Introduction to Art

Harrison Charles

Charles Harrison's landmark book offers an original, clear, and wide-ranging introduction to the arts of painting and sculpture, to the principal artistic print media, and to the visual arts of modernism and post-modernism. Covering the entire history of art, from Paleolithic cave painting to contemporary art, it provides foundational guidance on the basic character and techniques of the different art forms, on the various genres of painting in the Western tradition, and on the techniques of sculpture as they have been practiced over several millennia and across a wide range of cultures. Throughout the book, Harrison discusses the relative priorities of aesthetic appreciation and historical inquiry, and the importance of combining the two approaches. Written in a style that is at once graceful, engaging, and personal, as well as analytical and exact, this illuminating book offers an impassioned and timely defense of the importance and value of the firsthand encounter with works of art, whether in museums or in their original locations.

About the Author

Charles Harrison is Emeritus Professor of the History and Theory of Art, The Open University. He is the author of numerous books including "English Art and Modernism 1900-1939" (1981; re-issued by Yale University Press 1994), and, most recently, "Since 1950: Art and its Criticism" (Yale University Press, 2009). He is co-author of "French Painting in the Nineteenth Century", "Primitivism", "Cubism", "Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century", and "Modernism in Dispute: Art since the Forties" (all Yale University Press in association with the Open University, 1993).

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