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Title: History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography by H. Harvard Arnason, Marla F. Prather, Daniel Wheeler ISBN: 0131833138 Publisher: Prentice Hall Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $85.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.57

Rating: 5
Summary: Best book on its subject..
Comment: "History of Modern Art" is, in my opinion, the very best general overview of modern art (i.e., the last 125-150 years or so) published to this date.

Although it is intended to be a textbook, the format and writing make the tome sufficient as a great general reference and a very good read. The illustrations are excellent, although I wish there were more color reproductions.

Anyone who enjoys fine art should have this book in their personal library.

Rating: 4
Summary: Get yourself a BIG dictionary.
Comment: I just completed a 20th century art course here in Southern California with this book as the chosen textbook. I would consider it at the medium to advanced level. It was much cheaper on Amazon than the college bookstore or the museum store! Like the title of this review suggests, the authors were pre-occupied with their knowlege of uncommon words in the English Language. I would never encourage the "Dumbing down of America" but the word usage in this book is to the point of distraction. The new Oxford Essential Business and Office Dictionary makes it a point in it's forward to point out that usage like this is superfluous. Er, I mean needless. The reproduction is outstanding and the physical structure is very good. I have every intention of making this book part of my permanent collection. And yes, agreeing with the other reviewers above, it is heavy. But hey, with a few extra sit-ups and one or two extra laps and you'll be just fine.
Mike

Rating: 5
Summary: How to read modern art
Comment: Since first published in 1968, this book has widely used as textbook. As a text, artwork could be explained in various ways. Gombrich¡¯s ¡®Story of Art¡¯, for example, focuses on the interaction between the visual art and its time. Since the book deals with the entire time span of Western visual art, that kind of approach would be better suited to inform readers what and how was the artwork in those times. So distant from our time is it that it¡¯s hard to understand the meaning of the work without referring historical context of the work. All the text presume its reader (or audience). And reader or audience reads the text according to the established convention of the time. The conventions to read the work were so different from ours. But when it comes to the contemporary art, things are more complicated. Robert Hughes¡¯ ¡®The Shock of the New¡¯ follows the line of the contextual explanation. Hughes paints not detailed picture of modernism but overall characterization from bird¡¯s eye view. Thus he didn¡¯t touch all the works canonized. It¡¯s more adequate to make a consistent impression of modernism. However, this book was intended to inform the reader the encyclopedic knowledge on Western visual art from the 19th century to postmodernism. Moreover, the coverage of the book is not restricted to the painting but includes sculpture, architecture, and photography. With that kind of coverage and time span dealt with, one can¡¯t benefit from time¡¯s filtering out like Gombrich¡¯s. to be a coherent text as a history, the author cannot but take the view that ¡®artwork tells itself¡¯. The accounts of this book is focused on teaching the reader how to listen to the voice of artwork. With in-depth analysis of distinguished works one by one, you could learn how to listen. But you can ask: to get such an eye, should I swim through heap of paper (yep it¡¯s bulky) and thousands of pictures? As for art, you can take pleasure with art as much as you know classics. Therefore, the encyclopedic approach of this book is reasonable. And that, it¡¯s not boring at all to follow through explaining artworks one by one. Like other arts, visual art has its convention to interpret text which varies from age to age. One should learn how to read it. This book is a good guidebook to practice and learn how to read artwork. With closing the last page, you could overview the history of visual art since the 19th century and enjoy viewing artwork. And that, you could boast your good taste to your friends ;)