Synopsis

Analyze, Understand, Appreciate

Living with Art provides the tools to help students think critically about the visual arts. Using a wealth of examples, the first half of the text examines the nature, vocabulary, and elements of art, offering a foundation for students to learn to analyze art effectively. The latter half sets out a brief but comprehensive history of art, leading students to understand art within the context of its time and place of origin. High quality images from a wide range of periods and cultures bring the art to life, and topical essays throughout the text foster critical thinking skills.

Taken together, all of these elements help students to better appreciate art as a reflection of the human experience and to realize that living with art is living with ourselves.

Biography

Mark Getlein arrived in New York to pursue advanced music studies at the Juilliard School, but he quickly became equally fascinated by the city's vibrant downtown art scene and magnificent museum collections. For a decade or so he led an interesting but precarious life as a pianist and painter. As a writer and development editor, he has helped to create a series of ground-breaking college textbooks in art and literature, including Art History (Abrams, 1995), A History of Art in Africa (Abrams, 2001), The HarperCollins World Reader, The Longman Anthology of British Literature, and The Longman Anthology of World Literature. This is his fourth edition as author of Living with Art.