Benefit: Designed around the cornerstones of the Western artistic tradition but juxtaposes other not-so-well-known works and works from other traditions to show how special and unique the Western tradition is in many of its assumptions. Key Topics: Features a series of over 30 two-page spreads Works in Progress that gives insight into the process of artistic creation. Many of the spreads focus on accepted masterpieces ranging from Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Henri Matisse's Dance II to Albrecht Dürer's Adam and Eve and Raphael's Alba Madonna.. The book further highlights 11 of the artists and their work in the accompanying video series. It integrates discussions of world art into the narrative itself (rather than isolating in sidebars), and reorganizes content into 20 chapters (rather than 9) with an abundance of new subheadings that make the relationship between different themes, techniques, and periods clearer.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

In the Preface to the last edition of this book, I said that it sometimes seemed to me that the whole world, let alone the world of art, had completely changed since I began working on the first edition of this book in the late 1980s. The Soviet Union was still a union in those days. We had no e-mail, no World Wide Web. Not a single textbook had been published with an accompanying CD-ROM. Only recently had work by women and ethnic minorities begun to find its place in the canon of art history, and the very idea of writing about "a world of art," instead of just the masterpieces of the Western canon, seemed daring, even radical.

Today, most of the innovations that drove the earlier editions of this book are part of the mainstream. Everybody has a Web page. A lot of texts come with CD-ROMs. And almost all art appreciation surveys incorporate the work of so-called "marginalized" voices to a greater degree than ever before. And yet, as I write these words in March 2002,1 am sure that most teachers and students who pick up this new fourth edition of A World of Art, will probably feel that their world has been changed by the tragic events of 9/11 more than it ever was, or could have been, by the technological revolution of the preceding decade. We are, most of us, at least slightly different people than we were. Some of us are very different people. I remember sitting at my desk in the days after September 11, facing various deadlines for this edition, and not being sure that it mattered. But it was a lucky thing for me that I had this work to do. Because, reading over this text, I became more .convinced than ever in the value of the enterprise—the value of thinking about things like representation, the imagination, and beauty. These are the things that give us hope, that allow us to rise above our basest instincts and foulest deeds. And we need desperately to engage them.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

Since the second edition, the major new feature of A World of Art has been the series of over thirty two-page spreads called Works in Progress, and the ten videos that accompany them. At the request of many instructors, we have added a new a video and a two-page spread on sculpture, specifically focusing on the carving process—so that now, there are eleven videos in the World of Art series. These were intended to give students insight into the process of artistic creation. Today, more than ever, these are crucial to what I hope this text begins to accomplish. These videos are meant to demonstrate that art, like most things, is the result of hard work and, especially, of a critical thinking process of questioning, exploration, trial and error, and discovery that I long to convey effectively and in a manner that students can generalize to their own experience—maybe even the experience of learning to cope with the implications of 9/11. As history has changed us, so too has it changed the videos, most dramatically the video on Mierle Ukeles's Fresh Kills Landfill project. The video was filmed, on Staten Island in New York harbor, on a day after a hurricane had cleared the skies and made the World Trade Center towers not just visible but majestic, lit by bright sun and rising in the distance. Today, the Fresh Kills Landfill—Ukeles's land reclamation project—is the site where the refuse from the Trade Centers is being processed. But Ukele's vision remains relevant, as do the videos as a group. If you do not have access to it, the video series is available from PBS Adult Learning Services. For more information call 1-800-LEARNER (532-7637), or ask your Prentice Hall representative for more information.

THE CRITICAL PROCESS

At the end of each chapter of A World of Art is a revised feature designed to further the engagement with process already generated by the Works in Progress spreads. Called The Critical Process, each of these sections poses a number of questions based on the chapter material for students to think about on their own. Thus, we hope, students will be prompted to think critically and creatively on their own.

The questions raised in these Critical Process sections are by no means easy. Nor do they often lead to pat answers. But they should generate thought and provoke classroom discussion. Nevertheless, in order not to leave students completely on their own, at the back of the book are short paragraphs addressing each of the Critical Process sections. By comparing these responses to their own, students can test the quality of their own thinking.

THE COMPANION WEBSITE^™

To further the student's sense of the process, we continue to offer a Prentice Hall Companion Website^™. Authored by my colleague at Oregon State University, John Maul, the website features an Online Study Guide with a range of learning opportunities, a glossary, an audio pronunciation guide, and interactive timelines, as well as links to a variety of images and research tools. The Companion Website can be found at www.prenhall.com/sayre.

THE CD-ROM

A new interactive CD-ROM accompanies the text, and develops the idea of process even further. While we were very proud of the CD-ROM that accompanied the last two editions, technology has advanced to the point that we are able to expand, improve, and add to the material from before. The new CD-ROM features:

• Video Demonstrations of studio processes including sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, lost-wax casting, and oil painting.
• Interactive Exercises that allow students to experiment with basic elements and concepts of form, space, color, and design, and a "walking tour" of Florence Cathedral.
• A Flashcard Feature including 100 fine art pieces from the history of art provides students with an easy and accessible way to develop visual literacy.

OTHER ANCILLARY MATERIALS

Taken together, the text, the CD-ROM, the Website, and the Works in Progress video series offer the teacher and the student what we believe is the strongest teaching package available anywhere. But there are other important elements in our package as well.

Faculty Guide. Created by website author John Maul and updated for the new edition by Art Appreciation instructors Patricia Carter and Julie McGuire of Georgia State University, the faculty guide included projects, lecture notes, and ways to integrate the teaching package into a coherent whole. The guide includes a Test Item File and background information about the CD-ROM and the artists featured in the Works in Progress.

Study Guide. The study guide is directed particularly to distance learners, whose study plans are often self-directed and self-sustaining. It includes, for each chapter, a set of Learning Objectives, Key Concepts, an Overview of the chapter, a Viewing Guide to each video, and a CD-ROM study guide. In addition, each study lesson includes a summary of related material on the website, supplemental exercises, writing assignments, and additional projects for student enrichment.

Slides. For this edition, a new set of 100 slides has been created, and is available from Prentice Hall. As well as providing the standard set of masterpieces, we included a wide variety of hard-to-find images and images pertaining to each of the video tapes. In combination with the 100 fine art images on the CD-ROM, this slide set should offer a range of images for teaching Art Appreciation. Ask your Prentice Hall representative for details.

Customer Reviews

Next Best Thing
If Jantzen's view of art history seems lifeless and distant, Henry Sayre has something to say to you. It's the best survey I've seen in terms of making art accessible and demonstrating a continuing tradition. The CD-ROM is an excellent bonus, especially for readers who have never seen an artist at work. Ever wonder how a print is made? There's a demonstration.

Excellent Overview of Art and Art History
Excellent overview of art history, major movements, and various media. Both the western and global development of art are included.

The accompanying cd has artwork "flash cards" as well as video clips illustrating how various media are used.

This book was the required text for my university course, but I will also be using it with my children as a homeschool resource. Some discernment and parental input will be required using it with younger children.

Art was Boring.
Until I got this book for Fine art appreciation, I didnt think much about art. Now I cant hardly put it down, which is good considering that I have to read the whole thing for class. I cant think of a better way to present the material.