art history essays

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Writing Essays in Art History

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These OWL resources provide guidance on typical genres with the art history discipline that may appear in professional settings or academic assignments, including museum catalog entries, museum title cards, art history analysis, notetaking, and art history exams.

Art History Analysis – Formal Analysis and Stylistic Analysis

Typically in an art history class the main essay students will need to write for a final paper or for an exam is a formal or stylistic analysis.

A formal analysis is just what it sounds like – you need to analyze the form of the artwork. This includes the individual design elements – composition, color, line, texture, scale, contrast, etc. Questions to consider in a formal analysis is how do all these elements come together to create this work of art? Think of formal analysis in relation to literature – authors give descriptions of characters or places through the written word. How does an artist convey this same information?

Organize your information and focus on each feature before moving onto the text – it is not ideal to discuss color and jump from line to then in the conclusion discuss color again. First summarize the overall appearance of the work of art – is this a painting? Does the artist use only dark colors? Why heavy brushstrokes? etc and then discuss details of the object – this specific animal is gray, the sky is missing a moon, etc. Again, it is best to be organized and focused in your writing – if you discuss the animals and then the individuals and go back to the animals you run the risk of making your writing unorganized and hard to read. It is also ideal to discuss the focal of the piece – what is in the center? What stands out the most in the piece or takes up most of the composition?

A stylistic approach can be described as an indicator of unique characteristics that analyzes and uses the formal elements (2-D: Line, color, value, shape and 3-D all of those and mass).The point of style is to see all the commonalities in a person’s works, such as the use of paint and brush strokes in Van Gogh’s work. Style can distinguish an artist’s work from others and within their own timeline, geographical regions, etc.

Methods & Theories To Consider:

Expressionism

Instructuralism

Postmodernism

Social Art History

Biographical Approach

Poststructuralism

Museum Studies

Visual Cultural Studies

Stylistic Analysis Example:

The following is a brief stylistic analysis of two Greek statues, an example of how style has changed because of the “essence of the age.” Over the years, sculptures of women started off as being plain and fully clothed with no distinct features, to the beautiful Venus/Aphrodite figures most people recognize today. In the mid-seventh century to the early fifth, life-sized standing marble statues of young women, often elaborately dress in gaily painted garments were created known as korai. The earliest korai is a Naxian women to Artemis. The statue wears a tight-fitted, belted peplos, giving the body a very plain look. The earliest korai wore the simpler Dorian peplos, which was a heavy woolen garment. From about 530, most wear a thinner, more elaborate, and brightly painted Ionic linen and himation. A largely contrasting Greek statue to the korai is the Venus de Milo. The Venus from head to toe is six feet seven inches tall. Her hips suggest that she has had several children. Though her body shows to be heavy, she still seems to almost be weightless. Viewing the Venus de Milo, she changes from side to side. From her right side she seems almost like a pillar and her leg bears most of the weight. She seems be firmly planted into the earth, and since she is looking at the left, her big features such as her waist define her. The Venus de Milo had a band around her right bicep. She had earrings that were brutally stolen, ripping her ears away. Venus was noted for loving necklaces, so it is very possibly she would have had one. It is also possible she had a tiara and bracelets. Venus was normally defined as “golden,” so her hair would have been painted. Two statues in the same region, have throughout history, changed in their style.

Compare and Contrast Essay

Most introductory art history classes will ask students to write a compare and contrast essay about two pieces – examples include comparing and contrasting a medieval to a renaissance painting. It is always best to start with smaller comparisons between the two works of art such as the medium of the piece. Then the comparison can include attention to detail so use of color, subject matter, or iconography. Do the same for contrasting the two pieces – start small. After the foundation is set move on to the analysis and what these comparisons or contrasting material mean – ‘what is the bigger picture here?’ Consider why one artist would wish to show the same subject matter in a different way, how, when, etc are all questions to ask in the compare and contrast essay. If during an exam it would be best to quickly outline the points to make before tackling writing the essay.

Compare and Contrast Example:

Stele of Hammurabi from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), ca. 1792 – 1750 BCE, Basalt, height of stele approx. 7’ height of relief 28’

Stele, relief sculpture, Art as propaganda – Hammurabi shows that his law code is approved by the gods, depiction of land in background, Hammurabi on the same place of importance as the god, etc.

Top of this stele shows the relief image of Hammurabi receiving the law code from Shamash, god of justice, Code of Babylonian social law, only two figures shown, different area and time period, etc.

Stele of Naram-sin , Sippar Found at Susa c. 2220 - 2184 bce. Limestone, height 6'6"

Stele, relief sculpture, Example of propaganda because the ruler (like the Stele of Hammurabi) shows his power through divine authority, Naramsin is the main character due to his large size, depiction of land in background, etc.

Akkadian art, made of limestone, the stele commemorates a victory of Naramsin, multiple figures are shown specifically soldiers, different area and time period, etc.

Iconography

Regardless of what essay approach you take in class it is absolutely necessary to understand how to analyze the iconography of a work of art and to incorporate into your paper. Iconography is defined as subject matter, what the image means. For example, why do things such as a small dog in a painting in early Northern Renaissance paintings represent sexuality? Additionally, how can an individual perhaps identify these motifs that keep coming up?

The following is a list of symbols and their meaning in Marriage a la Mode by William Hogarth (1743) that is a series of six paintings that show the story of marriage in Hogarth’s eyes.

• Man has pockets turned out symbolizing he has lost money and was recently in a fight by the state of his clothes.
• Lap dog shows loyalty but sniffs at woman’s hat in the husband’s pocket showing sexual exploits.
• Black dot on husband’s neck believed to be symbol of syphilis.
• Mantel full of ugly Chinese porcelain statues symbolizing that the couple has no class.
• Butler had to go pay bills, you can tell this by the distasteful look on his face and that his pockets are stuffed with bills and papers.
• Card game just finished up, women has directions to game under foot, shows her easily cheating nature.
• Paintings of saints line a wall of the background room, isolated from the living, shows the couple’s complete disregard to faith and religion.
• The dangers of sexual excess are underscored in the Hograth by placing Cupid among ruins, foreshadowing the inevitable ruin of the marriage.
• Eventually the series (other five paintings) shows that the woman has an affair, the men duel and die, the woman hangs herself and the father takes her ring off her finger symbolizing the one thing he could salvage from the marriage.

Art History

What this handout is about.

This handout discusses a few common assignments found in art history courses. To help you better understand those assignments, this handout highlights key strategies for approaching and analyzing visual materials.

Writing in art history

Evaluating and writing about visual material uses many of the same analytical skills that you have learned from other fields, such as history or literature. In art history, however, you will be asked to gather your evidence from close observations of objects or images. Beyond painting, photography, and sculpture, you may be asked to write about posters, illustrations, coins, and other materials.

Even though art historians study a wide range of materials, there are a few prevalent assignments that show up throughout the field. Some of these assignments (and the writing strategies used to tackle them) are also used in other disciplines. In fact, you may use some of the approaches below to write about visual sources in classics, anthropology, and religious studies, to name a few examples.

This handout describes three basic assignment types and explains how you might approach writing for your art history class.Your assignment prompt can often be an important step in understanding your course’s approach to visual materials and meeting its specific expectations. Start by reading the prompt carefully, and see our handout on understanding assignments for some tips and tricks.

Three types of assignments are discussed below:

• Visual analysis essays
• Comparison essays
• Research papers

1. Visual analysis essays

Visual analysis essays often consist of two components. First, they include a thorough description of the selected object or image based on your observations. This description will serve as your “evidence” moving forward. Second, they include an interpretation or argument that is built on and defended by this visual evidence.

Formal analysis is one of the primary ways to develop your observations. Performing a formal analysis requires describing the “formal” qualities of the object or image that you are describing (“formal” here means “related to the form of the image,” not “fancy” or “please, wear a tuxedo”). Formal elements include everything from the overall composition to the use of line, color, and shape. This process often involves careful observations and critical questions about what you see.

Pre-writing: observations and note-taking

To assist you in this process, the chart below categorizes some of the most common formal elements. It also provides a few questions to get you thinking.

Let’s try this out with an example. You’ve been asked to write a formal analysis of the painting, George Morland’s Pigs and Piglets in a Sty , ca. 1800 (created in Britain and now in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond).

What do you notice when you see this image? First, you might observe that this is a painting. Next, you might ask yourself some of the following questions: what kind of paint was used, and what was it painted on? How has the artist applied the paint? What does the scene depict, and what kinds of figures (an art-historical term that generally refers to humans) or animals are present? What makes these animals similar or different? How are they arranged? What colors are used in this painting? Are there any colors that pop out or contrast with the others? What might the artist have been trying to accomplish by adding certain details?

What other questions come to mind while examining this work? What kinds of topics come up in class when you discuss paintings like this one? Consider using your class experiences as a model for your own description! This process can be lengthy, so expect to spend some time observing the artwork and brainstorming.

Here is an example of some of the notes one might take while viewing Morland’s Pigs and Piglets in a Sty :

Composition

• The animals, four pigs total, form a gently sloping mound in the center of the painting.
• The upward mound of animals contrasts with the downward curve of the wooden fence.
• The gentle light, coming from the upper-left corner, emphasizes the animals in the center. The rest of the scene is more dimly lit.
• The composition is asymmetrical but balanced. The fence is balanced by the bush on the right side of the painting, and the sow with piglets is balanced by the pig whose head rests in the trough.
• Throughout the composition, the colors are generally muted and rather limited. Yellows, greens, and pinks dominate the foreground, with dull browns and blues in the background.
• Cool colors appear in the background, and warm colors appear in the foreground, which makes the foreground more prominent.
• Large areas of white with occasional touches of soft pink focus attention on the pigs.
• The paint is applied very loosely, meaning the brushstrokes don’t describe objects with exact details but instead suggest them with broad gestures.
• The ground has few details and appears almost abstract.
• The piglets emerge from a series of broad, almost indistinct, circular strokes.
• The painting contrasts angular lines and rectangles (some vertical, some diagonal) with the circular forms of the pig.
• The negative space created from the intersection of the fence and the bush forms a wide, inverted triangle that points downward. The point directs viewers’ attention back to the pigs.

Because these observations can be difficult to notice by simply looking at a painting, art history instructors sometimes encourage students to sketch the work that they’re describing. The image below shows how a sketch can reveal important details about the composition and shapes.

Writing: developing an interpretation

Once you have your descriptive information ready, you can begin to think critically about what the information in your notes might imply. What are the effects of the formal elements? How do these elements influence your interpretation of the object?

Your interpretation does not need to be earth-shatteringly innovative, but it should put forward an argument with which someone else could reasonably disagree. In other words, you should work on developing a strong analytical thesis about the meaning, significance, or effect of the visual material that you’ve described. For more help in crafting a strong argument, see our Thesis Statements handout .

For example, based on the notes above, you might draft the following thesis statement:

In Morland’s Pigs and Piglets in a Sty, the close proximity of the pigs to each other–evident in the way Morland has overlapped the pigs’ bodies and grouped them together into a gently sloping mound–and the soft atmosphere that surrounds them hints at the tranquility of their humble farm lives.

Or, you could make an argument about one specific formal element:

In Morland’s Pigs and Piglets in a Sty, the sharp contrast between rectilinear, often vertical, shapes and circular masses focuses viewers’ attention on the pigs, who seem undisturbed by their enclosure.

Support your claims

Your thesis statement should be defended by directly referencing the formal elements of the artwork. Try writing with enough specificity that someone who has not seen the work could imagine what it looks like. If you are struggling to find a certain term, try using this online art dictionary: Tate’s Glossary of Art Terms .

Your body paragraphs should explain how the elements work together to create an overall effect. Avoid listing the elements. Instead, explain how they support your analysis.

As an example, the following body paragraph illustrates this process using Morland’s painting:

Morland achieves tranquility not only by grouping animals closely but also by using light and shadow carefully. Light streams into the foreground through an overcast sky, in effect dappling the pigs and the greenery that encircles them while cloaking much of the surrounding scene. Diffuse and soft, the light creates gentle gradations of tone across pigs’ bodies rather than sharp contrasts of highlights and shadows. By modulating the light in such subtle ways, Morland evokes a quiet, even contemplative mood that matches the restful faces of the napping pigs.

This example paragraph follows the 5-step process outlined in our handout on paragraphs . The paragraph begins by stating the main idea, in this case that the artist creates a tranquil scene through the use of light and shadow. The following two sentences provide evidence for that idea. Because art historians value sophisticated descriptions, these sentences include evocative verbs (e.g., “streams,” “dappling,” “encircles”) and adjectives (e.g., “overcast,” “diffuse,” “sharp”) to create a mental picture of the artwork in readers’ minds. The last sentence ties these observations together to make a larger point about the relationship between formal elements and subject matter.

There are usually different arguments that you could make by looking at the same image. You might even find a way to combine these statements!

Remember, however you interpret the visual material (for example, that the shapes draw viewers’ attention to the pigs), the interpretation needs to be logically supported by an observation (the contrast between rectangular and circular shapes). Once you have an argument, consider the significance of these statements. Why does it matter if this painting hints at the tranquility of farm life? Why might the artist have tried to achieve this effect? Briefly discussing why these arguments matter in your thesis can help readers understand the overall significance of your claims. This step may even lead you to delve deeper into recurring themes or topics from class.

Tread lightly

Avoid generalizing about art as a whole, and be cautious about making claims that sound like universal truths. If you find yourself about to say something like “across cultures, blue symbolizes despair,” pause to consider the statement. Would all people, everywhere, from the beginning of human history to the present agree? How do you know? If you find yourself stating that “art has meaning,” consider how you could explain what you see as the specific meaning of the artwork.

Double-check your prompt. Do you need secondary sources to write your paper? Most visual analysis essays in art history will not require secondary sources to write the paper. Rely instead on your close observation of the image or object to inform your analysis and use your knowledge from class to support your argument. Are you being asked to use the same methods to analyze objects as you would for paintings? Be sure to follow the approaches discussed in class.

Some classes may use “description,” “formal analysis” and “visual analysis” as synonyms, but others will not. Typically, a visual analysis essay may ask you to consider how form relates to the social, economic, or political context in which these visual materials were made or exhibited, whereas a formal analysis essay may ask you to make an argument solely about form itself. If your prompt does ask you to consider contextual aspects, and you don’t feel like you can address them based on knowledge from the course, consider reading the section on research papers for further guidance.

2. Comparison essays

Comparison essays often require you to follow the same general process outlined in the preceding sections. The primary difference, of course, is that they ask you to deal with more than one visual source. These assignments usually focus on how the formal elements of two artworks compare and contrast with each other. Resist the urge to turn the essay into a list of similarities and differences.

Comparison essays differ in another important way. Because they typically ask you to connect the visual materials in some way or to explain the significance of the comparison itself, they may require that you comment on the context in which the art was created or displayed.

For example, you might have been asked to write a comparative analysis of the painting discussed in the previous section, George Morland’s Pigs and Piglets in a Sty (ca. 1800), and an unknown Vicús artist’s Bottle in the Form of a Pig (ca. 200 BCE–600 CE). Both works are illustrated below.

You can begin this kind of essay with the same process of observations and note-taking outlined above for formal analysis essays. Consider using the same questions and categories to get yourself started.

Here are some questions you might ask:

• What techniques were used to create these objects?
• How does the use of color in these two works compare? Is it similar or different?
• What can you say about the composition of the sculpture? How does the artist treat certain formal elements, for example geometry? How do these elements compare to and contrast with those found in the painting?
• How do these works represent their subjects? Are they naturalistic or abstract? How do these artists create these effects? Why do these similarities and differences matter?

As our handout on comparing and contrasting suggests, you can organize these thoughts into a Venn diagram or a chart to help keep the answers to these questions distinct.

For example, some notes on these two artworks have been organized into a chart:

As you determine points of comparison, think about the themes that you have discussed in class. You might consider whether the artworks display similar topics or themes. If both artworks include the same subject matter, for example, how does that similarity contribute to the significance of the comparison? How do these artworks relate to the periods or cultures in which they were produced, and what do those relationships suggest about the comparison? The answers to these questions can typically be informed by your knowledge from class lectures. How have your instructors framed the introduction of individual works in class? What aspects of society or culture have they emphasized to explain why specific formal elements were included or excluded? Once you answer your questions, you might notice that some observations are more important than others.

Writing: developing an interpretation that considers both sources

When drafting your thesis, go beyond simply stating your topic. A statement that says “these representations of pig-like animals have some similarities and differences” doesn’t tell your reader what you will argue in your essay.

To say more, based on the notes in the chart above, you might write the following thesis statement:

Although both artworks depict pig-like animals, they rely on different methods of representing the natural world.

Now you have a place to start. Next, you can say more about your analysis. Ask yourself: “so what?” Why does it matter that these two artworks depict pig-like animals? You might want to return to your class notes at this point. Why did your instructor have you analyze these two works in particular? How does the comparison relate to what you have already discussed in class? Remember, comparison essays will typically ask you to think beyond formal analysis.

While the comparison of a similar subject matter (pig-like animals) may influence your initial argument, you may find that other points of comparison (e.g., the context in which the objects were displayed) allow you to more fully address the matter of significance. Thinking about the comparison in this way, you can write a more complex thesis that answers the “so what?” question. If your class has discussed how artists use animals to comment on their social context, for example, you might explore the symbolic importance of these pig-like animals in nineteenth-century British culture and in first-millenium Vicús culture. What political, social, or religious meanings could these objects have generated? If you find yourself needing to do outside research, look over the final section on research papers below!

Supporting paragraphs

The rest of your comparison essay should address the points raised in your thesis in an organized manner. While you could try several approaches, the two most common organizational tactics are discussing the material “subject-by-subject” and “point-by-point.”

• Subject-by-subject: Organizing the body of the paper in this way involves writing everything that you want to say about Moreland’s painting first (in a series of paragraphs) before moving on to everything about the ceramic bottle (in a series of paragraphs). Using our example, after the introduction, you could include a paragraph that discusses the positioning of the animals in Moreland’s painting, another paragraph that describes the depiction of the pigs’ surroundings, and a third explaining the role of geometry in forming the animals. You would then follow this discussion with paragraphs focused on the same topics, in the same order, for the ancient South American vessel. You could then follow this discussion with a paragraph that synthesizes all of the information and explores the significance of the comparison.
• Point-by-point: This strategy, in contrast, involves discussing a single point of comparison or contrast for both objects at the same time. For example, in a single paragraph, you could examine the use of color in both of our examples. Your next paragraph could move on to the differences in the figures’ setting or background (or lack thereof).

As our use of “pig-like” in this section indicates, titles can be misleading. Many titles are assigned by curators and collectors, in some cases years after the object was produced. While the ceramic vessel is titled Bottle in the Form of a Pig , the date and location suggest it may depict a peccary, a pig-like species indigenous to Peru. As you gather information about your objects, think critically about things like titles and dates. Who assigned the title of the work? If it was someone other than the artist, why might they have given it that title? Don’t always take information like titles and dates at face value.

Be cautious about considering contextual elements not immediately apparent from viewing the objects themselves unless you are explicitly asked to do so (try referring back to the prompt or assignment description; it will often describe the expectation of outside research). You may be able to note that the artworks were created during different periods, in different places, with different functions. Even so, avoid making broad assumptions based on those observations. While commenting on these topics may only require some inference or notes from class, if your argument demands a large amount of outside research, you may be writing a different kind of paper. If so, check out the next section!

3. Research papers

Some assignments in art history ask you to do outside research (i.e., beyond both formal analysis and lecture materials). These writing assignments may ask you to contextualize the visual materials that you are discussing, or they may ask you to explore your material through certain theoretical approaches. More specifically, you may be asked to look at the object’s relationship to ideas about identity, politics, culture, and artistic production during the period in which the work was made or displayed. All of these factors require you to synthesize scholars’ arguments about the materials that you are analyzing. In many cases, you may find little to no research on your specific object. When facing this situation, consider how you can apply scholars’ insights about related materials and the period broadly to your object to form an argument. While we cannot cover all the possibilities here, we’ll highlight a few factors that your instructor may task you with investigating.

Iconography

Papers that ask you to consider iconography may require research on the symbolic role or significance of particular symbols (gestures, objects, etc.). For example, you may need to do some research to understand how pig-like animals are typically represented by the cultural group that made this bottle, the Vicús culture. For the same paper, you would likely research other symbols, notably the bird that forms part of the bottle’s handle, to understand how they relate to one another. This process may involve figuring out how these elements are presented in other artworks and what they mean more broadly.

Artistic style and stylistic period

You may also be asked to compare your object or painting to a particular stylistic category. To determine the typical traits of a style, you may need to hit the library. For example, which period style or stylistic trend does Moreland’s Pigs and Piglets in a Sty belong to? How well does the piece “fit” that particular style? Especially for works that depict the same or similar topics, how might their different styles affect your interpretation? Assignments that ask you to consider style as a factor may require that you do some research on larger historical or cultural trends that influenced the development of a particular style.

Provenance research asks you to find out about the “life” of the object itself. This research can include the circumstances surrounding the work’s production and its later ownership. For the two works discussed in this handout, you might research where these objects were originally displayed and how they ended up in the museum collections in which they now reside. What kind of argument could you develop with this information? For example, you might begin by considering that many bottles and jars resembling the Bottle in the Form of a Pig can be found in various collections of Pre-Columbian art around the world. Where do these objects originate? Do they come from the same community or region?

Patronage study

Prompts that ask you to discuss patronage might ask you to think about how, when, where, and why the patron (the person who commissions or buys the artwork or who supports the artist) acquired the object from the artist. The assignment may ask you to comment on the artist-patron relationship, how the work fit into a broader series of commissions, and why patrons chose particular artists or even particular subjects.

Additional resources

To look up recent articles, ask your librarian about the Art Index, RILA, BHA, and Avery Index. Check out www.lib.unc.edu/art/index.html for further information!

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Adams, Laurie Schneider. 2003. Looking at Art . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Barnet, Sylvan. 2015. A Short Guide to Writing about Art , 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Tate Galleries. n.d. “Art Terms.” Accessed November 1, 2020. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms .

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Beyond the Mainstream: Essays on Modern and Contemporary Art

Abstract:  This selection of essays by a prominent art historian, critic and curator of modern art examines the art and artists of the twentieth century who have operated outside the established art world. In a lucid and accessible style, Peter Selz explores modern art as it is reflected, and has had an impact on, the tremendous transformations of politics and culture, both in the United States and in Europe. An authoritative overview of a neglected phenomenon, his essays explore the complex relationship between art at the periphery and art at the putative center, and how marginal art has affected that of the mainstream. Author:  Peter Selz Publication date:  January 28, 1998 Publication type:  Book

Art History Writing Guide

I. Introduction II. Writing Assignments III. Discipline-Specific Strategies IV. Keep in Mind V. Appendix

Introduction

At the heart of every art history paper is a close visual analysis of at least one work of art. In art history you are building an argument about something visual. Depending on the assignment, this analysis may be the basis for an assignment or incorporated into a paper as support to contextualize an argument. To guide students in how to write an art history paper, the Art History Department suggests that you begin with a visual observation that leads to the development of an interpretive thesis/argument. The writing uses visual observations as evidence to support an argument about the art that is being analyzed.

Writing Assignments

You will be expected to write several different kinds of art history papers. They include:

• Close Visual Analysis Essays
• Close Visual Analysis in dialogue with scholarly essays
• Research Papers

Close Visual Analysis pieces are the most commonly written papers in an introductory art history course. You will have to look at a work of art and analyze it in its entirety. The analysis and discussion should provide a clearly articulated interpretation of the object. Your argument for this paper should be backed up with careful description and analysis of the visual evidence that led you to your conclusion.

Close Visual Analysis in dialogue with scholarly essays combines formal analysis with close textual analysis.

Research papers range from theoretic studies to critical histories. Based on library research, students are asked to synthesize analyses of the scholarship in relation to the work upon which it is based.

Discipline-Specific Strategies

As with all writing assignment, a close visual analysis is a process. The work you do before you actually start writing can be just as important as what you consider when writing up your analysis.

Conducting the analysis :

• Ask questions as you are studying the artwork. Consider, for example, how does each element of the artwork contribute to the work's overall meaning. How do you know? How do elements relate to each other? What effect is produced by their juxtaposition
• Use the criteria provided by your professor to complete your analysis. This criteria may include forms, space, composition, line, color, light, texture, physical characteristics, and expressive content.

Writing the analysis:

• Develop a strong interpretive thesis about what you think is the overall effect or meaning of the image.
• Ground your argument in direct and specific references to the work of art itself.
• Describe the image in specific terms and with the criteria that you used for the analysis. For example, a stray diagonal from the upper left corner leads the eye to...
• Create an introduction that sets the stage for your paper by briefly describing the image you are analyzing and by stating your thesis.
• Explain how the elements work together to create an overall effect. Try not to just list the elements, but rather explain how they lead to or support your analysis.
• Contextualize the image within a historical and cultural framework only when required for an assignment. Some assignments actually prefer that you do not do this. Remember not to rely on secondary sources for formal analysis. The goal is to see what in the image led to your analysis; therefore, you will not need secondary sources in this analysis. Be certain to show how each detail supports your argument.
• Include only the elements needed to explain and support your analysis. You do not need to include everything you saw since this excess information may detract from your main argument.

Keep in Mind

• An art history paper has an argument that needs to be supported with elements from the image being analyzed.
• Avoid making grand claims. For example, saying "The artist wanted..." is different from "The warm palette evokes..." The first phrasing necessitates proof of the artist's intent, as opposed to the effect of the image.
• Make sure that your paper isn't just description. You should choose details that illustrate your central ideas and further the purpose of your paper.

If you find you are still having trouble writing your art history paper, please speak to your professor, and feel free to make an appointment at the Writing Center. For further reading, see Sylvan Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing about Art , 5th edition.

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Resources – how to write an art history paper, introduction to the topic.

There are many different types of assignments you might be asked to do in an art history class. The most common are a formal analysis and a stylistic analysis. Stylistic analyses often involve offering a comparison between two different works. One of the challenges of art history writing is that it requires a vocabulary to describe what you see when you look at a painting, drawing, sculpture or other media. This checklist is designed to explore questions that will help you write these types of art history papers.

Features of An Art History Analysis Paper

Features of a formal analysis paper.

This type of paper involves looking at compositional elements of an object such as color, line, medium, scale, and texture. The goal of this kind of assignment it to demonstrate how these elements work together to produce the whole art object. When writing a formal analysis, ask yourself:

• What is the first element of the work that the audience’s eye captures?
• What materials were used to create the object?
• What colors and textures did the artist employ?
• How do these function together to give the object its overall aesthetic look?

Tips on Formal Analysis

• Describe the piece as if your audience has not seen it.
• Be detailed.
• The primary focus should be on description rather than interpretation.

Features of a Stylistic / Comparative Analysis

Similar to a formal analysis, a stylistic analysis asks you to discuss a work in relation to its stylistic period (Impressionism, Fauvism, High Renaissance, etc.). These papers often involve a comparative element (such as comparing a statue from Early Antiquity to Late Antiquity). When writing a stylistic analysis, ask yourself:

• How does this work fit the style of its historical period? How does it depart from the typical style?
• What is the social and historical context of the work? When was it completed?
• Who was the artist? Who commissioned it? What does it depict?
• How is this work different from other works of the same subject matter?
• How have the conventions (formal elements) for this type of work changed over time?

Tips for Stylistic and Comparative Analysis

• In a comparison, make a list of similarities and differences between the two works. Try to establish what changes in the art world may account for the differences.
• Integrate discussions of formal elements into your stylistic analysis.
• This type of paper can involve more interpretation than a basic formal analysis.
• Focus on context and larger trends in art history.

A Quick Practice Exercise...

Practice - what is wrong with these sentences.

The key to writing a good art history paper involves relating the formal elements of a piece to its historical context.  Can you spot the errors in these sentences? What would make the sentences better?

• “Courbet’s The Stone Breakers  is a good painting because he uses texture.”
• “Duchamp’s work is in the Dada style while Dali’s is Surrealist.”
• “Pope Julius II commissioned the work.”
• “Gauguin uses color to draw in the viewer’s eye.”

Answers for Practice Sentences

• Better: “Courbet’s  The Stone Breakers  is a radical painting because the artist used a palette knife to create a rough texture on the surface.”
• Better: “The use of everyday objects in Duchamp’s work reflects the Dada style while Dali’s incorporation of absurd images into his work demonstrates a Surrealist style.”
• Better: “In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned the sculpture for his tomb.”
• Better: “The first element a viewer notices is the bold blue of the sky in Gauguin’s painting.”

Adapted by Ann Bruton, with the help of Isaac Alpert, From:

The Writing Center at UNC Handouts ( http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/art-history/ )

The Writing Center at Hamilton College ( http://www.hamilton.edu/writing/writing-resources/writing-an-art-history-paper ) 

Click here to return to the “Writing Place Resources” main page.

Required works of art for AP®︎ Art History

by Smarthistory

Content Area 1

Global prehistory | 30,000–500 b.c.e., 1. apollo 11 stones, 1. (related) origins of rock art in africa.

• 2. Great Hall of the Bulls
• 3. Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine

Running Horned Woman "> 4. Running Horned Woman

• 5. Bushel with ibex motifs
• 6. Anthropomorphic stele

cong "> 7. Jade cong

• 8. Stonehenge
• 9. The Ambum stone
• 10. Tlatilco female figurine
• 11. Terra cotta fragment

Content Area 2

Ancient mediterranean | 3,500 b.c.e.–300 c.e..

• 12. White Temple and its ziggurat
• 13. Palette of King Narmer
• 14. Statues of votive figures, from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq)

Seated scribe "> 15. Seated scribe

Standard of ur from the royal tombs at ur (modern tell el-muqayyar, iraq)"> 16. standard of ur from the royal tombs at ur (modern tell el-muqayyar, iraq), 17. great pyramids (menkaura, khafre, khufu) and great sphinx, 17.a. pyramid of khufu, 17.b. pyramid of khafre and the great sphinx, 17.c. pyramid of menkaure.

• 18. King Menkaura and queen

The Code of Hammurabi "> 19. The Code of Hammurabi

• 20. Temple of Amun-Re and the Hypostyle Hall
• 21. Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters "> 22. Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters

• 23. Tutankhamun’s tomb, innermost coffin

Book of the Dead )"> 24. Last judgment of Hunefer, from his tomb (page from the Book of the Dead )

• 25. Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad, Iraq)
• 26. Athenian Agora

Anavysos Kouros "> 27. Anavysos Kouros

Peplos kore from the acropolis"> 28. peplos kore from the acropolis, sarcophagus of the spouses "> 29. sarcophagus of the spouses, apadana ) of darius and xerxes"> 30. audience hall ( apadana ) of darius and xerxes, 30. (related) capital of a column from the audience hall of the palace of darius i, susa.

• 31. Temple of Minerva (Veii, near Rome, Italy) and sculpture of Apollo, Master sculptor Vulca

Tomb of the Triclinium "> 32. Tomb of the Triclinium

Niobides krater "> 33. niobides krater, doryphoros (spear-bearer) , polykleitos"> 34. doryphoros (spear-bearer) , polykleitos, 35. acropolis, 35.a. the parthenon, 35.a.i. parthenon sculptures (pediments, metopes and frieze), 35.a.ii. who owns the parthenon sculptures, plaque of the ergastines "> 35.a.iii. plaque of the ergastines, 35.a.iv. the many lives of the parthenon, nike adjusting her sandal from the temple of athena nike"> 35.b. nike adjusting her sandal from the temple of athena nike, grave stele of hegeso "> 36. grave stele of hegeso, winged victory of samothrace "> 37. winged victory of samothrace.

• 38. Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon
• 39. House of the Vettii

Alexander Mosaic from the House of Faun, Pompeii"> 40. Alexander Mosaic from the House of Faun, Pompeii

Seated boxer "> 41. seated boxer, head of a roman patrician "> 42. head of a roman patrician, 42. (related) veristic male portrait, augustus of prima porta "> 43. augustus of prima porta.

• 44. Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)

45. Forum of Trajan, Apollodorus of Damascus

45.a. column of trajan.

• 46. Pantheon

Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus "> 47. Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus

Content area 3, early europe and colonial americas | 200–1750 c.e..

• 48. Catacomb of Priscilla
• 49. Santa Sabina

Vienna Genesis "> 50. Vienna Genesis

50a. jacob wrestling the angel, 50b. rebecca and eliezer at the well, 51. san vitale, 51.a. empress theodora, rhetoric, and byzantine primary sources, 52. hagia sophia, anthemius of tralles and isidorus of miletus, theotokos mosaic "> 52.a. theotokos mosaic, deësis mosaic "> 52.b. deësis mosaic, 52.c. hagia sophia as a mosque.

• 53. Merovingian looped fibulae

Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George "> 54. Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George

Lindisfarne gospels : st. matthew, cross-carpet page; st. luke portrait page; st. luke incipit page"> 55. lindisfarne gospels : st. matthew, cross-carpet page; st. luke portrait page; st. luke incipit page.

• 56. Great Mosque at Cordoba
• 57. Pyxis of al-Mughira
• 58. Church of Sainte-Foy

Bayeux Tapestry "> 59. Bayeux Tapestry

• 60. Chartres Cathedral

Bibles moralisées "> 61. Dedication Page with Blanche of Castile and King Louis IX of France, Scenes from the Apocalypse from Bibles moralisées

61.a. moralized bible (paris-oxford-london)), röttgen pietà "> 62. röttgen pietà, 63. arena (scrovegni) chapel, giotto di bondone, 63.a. introduction, 63.b. fresco cycle, lamentation "> 63.c. lamentation, last judgment "> 63.d. last judgment, 63.e. the arena chapel in virtual reality, golden haggadah (the plagues of egypt, scenes of liberation, and preparation for passover)"> 64. golden haggadah (the plagues of egypt, scenes of liberation, and preparation for passover).

• 65. Alhambra

Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) , Workshop of Robert Campin"> 66. Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) , Workshop of Robert Campin

• 67. Pazzi Chapel, Filippo Brunelleschi

The Arnolfini Portrait , Jan Van Eyck"> 68. The Arnolfini Portrait , Jan Van Eyck

The arnolfini portrait "> 68.a. the question of pregnancy in the arnolfini portrait, david , donatello"> 69. david , donatello.

• 70. Palazzo Rucellai, Leon Battista Alberti

Madonna and Child with Two Angels , Fra Filippo Lippi"> 71. Madonna and Child with Two Angels , Fra Filippo Lippi

Birth of venus , sandro botticelli"> 72. birth of venus , sandro botticelli, last supper , leonardo da vinci"> 73. last supper , leonardo da vinci, adam and eve , albrecht dürer"> 74. adam and eve , albrecht dürer, adam and eve "> 74.a. more about adam and eve, 75. sistine chapel ceiling and altar wall frescos, michelangelo, 75.a. ceiling frescoes, 75.a.i. studies for the libyan sibyl (recto); studies for the libyan sibyl and a small sketch for a seated figure (verso), michelangelo, last judgment "> 75.b. altar wall, last judgment, school of athens , raphael"> 76. school of athens , raphael, 76.a. raphael, an introduction, isenheim altarpiece , matthias grünewald"> 77. isenheim altarpiece , matthias grünewald, entombment of christ , jacopo da pontormo"> 78. entombment of christ , jacopo da pontormo, allegory of law and grace , lucas cranach the elder"> 79. allegory of law and grace , lucas cranach the elder, venus of urbino , titian"> 80. venus of urbino , titian, codex mendoza "> 81. frontispiece of the codex mendoza, triumph of the name of jesus ceiling fresco"> 82. il gesù, including triumph of the name of jesus ceiling fresco, hunters in the snow , pieter bruegel the elder"> 83. hunters in the snow , pieter bruegel the elder.

• 84. Mosque of Selim II, Mimar Sinan

Calling of St. Matthew , Caravaggio"> 85. Calling of St. Matthew , Caravaggio

Henri iv receives the portrait of of marie de’medici , from the marie de’medici cycle, peter paul rubens"> 86. henri iv receives the portrait of of marie de’medici , from the marie de’medici cycle, peter paul rubens, self-portrait with saskia , rembrandt van rijn"> 87. self-portrait with saskia , rembrandt van rijn.

• 88. San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Francesco Borromini

Ecstasy of Saint Teresa , Gian Lorenzo Bernini"> 89. Ecstasy of Saint Teresa , Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Angel with arquebus, asiel timor dei , master of calamarca"> 90. angel with arquebus, asiel timor dei , master of calamarca, las meninas , diego velázquez"> 91. las meninas , diego velázquez, woman holding a balance , johannes vermeer"> 92. woman holding a balance , johannes vermeer.

• 93. The Palace at Versailles

Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene "> 94. Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene

The virgin of guadalupe (virgen de guadalupe) , miguel gonzález"> 95. the virgin of guadalupe (virgen de guadalupe) , miguel gonzález, virgin of guadalupe "> 95. (related) virgin of guadalupe, fruit and insects , rachel ruysch"> 96. fruit and insects , rachel ruysch, spaniard and indian produce a mestizo , attributed to juan rodríguez juárez"> 97. spaniard and indian produce a mestizo , attributed to juan rodríguez juárez, the tête à tête , from marriage a la mode , william hogarth"> 98. the tête à tête , from marriage a la mode , william hogarth, content area 4, later europe and americas | 1750–1980 c.e., portrait of sor juana inés de la cruz , miguel cabrera "> 99. portrait of sor juana inés de la cruz , miguel cabrera, a philosopher giving a lecture on the orrery , joseph wright of derby"> 100. a philosopher giving a lecture on the orrery , joseph wright of derby, the swing , jean-honoré fragonard"> 101. the swing , jean-honoré fragonard.

• 102. Monticello, Thomas Jefferson

The Oath of the Horatii , Jacques-Louis David"> 103. The Oath of the Horatii , Jacques-Louis David

George washington , jean-antoine houdon"> 104. george washington , jean-antoine houdon, self-portrait , elisabeth vigée le brun"> 105. self-portrait , elisabeth vigée le brun, y no hai remedio (and there’s nothing to be done) , from los desastres de la guerra (the disasters of war) , plate 15, francesco de goya"> 106. y no hai remedio (and there’s nothing to be done) , from los desastres de la guerra (the disasters of war) , plate 15, francesco de goya, la grande odalisque , jean-auguste-dominique ingres"> 107. la grande odalisque , jean-auguste-dominique ingres, liberty leading the people , eugène delacroix"> 108. liberty leading the people , eugène delacroix, the oxbow (view from mount holyoke, northampton, massachusetts, after a thunderstorm) , thomas cole"> 109. the oxbow (view from mount holyoke, northampton, massachusetts, after a thunderstorm) , thomas cole, still life in studio , louis-jacques-mandé daguerre"> 110. still life in studio , louis-jacques-mandé daguerre, slave ship (slavers throwing overboard the dead and dying, typhoon coming on) , j.m.w. turner"> 111. slave ship (slavers throwing overboard the dead and dying, typhoon coming on) , j.m.w. turner.

• 112. Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament), Charles Barry and A.W.N. Pugin

The Stone Breakers , Gustave Courbet"> 113. The Stone Breakers , Gustave Courbet

Nadar raising photography to the height of art , honoré daumier"> 114. nadar raising photography to the height of art , honoré daumier, olympia , édouard manet"> 115. olympia , édouard manet, the saint-lazare station , claude monet"> 116. the saint-lazare station , claude monet, the horse in motion , eadweard muybridge"> 117. the horse in motion , eadweard muybridge, the valley of mexico from the hillside of santa isabel (el valle de méxico desde el cerro de santa isabel) , josé maría velasco"> 118. the valley of mexico from the hillside of santa isabel (el valle de méxico desde el cerro de santa isabel) , josé maría velasco, the burghers of calais , auguste rodin"> 119. the burghers of calais , auguste rodin, the starry night , vincent van gogh"> 120. the starry night , vincent van gogh, the coiffure , mary cassatt"> 121. the coiffure , mary cassatt, the scream , edvard munch"> 122. the scream , edvard munch, where do we come from what are we where are we going , paul gauguin"> 123. where do we come from what are we where are we going , paul gauguin.

• 124. Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, Louis Sullivan

Mont Sainte-Victoire , Paul Cézanne"> 125. Mont Sainte-Victoire , Paul Cézanne

Les demoiselles d’avignon , pablo picasso"> 126. les demoiselles d’avignon , pablo picasso, the steerage , alfred stieglitz"> 127. the steerage , alfred stieglitz, the kiss , gustav klimt"> 128. the kiss , gustav klimt, the kiss , constantin brancusi"> 129. the kiss , constantin brancusi, the portuguese , georges braque"> 130. the portuguese , georges braque, 130. related pablo picasso and the new language of cubism, goldfish , henri matisse"> 131. goldfish , henri matisse, improvisation 28 (second version) , vasily kandinsky"> 132. improvisation 28 (second version) , vasily kandinsky, self-portrait as a soldier , ernst ludwig kirchner"> 133. self-portrait as a soldier , ernst ludwig kirchner, memorial sheet of karl liebknecht , käthe kollwitz"> 134. memorial sheet of karl liebknecht , käthe kollwitz.

• 135. Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier

Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow , Piet Mondrian"> 136. Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow , Piet Mondrian

The results of the first five-year plan , varvara stepanova"> 137. illustration from the results of the first five-year plan , varvara stepanova, object (le déjeuner en fourrure) , meret oppenheim"> 138. object (le déjeuner en fourrure) , meret oppenheim.

• 139. Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright

The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas) , Frida Kahlo"> 140. The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas) , Frida Kahlo

The migration of the negro, panel no. 49 , jacob lawrence"> 141. the migration of the negro, panel no. 49 , jacob lawrence, the jungle , wilfredo lam"> 142. the jungle , wilfredo lam, dream of a sunday afternoon in the alameda park , diego rivera"> 143. dream of a sunday afternoon in the alameda park , diego rivera, fountain (second version), marcel duchamp"> 144. fountain (second version), marcel duchamp, woman, i , willem de kooning"> 145. woman, i , willem de kooning.

• 146. Seagram Building, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson

Marilyn Diptych , Andy Warhol"> 147. Marilyn Diptych , Andy Warhol

Narcissus garden , yayoi kusama"> 148. narcissus garden , yayoi kusama, the bay , helen frankenthaler"> 149. the bay , helen frankenthaler, lipstick (ascending) on caterpillar tracks , claes oldenburg"> 150. lipstick (ascending) on caterpillar tracks , claes oldenburg, spiral jetty , robert smithson"> 151. spiral jetty , robert smithson.

• 152. House in New Castle County, Robert Venturi, John Rausch and Denise Scott Brown

Content Area 5

Indigenous americas | 1000 b.c.e.–1980 c.e..

• 153. Chavín de Huántar
• 154. Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

155. Yaxchilán

155. (related) yaxchilán lintels.

• 156. Great Serpent Mound

157. Templo Mayor (Main Temple)

157.a. the coyolxauhqui stone, 157.b. the calendar stone, 157.c. olmec-style mask.

• 158. Ruler’s feather headdress (probably of Motecuhzoma II)
• 159. City of Cusco, including Qorikancha (Inka main temple), Santo Domingo (Spanish colonial convent), and Walls at Saqsa Waman (Sacsayhuaman)
• 160. Maize cobs
• 161. City of Machu Picchu
• 162. All-T’oqapu tunic

163. Bandolier bag

163.a. what is a bandolier bag.

• 164. Transformation mask
• 165. Painted elk hide, attributed to Cotsiogo (Cadzi Cody)
• 166. Black-on-black ceramic vessel, Maria Martínez and Julian Martínez

Content Area 6

Africa | 1100–1980 c.e..

• 167. Conical tower and circular wall of Great Zimbabwe
• 168. Great Mosque of Djenné

169. Wall plaque, from Oba's palace

169.a. benin plaques.

• 170. Sika dwa kofi (Golden Stool)

Ndop (portrait figure) of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul"> 171. Ndop (portrait figure) of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul

Nkisi n'kondi )"> 172. power figure ( nkisi n'kondi ), pwo ) mask"> 173. female ( pwo ) mask, mblo )"> 174. portrait mask ( mblo ), bundu mask"> 175. bundu mask, ikenga (shrine figure)"> 176. ikenga (shrine figure), lukasa (memory board)"> 177. lukasa (memory board).

• 178. Aka elephant mask

byeri )"> 179. Reliquary figure ( byeri )

180. veranda post of enthroned king and senior wife (opo ogoga), 180. (related) olowe of ise, veranda post, content area 7, west and central asia | 500 b.c.e.–1980 c.e., 181. petra, jordan: treasury and great temple, 181.a. petra and the treasury, 181.b. petra and the great temple, 181.c. petra: unesco siq project.

• 182. Buddha, Bamiyan
• 183. The Kaaba
• 184. Jowo Rinpoche, enshrined in the Jokhang Temple
• 185. Dome of the Rock
• 186. Great Mosque (Masjid-e Jameh), Isfahan
• 187. Folio from a Qur’an

Baptistère de Saint Louis ), Mohammed ibn al-Zain"> 188. Basin ( Baptistère de Saint Louis ), Mohammed ibn al-Zain

Bahram gur fights the karg , folio from the great il-khanid shahnama "> 189. bahram gur fights the karg , folio from the great il-khanid shahnama, 189. related folio from a shahnama, the bier of iskandar (alexander the great), the court of gayumars , folio from shah tahmasp’s shahnama "> 190. the court of gayumars , folio from shah tahmasp’s shahnama, 190. (related) making and mutilating manuscripts of the shahnama.

• 191. The Ardabil Carpet

Content Area 8

South, east, and southeast asia | 300 b.c.e.–1980 c.e..

• 192. Great Stupa at Sanchi

193. Terra cotta warriors from mausoleum of the first Qin emperor of China

193. (related) the tomb of the first emperor, 194. funeral banner of lady dai (xin zhui), 194. (related) the tomb of lady dai.

• 195. Longmen caves

196. Gold and jade crown

Gold crown and gold belt from the north mound of hwangnamdaechong tomb gold crown and gold belt from the north mound of hwangnamdaechong tomb.

• 197. Tōdai-ji
• 198. Borobudur Temple

199. Angkor, the temple of Angkor Wat

199. the city of angkor thom, 199. bayon temple.

• 200. Lakshmana Temple

Travelers among Mountains and Streams , Fan Kuan"> 201. Travelers among Mountains and Streams , Fan Kuan

• 202. Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja)

Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace "> 203. Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace

• 204. The David Vases
• 205. Portrait of Sin Sukju (1417–1475)
• 206. Forbidden City
• 207. Ryōan-ji

Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings , Bichitr"> 208. Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings , Bichitr

• 209. Taj Mahal

Red and White Plum Blossoms , Ogata Kōrin"> 210. Red and White Plum Blossoms , Ogata Kōrin

Under the wave off kanagawa (kanagawa oki nami ura) , also known as the great wave , from the series thirty-six views of mount fuji , katsushika hokusai"> 211. under the wave off kanagawa (kanagawa oki nami ura) , also known as the great wave , from the series thirty-six views of mount fuji , katsushika hokusai, chairman mao en route to anyuan , liu chunhua"> 212. chairman mao en route to anyuan , liu chunhua, content area 9, the pacific | 700–1980 c.e..

• 213. Nan Madol

ahu )"> 214. Moai on platform ( ahu )

214.a. easter island moai, ‘ahu ‘ula (feather cape)"> 215. ‘ahu ‘ula (feather cape).

• 216. Staff god
• 217. Female deity
• 218. Buk (mask)
• 219. Hiapo (tapa)

Tamati Waka Nene , Gottfried Lindauer"> 220. Tamati Waka Nene , Gottfried Lindauer

• 221. Navigation chart
• 222. Malagan display and mask
• 223. Presentation of Fijian Mats and Tapa Cloths to Queen Elizabeth II

Content Area 10

Global contemporary | 1980 c.e. to present, the gates , christo and jeanne-claude"> 224. the gates , christo and jeanne-claude.

• 225. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Maya Lin

Horn Players , Jean-Michel Basquiat"> 226. Horn Players , Jean-Michel Basquiat

Summer trees , song su-nam"> 227. summer trees , song su-nam, androgyne iii , magdalena abakanowicz"> 228. androgyne iii , magdalena abakanowicz, a book from the sky , xu bing"> 229. a book from the sky , xu bing, pink panther , jeff koons"> 230. pink panther , jeff koons, untitled #228 , cindy sherman"> 231. untitled #228 , cindy sherman, dancing at the louvre , from the series the french collection , part 1; #1, faith ringgold"> 232. dancing at the louvre , from the series the french collection , part 1; #1, faith ringgold, trade (gifts for trading land with white people) , jaune quick-to-see smith"> 233. trade (gifts for trading land with white people) , jaune quick-to-see smith, earth’s creation , emily kame kngwarreye"> 234. earth’s creation , emily kame kngwarreye, rebellious silence , from the women of allah series, shirin neshat (artist); photo by cynthia preston"> 235. rebellious silence , from the women of allah series, shirin neshat (artist); photo by cynthia preston, en la barberia no se llora (no crying allowed in the barbershop) , pepón osorio"> 236. en la barberia no se llora (no crying allowed in the barbershop) , pepón osorio, pisupo lua afe (corned beef 2000) , michel tuffery"> 237. pisupo lua afe (corned beef 2000) , michel tuffery, electronic superhighway , nam june paik"> 238. electronic superhighway , nam june paik, the crossing , bill viola"> 239. the crossing , bill viola.

• 240. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Frank Gehry

Pure Land , Mariko Mori"> 241. Pure Land , Mariko Mori

Lying with the wolf , kiki smith"> 242. lying with the wolf , kiki smith, darkytown rebellion , kara walker"> 243. darkytown rebellion , kara walker, the swing (after fragonard) , yinka shonibare"> 244. the swing (after fragonard) , yinka shonibare, old man’s cloth , el anatsui"> 245. old man’s cloth , el anatsui, untitled , el anatsui"> 245. (related) untitled , el anatsui, stadia ii , julie mehretu"> 246. stadia ii , julie mehretu, preying mantra , wangechi mutu"> 247. preying mantra , wangechi mutu, shibboleth , doris salcedo"> 248. shibboleth , doris salcedo.

• 249. MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Zaha Hadid

Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) , Ai Weiwei"> 250. Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) , Ai Weiwei

Apollo 11 Cave Stones c. 25,500–25,300 B.C.E., Namibia (photo: State Museum of Namibia)

• Origins of rock art in Africa
• Running Horned Woman "> Running Horned Woman ">4. Running Horned Woman
• cong "> cong ">7. Jade cong

Remains of the Anu Ziggurat, c. 3517–3358 B.C.E., from Uruk (modern Warka) (photo: Geoff Emberling, by permission)

• Seated scribe "> Seated scribe ">15. Seated scribe
• Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs at Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq)"> Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs at Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq)">16. Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs at Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq)
• Pyramid of Khufu
• Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Sphinx
• Pyramid of Menkaure
• The Code of Hammurabi "> The Code of Hammurabi ">19. The Code of Hammurabi
• Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters "> Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters ">22. Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters
• Book of the Dead )"> Book of the Dead )">24. Last judgment of Hunefer, from his tomb (page from the Book of the Dead )
• Anavysos Kouros "> Anavysos Kouros ">27. Anavysos Kouros
• Peplos Kore from the Acropolis"> Peplos Kore from the Acropolis">28. Peplos Kore from the Acropolis
• Sarcophagus of the Spouses "> Sarcophagus of the Spouses ">29. Sarcophagus of the Spouses
• Capital of a column from the audience hall of the palace of Darius I, Susa
• Tomb of the Triclinium "> Tomb of the Triclinium ">32. Tomb of the Triclinium
• Niobides Krater "> Niobides Krater ">33. Niobides Krater
• Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer) , Polykleitos"> Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer) , Polykleitos">34. Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer) , Polykleitos
• Parthenon sculptures (pediments, metopes and frieze)
• Who owns the Parthenon sculptures?
• Plaque of the Ergastines , 445–438 B.C.E., Classical Period, fragment from a frieze on the Parthenon, Athens, Greece (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label=" Plaque of the Ergastines "> Plaque of the Ergastines
• The Many Lives of the Parthenon
• Nike Adjusting Her Sandal , Temple of Athena Nike, c. 410 B.C.E., Classical Period, from the Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis, Athens, Greece (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Nike Adjusting Her Sandal from the Temple of Athena Nike"> Nike Adjusting Her Sandal from the Temple of Athena Nike
• Grave stele of Hegeso "> Grave stele of Hegeso ">36. Grave stele of Hegeso
• Winged Victory of Samothrace "> Winged Victory of Samothrace ">37. Winged Victory of Samothrace
• Alexander Mosaic from the House of Faun, Pompeii"> Alexander Mosaic from the House of Faun, Pompeii">40. Alexander Mosaic from the House of Faun, Pompeii
• Seated Boxer "> Seated Boxer ">41. Seated Boxer
• Veristic male portrait
• Augustus of Prima Porta "> Augustus of Prima Porta ">43. Augustus of Prima Porta
• Column of Trajan
• Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus "> Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus ">47. Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus

Detail of the Cubiculum of the Veiled Woman, Catacomb of Priscilla, late 2nd century–4th century C.E., Late Antique Europe, Rome, Italy

• Vienna Genesis , folio 12v, early 6th century, Early Byzantine Europe" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Jacob Wrestling the Angel"> Jacob Wrestling the Angel
• Vienna Genesis , folio 7 recto, early 6th century, Early Byzantine Europe" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well"> Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well
• Empress Theodora, rhetoric, and Byzantine primary sources
• Theotokos mosaic , 867, Middle Byzantine Europe, apse of the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Theotokos mosaic "> Theotokos mosaic
• Deësis (Christ with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist) , c. 1261, Late Byzantine Europe, at the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Deësis mosaic "> Deësis mosaic
• Hagia Sophia as a mosque
• Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George "> Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George ">54. Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George
• Lindisfarne Gospels : St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page"> Lindisfarne Gospels : St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page">55. Lindisfarne Gospels : St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page
• Bayeux Tapestry "> Bayeux Tapestry ">59. Bayeux Tapestry
• Moralized Bible (Paris-Oxford-London))
• Röttgen Pietà "> Röttgen Pietà ">62. Röttgen Pietà
• Introduction
• Fresco cycle
• Lamentation "> Lamentation
• Last Judgment "> Last Judgment
• The Arena Chapel in virtual reality
• Golden Haggadah (The Plagues of Egypt, Scenes of Liberation, and Preparation for Passover)"> Golden Haggadah (The Plagues of Egypt, Scenes of Liberation, and Preparation for Passover)">64. Golden Haggadah (The Plagues of Egypt, Scenes of Liberation, and Preparation for Passover)
• Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) , Workshop of Robert Campin"> Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) , Workshop of Robert Campin">66. Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) , Workshop of Robert Campin
• The Arnolfini Portrait , 1434, Northern Renaissance (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about The question of pregnancy in The Arnolfini Portrait "> The question of pregnancy in The Arnolfini Portrait
• David , Donatello"> David , Donatello">69. David , Donatello
• Madonna and Child with Two Angels , Fra Filippo Lippi"> Madonna and Child with Two Angels , Fra Filippo Lippi">71. Madonna and Child with Two Angels , Fra Filippo Lippi
• Birth of Venus , Sandro Botticelli"> Birth of Venus , Sandro Botticelli">72. Birth of Venus , Sandro Botticelli
• Last Supper , Leonardo da Vinci"> Last Supper , Leonardo da Vinci">73. Last Supper , Leonardo da Vinci
• Adam and Eve , 1504, Renaissance, Germany" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about More about Adam and Eve "> More about Adam and Eve
• Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso), Michelangelo
• Last Judgment , 1534–1541, High Renaissance, altar wall, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome (photo: Richard Mortel, CC BY 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Altar wall, Last Judgment "> Altar wall, Last Judgment
• Self Portrait , 1504–05" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Raphael, an introduction"> Raphael, an introduction
• Isenheim Altarpiece , Matthias Grünewald"> Isenheim Altarpiece , Matthias Grünewald">77. Isenheim Altarpiece , Matthias Grünewald
• Entombment of Christ , Jacopo da Pontormo"> Entombment of Christ , Jacopo da Pontormo">78. Entombment of Christ , Jacopo da Pontormo
• Allegory of Law and Grace , Lucas Cranach the Elder"> Allegory of Law and Grace , Lucas Cranach the Elder">79. Allegory of Law and Grace , Lucas Cranach the Elder
• Venus of Urbino , Titian"> Venus of Urbino , Titian">80. Venus of Urbino , Titian
• Codex Mendoza "> Codex Mendoza ">81. Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza
• Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco"> Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco">82. Il Gesù, including Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco
• Hunters in the Snow , Pieter Bruegel the Elder"> Hunters in the Snow , Pieter Bruegel the Elder">83. Hunters in the Snow , Pieter Bruegel the Elder
• Calling of St. Matthew , Caravaggio"> Calling of St. Matthew , Caravaggio">85. Calling of St. Matthew , Caravaggio
• Henri IV Receives the Portrait of of Marie de’Medici , from the Marie de’Medici Cycle, Peter Paul Rubens"> Henri IV Receives the Portrait of of Marie de’Medici , from the Marie de’Medici Cycle, Peter Paul Rubens">86. Henri IV Receives the Portrait of of Marie de’Medici , from the Marie de’Medici Cycle, Peter Paul Rubens
• Self-Portrait with Saskia , Rembrandt van Rijn"> Self-Portrait with Saskia , Rembrandt van Rijn">87. Self-Portrait with Saskia , Rembrandt van Rijn
• Ecstasy of Saint Teresa , Gian Lorenzo Bernini"> Ecstasy of Saint Teresa , Gian Lorenzo Bernini">89. Ecstasy of Saint Teresa , Gian Lorenzo Bernini
• Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei , Master of Calamarca"> Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei , Master of Calamarca">90. Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei , Master of Calamarca
• Las Meninas , Diego Velázquez"> Las Meninas , Diego Velázquez">91. Las Meninas , Diego Velázquez
• Woman Holding a Balance , Johannes Vermeer"> Woman Holding a Balance , Johannes Vermeer">92. Woman Holding a Balance , Johannes Vermeer
• Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene "> Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene ">94. Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene
• Virgin of Guadalupe , late 17th century, New Spain (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Virgin of Guadalupe "> Virgin of Guadalupe
• Fruit and Insects , Rachel Ruysch"> Fruit and Insects , Rachel Ruysch">96. Fruit and Insects , Rachel Ruysch
• Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo , attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez"> Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo , attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez">97. Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo , attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez
• The Tête à Tête , from Marriage a la Mode , William Hogarth"> The Tête à Tête , from Marriage a la Mode , William Hogarth">98. The Tête à Tête , from Marriage a la Mode , William Hogarth

Miguel Cabrera, Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (detail), c. 1750, New Spain

• Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz , Miguel Cabrera "> Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz , Miguel Cabrera ">99. Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz , Miguel Cabrera
• A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery , Joseph Wright of Derby"> A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery , Joseph Wright of Derby">100. A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery , Joseph Wright of Derby
• The Swing , Jean-Honoré Fragonard"> The Swing , Jean-Honoré Fragonard">101. The Swing , Jean-Honoré Fragonard
• The Oath of the Horatii , Jacques-Louis David"> The Oath of the Horatii , Jacques-Louis David">103. The Oath of the Horatii , Jacques-Louis David
• George Washington , Jean-Antoine Houdon"> George Washington , Jean-Antoine Houdon">104. George Washington , Jean-Antoine Houdon
• Self-Portrait , Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun"> Self-Portrait , Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun">105. Self-Portrait , Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
• Y no hai remedio (And There’s Nothing to Be Done) , from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) , plate 15, Francesco de Goya"> Y no hai remedio (And There’s Nothing to Be Done) , from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) , plate 15, Francesco de Goya">106. Y no hai remedio (And There’s Nothing to Be Done) , from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War) , plate 15, Francesco de Goya
• La Grande Odalisque , Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres"> La Grande Odalisque , Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres">107. La Grande Odalisque , Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
• Liberty Leading the People , Eugène Delacroix"> Liberty Leading the People , Eugène Delacroix">108. Liberty Leading the People , Eugène Delacroix
• The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm) , Thomas Cole"> The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm) , Thomas Cole">109. The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm) , Thomas Cole
• Still Life in Studio , Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre"> Still Life in Studio , Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre">110. Still Life in Studio , Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
• Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On) , J.M.W. Turner"> Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On) , J.M.W. Turner">111. Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On) , J.M.W. Turner
• The Stone Breakers , Gustave Courbet"> The Stone Breakers , Gustave Courbet">113. The Stone Breakers , Gustave Courbet
• Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art , Honoré Daumier"> Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art , Honoré Daumier">114. Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art , Honoré Daumier
• Olympia , Édouard Manet"> Olympia , Édouard Manet">115. Olympia , Édouard Manet
• The Saint-Lazare Station , Claude Monet"> The Saint-Lazare Station , Claude Monet">116. The Saint-Lazare Station , Claude Monet
• The Horse in Motion , Eadweard Muybridge"> The Horse in Motion , Eadweard Muybridge">117. The Horse in Motion , Eadweard Muybridge
• The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel) , José María Velasco"> The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel) , José María Velasco">118. The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel) , José María Velasco
• The Burghers of Calais , Auguste Rodin"> The Burghers of Calais , Auguste Rodin">119. The Burghers of Calais , Auguste Rodin
• The Starry Night , Vincent van Gogh"> The Starry Night , Vincent van Gogh">120. The Starry Night , Vincent van Gogh
• The Coiffure , Mary Cassatt"> The Coiffure , Mary Cassatt">121. The Coiffure , Mary Cassatt
• The Scream , Edvard Munch"> The Scream , Edvard Munch">122. The Scream , Edvard Munch
• Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? , Paul Gauguin"> Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? , Paul Gauguin">123. Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? , Paul Gauguin
• Mont Sainte-Victoire , Paul Cézanne"> Mont Sainte-Victoire , Paul Cézanne">125. Mont Sainte-Victoire , Paul Cézanne
• Les Demoiselles d’Avignon , Pablo Picasso"> Les Demoiselles d’Avignon , Pablo Picasso">126. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon , Pablo Picasso
• The Steerage , Alfred Stieglitz"> The Steerage , Alfred Stieglitz">127. The Steerage , Alfred Stieglitz
• The Kiss , Gustav Klimt"> The Kiss , Gustav Klimt">128. The Kiss , Gustav Klimt
• The Kiss , Constantin Brancusi"> The Kiss , Constantin Brancusi">129. The Kiss , Constantin Brancusi
• The Guitarist , 1910, Cubism (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Pablo Picasso and the new language of Cubism"> Pablo Picasso and the new language of Cubism
• Goldfish , Henri Matisse"> Goldfish , Henri Matisse">131. Goldfish , Henri Matisse
• Improvisation 28 (second version) , Vasily Kandinsky"> Improvisation 28 (second version) , Vasily Kandinsky">132. Improvisation 28 (second version) , Vasily Kandinsky
• Self-Portrait As a Soldier , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner"> Self-Portrait As a Soldier , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner">133. Self-Portrait As a Soldier , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
• Memorial Sheet of Karl Liebknecht , Käthe Kollwitz"> Memorial Sheet of Karl Liebknecht , Käthe Kollwitz">134. Memorial Sheet of Karl Liebknecht , Käthe Kollwitz
• Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow , Piet Mondrian"> Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow , Piet Mondrian">136. Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow , Piet Mondrian
• The Results of the First Five-Year Plan , Varvara Stepanova"> The Results of the First Five-Year Plan , Varvara Stepanova">137. Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan , Varvara Stepanova
• Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) , Meret Oppenheim"> Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) , Meret Oppenheim">138. Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) , Meret Oppenheim
• The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas) , Frida Kahlo"> The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas) , Frida Kahlo">140. The Two Fridas (Las dos Fridas) , Frida Kahlo
• The Migration of the Negro, Panel no. 49 , Jacob Lawrence"> The Migration of the Negro, Panel no. 49 , Jacob Lawrence">141. The Migration of the Negro, Panel no. 49 , Jacob Lawrence
• The Jungle , Wilfredo Lam"> The Jungle , Wilfredo Lam">142. The Jungle , Wilfredo Lam
• Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park , Diego Rivera"> Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park , Diego Rivera">143. Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park , Diego Rivera
• Fountain (second version), Marcel Duchamp"> Fountain (second version), Marcel Duchamp">144. Fountain (second version), Marcel Duchamp
• Woman, I , Willem de Kooning"> Woman, I , Willem de Kooning">145. Woman, I , Willem de Kooning
• Marilyn Diptych , Andy Warhol"> Marilyn Diptych , Andy Warhol">147. Marilyn Diptych , Andy Warhol
• Narcissus Garden , Yayoi Kusama"> Narcissus Garden , Yayoi Kusama">148. Narcissus Garden , Yayoi Kusama
• The Bay , Helen Frankenthaler"> The Bay , Helen Frankenthaler">149. The Bay , Helen Frankenthaler
• Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks , Claes Oldenburg"> Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks , Claes Oldenburg">150. Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks , Claes Oldenburg
• Spiral Jetty , Robert Smithson"> Spiral Jetty , Robert Smithson">151. Spiral Jetty , Robert Smithson

Chavín de Huántar, 900–200 B.C.E., Peru (photo: Sharon odb, CC BY-SA 3.0)

• Yaxchilán Lintels
• The Coyolxauhqui Stone
• The Calendar Stone
• Olmec-style mask
• What is a bandolier bag?

Conical Tower, Great Zimbabwe, c. 1000–1400 C.E., Shona people, Southeastern Zimbabwe (photo: Mandy, CC BY 2.0)

• Benin plaques
• Ndop (portrait figure) of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul"> Ndop (portrait figure) of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul">171. Ndop (portrait figure) of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul
• Nkisi n'kondi )"> Nkisi n'kondi )">172. Power figure ( Nkisi n'kondi )
• pwo ) mask"> pwo ) mask">173. Female ( pwo ) mask
• Mblo )"> Mblo )">174. Portrait mask ( Mblo )
• Bundu mask"> Bundu mask">175. Bundu mask
• Ikenga (shrine figure)"> Ikenga (shrine figure)">176. Ikenga (shrine figure)
• Lukasa (memory board)"> Lukasa (memory board)">177. Lukasa (memory board)
• byeri )"> byeri )">179. Reliquary figure ( byeri )
• Olowe of Ise, veranda post

Tombs at Petra (Jordan), c. 400 B.C.E–100 C.E., Nabataean (photo: Dennis Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0)

• Petra and the Treasury
• Petra and the Great Temple
• Petra: UNESCO Siq Project
• Baptistère de Saint Louis ), Mohammed ibn al-Zain"> Baptistère de Saint Louis ), Mohammed ibn al-Zain">188. Basin ( Baptistère de Saint Louis ), Mohammed ibn al-Zain
• Folio from a Shahnama, The Bier of Iskandar (Alexander the Great)
• Making and Mutilating Manuscripts of the Shahnama

Great Stupa at Sanchi, 3rd century B.C.E.–1st century C.E., Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India (photo: AyushDwivedi1947, CC BY-SA 4.0)

• The Tomb of the First Emperor
• The Tomb of Lady Dai
• Gold crown and gold belt from the north mound of Hwangnamdaechong Tomb
• The city of Angkor Thom
• Bayon Temple
• Travelers among Mountains and Streams , Fan Kuan"> Travelers among Mountains and Streams , Fan Kuan">201. Travelers among Mountains and Streams , Fan Kuan
• Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace "> Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace ">203. Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace
• Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings , Bichitr"> Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings , Bichitr">208. Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings , Bichitr
• Red and White Plum Blossoms , Ogata Kōrin"> Red and White Plum Blossoms , Ogata Kōrin">210. Red and White Plum Blossoms , Ogata Kōrin
• Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura) , also known as The Great Wave , from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji , Katsushika Hokusai"> Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura) , also known as The Great Wave , from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji , Katsushika Hokusai">211. Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura) , also known as The Great Wave , from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji , Katsushika Hokusai
• Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan , Liu Chunhua"> Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan , Liu Chunhua">212. Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan , Liu Chunhua

Nan Madol, 13th-17th century C.E., Pohnpei, The Federated States of Micronesia (photo: CT Snow, CC BY 2.0)

• Hoa Hakananai’a (‘lost or stolen friend’), Moai (ancestor figure), c. 1200 C.E., likely made in Rano Kao, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), found in the ceremonial center Orongo © Trustees of the British Museum" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Easter Island Moai"> Easter Island Moai
• ‘Ahu ‘ula (feather cape)"> ‘Ahu ‘ula (feather cape)">215. ‘Ahu ‘ula (feather cape)
• Tamati Waka Nene , Gottfried Lindauer"> Tamati Waka Nene , Gottfried Lindauer">220. Tamati Waka Nene , Gottfried Lindauer

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates , 1979-2005 (view across the pond looking southeast) (photo: © 2005 Christo and Jeanne-Claude

• The Gates , Christo and Jeanne-Claude"> The Gates , Christo and Jeanne-Claude">224. The Gates , Christo and Jeanne-Claude
• Horn Players , Jean-Michel Basquiat"> Horn Players , Jean-Michel Basquiat">226. Horn Players , Jean-Michel Basquiat
• Summer Trees , Song Su-Nam"> Summer Trees , Song Su-Nam">227. Summer Trees , Song Su-Nam
• Androgyne III , Magdalena Abakanowicz"> Androgyne III , Magdalena Abakanowicz">228. Androgyne III , Magdalena Abakanowicz
• A Book from the Sky , Xu Bing"> A Book from the Sky , Xu Bing">229. A Book from the Sky , Xu Bing
• Pink Panther , Jeff Koons"> Pink Panther , Jeff Koons">230. Pink Panther , Jeff Koons
• Untitled #228 , Cindy Sherman"> Untitled #228 , Cindy Sherman">231. Untitled #228 , Cindy Sherman
• Dancing at the Louvre , from the series The French Collection , part 1; #1, Faith Ringgold"> Dancing at the Louvre , from the series The French Collection , part 1; #1, Faith Ringgold">232. Dancing at the Louvre , from the series The French Collection , part 1; #1, Faith Ringgold
• Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People) , Jaune Quick-to-See Smith"> Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People) , Jaune Quick-to-See Smith">233. Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People) , Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
• Earth’s Creation , Emily Kame Kngwarreye"> Earth’s Creation , Emily Kame Kngwarreye">234. Earth’s Creation , Emily Kame Kngwarreye
• Rebellious Silence , from the Women of Allah series, Shirin Neshat (artist); photo by Cynthia Preston"> Rebellious Silence , from the Women of Allah series, Shirin Neshat (artist); photo by Cynthia Preston">235. Rebellious Silence , from the Women of Allah series, Shirin Neshat (artist); photo by Cynthia Preston
• En la barberia no se llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop) , Pepón Osorio"> En la barberia no se llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop) , Pepón Osorio">236. En la barberia no se llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop) , Pepón Osorio
• Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000) , Michel Tuffery"> Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000) , Michel Tuffery">237. Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000) , Michel Tuffery
• Electronic Superhighway , Nam June Paik"> Electronic Superhighway , Nam June Paik">238. Electronic Superhighway , Nam June Paik
• The Crossing , Bill Viola"> The Crossing , Bill Viola">239. The Crossing , Bill Viola
• Pure Land , Mariko Mori"> Pure Land , Mariko Mori">241. Pure Land , Mariko Mori
• Lying with the Wolf , Kiki Smith"> Lying with the Wolf , Kiki Smith">242. Lying with the Wolf , Kiki Smith
• Darkytown Rebellion , Kara Walker"> Darkytown Rebellion , Kara Walker">243. Darkytown Rebellion , Kara Walker
• The Swing (After Fragonard) , Yinka Shonibare"> The Swing (After Fragonard) , Yinka Shonibare">244. The Swing (After Fragonard) , Yinka Shonibare
• Untitled , 2009 (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)" target="_blank" aria-label="Link to more about Untitled , El Anatsui"> Untitled , El Anatsui
• Stadia II , Julie Mehretu"> Stadia II , Julie Mehretu">246. Stadia II , Julie Mehretu
• Preying Mantra , Wangechi Mutu"> Preying Mantra , Wangechi Mutu">247. Preying Mantra , Wangechi Mutu
• Shibboleth , Doris Salcedo"> Shibboleth , Doris Salcedo">248. Shibboleth , Doris Salcedo
• Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) , Ai Weiwei"> Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) , Ai Weiwei">250. Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) , Ai Weiwei

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By Will Fenstermaker

June 14, 2017

There has never been a time when art critics held more power than during the second half of the twentieth century. Following the Second World War, with the relocation of the world’s artistic epicenter from Paris to New York, a different kind of war was waged in the pages of magazines across the country. As part of the larger “culture wars” of the mid-century, art critics began to take on greater influence than they’d ever held before. For a time, two critics in particular—who began as friends, and remained in the same social circles for much of their lives—set the stakes of the debates surrounding the maturation of American art that would continue for decades. The ideas about art outlined by Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg are still debated today, and the extent to which they were debated in the past has shaped entire movements of the arts. Below are ten works of criticism through which one can trace the mainstreaming of Clement Greenberg’s formalist theory, and how its dismantling led us into institutional critique and conceptual art today.

The American Action Painters

Harold Rosenberg

Harold Rosenberg, a poet who came to art through his involvement with the Artist’s Union and the WPA, was introduced to Jean-Paul Sartre as the “first American existentialist.” Soon, Rosenberg became a contributor to Sartre’s publication in France, for which he first drafted his influential essay. However, when Sartre supported Soviet aggression against Korea, Rosenberg brought his essay to Elaine de Kooning , then the editor of ARTnews , who ran “The American Action Painters” in December, 1952.

RELATED: What Did Harold Rosenberg Do? An Introduction to the Champion of “Action Painting”

Rosenberg’s essay on the emerging school of American Painters omitted particular names—because they’d have been unfamiliar to its original French audience—but it was nonetheless extraordinarily influential for the burgeoning scene of post-WWII American artists. Jackson Pollock claimed to be the influence of “action painting,” despite Rosenberg’s rumored lack of respect for the artist because Pollock wasn’t particularly well-read. Influenced by Marxist theory and French existentialism, Rosenberg conceives of a painting as an “arena,” in which the artist acts upon, wrestles, or otherwise engages with the canvas, in what ultimately amounts to an expressive record of a struggle. “What was to go on the canvas,” Rosenberg wrote, “was not a picture but an event.”

Notable Quote

Weak mysticism, the “Christian Science” side of the new movement, tends … toward easy painting—never so many unearned masterpieces! Works of this sort lack the dialectical tension of a genuine act, associated with risk and will. When a tube of paint is squeezed by the Absolute, the result can only be a Success. The painter need keep himself on hand solely to collect the benefits of an endless series of strokes of luck. His gesture completes itself without arousing either an opposing movement within itself nor the desire in the artist to make the act more fully his own. Satisfied with wonders that remain safely inside the canvas, the artist accepts the permanence of the commonplace and decorates it with his own daily annihilation. The result is an apocalyptic wallpaper.

‘American-Type’ Painting

Clement Greenberg

Throughout the preceding decade, Clement Greenberg, also a former poet, had established a reputation as a leftist critic through his writings with The Partisan Review —a publication run by the John Reed Club, a New York City-centered organization affiliated with the American Communist Party—and his time as an art critic with The Nation . In 1955, The Partisan Review published Greenberg’s “‘American-Type’ Painting,” in which the critic defined the now-ubiquitous term “abstract expressionism.”

RELATED: What Did Clement Greenberg Do? A Primer on the Powerful AbEx Theorist’s Key Ideas

In contrast to Rosenberg’s conception of painting as a performative act, Greenberg’s theory, influenced by Clive Bell and T. S. Eliot, was essentially a formal one—in fact, it eventually evolved into what would be called “formalism.” Greenberg argued that the evolution of painting was one of historical determinacy—that ever since the Renaissance, pictures moved toward flatness, and the painted line moved away from representation. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso were two of the landmarks of this view. Pollock, who exhibited his drip paintings in 1951, freeing the line from figuration, was for Greenberg the pinnacle of American Modernism, the most important artist since Picasso. (Pollock’s paintings exhibited in 1954, with which he returned to semi-representational form, were regarded by Greenberg as a regression. This lead him to adopt Barnett Newman as his new poster-boy, despite the artist’s possessing vastly different ideas on the nature of painting. For one, Greenberg mostly ignored the Biblical titles of Newman’s paintings.)

Greenberg’s formalist theories were immensely influential over the subsequent decades. Artforum in particular grew into a locus for formalist discourse, which had the early effect of providing an aesthetic toolkit divorced from politic. Certain curators of the Museum of Modern Art, particularly William Rubin, Kirk Varnedoe, and to an extent Alfred Barr are credited for steering the museum in an essentially formalist direction. Some painters, such as Frank Stella , Helen Frankenthaler , and Kenneth Noland, had even been accused of illustrating Greenberg’s theories (and those of Michael Fried, a prominent Greenbergian disciple) in attempt to embody the theory, which was restrictive in its failure to account for narrative content, figuration, identity, politics, and more. In addition, Greenberg’s theories proved well-suited for a burgeoning art market, which found connoisseurship an easy sell. (As the writer Mary McCarthy said, “You can’t hang an event on your wall.”) In fact, the dominance of the term “abstract expressionism” over “action painting,” which seemed more applicable to Pollock and Willem de Kooning than any other members of the New York School, is emblematic of the influence of formalist discourse.

The justification for the term, “abstract expressionist,” lies in the fact that most of the painters covered by it took their lead from German, Russian, or Jewish expressionism in breaking away from late Cubist abstract art. But they all started from French painting, for their fundamental sense of style from it, and still maintain some sort of continuity with it. Not least of all, they got from it their most vivid notion of an ambitious, major art, and of the general direction in which it had to go in their time.

Barbara Rose

Like many critics in the 1950s and 60s, Barbara Rose had clearly staked her allegiance to one camp or the other. She was, firmly, a formalist, and along with Fried and Rosalind Krauss is largely credited with expanding the theory beyond abstract expressionist painting. By 1965, however, Rose recognized a limitation of the theory as outlined by Greenberg—that it was reductionist and only capable of account for a certain style of painting, and not much at all in other mediums.

RELATED: The Intellectual Origins Of Minimalism

In “ABC Art,” published in Art in America where Rose was a contributing editor, Rose opens up formalism to encompass sculpture, which Greenberg was largely unable to account for. The simple idea that art moves toward flatness and abstraction leads, for Rose, into Minimalism, and “ABC Art” is often considered the first landmark essay on Minimalist art. By linking the Minimalist sculptures of artists like Donald Judd to the Russian supremacist paintings of Kasimir Malevich and readymades of Duchamp, she extends the determinist history that formalism relies on into sculpture and movements beyond abstract expressionism.

I do not agree with critic Michael Fried’s view that Duchamp, at any rate, was a failed Cubist. Rather, the inevitability of a logical evolution toward a reductive art was obvious to them already. For Malevich, the poetic Slav, this realization forced a turning inward toward an inspirational mysticism, whereas for Duchamp, the rational Frenchman, it meant a fatigue so enervating that finally the wish to paint at all was killed. Both the yearnings of Malevich’s Slavic soul and the deductions of Duchamp’s rationalist mind led both men ultimately to reject and exclude from their work many of the most cherished premises of Western art in favor of an art stripped to its bare, irreducible minimum.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Philip Leider

Despite the rhetorical tendency to suggest the social upheaval of the '60s ended with the actual decade, 1970 remained a year of unrest. And Artforum was still the locus of formalist criticism, which was proving increasingly unable to account for art that contributed to larger cultural movements, like Civil Rights, women’s liberation, anti-war protests, and more. (Tellingly, The Partisan Review , which birthed formalism, had by then distanced itself from its communist associations and, as an editorial body, was supportive of American Interventionism in Vietnam. Greenberg was a vocal hawk.) Subtitled “Art and Politics in Nevada, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Utah,” the editor’s note to the September 1970 issue of Artforum , written by Philip Leider, ostensibly recounts a road trip undertaken with Richard Serra and Abbie Hoffman to see Michael Heizer’s Double Negative in the Nevada desert.

RELATED: A City of Art in the Desert: Behind Michael Heizer’s Monumental Visions for Nevada

However, the essay is also an account of an onsetting disillusion with formalism, which Leider found left him woefully unequipped to process the protests that had erupted surrounding an exhibition of prints by Paul Wunderlich at the Phoenix Gallery in Berkeley. Wunderlich’s depictions of nude women were shown concurrently to an exhibition of drawings sold to raise money for Vietnamese orphans. The juxtaposition of a canonical, patriarchal form of representation and liberal posturing, to which the protestors objected, showcased the limitations of a methodology that placed the aesthetic elements of a picture plane far above the actual world in which it existed. Less than a year later, Leider stepped down as editor-in-chief and Artforum began to lose its emphasis on late Modernism.

I thought the women were probably with me—if they were, I was with them. I thought the women were picketing the show because it was reactionary art. To the women, [Piet] Mondrian must be a great revolutionary artist. Abstract art broke all of those chains thirty years ago! What is a Movement gallery showing dumb stuff like this for? But if it were just a matter of reactionary art , why would the women picket it? Why not? Women care as much about art as men do—maybe more. The question is, why weren’t the men right there with them?

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

Linda Nochlin

While Artforum , in its early history, had established a reputation as a generator for formalist theory, ARTnews had followed a decidedly more Rosenberg-ian course, emphasizing art as a practice for investigating the world. The January 1971 issue of the magazine was dedicated to “Women’s Liberation, Woman Artists, and Art History” and included an iconoclastic essay by Linda Nochlin titled “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”

RELATED: An Introduction to Feminist Art

Nochlin notes that it’s tempting to answer the question “why have there been no great women artists?” by listing examples of those overlooked by critical and institutional organizations (a labor that Nochlin admits has great merit). However, she notes, “by attempting to answer it, they tacitly reinforce its negative implications,” namely that women are intrinsically less capable of achieving artistic merit than men. Instead, Nochlin’s essay functions as a critique of art institutions, beginning with European salons, which were structured in such a way as to deter women from rising to the highest echelons. Nochlin’s essay is considered the beginning of modern feminist art history and a textbook example of institutional critique.

There are no women equivalents for Michelangelo or Rembrandt, Delacroix or Cézanne, Picasso or Matisse, or even in very recent times, for de Kooning or Warhol, any more than there are black American equivalents for the same. If there actually were large numbers of “hidden” great women artists, or if there really should be different standards for women’s art as opposed to men’s—and one can’t have it both ways—then what are feminists fighting for? If women have in fact achieved the same status as men in the arts, then the status quo is fine as it is. But in actuality, as we all know, things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those, women among them, who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class and above all, male. The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education.

Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief

Thomas McEvilley

One of the many extrapolations of Nochlin’s essay is that contemporary museum institutions continue to reflect the gendered and racist biases of preceding centuries by reinforcing the supremacy of specific master artists. In a 1984 Artforum review, Thomas McEvilley, a classicist new to the world of contemporary art, made the case that the Museum of Modern Art in New York served as an exclusionary temple to certain high-minded Modernists—namely, Picasso, Matisse, and Pollock—who, in fact, took many of their innovations from native cultures.

RELATED: MoMA Curator Laura Hoptman on How to Tell a Good Painting From a “Bogus” Painting

In 1984, MoMA organized a blockbuster exhibition. Curated by William Rubin and Kirk Varnedoe, both of whom were avowed formalists, “‘Primitivism’ in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern” collected works by European painters like Paul Gaugin and Picasso with cultural artifacts from Zaire, arctic communities, and elsewhere. McEvilley takes aim at the “the absolutist view of formalist Modernism” in which MoMA is rooted. He argues that the removal tribal artifacts from their contexts (for example, many were ritual items intended for ceremonies, not display) and placement of them, unattributed, near works by European artists, censors the cultural contributions of non-Western civilizations in deference to an idealized European genius.

The fact that the primitive “looks like” the Modern is interpreted as validating the Modern by showing that its values are universal, while at the same time projecting it—and with it MoMA—into the future as a permanent canon. A counter view is possible: that primitivism on the contrary invalidates Modernism by showing it to be derivative and subject to external causation. At one level this show undertakes precisely to coopt that question by answering it before it has really been asked, and by burying it under a mass of information.

Please Wait By the Coatroom

Not content to let MoMA and the last vestiges of formalism off the hook yet, John Yau wrote in 1988 an essay on Wifredo Lam, a Cuban painter who lived and worked in Paris among Picasso, Matisse, Georges Braque, and others. Noting Lam’s many influences—his Afro-Cuban mother, Chinese father, and Yoruba godmother—Yau laments the placement of Lam’s The Jungle near the coatroom in the Museum of Modern Art, as opposed to within the Modernist galleries several floors above. The painting was accompanied by a brief entry written by former curator William Rubin, who, Yau argues, adopted Greenberg’s theories because they endowed him with “a connoisseur’s lens with which one can scan all art.”

RELATED: From Cuba With Love: Artist Bill Claps on the Island’s DIY Art Scene

Here, as with with McEvilley’s essay, Yau illustrates how formalism, as adapted by museum institutions, became a (perhaps unintentional) method for reinforcing the exclusionary framework that Nochlin argued excluded women and black artists for centuries.

Rubin sees in Lam only what is in his own eyes: colorless or white artists. For Lam to have achieved the status of unique individual, he would have had to successfully adapt to the conditions of imprisonment (the aesthetic standards of a fixed tradition) Rubin and others both construct and watch over. To enter this prison, which takes the alluring form of museums, art history textbooks, galleries, and magazines, an individual must suppress his cultural differences and become a colorless ghost. The bind every hybrid American artist finds themselves in is this: should they try and deal with the constantly changing polymorphous conditions effecting identity, tradition, and reality? Or should they assimilate into the mainstream art world by focusing on approved-of aesthetic issues? Lam’s response to this bind sets an important precedent. Instead of assimilating, Lam infiltrates the syntactical rules of “the exploiters” with his own specific language. He becomes, as he says, “a Trojan horse.”

Black Culture and Postmodernism

Cornel West

The opening up of cultural discourse did not mean that it immediately made room for voices of all dimensions. Cornel West notes as much in his 1989 essay “Black Culture and Postmodernism,” in which he argues that postmodernism, much like Modernism before it, remains primarily ahistorical, which makes it difficult for “oppressed peoples to exercise their opposition to hierarchies of power.” West’s position is that the proliferation of theory and criticism that accompanied the rise of postmodernism provided mechanisms by which black culture could “be conversant with and, to a degree, participants in the debate.” Without their voices, postmodernism would remain yet another exclusionary movements.

RELATED: Kerry James Marshall on Painting Blackness as a Noun Vs. Verb

As the consumption cycle of advanced multinational corporate capitalism was sped up in order to sustain the production of luxury goods, cultural production became more and more mass-commodity production. The stress here is not simply on the new and fashionable but also on the exotic and primitive. Black cultural products have historically served as a major source for European and Euro-American exotic interests—interests that issue from a healthy critique of the mechanistic, puritanical, utilitarian, and productivity aspects of modern life.

Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power

Anna C. Chave

In recent years, formalist analysis has been deployed as a single tool within a more varied approach to art. Its methodology—that of analyzing a picture as an isolated phenomena—remains prevalent, and has its uses. Yet, many of the works and movements that rose to prominence under formalist critics and curators, in no small part because of their institutional acceptance, have since become part of the rearguard rather than the vanguard.

In a 1990 essay for Arts Magazine , Anna Chave analyzes how Minimalist sculpture possesses a “domineering, sometimes brutal rhetoric” that was aligned with “both the American military in Vietnam, and the police at home in the streets and on university campuses across the country.” In particular, Chave is concerned with the way Minimalist sculptures define themselves through a process of negation. Of particular relevance to Chave’s argument are the massive steel sculptures by Minimalist artist Richard Serra.

Tilted Arc was installed in Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan in 1981. Chave describes the work as a “mammoth, perilously tilted steel arc [that] formed a divisive barrier too tall to see over, and a protracted trip to walk around.” She writes, “it is more often the case with Serra that his work doesn’t simply exemplify aggression or domination, but acts it out.” Tilted Arc was so controversial upon its erecting that the General Services Administration, which commissioned the work, held hearings in response to petitions demanding the work be removed. Worth quoting at length, Chave writes:

A predictable defense of Serra’s work was mounted by critics, curators, dealers, collectors, and some fellow artists…. The principle arguments mustered on Serra’s behalf were old ones concerning the nature and function of the avant-garde…. What Rubin and Serra’s other supporters declined to ask is whether the sculptor really is, in the most meaningful sense of the term, an avant-garde artist. Being avant-garde implies being ahead of, outside, or against the dominant culture; proffering a vision that implicitly stands (at least when it is conceived) as a critique of entrenched forms and structures…. But Serra’s work is securely embedded within the system: when the brouhaha over Arc was at its height, he was enjoying a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art…. [The defense’s] arguments locate Serra not with the vanguard but with the standing army or “status quo.” … More thoughtful, sensible, and eloquent testimony at the hearing came instead from some of the uncouth:

My name is Danny Katz and I work in this building as a clerk. My friend Vito told me this morning that I am a philistine. Despite that I am getting up to speak…. I don’t think this issue should be elevated into a dispute between the forces of ignorance and art, or art versus government. I really blame government less because it has long ago outgrown its human dimension. But from the artists I expected a lot more. I didn’t expect to hear them rely on the tired and dangerous reasoning that the government has made a deal, so let the rabble live with the steel because it’s a deal. That kind of mentality leads to wars. We had a deal with Vietnam. I didn’t expect to hear the arrogant position that art justifies interference with the simple joys of human activity in a plaza. It’s not a great plaza by international standards, but it is a small refuge and place of revival for people who ride to work in steel containers, work in sealed rooms, and breathe recirculated air all day. Is the purpose of art in public places to seal off a route of escape, to stress the absence of joy and hope? I can’t believe this was the artistic intention, yet to my sadness this for me has become the dominant effect of the work, and it’s all the fault of its position and location. I can accept anything in art, but I can’t accept physical assault and complete destruction of pathetic human activity. No work of art created with a contempt for ordinary humanity and without respect for the common element of human experience can be great. It will always lack dimension.

The terms Katz associated with Serra’s project include arrogance and contempt, assault, and destruction; he saw the Minimalist idiom, in other words, as continuous with the master discourse of our imperious and violent technocracy.

The End of Art

Arthur Danto

Like Greenberg, Arthur Danto was an art critic for The Nation . However, Danto was overtly critical of Greenberg’s ideology and the influence he wielded over Modern and contemporary art. Nor was he a follower of Harold Rosenberg, though they shared influences, among them the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Danto’s chief contribution to contemporary art was his advancing of Pop Artists, particularly Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein .

In “The End of Art” Danto argues that society at large determines and accepts art, which no longer progresses linearly, categorized by movements. Instead, viewers each possess a theory or two, which they use to interpret works, and art institutions are largely tasked with developing, testing, and modifying various interpretive methods. In this way, art differs little from philosophy. After decades of infighting regarding the proper way to interpret works of art, Danto essentially sanctioned each approach and the institutions that gave rise to them. He came to call this “pluralism.”

RELATED: What Was the Pictures Generation?

Similarly, in “Painting, Politics, and Post-Historical Art,” Danto makes the case for an armistice between formalism and the various theories that arose in opposition, noting that postmodern critics like Douglas Crimp in the 1980s, who positioned themselves against formalism, nonetheless adopted the same constrictive air, minus the revolutionary beginnings.

Modernist critical practice was out of phase with what was happening in the art world itself in the late 60s and through the 1970s. It remained the basis for most critical practice, especially on the part of the curatoriat, and the art-history professoriat as well, to the degree that it descended to criticism. It became the language of the museum panel, the catalog essay, the article in the art periodical. It was a daunting paradigm, and it was the counterpart in discourse to the “broadening of taste” which reduced art of all cultures and times to its formalist skeleton, and thus, as I phrased it, transformed every museum into a Museum of Modern Art, whatever that museum’s contents. It was the stable of the docent’s gallery talk and the art appreciation course—and it was replaced, not totally but massively, by the postmodernist discourse that was imported from Paris in the late 70s, in the texts of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jacques Lacan, and of the French feminists Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray. That is the discourse [Douglas] Crimp internalizes, and it came to be lingua artspeak everywhere. Like modernist discourse, it applied to everything, so that there was room for deconstructive and “archeological” discussion of art of every period.

Editor’s Note: This list was drawn in part from a 2014 seminar taught by Debra Bricker Balken in the MFA program in Art Writing at the School of Visual Arts titled Critical Strategies: Late Modernism/Postmodernism. Additional sources can be found here , here , here (paywall), and here . Also relevant are reviews of the 2008 exhibition at the Jewish Museum, “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976,” notably those by Roberta Smith , Peter Schjeldahl , and Martha Schwendener .

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The 10 Essays That Changed Art Criticism Forever

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Defining ‘Art’

For a practice that has followed humanity since the dawn of consciousness, the question ‘What is Art?’ is notoriously difficult to answer. The Oxford English Dictionary, typically an authority when it comes to definition, calls art “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

When asked to ‘think of an artwork’ there’s a pretty good chance that Oxford’s definition covers what you imagined. Oxford’s definition establishes some crucial distinctions: art is created by humans, so a beautiful tree is not art unless a human has applied their creativity to it, as with a bonsai tree. Also, art may be appreciated for its beauty or emotional power. While many artworks are visually pleasing, ugly or disturbing work is valid, and can be appreciated for its emotional power. So if Oxford has the definition nailed, why have generations of aestheticians, philosophers, writers, artists and academics defined and redefined what they think art is? First, some examples. We’ll begin with the pragmatic. In 1957, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright wrote: “Art is a discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms suitable for human use.” Another practical definition comes to us from Charles Eames: “Art resides in the quality of doing; process is not magic.”

For many artists and writers art is an intensely personal and difficult act, with Oscar Wilde calling art a mode of individualism , the French writer André Gide saying it’s “the point where resistance is overcome” and Italian film director Federico Fellini called art “autobiography . “

For Leo Tolstoy art was something greater than the individual. In his essay What is Art he wrote: “Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.” And this is the crux of why art is difficult to define. The Oxford English defines art as an object created with intention, but generations of artists have seen art as many things. And they are all correct, because art is as complicated, diverse and contentious as human nature. No one definition will ever properly encapsulate what art is. So here, in no particular order are Obelisk’s definitions of art:

— Art is a process — Art is communication — Art is an expression of humanness

Reed Enger, "Defining ‘Art’," in Obelisk Art History , Published August 15, 2019; last modified October 12, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/essays/defining-art/.

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The Intersection of Art and History: a Kaleidoscope of Interpretation

This essay is about the intricate relationship between art and history, exploring how historical context shapes the interpretation of artworks. It discusses how societal norms, political movements, and cultural shifts influence artistic expression across different epochs, using examples from the Renaissance, Romanticism, and indigenous art. The essay emphasizes how understanding historical context allows for a deeper appreciation of artworks and their significance within broader cultural and intellectual currents. It also highlights the evolving reception of art over time and the impact of technology and globalization on art interpretation. Ultimately, the essay underscores the importance of considering historical context in decoding and appreciating artworks, as it provides insights into the cultural, social, and political forces that shape artistic expression and reception.

PapersOwl offers a variety of free essay examples on the topic of Historical Criticism.

How it works

The synergy between art and history intertwines to sculpt the perceptions and appreciations of artistic endeavors. Art acts as a mirror reflecting the ethos and ethos of its era, while historical context furnishes the lens through which we decode and comprehend these creative expressions. The sway of historical context on the interpretation of artworks is profound, molding the meanings, motifs, and significance attributed to them across epochs and cultures.

At its core, historical context shapes the narrative of art through the societal mores, ethics, and dogmas prevalent during its inception.

Artistic epochs such as the Renaissance, Baroque, Romanticism, and Modernism are deeply entrenched in the historical vicissitudes and cultural paradigms that birthed them. For instance, the Renaissance epoch in Europe witnessed a resurgence of fascination with classical antiquity, humanism, and scientific inquiry, culminating in the creation of masterpieces that extolled the human form’s grace and the natural world’s wonders. Delving into the historical context of the Renaissance unveils the significance of works like Michelangelo’s “David” or Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” within the tapestry of intellectual and cultural movements of the era.

Similarly, political upheavals, societal revolutions, and economic metamorphoses leave an indelible mark on the art of their epoch. The Romantic era’s art, characterized by its celebration of emotion, individualism, and the sublime, can be seen as a reaction to the tumultuous social and political milieu of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Artists such as William Turner and Caspar David Friedrich captured nature’s awe-inspiring grandeur and the human spirit’s resilience in their works, reflecting the romantic ideals of freedom, passion, and imagination that echoed the zeitgeist of their age.

Furthermore, historical context shapes the reception and reinterpretation of artworks across epochs. As societies evolve and viewpoints shift, the meanings attributed to art may metamorphose. For instance, the reception of indigenous art from the Americas has undergone a significant evolution since the European colonization era. Once dismissed as primitive or exotic, it is now acknowledged as a rich and diverse artistic legacy with its own cultural import. By reassessing these artworks through a contemporary lens and acknowledging the historical injustices that marginalized indigenous cultures, we can unearth a deeper appreciation for their artistic accomplishments and cultural heritage.

Moreover, advancements in technology and globalization have revolutionized the creation, consumption, and interpretation of art. The digital revolution has democratized art access, enabling people from varied backgrounds to engage with artworks globally. Nonetheless, it has also precipitated queries about art’s authenticity, ownership, and preservation in the digital realm. As we navigate these novel challenges, it is imperative to consider the historical context in which artworks are ensconced and the ethical ramifications of their interpretation and exhibition.

In summation, the influence of historical context on the interpretation of artworks is profound. By scrutinizing art through a historical prism, we glean insights into the cultural, social, and political forces that shape artistic expression and reception. Furthermore, we are reminded of art’s enduring ability to reflect, challenge, and transcend temporal and spatial confines. As we continue to unravel the tapestry of history and art, we embark on a voyage of discovery that enriches our comprehension of the past and informs our aspirations for the future.

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Why Indigenous Artifacts Should Be Returned to Indigenous Communities

DuVal is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

I n January 2024, the American Museum of Natural History in New York closed its Hall of the Great Plains and Hall of Eastern Woodlands, and visitors to the Field Museum in Chicago and other museums across the country are seeing covered display cases and signs explaining that these exhibits “have been covered in consideration of ongoing legal and ethical reviews.” These closures are overdue corrections by museums that have long misrepresented and misused Indigenous history. But more than a subtraction, they are a sign of an important shift in where and how Americans learn Native American history.

It’s easy to see covered cases and closed exhibits as a loss, even if an understandable one. Most of the news coverage has explained the shift as an unavoidable sacrifice for Native rights and sensibilities, a zero-sum game in which museum-goers and school field trips are the necessary losers. Headlines proclaim closures and removals and show pictures of empty cases or the final rush of visitors before the items were taken from public view. Stories quote disappointed visitors who interpret the closures as keeping them from learning about Native Americans.

Yet this focus misses the fact that there has never been an easier time to learn about Native American histories and cultures and to see Native American art and artifacts. A field trip that may be diminished by the closures at the American Museum of Natural History can simply head to lower Manhattan to visit the NYC branch of the National Museum of the American Indian. It’s time to stop expecting Native history at museums of “natural history” and start learning it from museums and cultural centers that are run by any of the hundreds of Native nations in the United States or with their collaboration. And it’s time to start learning the quite different stories that they tell.

Until recently, exhibits about Native Americans were in museums of “natural history” because white Americans saw them as part of archaeology and anthropology rather than history. At its opening in the 1960s, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History had nothing about Native Americans, who instead were in the National Museum of Natural History alongside early primates and dinosaurs. The message was clear: Native Americans—perceived of as a monolithic culture—were primitive and destined for disappearance, fitting more with displays of animals than with the American History Museum’s message of technology and progress. In the early 20th century, the Yahi man known as Ishi was displayed as a living exhibit at the University of California Museum of Anthropology following the genocide of his people. In 1968, a group of Miwoks (Yosemites) visited the National Museum of Natural History and read in one of the exhibits that their tribe had gone “extinct” in the 19th century. And until the closures that happened in January, visitors at the American Museum of Natural History could see generic mannequins of Native men and women stoically conveying timeless primitiveness.

The latest changes are responding to new federal rules on the implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) regarding the rights of Native nations over sacred and funerary objects of their ancestors. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C., founded as part of implementing NAGPRA, was a way to responsibly deal with the large collection of Native American skeletal remains and sacred burial objects held by the Smithsonian. But the NMAI has become far more than that. Its Indigenous designers, curators, and administrators, in part with funding from Native nations, have built a public space with locations in D.C. and Manhattan where everyone can learn about Native peoples—in all their diversity—as continuing nations with living cultures, as real human beings in the past, present, and future.

The return of objects, funds from casinos and other tribal businesses, and an ongoing renaissance in tribal politics and culture have enabled Native nations across the country to build and renovate their own museums and cultural centers. In spite of their fraught histories with museums, some Native nations have embraced and changed museology. As Native scholar and founding director of the Chickasaw Cultural Center, Amanda Cobb-Greetham, explained to me , Native peoples have “turned an instrument of colonization and dispossession … into an instrument of self-definition and cultural continuance.” They portray their own specific peoples as a living history. Executive Director of the Museum of the Cherokee People Shana Bushyhead Condill explains of her museum, “We preserve and perpetuate the history, stories and enduring culture of the Cherokee people.”

There are hundreds of examples, including the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Mashantucket, Connecticut; the Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska, Oklahoma; and the Himdag Ki: Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum in Sells, Arizona. These museums all teach the diverse histories of their peoples, from the distant past to the present, to Native and non-Native visitors. As Mohawk scholar Scott Manning Stevens puts i t, in these Indigenous cultural centers, “living cultures are as much a part of the fabric of the institution as the artifacts still displayed in exhibits.” Many have research centers too, where tribal and non-tribal scholars can work on a more respectful and accurate study of the past.

Read More: Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History

Beyond tribal museums, other museums are being built or creating exhibits with participation by Native Americans. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, has become a leader in incorporating Native artists and curators into its definition of “American Art.” The Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania does not need to cover artifacts in its “Native American Voices: The People — Here and Now” exhibit because tribal representatives helped to create it. At the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, funded by the Chickasaw Nation in addition to Oklahoma City and the state of Oklahoma, Native nations collaborated on the architectural design, the exhibits, and the programming. And wherever you are, you can access online exhibits and teaching resources created by hundreds of Native nations on their own past and present.

Some of the items that have now been taken out of view may come back once they have gone through the NAGPRA consultation process, but much more important is the shift away from anthropological museums being the place to see Native American historical artifacts. Native American histories are not being lost or papered over, but the location as well as the style of their presentation is shifting to a more human, forward-looking one. This is a gain for everyone. Ideally, the covered cases and closed halls will prompt visits to new places and spark new understandings of the long and continuing history—and future—of Native America.

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