By: Henry M. Sayre Publisher: Prentice Hall Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Prentice Hall Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 592 Publication Date: December 22, 2006
A World of Art teaches students how artists create by helping them understand that creativity starts with critical thinking. By guiding students through a rich array of aesthetic elements and artistic media, along with an overview of art history, this text encourages students to develop an appreciation for a diverse range of art. Author Henry M. Sayre demystifies the creative process by showing how artists use critical thinking and problem solving to create great works of art. Studying art also requires critical thinking and problem solving, and this text shows students how to use these skills to understand and explore the world of art.
A Great Introduction to Art! A World of Art by Henry Sayre is meant to give individuals their first exposure to art and art history. This is the textbook I use for my Art 101 course and it fills that purpose exceptionally well. The book is broken down into 5 segments with a total of 22 chapters.
Part One: The Visual World - is about understanding the art one comes across. Chapters in this section discuss themes found in art, the value we give to art, and developing a literacy in order to explain the art around us. Personally, I feel that the subject matter in this section is pretty deep for someone new to the field and suggest beginning with Part Two.
Part Two: The Formal Elements And Their Design - deals with the basic elements of art, particularly to how they relate to the artist. Chapters in this section discuss elements such as line, space, color and general design principles. A good introductory chapter to begin with.
Part Three: The Fine Arts Media - reviews the different ways art is created. Chapters are broken down by media such as drawing, printmaking, painting, photography, and sculpture.
Part Four: The Visual Arts In Everyday Life - is a very small section revolving around architecture and design. It reviews a few of the art historical movements such as art nouveau and art deco.
Part Five: The Visual Record - is a chronological look at art throughout the ages beginning with primitive (cave art) and ending with the twentieth century.
The book varies from the 4th edition in its incorporation of 100 new images (quite a lot considering it is a 500 page book). The author places special focus on artwork from women, minority and non-Western cultures, along with showing the cornerstone pieces of art from the Western world. There are a few mistakes in the text (hence a 6th edition I am sure), and some better terminology should have been used (i.e. using the term "fabrics" when in fact he should have used the more correct term "textiles"). Overall it is a very good book, it is a smooth read and has many color images on nearly every page.
taking praxis II ? This book is an ultimate study guide for the Praxis II art content exam! It gives you everything from art history to photography to printmaking... It is an excellent survey of technique, elements and principles, as well as chronlogical history. The only thing it lacks is a few more "contemporary names" from the 40's through today.
Art lover This was a wonderful course, the book is easy to understand and presented well. Nice size print and good photos of lots of works. I realy enjoyed each page of the book.
Overpriced and Overrated It's a text book in its fifth edition. When I start my own publishing co. I'll be sure to be involved in text books so I can cut students such a great deal by only charging $60 instead of $90 and I'll only print new editions every 3 years instead of 2 at the risk of things like math, art, and history changing so dramatically.
Thorough The book covers an extensive array of facts about art in general as well as about specific works of art. By introducing artists and exploring their intentions, the student can better understand and perhaps come to appreciate a wider variety of all forms of art. The CD holds some of the works that appear in the book, but not all, plus others that are not in the book which I thought was a little disconnected. But the CD also includes verbal pronunciation of artists' names, which cooresponds exactly to the Pronunciation Guide and is helpful. Overall, the book offers very thorough instruction for art appreciation.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
