Welcome to Art Appreciation Reading Assignments
This book is made for students of Meg Phelps taking online Art Appreciation. These links and videos are a very brief introduction to the history of art. The history of art is massive and global, and there is no way to teach all of it in a single course, so the selections you will find in these readings are not meant to be comprehensive or complete; the reasons for including the artworks selected in these readings are as follows:
- artworks that represent well know traditions and histories within the cultures that produced them;
- artworks we can use to consider pertinent questions about the role and function of art in history;
- artworks we can use to apply the analysis of Content, Form, and Context.
Most (but not all) of your reading links will take you to articles and videos on the tutorial website, Khan Academy or their partner, SmartHistory. Both sites are rich sources of information on Art History, using scholarly resources and academic experts in the field of Art History. Some of these resources will be written articles, some will be videos.
Required Reading vs. Optional Reading
However, there are many more videos and articles on these sites that we can possibly use in this class, so I have selected a few to help you start getting familiar with each time period and culture. When you are taken to any of the Khan Academy or SmartHistory links you will see a menu of other related videos on the page menus — these may be of interest to you, so consider them optional additional reading; you are free to explore them as you wish, but you are not required to view any other video on Khan Academy or SmartHistory or any other site beyond the ones that I have listed here.
Navigation
Some of the videos will show inline on the page, and some will open up to a video or article article in another tab in your web-browser. When you click on a link to open it, I suggest that you watch to see where that tab opens, so you can find your way back to this tab when you are done. After completing the article or video on Khan Academy or SmartHistory, please return to this tab to continue with the rest of the reading assignment.
Unit Chapters
Each chapter is organized with reading and watching material to correspond to a Unit in the Course. The readings will have the information you will need to complete the unit quizzes and participate in the unit discussions.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the readings or this online book, please email me at mphelps@vcccd.edu
