Art History: The Basics

Art History: The Basics is a concise and accessible introduction for the general reader and the undergraduate approaching the history of art for the first time at college or university.
It will give you answers to questions like:



What is art and art history?


What are the main methodologies used to understand art?


How have ideas about form, sex and gender shaped representation?


What connects art with psychoanalysis, semiotics and Marxism?


How are globalization and postmodernism changing art and art history?


Each chapter introduces key ideas, issues and debates in art history, including information on relevant websites and image archives. Fully illustrated with an international range of artistic examples, Art History: The Basics also includes helpful subject summaries, further ideas for reading in each chapter, and a useful glossary for easy reference.

Grant Pooke lectures in the History & Philosophy of Art at the University of Kent. He is co-author of Teach Yourself Art History (2003) and the author of Francis Klingender 1907–1955: An Iconographer Out of Time (2007).

Diana Newall completed her doctoral studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Previously an authoring consultant for the Open University’s Teach&Learn project, Diana works as a freelance lecturer and writer.

Art and Art Histories. Formalism and Art. An Introduction to Art and Social Meaning. Marxism, Art and Aesthetics. Art and Gender. Art, Sex and Psychobiography. Semiotics, Signs and Simulacra. Art Histories and Postmodernisms