Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning

Reviewed by Nancy Pettigrew, Associate Instructor, Tidewater Community College on 8/15/17

Comprehensiveness rating: 3

For an art appreciation textbook, there is no set of required information that must be included and, therefore, a textbook's comprehensiveness is somewhat subjective. This textbook does cover some core areas for this discipline: the definition of art; the function of art; elements of art and principles of design; and different media used to make art. I thought that the treatment of the elements and principles and of the media was cursory. Beyond that the textbook is thematic, with the choices of themes being somewhat idiosyncratic.

The treatment of the subject was constrained by the authors' focus primarily on the traditional media associated with fine arts, such as painting, sculpture, and architecture. Other current art appreciation textbooks also include more modern media, such as film and design. The scope was also hampered, in part, by the distinction the authors' drew between art and craft.

The focus of the textbook is mostly on art made before 1960, with most of it produced long before that. There is a dearth of examples of contemporary art being made by artists in the last 20 years. An exception to this is the chapter on Art and Ethics, which addresses recent controversies in the field.

The textbook does not include an index or a comprehensive glossary. Terms are defined at the end of each chapter. The table of contents is not sufficient to function as an index.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The content of the textbook is generally error free. There are some opinions expressed that I do not agree with, but these are debates that are not settled within the art history community. The authors do not seem completely up to date on recent scholarship in some areas. For example, the "Snake Goddess" from Crete is included when modern scholarship has called into question the validity of its heavily reconstructed form.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Since much of the art covered in the textbook was made before 1960, the content is up-to date and will not become obsolete quickly. The exceptions to this are the links to external web pages that will need to be maintained on a regular basis. Without this regular maintenance, these links could become obsolete quickly. This could pose a problem since the links are embedded in the content of the text.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook is written in prose that should be accessible for the average college freshman. Specialized discipline-specific terminology is defined in the text and in a list of terms at the end of each chapter. The text does lack an comprehensive glossary of these terms..

Consistency rating: 5

The textbook is internally consistent in organizational framework of each chapter and in the use of terminology.

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook is divided into small reading sections with clear headings and subheadings. These could easily be reorganized and realigned.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 2

I found it difficult to follow the organization and structure of the text. There seemed to be no clear logic to much of the distribution of the chapters and the chapter sections. Related content can be found in different chapters of the text. For example, both the chapter on Form in Architecture and on Art and Ritual Life contain extensive sections covering sacred architecture.

Within the chapter sections, there is some organization based on chronology, although this is not consistent. This creates a problem in which chronology is repeated without a larger, cohesive historical narrative. .

Interface rating: 5

The interface of the textbook was effective overall with no significant issues that would distract or confuse the reader. Of necessity, the textbook provides links to works of art that are not reproducible in the textbook due to copyright issues. These links can be clunky and I would be concerned that students will not take the time to click on them all while reading the textbook. Links need to be reviewed. At least one of the links within the text to external images was broken. For the most part the images included in the textbook are high quality, although I find their sourcing odd from random users on Wikimedia.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Overall, the textbook contains no major grammatical errors beyond a few typographical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The textbook draws its examples primarily from Western (European and American) and Asian cultures. There is some inclusion of other cultures, races, and ethnicities, such as Native American or African, although this aspect of the textbook could be strengthened. An instructor would need to bring in additional examples to make a course using this textbook truly inclusive. The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive.

This textbook could be appropriate for usage in an Art Appreciation class, if the instructor of the course was comfortable with the somewhat idiosyncratic thematic choices of the authors. For example, the inclusion of the chapter on the Significance of Materials is not typically included in an art appreciation textbook. The textbook would not work for an Art History course that is taught in a chronological framework. Specific dates are not provided for most of the objects discussed, although birth and death dates of artists are. The historical context and timeline of the works covered by the text are subsumed within the thematic organization.