The Complete Painter: Lessons from the Masters


Books and More: 4. Art Historical Materials
















This section has three sub-sections -


4.1 Art History

4.2 Art Criticism and Art Theory

4.3 History of Materials, Technical Art History and Conservation Studies


Three asterisks *** denote free materials


4.1 Art History


This short list contains links to articles and art historical texts referenced in the course and a few others that are comprehensive.


Art & Architecture Thesaurus ® Online, The Getty Research Institute ***


Davies, Penelope. Janson's History of Art


Foster, Carter E. Hopper Drawing


Grove Dictionary of Art


Hockney, David. Secret Knowledge


Hockney, David and Martin Gayford. A History of Pictures


Kemp, Martin. The Science of Art


Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History


Schwartz, Gary, Ars Moriendi: the mortality of art ***


Sewell, Darrel, ed. Thomas Eakins


Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael Cothren. Art History



4.2 Art Criticism and Art Theory


Many of my advanced students ask about art criticism, art theory and related subjects. For an overview of art criticism see the Wikipedia page on the History of Art Criticism and the related page on Art Criticism.


Goldsmiths, Univerity of London, offers an MA in Contemporary Art Theory. They define the subject as encompassing, "theoretical perspectives that shape attitudes towards visual art . . . [including] . . . critical theory". They further define the study as an "interdisciplanary. . .academic discourse on visual culture . . . [that] . . . draws from the fields of performance studies, art history, philosophy, museology, queer theory, post-colonial studies and cultural studies."  


Regarding "critical theory" see the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The former tells us that critical theory is a "Marxist-inspired movement in social and political philosophy originally associated with the work of the Frankfurt School. Drawing particularly on the thought of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, critical theorists maintain that a primary goal of philosophy is to understand and to help overcome the social structures through which people are dominated and oppressed."


My students also often ask about the terms "semiotics", "modernism" and "postmodernism". The first concerns "the study of signs and sign-using behaviour." Modernism generally refers to "a period of experimentation in the arts from the late 19th to the mid-20th century" that was characterized by "a break with the past and the concurrent search for new forms of expression". Postmodernism is defined as "a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power."


Below you'll find a bibliography straddling art criticism, art theory and related subjects.


Arnheim, Rudolf. To the Rescue of Art: Twenty-Six Essays


Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing About Art


Beckley, Bill and David Shapiro, eds., Uncontrollable Beauty: Toward a New Aesthetics


Berger, Maurice ed. The Crisis of Criticism


Bourriaud, Nicolas. Relational Aesthetics


Brenson, Michael. Is 'Quality' An Idea Whose Time Has Gone?


Danto, Arthur. Beyond the Brillo Box


Fenstermaker, Will. Ten Essays that Changed Art Criticism Forever ***


Fineberg, Jonathan. Art Since 1940


Foster, Hal, ed. The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture


Fried, Michael. Art and Objecthood


Gombrich, Ernst. The Story of Art


Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture: Critical Essays


Hess, Thomas and Elizabeth Baker, eds., Art and Sexual Politics


Hickey, Dave. Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy


_________. The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty


hooks, bell. Art on My Mind: Visual Politics


Hughes, Robert. Nothing If Not Critical


_________. The Shock of the New


Indiana, Gary. Vile Days: The Village Voice Art Columns, 1985-1988


Kramer, Hilton. The Revenge of the Philistines: Art and Culture, 1972-1984


Krauss, Rosalind. The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths


Krimp, Douglas. Before Pictures


Kuspit, Donald. Redeeming Art: Critical Reveries


Lippard, Lucy and John Chandler, The Dematerialization of Art ***


Margolis, Joseph, ed., Philosophy Looks at the Arts


McEvilley, Thomas. Art and Discontent


Nochlin, Linda. Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays


Plagens, Peter. Sunshine Muse: Art on the West Coast, 1945-1970


Rose, Barbara, ed. Readings in American Art Since 1900


Rosenberg, Harold. Art on the Edge: Creators and Situations


_________. Artworks and Packages


_________. The Tradition of the New


Rubinstein, Raphael. A Quiet Crisis ***


_________. Where is the Audience for Art Criticism Now? ***


Saltz, Jerry. Learning on the Job ***


Schjeldahl, Peter. The Hydrogen Jukebox: Selected Writings of Peter Schjeldahl 1978-1990


Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation and Other Essays


Storr, Robert. Interviews on Art


Szaìntoì, Andraìs. The Visual Art Critic


Wolfe, Tom. The Painted Word


Youngman, Hennessy (aka Jayson Musson), Art Thoughtz ***



4.3 History of Materials, Technical Art History and Conservation Studies


Berrie , Barbara H, editor. Artists' Pigments, Volume 4


Bomford, David, Sarah Herring, Jo Kirby. Art in the Making: Degas


Bomford, David, Jo Kirby, John Leighton, Ashok Roy. Art in the Making: Impressionism


Bomford, David, Jill Dunkerton, Dillian Gordon, Ashok Roy. Art in the Making: Italian Painting Before 1400


Bomford, David, Jo Kirby, Ashok Roy. Art in the Making: Rembrandt


Bomford, David. Art in the Making: Underdrawings in Renaissance Paintings


Carlyle, Leslie. The Artist's Assistant


Church, A.H. The Chemistry of Paints and Painting ***


_________. The Chemistry of Paints and Painting (hard copy)


Clarke, Mark. The Art of All Colours


Crook, Jo, Tom Lerner. Impact of Modern Paints


Dunkerton, Jill. The Restoration and Technical Examination of Jan Van Eyck's Margaret, the Artist's Wife ***


Eastaugh, Nicholas. Pigment Compendium, A Dictionary and Optical Microscopy of Historical Pigments


Getting, Rutherford J., and George L. Stout. Painting Materials


Harley, R.D., Artists' Pigments c. 1600-1835


Technical Bulletin, National Gallery ***


Stoner, Joyce Hill and Rebecca Rushfield ed. Conservation of Easel Paintings


Thompson, Daniel V. The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting


Townsend, Joyce H. The Materials Used by British Oil Painters in the Nineteenth Century ***


Townsend, Joyce, Jaqueline Ridge and Stephen Hackney. Pre-Raphaelite Painting Techniques


Wallert, Arie, Erma Hermens, and Marja Peek, eds. Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice ***


Van de Wettering, Ernst. Rembrandt: The Painter at Work





David Brody, 2019, after Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot,

Bridge on the Saôn at Mâcon, 1834

From The Complete Painter: Lessons from the Masters, Lecture 30