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(Re)Thinking "Art": A Guide for Beginners is a primer that considers the term “art,” what it means and why it matters. Rather than being about any particular sort of art —visual or otherwise— the book addresses the idea of “art" in all, in all its messy complexity, and offers meaningful access to the vast array of human products to which it refers.

 

Written by an award-winning teacher as a response to students’ ongoing challenge, "What is ‘art’, anyway, and why should I care?”

Aims to bring readers into a meaningful relationship with art and teaches them to think critically and creatively about it - and by extension, about anything else

Provides an ideal introduction to the field for students and anyone interested in art today

Offers a jargon-free, common-sense basis from which to approach the theories that dominate the art world today, for readers who may wish to pursue them further

 

Table of contents

Figures and Captions.

Acknowledgments.

Preface.

Introduction: What's The Big Idea?.

1. Art: Who ... Me?.

2. About Language.

3. The History of "Art".

4. The "History of Art".

5. "Art," Lately.

6. Against Skepticism.

7. And So ... What?.

Index

 

About the author

Steve Shipps is Associate Professor in the Department of Visual and Media Studies at Emerson College. He is an arts educator concerned primarily with the nature and history of "art" as a Western cultural institution. An award-winning teacher, he has been a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities and of the Getty Center for Education in the Arts.