Art History 101... Without the Exams: Looking Closely at Objects from the History of Art

(Paperback)

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Have you ever found art museums intimidating and art history a baffling mix of periods, names, and styles Annie Labatt's Art History 101aims to remove this inaccessibility issue in the art world by breaking the history of art down into twenty accessible lessons, each built around a single, canonical piece considered a masterpiece from its era.

Beginning with prehistoric cave drawings and Greek statues; continuing through the Gothic, Byzantine, Baroque, and the Renaissance movements; and concluding with the Impressionist work of Monet and Picasso, Labatt asks us to consider each work and think about the artist who created it and what they wanted us to see. She frames our understanding of the historical and social context of the piece as well as the background of the artist.

From the tiniest of details to the broadest cultural implications and meanings, Art History 101helps us see why these works of art are considered masterpieces. In completing the full course, one sees how each piece contributes to a larger portrait the full narrative of art history through the ages.

Reviews

Dr. Labatts engaging introduction to looking at art uses a select number of great works from the prehistoricpast to the present to demonstrate what can be learned from careful looking and study. She engages readersin thinking more deeply and broadly about the original meaning of her choices to their own times and theirrelevance to current issues. Remarkably readable, her connections of works to Texas, where she gave thetalks on which the book is based, should encourage everyone to look around them and see how the art of the past is reflected in the present. Helen C. Evans, curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art

What a fun journey to travel with Annie Labatt to twenty iconic works of art! Through her words you willengage with science and history, following the hand of the maker, engaging with the context of both today and the world into which the work was once born. Best of all, no quiz! Mary Miller, director, Getty Research Institute

With this magnificent book, Annie Labatt leads the charge back to an object-centered Art History. Arigorous scholar, university professor, gallery director, and public educator, Dr. Labatt brings an at once sensitive and perceptive vision to works of art. Although the title suggests another version of Gardners ArtThrough the Ages or Jansons History of Art, the book is something more useful and enlightening: a series of twenty discussions of major monuments and works of art spanning fourteen thousand years of western visual art, architecture, and the arts of design. Labatt combines careful readings of each work or monumentwith discussions of the context of each work in its period and in the wider domain of the Humanities. Labatt brings an arsenal of up-to-date art historical tools to bear on her subjects. The book actually does cover much of the territory of a hypothetical Art 101 course. Readers will be well prepared if asked to take an exam. Marcus B. Burke, senior curator, Hispanic Society of America

This playfully titled book is a work of great erudition. Annie Labatt is at home explaining technical details in each art object, as she is in making inferences and associations anchored in the profound knowledge of the world. Her words are a tour de force, commingling with the visual objects to allow the reader to imagine and experience art in new and powerful ways. The result is a rare and almost phantasmagoric introduction to art history. Meredith Woo, president, Sweet Briar College

Perusing the paintings and reading the scholarly text, you will sense the depth and breadth of knowledge Dr. Labatt gained through years of study at Yale and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Charles Butt, chairman and president, H-E-B Grocery Company

Author Bio

Annie Montgomery Labatt is Associate Professor of Visual Studies and Director of Galleries and Museums at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She graduated with High Honors from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2002, and received her PhD from Yale University in 2011. While a graduate student, she won a two-year Rome Prize at the American Academy of Rome, and was also a fellow at Harvard Universitys Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. She has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on two major exhibitions, once as a research assistant and once as a Chester Dale Fellow. Laboratory of Images: Emerging Iconographies in 8th- and 9th- Century Rome, her study of the development of Christian imageries, is forthcoming.