Table Of Content

Hermogeno and designer Lynette Chin brought in a mix of vintage and new furnishings in the family room, incorporating performance fabrics for durability. “[We made] sure that it was a really usable room, that it didn’t just look nice,” Hermogeno says. For a bedroom off the nursery, Carmine Sabatella wanted to create a jewel-toned escape. “I thought, if somebody’s taking care of the baby, they have a space where they can come and feel like it’s a retreat,” Sabatella says. The designer outfitted a door handcrafted in India with a vintage mirror to create a one of a kind headboard and bathed the space in deep emerald green.
A Week of Creativity and Community at Otis College
The text features some examples from Nigeria, Ghana, and North American indigenous traditions, but greater attention to African, Latin American, Central and South Asian, Oceanic, and indigenous traditions would be welcome. The work of male artists, mostly drawn from the Western art historical canon, dominate the discussions; greater coverage of women artists would also be welcome. The Table of Contents is hyperlinked and clearly organized, and each chapter concludes with an excellent glossary of terms. Including an index would assist students in navigating the book. It focuses on the nuts and bolts of learning about and discussing art and its context, and combines these with some considerable information on art history, It therefore aptly fits the needs of a foundation class.
Women Artists Are Catching Up, but Equality Will Still Take a While
For example, if using Indigenous names, use tribal identifiers, such as Piikani for those who identify as Blackfeet. A piece of dance regalia is referred to as a “costume,” which elucidates the author’s limited understanding of the role of garb in ritual. While appropriation, as covered in Chapter 11, is an integral part of the contemporary artworld, it is also presented as acceptable and normalized. It should also be included that appropriation is not universally accepted and is fought by several artists today. For example, there was recently a court case by Ai Weiwei brought against Volkswagen for copyright infringement based on appropriation of his work used in an ad. I believe the thematic approach to the material is far more relevant to today’s student than the classic approach based on historical progression.
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Hear directly from artists, architects, and designers from around the globe about their creative processes, materials, and inspiration. You’ll look at 3D–printed glass and fiber sculptures, performances in a factory and a museum, portraits (including those made with artificial intelligence) and interventions into television and video games. These lists are barely adequate and probably confusing to neophyte students with no art background. For instance, in 1.9 KEY TERMS, p.30, Icon is described primarily as often religious. “Icon”, in art, may have multiple meanings according to the culture that produced the artifact and its use by those members of that group. As an example, the image of “Isis” is an icon found throughout Egyptian culture with various “religious” as well as “power” and other cultural meanings.
With so many web links in the text, it will be important to check regularly to make sure they are active. While this text is not based only on contemporary art, it uses many examples of current art throughout. For this reason, longevity is always a concern in art appreciation and introductory art texts.

The design could be improved, including the sub-headings and organization of images. The text is great on clarity and accessibility, written in a way that most entry-level students could understand. However, more information is needed for each image used, such as dates, materials, and dimensions. The framework of the book that remained consistent from chapter one to the final chapter. The book is full of terms and its consistency to the concept or subject.
It is a sufficient balance of form and meaning, which you don't often see in introductory texts. The embedded hyperlinks to supplemental information is also a unique feature that students will find helpful. Whoever came up with the saying “location, location, location” must have been talking about USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.
The elements of art are described as visual tools for artistic compositions, and the principles of design in art are all about how these elements are utilized. Otis College offers undergraduate degrees in a wide variety of visual and applied arts, media, and design. Core programs in liberal arts, business practices, and community-driven projects support the College’s mission to prepare diverse students to enrich our world through their creativity. The text is organized thematically and does not offer a chronological survey of the history of art. Chapters discuss forms and materials, the processes of describing and interpreting art, aesthetics, architectural form, art and identity, art and power, art and ritual, and art and ethics. Chapters include examples of Western and non-Western art and architecture and offer many comparisons of art from different cultures.
Sections of the text can be assigned at different points within the course. The book is well divided up, and I appreciate the integration of both historical and formal terms throughout, to offer new historical information throughout without becoming dense. There is a consistency in the way the material is presented in each chapter. While there are some typos, the formatting and use of citation is more distracting. As mentioned, the inclusion of large links in the midst of the text is frustrating as well as the lack of period to enclose this before beginning a new sentence. There are also things like the indentation in the footnotes that can be easily fixed.
Since by definition contemporary art is a moving target, and at times local or regional in its relevance, instructors may want to supplement the text with their own references to contemporary art. The overall organization of the content is presented in a clear a logical fashion. Chapters 2-4 discuss the structures of art, the materials used in art and describing art.
Contrast refers to the placements of different elements in a composition, for example, color, space, shape, or others. By utilizing contrast strategically, it will convey a sense of emphasis, or otherwise stated; it will emphasize a certain area in the composition. Symmetrical refers to both sides being the same, or “mirroring” one another. Asymmetrical refers to both sides having different subject matter or objects, but there is a balanced effect, nonetheless. Radial balance means that the visual elements are “equally” placed around a central point in the composition.
I give the interface a low rating due to its setup of links and workings as a PDF. This can be exciting for the reader to potentially experience other useful visuals or resources to help relate to a topic. Some web links within the text of the subheadings are sometimes often just images with no actual source listed and lack further information.
Another problem area are the huge leaps in time and generalizations made in content, for example, in connecting the ancient Greeks to Jackson Pollock on page 4. This textbook is an impressive guide to the introduction of art and visual literacy. There is room for further examples of artwork or at least links to more visual resources. Also, more contemporary image examples would only strengthen this title.
Each chapter is broken down into subsections that are easy to pull out and assign in a different order than they are presented or as part of another course. Aisha is Content Editor for TopUniversities.com and TopMBA.com, creating and publishing a wide range of articles for an international student audience. A native Londoner, Aisha graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Philosophy and has previously worked in the civil service.
One thing I noticed and hope it can be remedied, are the workings of the table of contents. Some worked great, allowing you to jump to a chapter or subheading with the press of button. There were some things I thought were really unique and wonderful about this textbook. The first four chapters had me very excited about the possibility of a OER book for my students. I especially thought chapter 3 had some valuable and unique ideas that would be super fun to share with my students. They discuss how important iconography is, but don't really give any analysis of specific symbols in a deep and meaningful way.
However, they are not expandable or zoomable as is common in other electronic or digital textbook platforms currently available. Likewise, the internet hyperlinks could be replaced with embedded content to better increase the longevity of the text. Some odd spacing around the figures and illustrations is distracting as well. The text is easily dividable into smaller sections to fit with various topics of discussion throughout a term. The text would easily be divided, which is a strength as the organization of the chapters as it stands might not work for every instructor.
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