This book's strength and weakness is it's brevity.
I don't own many books of similar size to compare it to.
This book seeks to give a one page description of the movement, then a typical colour painting or art object. A few get more paintings.
The colour illustrations are very good.
The strength of the book is it's brevity. It helps those who know little about the subject to get a foothold into the movements.
The movements are placed in chronological order , with some having both a start and end date, while others that are still having some influence showing no end date.
The text gives a very brief description of the movement and factors that affected its rise and progress.
For Example
Cubism
Notes the importance of Picasso's and Braquue's visit to the Paul Cezanne Retrospective 1 year after Cezanne's death
Cezanne " felt the eye was not enough, reflection is needed"
"His Still Lifes in particular show a regularity of form; the rim of the vase of vase of glass, the roundness of fruit, the shape of dishes, revealing solid rectangles, spheres, oblongs that balance the objectseven though perspective is distorted.
The viewpoint of the spectator is at the same time above the objects, parallel to them, and below them "
Yes it is rather hard to grasp first time round
Building on,and going beyond Cezanne Picasso and Braque developed Cubism.
To learn more you will need to buy the book.
The author noted how the author's beliefs, the philosophical environment etc affected the art. These beliefs and influences often had a major influence. The author notes them briefly and points to there effect on the painter's art
The author has a lucid writing style, that makes the best of the brevity
Summary
As long as one accepts this book for what it is -- a very brief summary of the main points on 50 artistic movements then you should find it helpful.
I certainly would have like its help a number of years ago when I was visiting a lot of Art Galleries/ Museums.
Other resources
A much fuller work is
"From Expressionism to Post Modernism "
Jane Turner
Oxford University Press. 2003. ( Grove Art Series)
See my review.
This is an off shoot of the massive 34 volume Dictionary of Art.
It pulls together all the articles related to the various movements covered by the span of time in the title.
It is at the academic end of the scale.
It only deals with Art Movements.
All the articles are scholarly and have useful bibliographies. The bibliographies are arranged by date of publication.
The bibliography is select-- aiming to note important contributions.
Often it can be picked up relatively cheaply secondhand on the Internet.
For those who are just interested in one or two areas--- the Tate Modern has produced readable introductions of about 70--80 pages
I have 8--10 of them
They include
Surrealism
Pop Art
Conceptual Art
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Top reviews from other countries
carol Staffordshire
Useful book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2024Miranda
... who asked for this book - it looks pled like a great way to familiarise yourself quickly with a ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2018