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Jane Goldman offers a revisionary, feminist reading of Woolf's work. Focusing on Woolf's engagement with the artistic theories of her time, Goldman analyzes Woolf's fascination with the Post-Impressionist exhibition of 1920 and the solar eclipse of 1927 by linking her response to a much wider literary and cultural context. Illustrated with color pictures, this book will appeal not only to scholars working on Woolf, but also to students of modernism, art history, and women's studies. ... Read more

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In this magnificently illustrated and comprehensive book, readers will take one of the most beautiful journeys our world has to offer: an exploration of the greatest are and architecture of Western civilization. Art of the Western World -- the companion volume to the nine-part PBS television series -- traces the history of Western art from its classical roots in ancient Greece up to the present day and the international Post-Modernism of artists as diverse as Christo, Hockney, and Kiefer. Along the way experts Bruce Cole and Adelheid Gealt carefully chart the evolution of the Western tradition, from the grandeur of Roman architecture to the symbolic language of medieval art, through the unparalleled achievements of the Renaissance, the turbulent emotionalism of the Romantics like Turner and Constable, the Impressionists' search for a new reality, and the revolution of the Abstract Expressionists of the twentieth century.

Art of the Western World integrates the works of each period with the history, values, and ideals that gave birth to them: the influence of the Medicis and other great patrons of Renaissance Italy; the resurgence of the classical style, inspired by the French Revolution; the break with the past evidenced in the works of the Impressionists; and the tortured visions of the modern world devastated by wars depicted in the paintings of Picasso, Marc, Groez, and others.

A valuable key to understanding the language of art, Art of the Western World offers fresh insight into what the great works meant at the time they were created and why they maintain their special meaning to us now. It is the perfect guide to the masterpieces of Western art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

exam on arts of the western world.
This booked helped me in passing my dantes exam on arts of the western world.

Art of the Western World
I found this text book absolutely invaluable. Interesting as well as informative..I use it to teach Art history to 9th Graders and in my Adult Education Art Classes.

Good Condition
The book is in great condition.No writing or highlighting and for a paperback book the cover is in excellent shape, no signs of wear.Thank you for a great book.

An excellent general view of the history of philosophy
I find this book an excellent approach to the history of the Western philosophy. Relevant presentations of the main concepts necessary to interpret the development of philosophy. The book illustrates and summarizes the most essential characteristics of the numerous philosophical tendencies throughout history. It contains attractive pictures, notes, and commentaries. For anyone interested in the evolution of ideas in humankind this is a helpful tool. The only observation is that the letter size is too small and every time I read it I use a magnifier, which makes the reading a little uncomfortable.

Great for DANTES
I studied this book, watched the 8 associated videos and reviewed with WNET: 'Art of the Western World' study guide and only missed 7 questions on the DANTES/DSST test. ... Read more

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The 20th century has witnessed an explosion of diverse art movements, styles, and schools, with contemporary artists breaking traditional boundaries again and again. In more than 350 essays, the most popular and influential styles and movements are examined alongside recent experiments in new media--video art, land art, and computer art. The origins and artistic aims of such intriguing movements as the Donkey's Tail, the Kitchen Sink school, and the Stupid group are also fully covered. This is an ideal way to explore both the major and minor artistic movements of the last hundred years. The Grove Art series, focusing on the most important periods and areas of art history, is derived from the critically acclaimed and award-winning The Grove Dictionary of Art. First published in 1996 in 34 volumes, The Dictionary has quickly established itself as the leading reference work on the visual arts, used by schools, universities, museums, and public libraries throughout the world. With articles written by leading scholars in each field, The Dictionary has frequently been praised for its breadth of coverage, accuracy, authority, and accessibility. ... Read more

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Art
The book is full of information and many pictures. A good reference book. Received in good shape. Thanks. ... Read more

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This volume presents a combination of elements from past styles. Now in a revised edition, it charts the evolution of the decorative arts in Europe and the United States, from the time of the Great Exhibition to the present day. An added chapter examines the debate between postmodernists and the "New Moderns", focusing on De-constructivism and Creative Chaos. Biographical details of 120 significant artists and designers are included. ... Read more

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Richly illustrated. Includes Cuypers, Berlage, Kromhout, and Rietveld among others. ... Read more

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"Design in the Twentieth Century" is a series of books for younger readers that examines the progress of design throughout the twentieth century and charts its influences on everyday life. ... Read more

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A 16 page exhibition catalogue organized by the Architectual League of New York. The exhibit features a 5 page essay and photographs featuring early 20th century architecture in Italy. ... Read more

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Jim Collins argues that postmodernism and popular culture have together undermined the master system of "culture."By looking at a wide range of texts and forms he investigates what happens to the notion of culture once different discourses begin to envision that culture in conflicting ways, constructing often contradictory visions of it simultaneously. ... Read more

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In The Museological Unconscious, Victor Tupitsyn views the history of Russian contemporary art through a distinctly Russian lens, a "communal optic" that registers the influence of such characteristically Russian phenomena as communal living, communal perception, and communal speech practices. This way of looking at the subject allows him to gather together a range of artists and art movements—from socialist realism to its "dangerous supplement," sots art, and from alternative photography to feminism—as if they were tenants in a large Moscow apartment.

Describing the notion of "communal optics," Tupitsyn argues that socialist realism does not work without communal perception—which, as he notes, does not easily fit into crates when paintings travel out of Russia for exhibition in Kassel or New York. Russia, he writes, went through an immense "optical restructuring" in the 1930s, in which viewers of art were "communalized." This restructuring (and the effect it had on Soviet cultural mentality) is the leitmotif that runs through the book, as Tupitsyn discusses such topics as the history of alternative Russian art, the communal conceptualism of the 1970s and 1980s (epitomized by Ilya Kabakov and Andrei Monastyrsky), the iconoclastic sots art movement (the best-known practitioners of which are the artistic team of Komar and Melamid), the different art worlds of Moscow and St. Petersburg (the "aesthetics of transparency" versus the "aesthetics of a blind spot"), the "creative violence" of the telesniks, and the relationships among different generations of "nonconformists." Russian artists, critics, and art historians, having lived for decades in a society that ignored or suppressed avant-garde art, have compensated, Tupitsyn claims, by developing a "museological unconscious"—the "museification" of the inner world and the collective psyche. ... Read more

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‘What is Post-Modernism?’ Is it a new world view,or an outgrowth of the Post-Industrial Society? Is it a shift in philosophy, the arts and architecture? In this fourth, entirely revised edition, Charles Jencks, one of the founders of the Post-Modern Movement, shows it is all these things plus many other forces that have exploded since the early 1960s. In a unique analysis, using diagrams designed especially for this edition, he reveals the evolutionary, social and economic forces of this new stage of global civilisation. But why has post-modern culture arrived? In an ironic parable, ‘the Protestant Crusade’. Jencks uncovers some hitherto hidden origins: the Modernists’ abhorrence for all things sensuous and natural, and their zeal for all things orderly and mechanistic. This pseudo-religion led in the 1920s to the famous ‘vacuum-cleaning’ period, the purgation of values, metaphysics and emotion. In the 1970s it led on to the ‘Protestant Inquisition’ which inadvertently created the very enemy Modernists feared — Post-Modernism; a Counter-Reformation, the reassertion of worldliness, fecundity, humour and pluralism. However, more than one tradition emerged and Jencks, distinguishing two types of Post-Modernism (deconstructive and reconstructive) demonstrates that the former is often a disguised form of Late-Modernism. This takes the de-creation and nihilism of its parent to extremes. The main engine that drives global culture today — post-modernisation, the electronic economy and instant communications network — is analysed in its close relation to other ‘posts’: Post-Fordism, Post-Socialism and the post-national world of trading blocs and unstable nations. Jencks argues that this may result in catastrophe and global governance, or a web of transnational institutions and obligations. The most radical idea of this challenging book is the conclusion: the notion that the post-modern world does not mean the end of metanarratives, but something quite different. Belief systems are flourishing as never before and, Jencks argues, ‘a new metanarrative, based on the story of the universe and its generative qualities, will soon create a new world view that will affect all areas. It is a story which grows directly out of the post-modern sciences of complexity and is thus both true and mythic.’ Other What is…? titles include What is Abstraction?, What is Deconstruction? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Vomit
'Post Modernism' often just sounds like an excuse to ramble incessant contradictory bs to justify the meaning behind why things are the way they are.It's some stupid alternative term for the cycle of evolution.The fact that the world is growing and ideas are changing. It's an interesting, yet very puzzling and irritating topic.The bottomline is - Post Modernism is open to personal interpretation and it's meaning is based on your own understanding and perceptions in response to it.You don't have to influenced by college textbooks or the typical cocky college-educated smart-@$$.Anyone who truly appeciates 'art' (I believe) should be open-minded and accepting towards different ideas and responses, and not constantly bitching and whining, trying to reinforce their own presumedly educated understanding of the ideals and aesthetics behind Post-modernism or whatever.As far as I am concerned, 'Post-bloody-Modernism' is over (if it ever existed) and we should all just enjoy art for what it is and not what it must be.

Ace
This wonderful book has helped me understand the word "post-modern", which has replaced "serendipity" and "oxymoron" as the word I spew out when I am intimidated by how clever other people are and panic.

The Proponents of PostModernism are Excrutiatingly Overrated
I have great respect for Charles Jencks as an architect, and as a critic of art relating to such. Therefore the book should be retitled, What is Postmodern Architecture? Or what is everything about Post-Modernism exceptthe art? The main focus seems to be on the industrial world which createdthe art, rather then the art. Seems hardly revolutionary or even relevantsince everyone and their brother and sister has written on that subjectsince 1820. I was hoping for something which would address the art, but Iwas sorely disappointed. The constant focus on the world around thebuildings of postmodernism dragged and was inebriatingly dull (It got tothe point where the author was forced to contradict himself to make thebook interesting). The focus of Postmoderism was once architecture,however, now the focus has shifted, it seems everyone except the academicsknow this. Not only was his sections on art and literature stupid, butincorrect, and blunderingly light. I expected more from Jencks, being thegreat mind of the century he was. If you want to know anything helpful andrelevant pretaining to Post Modernism today, do not read this book. But heyif you want to know about your father's post modernism, read this book!

Learn the term.
From the architect who played a vital role in the formation of "Second Modernism" ("Post-Modernism"), here is a book that explains it all: why Modernism failed and why the polemical"post" was a necessary addition.Anyone who has been baffled bythe vague connotations of either term will be enlightened with sufficientexamples.This book lives up to its title; it is mandatory for anyoneattempting to understand the rise of multiculturalism andself-consciousness.As such, it provides a great "lens" forviewing all works of the 20th century; and although it doesn't focus per seon Modernist literature (cf. Rand's The Fountainhead), WHAT ISPOST-MODERNISM crushes any out-dated philosophers under its powerfulweight. ... Read more

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Explores the ways in which modernism in the visual arts was received in England. She concludes that modernism triumphed not because it repudiated the past in a revolutionary fashion but because it grew from nineteenth-century roots. ... Read more

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Moving back and forth between the long shot on historical trends and close-ups on major works and crucial architectural themes, this insightful, lively and original analysis also accepts the conventional period and thematic structures of architectural history and the canon of great buildings. Designed to help readers understand and appreciate what great architecture is in its full dimensions of use, structure and aesthetic qualities as well as its history, this lavishly illustrated book explains specific qualities of each period and the often-complex illuminating differences between the periods.This comprehensive volume examines all aspects of architectural history from the Ancient world, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Baroque periods through the modern world.For historians and architectural enthusiasts.Amazon.com Review
For everyone interested in looking beyond the façades of architectural landmarks to learn about the forces that shaped them, Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity has been a definitive resource since its publication in 1986. Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman, professors at New York University, weave complex information into an engrossing narrative. While the authors' focus is on the Western tradition, shared ancient roots inspired a chapter on aspects of Islamic architecture. In the second edition, Trachtenberg's well-supported opinions add a lively sense of engagement to a new chapter surveying major trends of the 1980s and 1990s (work by Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry, Daniel Liebeskind, and others). Among the special delights of the book are its excursions into fascinating architectural byways, such as the history of castles, why the mendicant monks wanted simpler churches, and the superiority of the truss to the girder. More than 1,000 illustrations, including 91color plates, provide ample visual reference. --Cathy Curtis ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Achitecture: From Prehistory to Post Modernism
Good price, excellent value. There were only two pages that appeared to be 'damaged' due to possibly leaving a copied sheet of paper in the book, which left two overlapping layers of text. Other than that, the book itself was in very good condition, no other notes or markings throughout the book, and nothing torn.

good book
The book was in good condition. It came exactly how it was described. Good seller!!!

Not Light Reading
Purchased as a textbook for my Architectural Theory class.While very in-depth and expansive, Trachtenberg postulates opinions as fact, without a second opinion.

Being a textbook, everything said is drawn out and convoluted.This has the potential to either leave the reader with a deep understanding or completely bewildered.

Being an architecture student, this book is giving me a historical design base I plan to build off of for the rest of my life.

like new
received the book in time and hardly any traces of wear and tear. the book looks like new and it had a hard cover binding also. very satisfied with my purchase.

This is THE story of western architecture.
I am a Registered architect(with National Certification), Registered Interior Designer and instructor of Architectural History. Trachtenberg and Hyman have written the definitive history of western architecture in this tract. The reading is awkward at times, but the ideas conveyed comprise the foundation of todays architectural theory. There are few, if any textbooks on this subject which maintain a consistant thread of thought all the way through. This one does. If you are vitally interested in the underpinnings of today's designs, you should read it. ... Read more

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many color photos of art work; Includes: The Art of Greece; The Roman World; Western Art to 1100; Age of Cathedrals; Italian Art c. 1250-1400; Early Renaissance in Italy;Art for Popes and Princes; Art Between the World Wars 1918-1941; etc ... Read more