Art in Time: A World History of Styles and Movements

I've read a lot of art history and design history books. Most of them are not organized like this one, in reverse chronological order. The Preface says that by "moving back in time, the reader is encouraged to discover the ways art plays with, and builds on, earlier ideas and beliefs..." and later notes that the book is "an invitation to see art anew."I appreciate those sentiments, and since I finished my initial reading, I've been thinking a lot about whether the reverse chronology did, in fact, help me "see anew." I can't say for sure that I made new connections between styles and eras via this book-- but I did pay a lot of attention to the materials, and often found myself paying more attention than I might while perusing other art history collections. The 20th-century work takes up about 200 pages of the book. The remaining 150 pages go backward in time to the 5th century BCE; the final section, placed after relatively familiar Greek and Roman works, displays two pieces of Northern Nomad Art (made by past inhabitants of what today is southern Russia or central Asia), including a beautiful gold belt buckle that shows two stylized, sculpted animals (a tiger and a wolf-like creature) fighting.The pleasant surprise that comes from discovering less familiar examples (like Northern Nomad Art) is a strength of "Art in Time." The 150 or so art styles and movements collected in this book touch all the standard art history bases, as well as examining a lot of lesser-known movements. And as the subtitle promises, the book provides a true "world history" with plenty of examples from outside (sometimes far outside) the Western Canon of art history.The weakness of "Art in Time" from my perspective is the way the book fulfills another promise described in the Preface: examining each art style or movement "in the context of the times in which it arose." I like what the book does; I just wanted a lot more of this contextualization.Structurally, each art style or movement is covered in a double-page spread: the right-hand page is all pictorial examples and the left-hand page is text that explains the examples and provides a small amount of "context of the times." The far left column of each left-hand page presents a timeline with descriptions of a few events from the realms of art, politics, religion, history, and/or pop culture that happened during the same years that the particular movement/style flourished. At the end of each major section of the book, another two-page spread shows small photos related to the cultural context of the times (for instance, at the end of the section "The Space Age: Mid-Twentieth Century" the cultural two-page spread shows a newspaper announcing the JFK assassination, a Beatles album cover, a Woodstock poster, an ad for the new product cellophane, Fidel Castro speaking, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking, Richard Nixon shaking hands with Chairman Mao, and 10 other small photos that represent "mid-twentieth century" life outside the world of art).Of course, providing more and deeper context would require a book at least twice the size of "Art in Time," so overall, I suppose I'm satisfied. I can definitely say I've been provoked to learn more about some of the less-well-known work described and pictured. If I follow through on sating that curiosity, I may be "reconnecting the dots, or indeed, finding new dots to connect" as the Preface encourages the reader to do.

Always high Quality book by Phaidon Press.

very fast service. really nice coffee art book all direrent types of artist different time lines. makeing it very cool book

Just love it.

Good

beautifully designed book. lots of information both on the featured art and the timeline as to the news around each artistic discipline. one of the best art books I've ever bought and I am enjoying reading it.

Bought this as a present for my husband who is very impressed with the content and quality production. Helps to put

If you want to have a rough idea about all the art styles all over the world, this book is the right one!

Great book, bought as a gift. Myhusband loved it.