The best Art History texts to read

ARTNEWS ass­emb­led a list of 11 must-haves books that cover art history, from class­ical antiquity to now. Art history is a flexible discipline, subject to revisions as things change. Below I have included the books I know and found excellent.

Gombrich

The Story of Art

1. Penelope & Davies et al, Janson’s History of Art For 60+ years, Horst Janson’s large book was the key text for first Art History courses, promising a wide overview of painting, sc­ulpture and architecture from earliest history on. For the most part, only women artists were criticised. $250.

But a 2006 revision largely wrote Janson out of his own book, though the title remained. Works cited as masterpieces eg James Whistler Whis­t­ler’s Mother (1871) were ignored, while  ignored arts (photo-graphy, decorative arts) were added. As were female artists. And it replaced Janson’s focus on the male artist as genius with a more comprehensive reading that considers race, class and gender. Though this most recent edition (2013) is now old, it remains useful.

2. Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss et al, Art Since 1900 Compiled by contributors associated with October, the art-critical quarterly known for its dense writing, Art Since 1900 was published in 2005 as a corrective to st­and­ard art histories, while being aimed at a broad­er readership. Now published as a 2-volume set, the book retains Oc­t­ober’s thorny attit­ude; it is sceptical of the notion that art em­bodies indiv­idual ex­p­res­sions that transcend time. So the book does­n’t follow the develop­ment of modernism, anti-modern­ism and post-modernism through movements or artists. Rather it treats C20th art to a textual deconstruction with short essays tied to cultural or hist­oric­al events for each year 1900-2003, starting with the publication of Sig­mund Freud’s Interpret­ation of Dreams. $160

3. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists.  Vasari (1511-74)’s biographies of the Italian Renaissance’s key players introduced the concept of art history we know. Many of his subjects were his near contempor­aries, making the text a primary source for studying the era that ushered in art’s Western tradition. First published in 1550, Lives covers the period bracketed by Cimabue (1240–1302) and Mich­elangelo (1475–1564) and is prefaced with a gen­eral treatise on ar­chitecture, sculpture and painting. Later historians faulted Vas­ari for being too focused on Florence’s and Rome’s artists, though the book was enlarged in 1568 to include Venetian artists like Tit­ian. But while Lives didn’t look beyond Italy, its influence sp­read rap­idly in Europe, the first translation being in the Dutch Republic (1604).

Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition

by Davies & Hofrichter, 2015

5. HH Arnason, History of Modern Art (1968) It has 650+ daunting pages, but ever since its appearance it has served as the essential account of C20th art. The book begins with C19th Paris when artists like Manet, Monet, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Seurat and Cezanne created the first modernism. It contin­ues by recounting the major move­ments: Cubism, Dada, Bauhaus, Surr­ealism, Abstract Express­ionism and Pop Art that impacted the past 100 years of painting, scul­pture and architecture. Using good illust­rations and clear lang­uage, read the story of a rev­olutionary era that trans­formed our thinking about the world and art’s place in it. History of Modern Art is often updated.

6.  Ernest Gombrich The Story of Art, 1950 He noted there was real­ly no such thing as Art; there were only artists. Thus he set the tone of what has become one of art history’s most pop­ular works. Avoiding sweeping discussions of movements, Gombrich focused on individual works of art and the figures behind them. Ex­cept for a few divers­ions into ancient and tribal art, this invar­iab­ly meant Western, male paint­ers. Still Gombrich took a re­mark­able stance for an art historian by maintaining that art his­tory can obscure, as well as clarify the experience of art by relaying inf­or­m­ation unnecessary to the act of seeing. Linking artists as diverse as Raphael and Cez­anne across time, Gombrich insists that they all faced similar chal­lenges in their work. Their intentions matter.

7. Phaidon eds, The Art Book Smart and lavishly produced, this directory of artists across history is valuable. Ranging from the Middle Ages on, the book features 500 artists, each given a lush treatment: a full-colour reproduction of a key work printed with breath-taking det­ail. Each entry has a brief text with a clear career over­view of the artist. Since the artists are pres­ented alphabet­ic­ally, meet unexpected juxtapositions of eras and styles eg one pairing C17th Dutch painter Hendrick ter Brugghen and contemporary Frenchman Daniel Buren. Though The Art Book loves painting, it also covers sculpture, photo­gr­aphy & installations.

Vasari,

Lives of the Artists

8. Richard Shone and Jean-Paul Stonard eds., Books that Shaped Art History: From Gombrich & Greenberg to Alpers & Krauss While an art history book about art history books is self-referential, this compilation of essays covering C20th milestones is a reminder of how closely de­velopments in art are tied to changes. Linking a wide-ranging group of leading sch­olars & curators, The Books that Shaped Art History examines 12 volumes that introduced critical con­cepts understand, starting with Relig­ious Art in C13th France by Émile Mâle in 1898. An early study of medieval art, Mâle’s book was one of the first to use icon­ography to unlock the mean­ing of images. Heinrich Wölfflin’s Princ­iples of Art History (1915) form­ulated the now common method of comparing artworks on style. The Books that Shaped Art History looks closely at how writing has shaped art and vice versa. 

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To read the books I was not familiar with, go to ARTnews September 7, 2023:

Mary Beard and John Henderson, Classical Art: From Greece to Rome; 

Sharon F Patton, African-American Art; 

Charles Harrison and Paul Wood eds, Art in Theory 1900–2000; and 

Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art and Society)