An introductory course using visual materials with emphasis on methods and motivations that generate the visual experience, both past and present. Art practices from around the world are examined for form and content. Emphasis will be on Western Art.

Course Outcomes:
1. Articulate verbally and in writing a general understanding of the significance of visual art in a wide variety of culture and media.
2. Create a personal work of art. Articulate verbally and in writing the form and content of the piece, along with information about significant artists and art works relative to the created artwork, and to visual art.
3. Articulate verbally and in writing appropriate art vocabulary, and art evaluation concepts, when viewing visual art.

African art is no different. For some, it may initially hold few clues that help unpack its meaning. Those viewers may have little knowledge of Africa or could actually be African–from a different part of the continent, a totally different culture, or members of a religion that distances them even from a work their own hometown produced.

No art is completely transparent, letting us understand all of an artist’s constraints, thoughts, choices, or associations. But if we are not privy to all of an artist’s perceptions and interpretations, we can lessen the differences in our understanding–and this is a process that creates human pleasure in both cerebral and sensual ways. By familiarizing ourselves with art, learning its visual vocabulary and grammar, assessing our taste for it, and placing it within the contexts of its makers and users, we expand our world.

This course asks students to consider the ways in which social theorists, institutional reformers, and political revolutionaries in the 17th through 19th centuries seized upon insights developed in the natural sciences and mathematics to change themselves and the society in which they lived. Students study trials, art, literature and music to understand developments in Europe and its colonies in these two centuries. Covers works by Newton, Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Marx, and Darwin.

This class investigates the theory, method, and form of collage. It studies not only the historical precedents for collage and their physical attributes, but the psychology and process that plays a part in the making of them. The class was broken into three parts, changing scales and methods each time, to introduce and study the rigor by which decisions were made in relation to the collage. The class was less about the making of art than the study of the processes by which art is made.

Extended Reading List for Art 1303 - History of Art I survey course that compiles online OER resources primarily from Smarthistory.org, an OER art history textbook, and other online materials produced by art museums including videos and art historical essays.Developed by Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Commerce, this is a Texas Core Course in Creative Arts designed to replace expensive commonly used textbooks with OER content adaptable for Texas art history instructors using various learning manage systems.*Unless otherwise noted all entries are licensed Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Extended Leganto Reading List for Art 1304 - History of Art II survey course that compiles online OER resources primarily from Smarthistory.org, an OER art history textbook, and other online materials produced by art museums including videos and art historical essays.Developed by Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Commerce, this is a Texas Core Course in Creative Arts designed to replace expensive commonly used textbooks with OER content adaptable for Texas art history instructors using various learning manage systems.*Unless otherwise noted all entries are licensed Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Art Appreciation thoroughly investigates how quality is determined and created by artists in order to evaluate and appreciate art on a deeper level. This course emphasizes why each topic contributes to valuing a piece of art and provides the necessary knowledge to do so. Students are first introduced to the elements and principles of art and the importance of artists’ context and perspective. The course then covers different periods in art history, different techniques in art, and how to research and evaluate art.

This is an exploration of visual art forms and their cultural connections for the student with little experience in the visual arts. The course includes a brief study of art history and in depth studies of the elements, media, and methods used in creative process and thought. Visual and performing arts are part of the Humanities: academic disciplines that study the human condition and, in addition to the arts, include languages, literature, law, history and religion. This course will teach students to develop a five-step system for understanding visual art in all forms based on description, analysis, meaning, context and judgment.Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

This course is an exploration of visual art forms and their cultural connections across historical periods, designed for the student with little experience in the visual arts. It includes brief studies in art history, and in-depth inquiry into the elements, media and methods used in a wide range of creative processes. At the beginning of this course, you will learn a five-step system for developing an understanding of visual art in all forms, based on:

1. Description: A work of art from an objective point of view – its physical attributes and formal construction.

2. Analysis: A detailed look at a work of art that combines physical attributes with subjective statements based on the viewer's reaction to the work.

3. Context: Historical, religious or environmental information that surrounds a particular work of art and which helps to understand the work's meaning.

4. Meaning: A statement of the work's content. A message or narrative expressed by the subject matter.

5. Judgment: A critical point of view about a work of art concerning its aesthetic or cultural value.

After completing this course, you will be able to interpret works of art based on this five-step system; explain the processes involved in artistic production; identify the many kinds of issues that artists examine in their work; and explain the role and effect of the visual arts in different social, historical and cultural contexts.

This is an Arts 1303 - Art History I survey course designed based on Smarthistory.org, an OER art history textbook. Sources include Smarthistory as well as online materials produced by art museums including videos and art-historical essays. This is a Texas Core Course in Creative Arts. Developed by Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Commerce. This resource will continuously be updated throughout 2022.This course was developed for Texas art history instructors to replace expensive commonly used textbooks with OER content adaptable for use with various learning manage systems.*Unless otherwise noted all entries are licensed Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This is an Arts 1304 History of Art II course that compiles online OER resources primarily from Smarthistory.org, an OER art history textbook, and other online materials produced by art museums including videos and art historical essays.  Developed by Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Commerce, this is a Texas Core Course in Creative Arts designed to replace expensive commonly used textbooks with OER content adaptable for Texas art history instructors using various learning manage systems.*Unless otherwise noted all entries are licensed under Creative Commons-Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

The Boundless Art History textbook is a college-level, introductory textbook that provides an overview of Art History from pre-history through to modern global art.

" This course will study the question of Global Architecture from the point of view of producing a set of lectures on that subject. The course will be run in the form of a writing seminar, except that students will be asked to prepare for the final class an hour-long lecture for an undergraduate survey course. During the semester, students will study the debates about where to locate "the global" and do some comparative analysis of various textbooks. The topic of the final lecture will be worked on during the semester. For that lecture, students will be asked to identify the themes of the survey course, and hand in the bibliography and reading list for their lecture."

The “Beginner’s guide” introduces foundational concepts, such as the chronology of Byzantine history, sacred imagery, and wearable objects. Subsequent sections are arranged chronologically, covering the Early Byzantine period (c. 330–700), the Iconoclastic Controversy (c. 700s–843), the Middle Byzantine period (843–1204), the Latin Empire (c. 1204–1261), and the Late Byzantine period (c. 1261–1453) and beyond.

These sections include thematic essays on Byzantine art and architecture, essays that focus on key works (subtitled artworks in focus or architecture in focus), and essays that explore Byzantium’s relationships with other cultures (subtitled cross-cultural perspectives). Finally, we have included questions for study or discussion to encourage teachers, students, and other readers to engage with videos and other content on the Smarthistory website which could not be included in this book format but which we believe richly compliments what is presented here.

This textbook is an introduction to Information Literacy as it applies to Art History in the university context.

This is an art history textbook with content covering media, art techniques, and art history. This resource is published by Boise State University.

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses.
Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students’ educational experiences beyond the textbook. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making it an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.