Standing in fresh contrast to bulky standard textbooks on the subject, "Condensed Art History" focuses on critical information and provides opportunities for exploring art and artists with suggestions for further research.
It introduces the four principal elements of art objects, encourages students to think about art as an important human behavior, and prompts them to view art as a way of engaging with people, their times, and their place in the world.
The book covers art from Paleolithic times to 21st Century innovation. In between, readers learn about the art of ancient Near East and Mediterranean antiquity, Islamic and Asian art, Medieval and Renaissance Europe, the Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and Romantic movements, and a wide range of modern developments.
Each topic is followed by a "search" feature with an additional selection of artistic works, names of artists, and important terms. Students have the freedom to selectively deepen their understanding and appreciation, and professors can customize lectures and activities to suit their courses.
Streamlined and direct, "Condensed Art History" is suitable for one-semester courses, online or classroom-centered.
Ronald Rarick, who earned his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas, is an associate professor of art history in the School of Art at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. A past president of the Midwest American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Dr Rarick has thirty years' experience teaching introductory art history at small colleges and large universities, both in the classroom and online.