Ritz Library: Art History: Start Your Research

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Credo Reference
General and specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks and other quick reference materials, including images, sound files, videos and more

Gale eBooks
Online encyclopedias, directories and handbooks covering most academic subjects.

Ancient Art - Credo Topic Pages

Bronze Age
Greek Art
Works of art produced in the Aegean basin, a center of artistic activity from very early times...
Sung Dynasty
Dynasty of China that ruled 960–1279. It was divided into two periods: Northern Sung (907–1126) with its capital at Kaifeng and Southern Sung...

Middle Ages - Renaissance - Credo Topic Pages

Byzantine Art
Renaissance
Period in European cultural history that began in Italy around 1400 and lasted there until the end of the 1500s...
Ming Dynasty
Dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644. The first Ming emperor, Chu Yüan-chang (ruled 1368–98)...
Reformation
Religious and political movement in 16th-century Europe to reform the Roman Catholic Church, which led to the establishment of the Protestant churches...
Counter Reformation
16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation...
Iconoclasm
Opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine...
Iconography
The study and interpretation of figural representations, either individual or symbolic, religious or secular...

Early 20th Century Art - Credo Topic Pages

Art Brut
Term coined by the French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe various types of art produced outside the conventional art world...
Art Deco
Style in the decorative arts that influenced design and architecture, and is particularly associated with mass-produced domestic goods...
Cubism
Revolutionary style of painting created by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in Paris between 1907 and 1914...
Constructivism
Abstract art movement that originated in Russia in about 1914 and subsequently had great influence on Western art...
Conceptual Art
Type of modern art in which the idea or ideas that a work expresses are considered its essential point, with its visual appearance being of secondary (often negligible) importance...
Bauhaus
German school of art, design, and architecture founded in 1919 in Weimar by the architect Walter Gropius, who aimed to fuse art, design, architecture, and crafts into a unified whole...
Expressionism
Term used to describe works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision...
Dada
Artistic and literary movement founded in 1915 in a spirit of rebellion and disillusionment during World War I and lasting until about 1922...
Fauvism
Movement in modern French painting characterized by the use of very bold, vivid, pure colours...
Futurism
Avant-garde art movement founded in 1909 that celebrated the dynamism of the modern world...
Surrealism
Movement in art, literature, and film that developed out of Dada around 1922...
Kinetic Art
A work of art that has movement or parts that are set in motion...
Abstract Expressionism
Movement of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the mid-1940s and attained singular prominence in American art in the following decade...

Later 20th Century Art - Credo Topic Pages

Modernism
In the arts, a general term used to describe the 20th century's conscious attempt to break with the artistic traditions of the 19th century...
Minimalism
Movement in abstract art and music towards extremely simplified composition...
Post-Modernism
Term used to designate a multitude of trends that come after and deviate from the many 20th-cent. movements that constituted modernism...
Pop Art
Movement in modern art that took its imagery from the glossy world of advertising and from popular culture such as comic strips, films, and television...
Op Art
Type of abstract art, mainly painting, in which patterns are used to create the impression that the image is flickering or vibrating...
Performance Art
Type of modern art activity presented before a live audience, and combining elements of the visual arts and the theatrical arts...
Video Art
Type of modern art created by visual artists using video and television equipment; it is a medium rather than a style...

Online Reference Books

A Biographical Dictionary of Artists by Lawrence Gowing
Publication Date: 1995-09-01
The Bloomsbury Guide to Art by Shearer West (Editor)
Publication Date: 1996
Fifty Key Texts in Art History by Grant Pooke (Editor); Diana Newall (Editor)
Publication Date: 2012-03-22
100 Ideas That Changed Art by Michael Bird
Publication Date: 2012
Critical Terms for Art History by Robert S. Nelson (Editor); Richard Shiff (Editor)
Publication Date: 2003-05-01

Reference Books in Print

30,000 Years of Art by Marshall Becker; Sheila S. Blair; Crispin Branfoot; Andrew Fitzpatrick
Call Number: Oversize 709 T447
Publication Date: 2007-10-22
Color by Alexandra Loske
Call Number: 701 L879 2019
Publication Date: 2019-03-05
Gardner's Art Through the Ages by Fred S. Kleiner
Call Number: ReserveB 709 G227 2017
Publication Date: 2016-01-01

Something to Think About

"History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed. Art has remembered the people, because they created."

- William Morris

A Matter of Perspective

Photo by Juan Di Nella on Unsplash

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Departmental Information

The Department of Performing, Visual Arts and Communications

Art History is part of the PVAC Department, which is located in Washington-010.

Department Phone: 845-431-8610

Art History

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