introduction to art essay

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning

(58 reviews)

Pamela Sachant, University of North Georgia

Peggy Blood, Savannah State University

Jeffery A LeMieux, Brunswick, GA

Publisher: University of North Georgia Press

Language: English

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Reviewed by Eddy Mora, Faculty, Johnson County Community College on 5/8/22

Very comprehensive touching on subjects required not only to understand art but design as well. Topics were related to visual communication, visual literacy, and meaning. I love that the author does not stop at aesthetics but follows with cultural... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Having studied art for the last 30 years I can recognize the subject in reference and it appears to be accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Very relevant. I loved the introduction to the text because it makes it relevant to current and future generations of students, linking image use to cultural context and meaning.

Clarity rating: 5

Very clear and easy to follow and understand.

Consistency rating: 5

I like the sequential consistency of the text.

Modularity rating: 5

Very easy to pick up were left off.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book is very relevant in the progression of topics. I love how is organized. The organization logic could help teachers focused on specific topics.

Interface rating: 5

Beautiful interface put together and easy to follow. Very well documented with images and captions.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors that I found.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is very inclusive culturally. I liked how it helps the reader travel through continents with different styles, modes, histories, and artists.

I would recommend this book not only for its relevance to art history or fine art students but also to use with graphic design students. The many topics touched such as art structure, materials relevancy, communication, art analysis, and design formalities are more needed in design now more than ever, especially in face of the open cultural globalization our youth is experiencing.

Reviewed by Monika Meler, Assistant Professor of Art and Foundations Coordinator, University of Saint Francis on 12/30/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This book is a good and comprehensive text outlining themes and ideas. I see the audience for this text being complete beginners. It focuses less on formal principles and elements and tackles larger, more comprehensive themes like defining art, audience, and really large and complex ideas like identity, and power. Because it is a large survey textbook, these topics are not discussed in depth but do offer a brief introduction. The text does have a lot of questions at the end of chapters that would spark great conversation about these topics from beginning students. I don't mean to suggest that the book doesn't discuss elements and principles, but not nearly in as much depth as the textbook we use for foundations courses currently. I would use portions of this book for a 2D, 3D, or beginning drawing class, but it would not be an accurate replacement text for an intro/foundations course. For instance, the chapter on "describing art" would be very applicable to introduce students to critique. There are great examples of formal analysis that would be excellent to start the process of critique with.

The content of the book is very accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

This is tricky to evaluate because this book is extremely relevant to beginning students. I could see this book being used in an art appreciation class or a class for non-majors not looking to go very deep. In our program, we teach a series of 1 credit beginning seminars for art majors that introduce them to different areas of study in studio art, audience, content, materials, and meaning. If I have the opportunity to teach one of these classes, I will definitely be pulling parts of this book. As you know, I am a fan of the "Describing Art" chapter and foresee using the "Connecting Art to Our Lives" chapter in the class as well as "Meaning on Art" in the courses.

My vote of "3" here is because of the lack of cultural diversity in the art that is represented and the fact that there are very few examples of more contemporary art. The examples are very European and this is why I would not use this as the sole text for any class. I would need to supplement with more contemporary/culturally diverse perspectives. Contemporary artists are mentioned, but few visual examples are used.

I think the book is very clear and consistent and believe that it communicates well to a beginning audience.

The book is very consistent. I like that each chapter begins with a section on "learning outcomes" and concludes with a review of key concepts. If your course includes tests or quizzes, this consistent structure would make it easier to construct the texts/quizzes and would serve as a nice study guide for students.

I addressed some of this in the "consistency" review above but this is one of the books biggest strengths. It is very easy to pull just one part of the book and teach from sections. The sections do no depend on the student having knowledge of previous chapters/sections.

As I have mentioned in previous points, this is a strength of the book.

There are no interface/navigation problems. I am impressed with the quality of images used.

I do not see any grammar issues.

Cultural Relevance rating: 1

This is one of the major issues I see with the book and I mentioned that in the points above. Other reviewers have also mentioned the lack of focus on cultural inclusion/diversity. If this book is to be used as a sole text for any course, it would have to be much more inclusive.

Reviewed by Christine Shearer, Adjunct Professor, Cleveland State University on 7/11/21

The book is a good resource for a basic art appreciation course that plans to focus more on topics and themes and less on formal qualities. Most of the examples are of a Western focus and provide a very Eurocentric viewpoint. There is a lack of female representation, both as maker and patron, providing a male-centric focus—a common occurrence in art historical textbooks.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The images are great examples; however, they do not include any information that most professors would include in their lectures and PowerPoints—artist, title, date, medium, location.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

For a survey it has relevance, but it is not relevant for an upper division art history course. The book does not include much material post-1960, lacks representation beyond Europe and Western civilization, and is light on female contributions.

The template of the book is clear, nicely designed, and consistent. The writers have expressed their ideas in easy-to-understand language and have provided images and/or links to images to expand the learning experience visually. At the beginning of each chapter there is a list of learning objectives, and at the end of each chapter there is a review of key concepts, a test yourself section, and key terms.

The book is arranged thematically throughout, and the format is the same for each chapter.

Each chapter is broken down into subsections that are easy to pull out and assign in a different order than they are presented or as part of another course.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The organization of the book is by theme. It is structured to cover what is art and how to make art in the beginning chapters and then progresses through different forms before landing on specific themes. It can be used as presented or re-arranged to fit another format.

There are hyperlinks that are a little long. These could perhaps by converted to bitly links to make it less distracting when you come across them in the text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

There are a few grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

As stated above, the book is heavily Eurocentric and focused on Western art. Very little material on women and post-1960 is included within that focus as well. It does not include non-Western art and culture which is often lacking from many art historical texts. Sections could be used for supplementing material in other courses, but overall, it is a good source for an introductory art appreciation course.

Reviewed by David Chatfield, Adjunct Instructor, Community College of Aurora on 5/24/21

This text is not especially comprehensive. The first, and the most egregious example is the lack of historical and cultural contexts, normally found in the form of sections on art history. The authors attempt to embed art history into... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 2 see less

This text is not especially comprehensive.

The first, and the most egregious example is the lack of historical and cultural contexts, normally found in the form of sections on art history. The authors attempt to embed art history into sections on material, Formal Elements, and Themes in Art, but it lacks a lot of context. This is especially the case when it comes to representation in non-western cultures. While I understand it is difficult to represent all cultures in dedicated chapters in this kind of text, and while I like the idea of embedding art history into other sections, they do not provide enough historical context and non-western cultures. One can choose a select group of representative cultures that demonstrate the relevant ideas that can give the students the structure and critical thinking skills needed to analyze the omitted cultures. Exposure to other cultures and other contexts is essential to developing empathy, essential in developing critical thinking skills when considering new and unfamiliar contexts.

Finally, while it is fairly comprehensive in describing other ideas, like materials, Formal vocabulary, and themes it's not very comprehensive on the application of those ideas.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

While the content seems accurate, it is not unbiased. As stated above this text is pretty typical in so far as the overrepresentation of Western cultures (and cultures generally accepted by the Western Canon like Egypt or China) in textbooks. This shows a bias toward an outdated Eurocentric viewpoint.

The content is not up-to-date. As an example, in the chapter on Protest and Shock, the most recent example is from 2001. There is a plethora of protest art from recent years, for example, BLM to the continued LGBTQ+ rights movements.

Though the text does include some contemporary artists, like Mel Chin, the examples are outdated.

The text also has at least 2 outdated links to image examples. Relying on links to other sources does not ensure longevity as the web is ever-changing. One could PDF the source and include that, or just include the images directly.

Clarity rating: 2

This text is pretty academic/inaccessible in its prose and doesn't provide much context for the terminology. For example, in the description of the often confusing Complimentary Colors, the authors state: "There is a slight delay between the depletion and restoration of this chemical supply within the neuron. In the interim, an afterimage occurs. Look at the green, orange, and black flag for 10 seconds, then look at a blank wall or empty white space. (Figure 2.52) For a few moments, you will see the complement, or opposite, of green (red), the complement of orange (blue), and the complement of black (white)..."

This idea is deceptively hard to teach, and even experienced art students are confused by Complimentary Colors. Describing chemical reactions and neurons might require one to explain what neurons are as well as what color wavelengths are on top of the cultural specificity of color and so-on and so-on only to additionally complicate a complicated idea, when what the student's need to know is how Complimentary Colors behave visually in contrast to Harmonious Colors, and why that is important to an artist. Compliments clash, while Harmonies don't.

Consistency rating: 4

The text is fairly consistent in its terminology and seems to be organized by an overall framework, starting with the vocabulary, then materials, then finally themes of Art. I would like to see more ties between the different sections using the vocabulary. For example, in the earlier section on the Formal Elements and the later section on visual analysis, the vocabulary used in the early section isn't brought forward in a clear and consistent way.

Modularity rating: 4

The text is modular, with sections delineated out into broader ideas that are then explored specifically, that can be viewed independently if needed.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

As stated above the text is well organized. Looking at the table of contents one can easily find specific ideas and jump to them using the page number feature. That being said, it would be far more intuitive and accessible if the sections in the table of contents linked directly to their corresponding sections.

Interface rating: 2

Though this text has some accessibility problems.

As to the interface, I have been able to copy and paste text easily, making me think the text accessible to an eReader. I'd like to see how this text works with an eReader for visually impaired or neuro-divergent students. As of now, I do not see an option for the text to be read within this interface requiring a third-party eReader.

The images are small and cannot be enlarged or opened in another tab. Being able to zoom in helps students interact with the work in a more intimate way. This is also a huge problem for visually impaired students.

There are several broken links, and I've found that the PDF takes a lot of time to load, even on a stable internet connection. This could be problematic if a user's computer or internet connection is slow. Could the sections be broken into smaller, linkable sectons?

Beyond a few links, the user experience is limited.

As best as I can tell there are or no grammatical or spelling errors. Though I'm no editor.

I did a keyword search and found a striking lack of non-Western Art. Renaissance is mentioned 30 times, while Africa/African: 8, Mesoamerica: 0, Aztec: 3, Mayan: 1. Aboriginal: 2, Pacific Island: 1, and so on. A cursory glance at the imagery is equally unrepresentative. I mostly see artwork from movements typically seen in Eurocentric Textbooks that dominate Academia (or cultures like Egypt or China, generally accepted into the Western Canon). The purpose of seeking out an OER is to move away from these types of texts. This lack of representation is highly problematic.

As to Higher Order Learning skills, specifically analysis/evaluation, I don't see enough in the text on how to analyze a work of art. They simply include a brief section with only two images and all too brief corresponding paragraphs of academic visual analysis. I don't see many connections to previous sections on the vocabulary used in visual analysis. The authors academically explain an idea, or a theme, but give the students much opportunity to apply those ideas.

A good book should lay the groundwork first on the necessary ideas, concepts, and vocabulary. When a student gets to the analysis in this book I don't think they would be prepared to understand the analysis the authors provide.

Then they need to have an immediate opportunity to apply those ideas. I realize this is part of my job, however, a good text does add exercises the authors find relevant to their text. My assignments may not be enough. At any rate, it's nice for the students to have additional options for the application of ideas.

This text also does not contain enough modalities in presenting the information. There are no supplemental videos, hands-on projects, or audio components. Just providing text and pictures is not enough. This particular text would require me to heavily supplement information, in which case I might as well toss the text and curate content that comes from multiple modalities myself.

Finally, quizzes at the end of each section may provide decent quantitative assessments, there is little here to help me provide qualitative assessments. Again, I understand that is my job to provide those opportunities, but I've found good text does as well.

Reviewed by Ines Corujo-Martin, Adjunct Assistant Professor, New York City College of Technology on 5/4/21

This textbook seeks to offer a deep and comprehensive insight into the world of art, including a broad variety of perspectives, such as art and meaning; art and power; art and ethics, among many other subjects. It contains over 400 high-quality images that illustrate the various forms of art, its technical applications, and its many uses. The table of contents seems detailed at first, but a closer look reveals the lack of logical and coherent progression. While Chapters 1 and 2 analyze the meaning of visual art, what is an artist, and the structure of art, Chapter 3 jumps into the study of materials, introducing jargon and technical terms that belong to an art history or more specialized course. Chapters 4 and 5, which respectively explore “Describing Art” and “Meaning in Art,” should have been placed right after Chapter 1, as they cover basic topics and terms. On the other hand, Chapter 7 delves into art in architecture, while other forms of art like painting, sculpture, or photography are neglected and find no space of deep analysis in the textbook. Overall, the content is imbalanced and needs more work, as well as the inclusion of updated materials and examples. Relevant chapters that could introduce thought-provoking and add new perspectives into the classroom (e.g., Chapter 8: Art and Identity; Chapter 9: Art and Power) are brief in comparison to other sections and offer a superficial and simplistic overview on very complex topics. For example, the authors do not illustrate the relationship between art and the construction of intersectional identities of race, gender, nationality, and ethnicity, mainly centering on religious and spiritual values (Chapter 6 and Chapter 10). Although each chapter ends with a section of "Key Terms," there is no glossary or list of illustrations at the end of the textbook. It includes footnotes citing the references employed, but there is no final bibliography, which is detrimental for an introductory college textbook that should provide a condensed view of documentation in the field. This textbook is inaccurately described online as “digital in nature,” when it takes on a conventional approach to teaching and learning. The only digital component is the inclusion of links embedded throughout the text, most of which are not contextualized. Some of these links do not work, and others send students to artworks with poor image quality. The textbook as a whole fails to provide digital activities and/or projects to expand students’ educational experiences beyond the textbook, helping them master concepts (i.e., quizlets, flashcards, videos, interactive images, etc.). It does not contain learning features like annotate and bookmark, which increase engagement with course content. Besides, there is no way to monitor students’ progress. It would have been useful to incorporate review, summary, and expansion activities at the end of the chapters, in addition to self-quizzes, to enhance student performance and facilitate the grasp of content.

The images do not include information on the artist, title, size, medium, date, and museum/collection of the works of art, and the emphasis is solely placed on the open source. Names of artists are sometimes misspelled and show no consistency like Vassily Kandinsky instead of Wassily Kandinsky (p.106).

As previously noted, this textbook takes on a traditional approach both in content and format, failing to add innovative insights to the art field. It mostly focuses on the pre-1960s period, and there is a notable absence of contemporary art, non-Western cultures, and art produced by female artists and people of color. There is barely no discussion of subculture art, urban art, or popular art, and the importance given to museums for the dissemination of art is minimal. There are stances in which the authors delve into topics that seem irrelevant to an introductory art course. For instance, the emphasis on the cultural value of materials (Chapter 3) seems very off-topic and, as already mentioned, should belong to an art history or material culture course. In contrast, relevant ongoing topics like digital art and the relationship between art and technology, often students’ favorite section, should be organized as a separate chapter instead of inserting disconnected and vague references throughout the text. The textbook does not provide enough opportunities for students to develop their critical thinking. This aspect could have been polished by designing exercises to analyze the works of art presented or by adding case studies on current and relevant artistic activities to interpret practical scenarios. To give an example, the eleventh chapter--"Art and Ethics"--could be greatly improved by introducing recent articles and real-world examples to explore ethical dilemmas related to the concepts of intellectual property, collecting, and censorship.

Clarity rating: 4

Overall, the language is clear and accessible, except for instances in which the authors use jargon and obscure terminology not appropriate for an introductory art course. Some of these technical words are not even included in the "Key Terms" sections at the end of each chapter, forcing the readers to figure it out by themselves and confusing students who might have little or no background in art.

The template used is consistent through the chapters. There is consistency regarding structure, framework, and terminology.

Each of the eleven chapters that comprise the textbook are organized into topics followed by subsections that are meant to connect back to the main theme. All chapters start off with a section of "Learning Outcomes," summarizing the learning objectives that should be attained at the end. After this, an introductory part provides background and presents the main themes and ideas that will be covered. The constant inclusion of rhetorical questions throughout the text allows students to reflect on their own learning process and to recognize the impact of art in their daily lives. Moreover, each chapter ends with two conclusive sections: "Before You Move On" and "Key Terms." The first one gives a list of discussion prompts to test the knowledge gained so far and to connect the content to students’ personal experiences. These self-reflection questions are particularly useful to engage students in their knowledge-building process and can be easily assigned to discuss in small groups during class or adapted for online forums to extend the exchange of views beyond the classroom.

There is no introduction/preface in which the authors explain the structure they follow, their educational goals or the relevance and application of the content in this textbook. Having a preface at the beginning of the textbook is useful to specify and give more information on the intended audience, as well as the educational level for which it is recommended (although we assume it is addressed to introductory college/university courses on visual art, art history, and art appreciation). There are no suggestions for planning the course and using the textbook in the classroom. This lack of pedagogical guidance could be greatly improved in the future.

Interface rating: 4

This is an aspect that needs improvement, as many of the links do not work or the linked images and pages are missing. In other cases, when referring to previously discussed images, the labeling tends to be incorrect. It is frustrating that the links within the body of the text are so long and that they are not enclosed with a period, which distracts the reader. Other than that, navigation through the text is straightforward and the text is clearly displayed.

The text does not include grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 2

The approach of this textbook is clearly Eurocentric and Westernized, leaving out examples of art from Africa, Latin America, indigenous tribes, or any other non-Western culture. The only part in which the authors make some explicit references to other cultures (in this case Asian) takes place is Chapter 10 on "Art and Ritual Life"; however, this discussion occurs within the framework of Western themes. The vast majority of artworks in the textbook display white men and, as mentioned elsewhere in this review, there is no representation of female artists or people of color. This omission of diversity is problematic and one of its main downfalls. Art is one of the most powerful mediums to educate others on issues of inclusivity, social justice, and cultural sensitivity, which is key to forming well-rounded, global citizens. This textbook perpetuates a white-male-dominant perspective, following the typical works of art found within the canon of Western Art History. It is highly recommended that the authors revise the selection of pictures, citations, and examples to represent diverse cultures, races, ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds. In this respect, it is noteworthy to mention that the eighth chapter on the subject "Art and Identity" is one of the shortest and most superficial ones (in comparison, for example, to the previous chapter devoted to architecture that occupies more than 30 pages). The chapter "Art and Identity" provides over simplified conceptions of what cultural identity means (and constantly from a Westernized perspective) and misses out the fertile intersection of art with gendered and racialized identities over the course of history.

This textbook is not recommended as the main reference material or as a tool for organizing the course structure due to all the weaknesses in regard to content, structure, and cultural relevance detailed in this review. However, some of its sections can be incorporated into already prepared lessons, in particular Chapter 1, 4, 5, and 11, which from my perspective are the strongest. The textbook is not overly self-referential and some parts can be easily used as a supplemental material in combination with other educational resources.

Reviewed by Meidor Hu, Professor, Hawaii Community College on 4/23/21

This text is a comprehensive survey of ideas and subjects— theoretically and historically, similar to other text for an introduction to visual arts course. A wide variety of artistic media styles, time periods, and regions are covered, mostly with examples from Western art. Love the "Test Yourself" and "Key Terms" section at the end. It is lacking an index and glossary at the end of the text. I can see how this text can be easily incorporated with my previously prepared lessons.

The text reads unbiased and highly accurate. Although the image examples left out info on size, media, date and location of the art work.

The text is current but could give more focus on art since the 1960s and inclusion of more women artists.

The writing is clear and easy to read. The "Test Yourself" section at the end of each chapter is a great addition to check for understanding.

There is consistency in the logical structure and presentation.

The chapters and subheadings are logical. Each chapter opens with Learning Outcomes and ends Key Concepts, Test Yourself, and Key Terms sections to check for understanding. The subheadings are in easily digestible sections.

The text's organization is clear in format and structure.

The basic design is clear and non-distracting. The image quality were also good.

No issues with grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

Although the text incorporated examples from different cultural and geological region, the majority of the discussions are Eurocentric in perspective. More attention to Asian, African, Pacific and the Americas would give the content more diversity.

Reviewed by Daniel Vedamuthu, Instructor of Art and Design, Rochester Community & Technical College on 4/1/21, updated 6/1/21

Books for Introduction to Art / Art Appreciation courses usually cover some standard topics: the definition of art, materials used to make, the elements of art and the principles of design, reasons for creating art, and methods of formal analysis of art. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning covers these topics in the appropriate amount of depth. Texts usually then present a thematic, chronological, or cultural history of art. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning focuses on a thematic approach. Figures often appear without dates. Courses that focus on a chronological approach will find this text lacking. The text lacks a “whole book” glossary of key terms. The Key Terms are found at the end of each chapter. The text includes a Table of Contents but does not have a formal index. This would have a negative impact on a printed version of the text. In the PDF version, searching the text is only a click away.

The text is accurate. One of the most important aspects of accuracy in a text in this subject is ensuring that the Artist, Artwork Name, and Date of Creation are correct. Doing a few random spot checks, when this information is present, the information is correct. Figures are labelled with the source author, source location, and the license. One area the text could improve is the lack of pronunciation guides in the text and in the Key Terms areas.

Being a text covering the thematic history of visual art, the content itself will not go out of date. The lack of contemporary imagery is the biggest drawback to the text, due to licensing of the figures. To include contemporary artwork in the text, links to outside images are provided in the text. Outdated links or redirects could cause the text to become obsolete. I believe it would be helpful to have a section after the copyright page or at the end of the text describing when links have last been updated or revised. However, the text is organizing in such a way that adding new images requires revising the thematic examples throughout the text instead of having to add and reorganize chapters. This is a benefit for adding new contemporary or cultural examples through the text.

The text is very clear. Art terms are clearly explained. Written examples are used to explain difficult terms. Even more importantly, Figures are used to demonstrate the meaning of art terms. When there are contrasting ideas, the text provides multiple Figures to demonstrate those competing ideas and provide instant opportunities for students to discussion about compare-and-contrast between the two figures.

The text is consistent on how it approaches topics. Art terms are using consistently throughout the text.

The text is built to be modular. Each chapter could be assigned in any order, though it’s obvious that the editor has an intended order for reading at the beginning of the text in order to logically introduce readers to the topics. Toward the end of the text, the topics become more thematic, and these chapters could be easily reorganized and adapted. Each Chapter’s main Chapter Content has clear headings and well-defined sub-headings. Each level of heading seem to be good breaking points to create smaller readings or to remix and rearrange the text.

Chapters in the text follow a logical and consistent structure. Each chapter establishes Learning Outcomes (which are meaningfully written), and Introduction, Chapter Content with well-defined subheadings, a conclusion named “Before You Move On” that includes Key Concepts and Chapter Questions, and finally, a list of Key Terms from the Chapter. Chapters build in a logical progression a the beginning of the text.

The real point of concern with any art appreciation text is the quality of the images. The resolution of most images appears to be sufficient for screen and print. Images are no distorted. Navigating the text is easy through PDF Bookmarks.

I observed no grammatical errors in the text.

This book features many examples that vary from the traditional art appreciation “textbook examples.” Images still tend to represent a “western art” perspective. There are examples from a range of different cultures but compared to some of the best commercial textbooks for cultural relevance, this text does compare to those standards. Are there any other comments you would like to make about this book? I am not fond of the typographic and typesetting choices made for the text. Multiple columns of text would reduce some of the very long line lengths found in the text. With a long line length and narrow leading, the lines seem to blend together. Figures do not seem to follow a strict layout grid that enhances the layout of the information. The drop-shadows on Figures are unnecessary. Fake small cap on Chapter names in the Table of Contents isn’t high quality.

Reviewed by Andrea Lepage, Professor of Art History, Washington & Lee University on 12/13/20

The text integrates all of the key areas traditionally covered in an art appreciation course with an emphasis on cultivating an art specific vocabulary and understanding the materials of art. The authors incorporate a wide variety of artistic media, traditions, styles, time periods, and regions into their discussions. The majority of the examples provided are drawn from Western art historical traditions, but the authors also include examples from regions beyond the West—especially China, Japan, and India. The text features some examples from Nigeria, Ghana, and North American indigenous traditions, but greater attention to African, Latin American, Central and South Asian, Oceanic, and indigenous traditions would be welcome. The work of male artists, mostly drawn from the Western art historical canon, dominate the discussions; greater coverage of women artists would also be welcome. The Table of Contents is hyperlinked and clearly organized, and each chapter concludes with an excellent glossary of terms. Including an index would assist students in navigating the book.

The content is mainly accurate throughout the text, with some typographical, spelling, and technical errors (broken links), especially in the second half of the book. As noted below, the text includes some inaccuracies or inconsistencies pertaining to indigenous cultures and artists. On occasion, the authors present controversial viewpoints in a straightforward manner. The 2003 toppling of the Saddam Hussein monument in Baghdad (p. 249) is one example. In a section dedicated to propaganda, the authors make no reference to the controversial nature of this incident, which may have been initiated or manipulated by U.S. military forces for propagandistic purposes.

The text is arranged in such a way that extended discussions and additional examples would be relatively easy to introduce. Updates might include extended discussions about artwork produced by women, indigenous, black, and other artists of color. In some cases, updates might simply expand the discussion around examples already introduced into the text (for example Gee’s Bend quilt maker Lucy Mingo, page 7; Judith Baca’s Great Wall of Los Angeles, pages 23-24; Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s multi-media work, page 168). Such updates would help to further decenter traditional canonical Western art historical narratives. In addition, references to LGBTQ artists would be a welcome addition, as would including supplementary sections dedicated to contemporary artistic production. The authors have been careful to include discussions of more contemporary art forms like new media and graphic novels, and additional examples would be relatively easy to insert into the text. Discussions of early modern and modern art are already strong.

The text is written in clear and accessible prose. The learning outcomes at the beginning of each chapter give readers the necessary information to navigate each chapter. The concluding section in each chapter (“Before You Move On: Key Concepts”) does an excellent job of synthesizing the key points included in each chapter.

The text is arranged thematically rather than chronologically and is internally consistent throughout. Each chapter is well organized and easy to follow with a consistent arrangement that will be especially helpful for students as they study key points presented in the text.

The authors organize the text thematically, rather than chronologically as is the case with many introductory art history textbooks. Each chapter is organized consistently with learning outcomes, an introduction, a series of content sections that could be assigned at different points in the course, followed by a recap section entitled ‘Before You Move On,” and a list of key terms. The key term/glossary sections are extremely useful. In particular, the key terms included in chapter three, “Significance of Materials Used in Art”, provide an excellent and comprehensive glossary of artistic materials. It is easy to imagine students consulting this resource routinely throughout the course. Many of the ‘Test Yourself’ questions included at the end of each chapter could also double as in-class discussion prompts.

The book contains eleven chapters, organized thematically. The chapters cover conceptual questions, including: What is art, who is considered an artist, and why is art powerful (chapters one and nine)? How does art connect to our lives (chapter six), our identity (chapter eight), ritual life (chapter ten), and ethical world views (chapter eleven)? These conceptual discussions bookend chapters focused of the materials of art, and later chapters effectively circle back to themes briefly presented in the introductory chapter.

The remaining chapters provide students with art specific vocabulary and the descriptive and analytical tools to view, discuss, and interpret art and architecture. Chapters two (“The Structure of Art”) and three (“The Significance of Materials Used in Art”) provide students with an excellent and thorough description of the materials of art, which will be especially useful to students without a background in studio art. The authors are careful to include discussions of a wide variety of media including architecture (chapter seven), painting, printmaking, sculpture, video, performance, and new media. Chapters four (“Describing Art”) and five (“Meaning in Art”) provide students with an overview of strategies for formal and contextual analysis.

The Table of Contents provides links to each subsection, which is an effective navigational feature. The artworks and charts embedded in the text are high quality, well placed, and increase reader understanding of the concepts presented. The consistent design layout makes it easy for the reader to shift between image and text. Due to copyright restrictions, however, the authors are unable to include reproductions of all of the artworks discussed in the text. In those instances, the text includes links to the images. Some of the links to artworks are broken or point to sites that will require students to sift through extensive texts or image sets to find the artwork mentioned in the textbook. Along with the artist and title, it would be helpful to include the date, medium, size, and location in the label accompanying each artwork. This is a highly accessible textbook—the authors offer a variety of ways to download the PDF as both low- and high-resolution files, chapter sets (1-3; 4-7; 8-11), and in Japanese translation. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.

The text does not contain obvious grammatical errors. However, it does contain typographical and spelling errors; accents are omitted at times.

Overall, the text makes use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. At times, the text misses opportunities to bring the discussion into communication with cultures that flourish beyond the Western world. Greater attention to indigenous cultural specificity is warranted. For example, the authors reference the Aztec Plumed Serpent deity Quetzalcóatl (p. 256) in the context of Chichén Itzá, which is a Maya site located in the Mexican state of Yucatán. However, Kukulcán is the name of the Yucatec Maya deity to which the main temple at Chichén Itzá is dedicated. The authors should reconsider using the word ‘Eskimo’ (p. 270) or explain that ‘Eskimo’ is a designation imposed upon Inuit and Yupik people that has been rejected by Inuit communities for decades. This is one of several instances in which the authors could engage more significantly and critically with histories of settler colonialism. Other opportunities to confront biased Western narratives could occur in the sections focused on mahogany harvesting in the Caribbean (p. 88), Manifest Destiny (p. 161-162), and discussions of transatlantic trade in general. The discussion of Jaune Quick–to–See Smith's (an enrolled Salish member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) "Montana’s Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People)" presents one such opportunity (p. 168), but both links to her work are broken. Because the artist’s name is misspelled twice in this section, students may encounter difficulties finding a reproduction of the work independently. Similarly, the authors could confront histories of enslavement more frequently, modeling their discussions on the section dedicated to Fred Wilson’s "Mining the Museum" exhibition (p. 289-290).

This text represents an important contribution in the effort to make art and the study of art accessible to students. Undergraduates studying art appreciation will benefit from the accessible prose, clear design layout, and high-quality in-text illustrations.

Reviewed by Julia May, Assistant Professor, University of Virginia on 11/30/20

I would use this text in my art appreciation/visual culture course. I very much appreciate the arrangement of the book, the first section dedicated to the fundamentals of art and the second, to central themes. These aspects provide a solid foundation for students who will want to know more. It is a sufficient balance of form and meaning, which you don't often see in introductory texts. It is accessible and easy to follow. The embedded hyperlinks to supplemental information is also a unique feature that students will find helpful.

The information is accurate and consistent.

Any updates will be easy to make. I don't see anything going out of date too soon.

The language is clear and accessible. Including glossaries at the end of each chapter is a great way for students to have ready access to key definitions.

The text is consistent.

I feel that the modularity of the text is adequate. The reader should not be overwhelmed by the above elements. Being able to zoom in on the images - is a great feature - they remain very crisp and clear, at least for me.

The authors organized the text effectively, considering the amount of material covered (see above). I appreciate how the authors include a set of learning outcomes at the start of each chapter and have "tests" throughout as well as "key concepts" and glossaries. My only concern is that there is no index, nor is there a bibliography (unless I missed them).

I think the interface is sufficient. I was able to access the material embedded in the hyperlinks. Using hyperlinks to supplemental content is a terrific way for students to obtain details on particular objects. I also like that authors used them judiciously.

I did not see any grammatical errors.

The chapter on art and ritual life serves as an excellent example of presenting the traditions of a variety of cultures in a balanced and respectful manner.

This book is a perfect companion to any college-level art appreciation course - and for today's student. The balance of form and meaning, the inclusion of learning objectives for each chapter, the "tests," and hyperlinks to supplemental material makes it unique and a text I would consider using in my course.

Reviewed by Danielle Bell, Adjunct Professor of Art and Art History, Community College of Aurora on 8/14/20

In reviewing this text, there were many things that I had issues with: 1. The text condenses the discussion on artistic mediums to half a chapter. This does not give students enough time to fully engage with the mediums since there is no context given. 2. There is a whole chapter dedicated to architecture, but only smaller sections within a chapter dedicated to other art mediums, such as painting, printmaking, and drawing. The chapter on architecture could have been condensed so much more and included in the mediums section. 3. In the sections on mediums, the text does not always show examples. For instance, in the printmaking section, they do not show an art example for each process, so the students reading would have no idea what a screen print even looks like. 4. My other issue with chapter 2 is directed at the sections on the elements of art and principles of design. These sections are very rushed. Its information overload. The authors do not spend an adequate amount of time/space on each element. Again, no context is given for each element and its many facets. There needs to be more time given to the elements and principles and more art examples given so that students are better equipped to identify such things when doing a formal analysis. 5. My next issue is that there is no definition of formal analysis given before the authors, in Chapter 4, begin performing a formal analysis on two different works of art. 6. Chapter 4 also has a rather quick, but comprehensive art historical section, but it doesn't really belong in this chapter as its supposed to be about "describing art." 7. The chapter on identity in art is incredibly Eurocentric, and is also is very focused on art before 1900. There is a significant lack of contemporary art discussed in this text.

The content that is presented and discussed is done so accurately and seemingly unbiased.

For the most part, the text is very relevant, especially its chapters on themes in art. However, there are times the authors delve into topics that seem irrelevant to an intro to art text. For instance, Chapter 3 on cultural value of materials is very out of place in this text.

Clarity rating: 3

The book is at times accessible and yet also full of scholarly jargon that is confusing to those not familiar with that type of writing. Throughout the text, the authors "name drop" scholars, art schools, historical figures and events, etc. without providing context. Even the metadata for artworks is always clear as there are times where the text will omit information rather than indicating that the information is unknown.

I encountered some inconsistency in the spelling of artist names. In the text, there are conventional transliterations of artist’s names. For instance, for artist Do Ho Suh, the name is spelled Do Ho Su on page 92, and Wassily Kandinsky is spelled Vasily Kandinsky on page 106.

The text is not overly self-referential and would be easy for any professor to cherry-pick sections to assign to students. I think the strongest chapters in this book that any intro to art class could benefit from are chapters 1, 5, and 11.

The organization of topics is strange and, at times, confusing. One area that really stood out to me as disorganized is found in Chapters 2, 3, and 4. Chapter 2 is titled "Structure of Art", which is already a confusing name for this chapter as the topics range from mediums of art to the elements and principles of art and design. Chapter 3 then gets into the intrinsic value of materials, which already seems of out place in this textbook as it seems like something more relevant to an art history class than an introduction to art class. Finally, in Chapter 4, there is a discussion on formal analysis, which really should have been included in, or put after, chapter 2 since it discussed the elements and principles.

There are a number of links given in the text that do not work and others send students to works of art with low image quality.

I found no grammatical errors in this text.

This text is pretty Eurocentric. While it does have sections where the authors discuss non-Western topics, such as Chapter 10 on ritual life and art, its only in the context of Western themes. African, Mesoamerican, and Native American art are some notable cultures that are either left out or barely discussed.

This is a decent textbook for cherry-picking specific topics from, but all together it is not a great text to use as a tool for creating course structure.

Reviewed by Don Oberheu, Lecturer, Leeward Community College on 7/14/20

The text does an excellent job of covering the areas and ideas that one expects from an introduction to art textbook. The table of contents is clear and provides easy navigation within the text. While there is no glossary at the end of the text, there is a chapter-specific glossary at the end of each chapter providing a convenient review of the concepts and terms covered in each chapter.

The content is accurate, error-free, and, with its many comparative references to different cultures and times, very unbiased.

The content is up-to-date and covers all of the mediums, including photography, that one would expect from an introduction to art text. It is written and arranged in such a way that any necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.

The text is written in organized and well-flowing prose that introduces and explains the ideas, the technical terminology, and the historical flow of the material it covers.

The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within a course. The text is not overly self-referential. One can cherry-pick whole chapters or sub-sections within a chapter to align with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader.

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion.

The interface is the only area of this text that needs some improvement. While the text is not overly self-referential, when it does refer to previously introduced and discussed images, the reference tends to be incorrect. The image referred to does exist however, the given labeling is often incorrect. Likewise, while it is great that the text is peppered with hyperlinks to images on the web, many of the links are not valid. The hyperlinks work, however, the linked images or pages are often missing.

The text contains no grammatical errors.

The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. In fact, it makes great use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, backgrounds, and time periods.

In addition to serving as a textbook for introduction to art courses, this text can also be used in more medium-specific introductory art courses, e.g., Introduction to Digital Photography, to help learners in the courses better understand both composition and the potential role of their own art as it relates to the medium they are learning.

Reviewed by Sandra Clyne, Adjunct Instructor, Bunker Hill Community College on 6/30/20

Although the text provides a detailed analysis of ancient, traditional, and modern visual art, it is notably deficient in its treatment of contemporary (post 1960s) art. This omission would lessen the appeal to college students of this otherwise... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

The text's treatment of anthropological and art historical detail is meticulous.

Art students require a text that provides insight into the revelatory role of visual art within human consciousness. This text is far too pedantic and does not invite exploration and imagination by the students in interpreting the works of art presented.

The text would be quite accessible for undergraduate college or university students. The concepts discussed are adequately introduced and the terms are well defined. The style of writing is quite clear and straightforward.

The text is quite internally consistent, without notable contradictions in its key propositions and theses.

The text is quite clearly divided into chapters and subheadings, and there is a "Key Terms" section at the end of every chapter. However, the text lacks an omnibus glossary and subject index.

The text "flows" from basic to more complex concepts. The text approaches the critical analysis of visual art from distinct perspectives that are clearly signaled by chapter headings.

The display features employed in this text are its beautiful illustrations, which bring to life the adjacent verbal analysis.

The grammar and sentence structure utilized in this text are impeccable.

The text examines visual art from a wide variety of cultures over a range of geographical sites, but is somewhat Eurocentric. More emphasis on African, Asian, South Asian, Native American and Oceanic art would have diversified its approaches and content.

Because of its logical structure and clear writing style, this text would provide an accessible introduction to the highly complex field of visual art for undergraduate community college, college, or university students.

Reviewed by Meridyth Espindola, Adjunct Professor, Bunker Hill Community College on 6/26/20

This book does a great job covering a broad spectrum of the context and meaning of art and design, and consistently provides visual examples. read more

This book does a great job covering a broad spectrum of the context and meaning of art and design, and consistently provides visual examples.

This book presents information in an accurate way, although it includes a very limited perspective on art by BIPOC. While this is characteristic of traditional art and design history texts, it is important to be aware of and address in the classroom.

The text focuses mainly on historical art history, and will not quickly become obsolete.

The text is well-written, easy to read, and follows a natural hierarchy of information. Visually, the page formatting is digestible, easy to follow, and well organized. This text is more inviting than other digital resources because of the visual design system in place.

Consistent tone of text and organization of information.

The division of content into small, clearly labeled and organized sections makes it easy to approach, navigate, and understand.

Well organized, clear structure and easy to follow. Both the written text and the visual design facilitate a clear hierarchy of information and digestible content.

Easy to use interface.

(Did not find any grammatical errors.)

The text is not directly insensitive or offensive, but examples of artwork by BIPOC are limited and presented from colonial perspectives. This is not a problem stemming from this book alone, rather the traditional Western perspective of recorded art history, theory, and criticism. However, this text also misses the opportunity to address cultural appropriation. In a section titled and devoted to "Appropriation" (Chapter 11), the only perspective offered is that appropriation is a "legitimate way" for artists to "re-contextualize" images. The singular artist example is photographer Sherrie Levine. To devote a section to appropriation, and yet leave out cultural conflicts entirely, misses an incredibly problematic aspect of appropriation in both the historical and contemporary landscapes of art and design. This is a critical discussion that belongs in the classroom, and a disappointing absence in this text.

The typography, image formatting, and layout system do a nice job of keeping information easy to read and navigate.

Reviewed by Talicia Honkola, Art Instructor, Mesabi Range College on 6/25/20

The textbook is comprehensive, offering topics on elements and principles covered in my course. In my opinion the first half would work better to introduce students to visual art. The book is arranged well and is easy to comprehend. read more

Reviewed by Marla Sweeney, Adjunct Instrcutor, Middlesex Community College on 6/17/20

The text is a good introduction to art and art history . It is not a chronological art history text but covers several periods, art forms and ideas related to understanding art. read more

The text is a good introduction to art and art history . It is not a chronological art history text but covers several periods, art forms and ideas related to understanding art.

The text is well researched and unbiased.

Although examples of art from many periods are addressed the final chapter on Ethics includes the most contemporary art examples. The text is arranged in a format that would allow updates to be easily implemented.

The text is written in clear understandable prose. Each chapter ends with an overview of key concepts, vocabulary and good test questions on the material.

The text is consistent in framework and terminology.

The text is organized in consistent module format. The format introduces each chapter with learning outcomes and a brief introduction. Each chapter ends with key concepts, vocabulary and good test questions as a review of the material.

The text is organized logically and the chapters are based on clear topics.

There are no navigation issues with the text or the display of image examples.

The text gives examples of varied types of art from diverse cultures. There are good visual examples from historical to contemporary.

This is a good introductory text to art. I feel it would be a good accompaniment to a chronological art history text. It addresses topics that may not be covered in other art texts as fully including a definition of art, the distinction between fine art and craft, art and identity and ethics in art .

Reviewed by Julia May, Assistant Professor, University of Virginia on 5/7/20

My only concern is that there is no index, nor is there a bibliography (unless I missed them).

Reviewed by WangLing Chou, Associate Professor of Art, Louisiana College on 4/30/20

The text is comprehensive, offering a wide range of material on the subject. Several of the chapters--mostly the latter ones--are more conceptual and/or philosophical and while they would be excellent for Art majors or upper level students, they would not be as useful for a general education Art Appreciation course. Still, many of the other chapters are more than sufficient in terms of comprehensiveness. In terms of an index or glossary, neither are present at the end of the book; however, at the conclusion of each chapter, all vocabulary from that chapter are listed and defined. An index and the end of the text would be helpful.

No inaccuracies were detected in the text. The book is unbiased except that is obviously favors a greater understanding of art, such as at the end of section 1.3.2. Chapter 11 briefly deviates from the text's usual objective tone, calling on the need for both society and artists to have a particular understanding of one another.

Even with the later chapters that touch on more recent phenomena in the art world such as identity and ethics, the material in the text is written in a way that it will be relevant for an indefinite period of time. Updating content should present no problems in terms of ease of implementation.

The text is easy to read and would be accessible to college students. All specialized terminology are conveniently in boldface type and are defined both in-chapter as well as in a section at the end of the chapter. The prose is not clinical and dry but is often inviting, making use of an inclusive third person perspective and sometimes directly addressing the readers with "you."

The text is largely consistent. One area to improve might be in the learning outcomes at the beginning of each chapter. While many of verbs are measurable such as identify, name, analyze, distinguish, explain, etc., the verb "understand" is used frequently in the outcomes and is not measurable based on Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives.

All chapters are divided into smaller, easily identifiable sections, ranging from anywhere to 5 up to 12. Most sections within chapters are only a couple of pages. Understandably, some sections are significantly longer, but multiple images can be a contributing factor to the increased length. The text does reference itself (i.e. "this text," etc.) on occasion, but such references are minimal.

The text is well organized, both in terms of the arrangement of chapters, as well as the divisions within the chapters. The text begins generally, moves to historical, practical, and knowledge-based content, and finishes with conceptual/philosophical content.

Interface rating: 3

One issue of concern is that in Chapter 11, every other page is incorrectly labeled at the top as "CHAPTER 10: ART AND RITUAL LIFE." Such a mislabelling could confuse readers. Also, the justified text is generally not a problem, but the inconsistency in spacing between characters is sometimes problematic. For example, the first line of the last paragraph on page 19 includes no spacing between any of the characters, making the sentence almost unreadable. Finally, while the images graphics are relevant and helpful, the text as a whole feels cramped and could use some negative space--more white space around images and graphics.

Few grammatical errors were detected. It should be noted that the writers employ all three points of view--often writing in first person. Such an approach likely makes the text more accessible to college readers. However, a small issue that arises is when the writer first mentions "the viewer," singular, but subsequently uses the pronoun "we" (plural). This agreement error was only noted a couple of times on page 14 and may or may not occur in other places. A simple fix is to change "the viewer" to "viewers."

The text does an excellent job on covering a broad spectrum of cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds. At no point could any content be misconstrued as culturally inoffensive, as the writers did a good job in remaining objective in presenting the facts. For example, the section on The Dome of the Rock in Chapter Six is a sensitive topic, but the writers treated it with historical accuracy and cultural and religious sensitivity.

Even though several chapters are above and beyond what I need for my gen. ed. Art Appreciation course, I would still find this text useful.

Reviewed by Alexis Rusch, Adjunct Instructor, Oakland City University on 3/30/20

This book is easy to comprehend. I do think the first half is better than the second. There is no index which I do find useful. In the area of visual elements and principles of design, I do wish they went more into depth. read more

I find the information presented to be accurate.

The contemporary art could easily be updated to keep this as a current and relevant text especially since links are used.

I do think the first half of the book is a bit more clear than the second half. When teaching, I find it useful to have just 1-2 examples of art for each idea/concept I am discussing. The second half almost gives too many examples of some ideas and becomes confusing for students.

The book has an overall good and consistent structure. The terms being given at the end of each chapter are good and easy for students to find and study.

The organization of the chapters and subheadings is logical and makes sense. This book is easy to break up into small sections of readings for students.

I would consider the organization the best thing about this book!

All the links worked! The quality of images and text for those links varied from website to website.

No grammatical errors observed.

Examples of artwork are given from all over the world. Although the examples and content is heavy on Western Art, there is some reference to Non-Western Art. I did not find anything culturally offensive.

Closest thing you will find that is free to use for an art appreciation course. I would not use this as my only book for the course but would use it and have some online resources to supplement areas such as visual elements and principles of design. I do feel like this book relies heavily on European art as examples.

Reviewed by Kimberly Jones, Associate Professor, Sweet Briar College on 1/29/20

While the text is relatively comprehensive, I wish that it would have cast the net wider in terms of art forms to include a more extensive coverage of film, video games, textiles, typography, etc. Nonwestern art is included, but I would have like... read more

I do wish the authors would have expanded their discussions a bit more. In their attempt to be succinct, a choice, I imagine, made to keep the reader engaged, I'm afraid some important content is lost.

Additional information in the captions is also needed. Important facts, such as year, medium, size, etc., are not included.

I did not identify any errors. It appears to be unbiased.

I appreciate that the text stresses, right from the beginning, the importance of images in contemporary society. Asking the question -- how does Bouguereau's work relate to today -- is a good way to connect past art to the present. I do wish it would have given more examples though of new media art. I thought this was a lost opportunity to add relevancy.

I believe the text is organized in a way so as to easily implement updated material.

The style of writing is much more readable than other textbooks I've used. I believe today's students will find this style more accessible and will therefore be more likely to actually read the text. While the authors acknowledge art history's (and presumably their own) use of jargon, which they argue is "unavoidable" in any discipline, they avoid the use of unnecessary jargon. Key vocabulary words (jargon if you like) relating to art and art history are clearly and concisely defined.

I found the tone and style to be consistent throughout.

I very much like the way the text is organized. I appreciate that blocks of text are short. I think it would be easy to organize this text anyway you like when teaching, although the flow, the way one chapter leads into another, is nice, so I personally would not change it. The text is easily customizable, in my opinion.

Overall the interface is fine, but it is pretty basic. Extra features, like allowing users to zoom in on pieces, or adding arrows to specific parts of images under discussion might make this more accessible and interactive.

I did not identify any grammatical errors.

I did not find the text to be culturally insensitive.

I was surprised that the text did not take advantage of its online format to include links to videos, especially when discussing various techniques. The different printmaking methods, for instance, are much more easily understood when demonstrated. It could also have included actual videos in its discussion of video art and performance art, rather than a link to a photograph.

While I do see room for improvement, I appreciate what this text has to offer. I may even consider adopting it for my introductory course.

Reviewed by Mary Shira, Instructor, James Madison University on 1/8/20

This is not a book I feel I could adapt in its present form in my course, Art in the General Culture, a general education course designed to introduce students with little or no background in art. While it contains a wealth of information that I can adapt within my course, it is not laid out in such a way as to communicate new concepts, such as the elements and principles of design and the history of art following a timeline that is easily followed by novice students hoping to grasp the major concepts and apply them to their lives in a meaningful way. My biggest concern is with the layout of the content as it is. In broad terms it does introduce a wide range of cultures and artforms which is wonderful but would be overwhelming to my population. Early chapters contain media spanning history and techniques (architecture, photography, craft and fine art) that need defining before the more complex concepts such as aesthetics and criticism can be attempted

I found only two minor errors while reading the text: Page 123, in the hypertext notes mid page Beckmann has an “r”, Breckmann before the link. And in the discussion of the Palette of Narmer on page 239 it states the image on the back of the palette shows Narmer with the crown of Lower Egypt, when in fact he displays both Upper and Lower Egypt’s symbols as he is “The Great Unifier”.

The inclusion of contemporary art is well placed throughout. I do feel the inclusion of so many art forms and cultures throughout most chapters is confusing however. For example, Chapter 2 attempts too many media such as painting, printmaking, sculpture plus the elements and principles of design making it hard to absorb in a meaningful way.

Most of the technical information is well presented with good visuals to back it up. I particularly appreciated the inclusion of definitions for artist made prints versus reproductions to be helpful for students to understand the difference. As an artist and college instructor myself, I can easily follow all the information but my students would be challenged to absorb much of the technical aspects of the art presented as it jumps around in application from selfies and digital art to Renaissance to ancient works. The chapter on architecture, often student’s favorite section, is too broad and yet has little nineteenth and twentieth century urban examples such as the significance of The Crystal Palace and the contribution of Le Corbusier.

Yes, the text is consistent throughout in terminology and framework. It is as I have stated however the framework that doesn’t work for me in my class setting. I believe the user would be better served by grouping less broad concepts within chapters, for example, photography. By discussing its history from the Camera Obscura to the iphone, students could see how it affected the history of artmaking while understanding also the development of criteria for judging it as an artform in the twentieth century. It is something students today will need to develop for computer generated art in their lifetime.

Modularity rating: 3

I don’t agree that the text can be easily absorbed or supplanted into an existing course as it is initially challenging in the early chapters to define art without giving students the tools to make these decisions and injects historical imagery again without a way for placing it in a useful framework. Chapter One in particular, is heavy on theory and would lose many of my students at the outset. Discussions of labyrinths and terms such as circumambulate would be off putting and unnecessarily confusing. Chapter Two is too ambitious and would serve students better if it followed a thread beginning with Gestalt and following up with two-dimensional media and only later addressing three-dimensional media such as sculpture and pottery.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 2

Here is the rub, I am confused by the organization here. I would like to adapt portions of the text but the way topics are presented makes it challenging. The text contains a wealth of information but the format and general layout of the chapters makes it a daunting task to absorb it into my course. I do really feel that a timeline of some sort coming later in the text is essential for students to place work in its social, political and historical context. All art can only be appreciated fully beyond its formal aspects when the viewer has access to the context in which it was created. The format of this text confuses that by jumping around culturally and historically too much.

I do feel the inclusion of maps to place the art in the world would greatly advance comprehension. I don’t think students will likely access links referenced within the text though I appreciate the concept so that can create a navigational problem if the art is essential to understanding the concept. I also found the diagram used to explain the Lost Wax method of casting to be poor.

Only the one I mentioned previously. All in all the writing is engaging and easy to follow

If anything, I think the effort to be inclusive of cultures is overdone. Women could be better represented, though again within the framework of the text it is more challenging since their contribution has historically been ignored until the modern era.

I really enjoyed the text. I made copious notes and underlined passages on many of the pages that I will absorb into my own course as the information expands topics I touch on throughout the semester. I do feel it would be a monumental task to adapt this book to my course, given the population I deal with in an introductory course on art history and culture. In addition, my course concentrates on Western culture, and so references world art only in so much as it has influenced that aspect of our culture. I am not quite sure what sort of student your text would address in so much as it is technical and expansive while not really addressing the needs of the novice in art history. I think it would be better suited for an aesthetics course than my introductory one. The class I teach is designed to help students develop a cultural understanding and appreciation of the visual arts, such as architecture, painting, sculpture and design. Lectures, videos, projects and discussions focus on issues related to the practice and techniques of creating and valuing visual imagery. Special emphasis is given to developing an understanding of the language of visual art and design, learning the basics of art criticism method, and gaining an overview of the history of the visual arts with a priority given to contemporary works of art. .

Reviewed by Billi London-Gray, Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington on 12/30/19

The text is comprehensive, providing an introduction to design concepts and terminology as well as an historical survey of (mostly Western-centric) ideas around the production and interpretation of art. Topics like ethical considerations in art, originality, meaning and materiality, and community purposes for art are given thoughtful treatment, encouraging multiple viewpoints for class discussions. The book lacks back matter — no comprehensive glossary, index, image list, or bibliography. As an e-book, this can be solved with a CTRL + F search. If printed, it’s a limitation for users.

I did not find any factual errors in the text, but I did find some errors in image captions (ex: Figures 7.5 and 7.36) and spellings. I encountered some variation from conventional transliterations of artist’s names (ex: Do Ho Suh is spelled Do Ho Su, page 92, and Wassily Kandinsky is spelled Vasily Kandinsky, page 106). I also encountered numerous broken or misdirected hyperlinks. These broken links were especially disappointing when they failed to show works by underrepresented artists, such as Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (page 168).

This text offers a lot of relevant material, especially given that it’s free for students to access. The content could be more up to date, with examples by new media, performance, and social-practice artists. I would also find examples by contemporary mid-career and emerging artists instructive and relevant.

The bolded key terms and glossary in each chapter are very useful. The prose is clear but drifts between accessible and academically clunky. I wish the images of artworks were captioned with the date completed and, where applicable, an indication that the artist is unknown rather than omitting artist information. For most images, the date was provided in the running text, but this requires re-reading and could confuse context for students who don’t know what to look for.

The text is internally consistent with respect to terminology used and the framework of each chapter. There is some inconsistency with including locations of architectural sites in image captions.

The text is divided into chapters that can be digested in one reading assignment or broken into shorter assignments. The divisions are clear and logical. This makes the text scalable for classes that meet multiple times per week, once per week, or on accelerated schedules. Individual chapters (for example, Chapter 2 on form and composition, or Chapter 4 on formal and critical analysis) could also be assigned as stand-alone readings, in lieu of adopting the entire textbook for a course, especially given the inclusion of a glossary within each chapter.

The organization of this text builds progressively on concepts chapter by chapter, but is not self-referential in a way that requires reading the book from cover to cover. The structure of each chapter, with learning objectives followed by content followed by a recap, comprehension questions, and key terms, provides a clear framework for students to prioritize information and test themselves. It is also conducive to reflective and indirect instructional activities in class or online.

The interface is clean but has some leading issues in the text, where letters are slightly stretched, slightly squished, or cut off below the baseline. The multi-decimal section numbering system is visually noisy and, in my opinion, no more useful than section titles and page numbers in helping students find reading assignments or refer to passages. In general, page layouts are tight, with minimal margins between images and text. This seems like a decision driven by printing concerns (minimizing page count), but additional white space would improve readability. The text worked well with the text-to-speech reader in Google Chrome.

I encountered numerous typos and grammatical errors, mostly in the form of missing punctuation, missing words, missing letters, and awkward sentence constructions. None of these obscured the author’s meaning, but it could use another round of proofreading.

This text presents more than the usual suspects found in introductory art appreciation and visual literacy books. Images by pre-modern American and European women artists are refreshing and demonstrate efforts to go outside the traditional canon. That being said, it could still be much more representative and inclusive. For example, the first chapter addresses the definition of art but approaches the debate through the ideas of notable white men without acknowledging the hegemony around this question. No examples in this chapter are truly contemporary, with Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial, completed a generation before today’s students were born, being the most recent image example. This trend continues throughout the book, where the vast majority of text and images are devoted to long-dead Western artists (mostly white European and American men) and static forms of art (mostly painting and traditional sculpture), with good representation for Ancient Near East art traditions, less for Eastern traditions, and little consideration for new media or performance art, artists of color, and global south art and artists. Good opportunities are missed: while there’s more than a page of text devoted to Kehinde Wiley, the image of his work is accessed via hyperlink rather than embedded (pages 221-222) for effective appreciation of his art-historical reference. In the section “11.5 Ethical Considerations in the Collecting and Display of Art,” Nazi looting is criticized but there’s no mention of the colonial plunder that still resides in American and European institutions. It would be great to see a more inclusive second edition of this book.

While I have listed specific areas that need improvement, I am thrilled that this book exists as an accessible, free, and user-friendly resource for students and instructors. Its shortcomings are far less than other texts I’ve used, and its virtues are numerous, especially given the flexibility to make immediate improvements using the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Many thanks to the authors, editor, and publisher who have generously shared this work.

Reviewed by Rick Lostutter, Associate Professor of Art and Design, Hanover College on 12/20/19

This textbook is a fairly comprehensive primer on art from the approach of purpose, materials, structure and meaning. It provides readers with the foundational tools of understanding how to more formally assess art and the creation of many different kinds of visual representation. Having the "test yourself" and key terms sections at the end of each chapter allows the reader to develop a language and vocabulary that applies across the breadth of the nature and definition of visual art and helps solidify the elements presented within each area of art exploration. There are plenty of cultural references to the context of historical examples as well as the impact that art and design has had on society and the importance of art as a timeless reflection of the world. The structure of the book is an easy introduction into many different aspects of the study of art. I really enjoyed the inclusion and focused chapter on architecture within the greater context on art.

Having read through this text several times, I find it to be very accurate from an art perspective, technical reference and grammatical work. Statements made throughout the book are presented in a way that is supported with referenced examples and well agreed-upon art and design principles. The evaluation of art is traditionally an objective process, yet this text allows for expert opinion and fact to reside together in a way that allows for appropriate and open evaluation by the reader. So many art texts try to push specific agendas pertaining to narrow views of what art is or is supposed to be and this book avoids that in a very skillful manner.

The references and visual material presented in this book are of generally-accepted and representative examples of historic art. I would have liked to have seen some more contemporary art and artists represented as a comparison to art that has traditionally been used to illustrate the principles of art and conceptual design work. Given that this is a digital text that can easily be updated, it seems to provide a platform for having up-to-date and even current artists and their work represented. Students need to see that current work is being created that adheres to the traditional standards of the historical works referenced through the ages of art instruction. Having said that, the works used do not represent an obsolete view on art evaluation and instruction.

The reading acuity and age-appropriateness of the terminology, vocabulary and description are adequate and what I would expect for a college-level resource material. Again, the terms at the end of each chapter provide an easy reference tool for any language that a reader might not be familiar. It not only helps in the reading and retention of the material, but creates a great study guide for review after the reading of each section.

Having read many co-authored texts on specific subjects, the voice of the work is consistent and reads as though one author was the source for the entirety of the book. This is important, especially for a subject such as art, so the reader can begin to develop their own assessment of the topic without struggling through many different styles of evaluation.

The sections and chapters of this book are appropriately divided in a way that makes the subject digestible. The pacing of each chapter is segmented so that the ideas and concepts are easily incorporated into the overall topic of that chapter. This makes it a much better tool for grouping concepts from several different chapters into a lesson that requires many different elements to work together as a conceptual theme. Some chapters or sections may not be as relevant at particular times within a structured curriculum segment and the format allows for easy coordination of those individual concepts that will seamlessly integrate a cohesive lesson plan.

The organization of the topics in this book are clearly stated and work as a logical progression from one theme and area of art to another. Having said that, the topics can stand alone as needed for any given presentation within a class lesson.

The interface of this book is very clear and easy to use. Locating relevant topics from the table of contents and then quickly finding those topics within the text was thoughtfully accommodated with the section titles at the top of each page.

I have not found any grammatical errors in my assessment of each segment of this book.

Art is a discipline that has traditionally focused on the western culture and therefore has not been a very inclusive, historical representation af all cultures and races. This text does an adequate job in presenting examples that bleed outside of the traditional western historical examples of other texts. I would have liked to see more diversity which could have come from more contemporary examples of art. Given that, I did not find anything that I felt was culturally insensitive or inappropriate.

I would highly recommend this book as a great introductory supplement to any foundational art course that is meant to provide students with a base-level understanding of the complexities of art and design as a visual exploration. This should be incorporated as an essential text for students who are beginning their journey of the study of the creation of art and design. I could see this as a supplement to an introductory art history course as well.

Reviewed by Mike Morelli, Director Entertainment Management, University of Montana - Missoula on 12/19/19

This book provides a nice broad survey of styles, periods, artists' and types of art. read more

This book provides a nice broad survey of styles, periods, artists' and types of art.

The content is accurate for the vast majority of the book with few technical and grammatical errors. That being said, the errors (which appear in the second half of the book) have drawn notice from some of my students.

As an introduction, this book provides an excellent basis for discussion with students. The chapters and content are relevant, presented in a clear concise manner, and are supported by facts.

I appreciate the clarity of the material and the structure of chapters as well as the tone of the book. Color images with good labels and attribution make it easy to discuss and research further for students.

The text consistently presents concepts with supporting images and documentation in a logical and straightforward manner.

Good modularity for the most part. Given the way in which artists'/styles/concepts are presented in chapters, by necessity some ideas can only be examined contextually, and require a broader framework for understanding. The authors to a great degree provide that background and break down segments through titling with numbers to show flow while creating "bite sized pieces".

Excellent organization. Well laid out.

A logical combination of text, images, and titles delivered in a visually pleasing way.

As noted previously, few grammatical errors although enough to draw comment from students.

This text explores art as expressed by a wide variety of artist's with differing races, ethnicities, and backgrounds in inclusive and thoughtful ways. While I have had students react strongly to images or concepts in the book, (i.e. Hindu Swastika) it is not an objection to the manner in which the material is presented but often a strong initial personal reaction to a specific image, which is then discussed contextually in a manner that is both sensitive and dispassionate.

This book has worked well in several first semester Introduction to Art courses. It's clear, concise, and well written with logical and consistent organization.

Reviewed by David Riep, Associate Professor, Colorado State University on 12/10/19

I found this textbook to be very comprehensive. As one can quickly grasp from the table of contents, this book covers all of the major introductory topics for approaching and discussing art and visual culture (as well as some focused topics that are not typically found in "Intro to Art" texts). The authors organize the information in a manner that effectively builds upon previous sections, while also maintaining the ability to assign specific chapters and sections independently. Although this is not meant to be an art history text, I was impressed at how the content engages with numerous art historical methodologies (formalism, semiotics, social art history, feminist art history, iconography, connoisseurship, and even some key points coming from Hegel’s theories) without becoming cumbersome. The images of techniques and processes are also helpful (i.e. relief wood carving), as are the detailed explanations of media (i.e. what is egg tempera?). The key terms found throughout the text are also very helpful and are perhaps more useful at the end of each chapter, rather than a comprehensive glossary at the end of the book.

While it can be difficult to address global art production with an unbiased voice, I found the overall content to be thoughtful and generally balanced. I appreciated the broad questions posed to the reader, and found them to be very interesting and engaging (i.e. Why do we make art?, What defines an artist? What is the difference between Art V Craft?) as they provided the reader with the opportunity to further explore such topics. I also appreciated the authors’ openness regarding the strengths and limits of various perspectives and explanations throughout the text. While the discussion of some specific works are at times perhaps too narrow, and draw upon singular, declarative statements in order to support a point, the authors generally promote critical thinking and exploration of broad concepts. It is perhaps noteworthy to mention that some chapters were more effective in presenting a global perspective than others, although this is addressed in more detail below. Overall, I found the content to be accurate and well-researched.

One of the strengths of this text centers on the timely content, which references modern technology and concepts, as well as popular culture. I also really like the ability to pull up supplementary images throughout the text by clicking on imbedded links, although I found several of them in need of updates. I appreciated the inclusion kinetic art and new media within the comprehensive list of formal elements for 2D, 3D, 4D art, and found the overview of Aesthetics to be intentionally geared toward contemporary readers. There were many sections of the text that seemed to be specifically aimed at addressing current trends in art production and interpretation. For example, I enjoyed the dialog regarding architecture’s response to changing social development and advances, as well as the discussion in Chapter 8 which ties visual content to contemporary culture (popular media and activities such as genealogical websites, etc.). Chapter 9 equally engaged with the role of visual culture in contemporary societies by addressing Art and Power (propaganda, both symbolic and documentary), and offered an interesting dialog on building visual literacy. This chapter addresses the role and limits of media in recording or presenting images of power, and also addresses how imagery can appear “objective,” but can often contain specific messages. I found this to be extremely relevant, especially given the role of visual imagery in popular culture and social media. The chapter on Ethics is also quite relevant, and highlights the perception of visual culture and how it changes over time. Finally, the discussion on appropriation is very timely, as is the component that addresses museums. The questions posed regarding collecting and display practices are often left out of introductory texts, but are extremely relevant in contemporary times.

Overall, the text is approachable and clear in tone, and effectively guides the reader on how to best use this resource (i.e. explaining how the book will present content, and where the reader can expect to find various components). I found it to be a very useful text that presents complex concepts in a manner that non-specialists will easily understand. I also found the various case studies that are used to guide the reader in applying theories and methods to be very effective. The text presents content in a clear and concise manner, and I found the “Test Yourself” questions to be well constructed, approachable, and effectively open ended (when appropriate).

Another strength of this text is its consistency in presenting and disseminating content. The authors developed a number of components that are found in each chapter which draw the reader's attention to recognizing and applying key concepts. I found each chapter to be clearly and effectively structured, with appropriate subheadings and use of bold text to highlight important ideas and terms. This made the text very easy to navigate. I also found that the overall content maintained a consistency in tone, in spite of the fact that multiple contributors were working on any given chapter. The text is very clear and approachable, yet engages with complex theories and concepts.

It would be very easy to assign portions of this textbook throughout a teaching term, as most chapters can function as independent units, while also effectively engaging with other sections. I like the overarching themes of each chapter, which could easily be realigned as needed, and the fact that the subunits are of a manageable length. This book offers instructors a great amount of flexibility.

The book’s overall organization is clear and concise, with each chapter presenting measurable learning outcomes and ending with practical applications of concepts. I also found the subheadings to be very thoughtful in expounding upon the overall topic in each respective chapter. It is very easy to navigate through the various subunits, and the overall content is very appropriate in building an effective discussion of the various topics at hand.

While I really like the use of imbedded links to view images and expound upon concepts, some of the links did not work and need to be updated. Regardless, I like the fact that the use of links allows for the text to remain current, and to highlight contemporary content, developments, and artists.

I did not find any grammatical errors.

The text offers a sound explanation of artistic concepts, and makes an effort to present a global perspective. I appreciated the attempt to use both recognizable images from the Western canon as well as lesser known works, although some chapters were more effective in presenting a global perspective than others. For example, I was intrigued by the in-depth discussion / case study in Chapter 3 covering media in the eras of Constantine through the Ottonian Empire, although it could have been balanced by non-Western case studies (for example, the use and significance of metals in African cultures). Chapter 4 addresses formal analysis, although the overall discussion is largely focused on degrees of representation in the arts. This seemed to present a very "Western" perspective of artistic development, and could perhaps benefit by highlighting western and non-western objects, as well as naturalistic and abstract pieces. I especially liked the focus on “Interpretation” and highlighting how meaning is formed from multiple perspectives (the individual, society, and the impact of time), although I found the section on “Evaluation” to be rather narrow and perhaps unnecessary (what, for example, is the “verdict of history” that determines great art? Who / what determines this "verdict"? Why are museums placed at the center of this discussion, along with the suggestion that a work’s presence in a museum determines its artistic value? What do the authors mean by the phrase “best art”?). I appreciated the discussion of conventions in Chapter 4, and how the text traces them across cultures. However, when addressing cultural style, it might be helpful in some cases to note the role of "time" (the Western examples were presented according to how various artistic conventions developed over time, while many of the the non-Western examples, such as the Ancient Near East, are not given this same treatment). In a similar manner, the topic of individual artistic style could also benefit from exploring non-Western “anonymous” artists through a brief discussion of the history of collecting, and how one can trace the hands of unknown artists in the same way that Western artists have an identifiable style. I appreciate the inclusion of female artists such as Lilly Martin Spencer and Frances Palmer in Chapter 5, as well as the addition of a few non-Western pieces, but the chapter is still quite heavily Western, as is Chapter 6, which maintains a Judeo-Christian focus. This chapter could perhaps be broadened by engaging with diverse belief systems. This seemed to be rectified in numerous other chapters. For example, Chapter 7, which focused on architecture, was more intentional toward representing global perspectives and works of art, which I found to be very helpful in understanding global art production. Along the same lines, I found Chapter 8 to be very effective and inclusive in presenting concise notions of "the self" within expanding social spheres, and in discussing individual identity/gender, and external influences such as economics and class. I also appreciated how Chapter 10 highlighted global engagement with sacred structures, sites, rituals, and performances, as well as their significance.

The open source text "Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning" is an impressive resource that addresses the foundations of approaching, discussing, and understanding art through both historical and contemporary lenses. The authors took on an impressive amount of work to create a textbook that engages with contemporary topics, while laying the foundations for effective visual literacy.

Reviewed by Elizabeth Morton, Associate Professor, Wabash College on 11/6/19

This text covers almost all of the bases one would expect for an introductory class. Its biggest problem is the lack of inclusion of non-western examples in its presentation. The European art tradition dominates the discussion, with some allowance for Chinese and Japanese. You look in vain for references to African, Latin American, Oceanic, or indigenous art, even when they would be an obvious choice given the ongoing discussion.

This text has been written and edited carefully by veteran teachers. I did not see any errors or the use of suspect research

I believe the thematic approach to the material is far more relevant to today’s student than the classic approach based on historical progression. The chapters are judiciously chosen and are placed in a logical order. Again, the only thing old-fashioned here are the relentless insistence on using the western canon as the basis of discussion.

This text has been carefully written and has been painstakingly edited. I particularly thought Ch 2 was a standout in the way it presented the basic categories of art. At many points I berated myself for failing to present material so clearly in my own classes!

Once again, it is worth stating that the editing is of admirable quality. A lot of thought has gone into maintaining similar terminology and reference points as the chapters progress, even though they have different sets of authors. The use of keywords is also a strong feature, since many of them recur as the book progresses.

A definite strength of the text. Very easy to divide up the text by week, class, group, etc.

The editor is to be commended as the text flows smoothly from on section to another.

I liked the yellow bars on the right side which assist in moving between chapters. The “find” feature works well, and overall it was easy to use the extext. This is very user-friendly.

Once again, the editing here has been thorough and painstaking

Chapters 8-10 in particular are disappointing in that they offered a chance to move away from a traditional, Eurocentric approach. While the authors do include some non-western examples as they proceed, they still rely too much on European art. Chapter 11 is also disappointing—with non-western art having been plundered systematically for a long time and its placement in First World museums being increasingly problematic, it is not even mentioned.

Well done on a very user-friendly text. However, some extra work in terms of broadening the geographical base of examples is definitely in order

Reviewed by Jade Hoyer, Assistant Professor of Art, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 10/25/19

As other reviewers have noted, the text covers elements of design, rationale, context, and impact for and of making art. It’s a lot for a work to cover, and is generally successful, if sweeping, in doing this. I didn't note an index. The... read more

The exception to this for me is Chapter 2, which is essentially a studio class in a chapter (a rapid-fire discussion of all artistic media, design elements, design principles, and color theory for good measure. This chapter contains no less than 150 "Key Terms!"

I found the content to be generally accurate.

It was frustrating that most of the work’s contemporary examples were hyperlinked instead of embedded as images and potentially impermanent. Though likely a result of copyright issues, to present most contemporary accounts as a block of black text visually diminishes their importance. (It’s also likely that students won’t bother clicking the links.) Would like to see links changed to more persistent format.

With regard to writing, the work is generally clearly written, and approachable to beginning students. The tone of the writing is quite generous- the first chapter explains how art is ultimately about the viewer’s interpretation and adds “but we do have help if we want it. People who have made a disciplined study of art can offer ideas about what art is important and why.”

With regard to imagery, I thought that no dates, media, or sizes were listed for the works to be a big miss.

The work also had a tendency to bounce around. I felt many sections leapt centuries and continents (and often both centuries and continents) within a single page with transitions akin to “meanwhile in Russia…,” or “a few hundred years later.” I appreciate that many of these about faces were connected to efforts to be inclusive, but it presented a dizzying narrative, that was made more confusing for lack of timelines or context (like dates!) provided in the imagery.

Writing seemed consistent throughout. However, I found instances of sloppy formatting: definitions were often in bold a few letters or even a word beyond the word being defined. Beyond this, I could imagine this formatting being confusing for students as words that were in bold indicated definitions and sometimes, but not always, were designated as Key Words at the end of each chapter. For example, on p 63, four terms are defined in one paragraph (unity, variety, conceptual, interval, scale, proportion), but only two words (interval, scale) are designated as Key Words. I find using a different formatting technique in this case, such as color, would be helpful in assisting students in identifying Key Words earlier at the beginning of the chapter.

I enjoyed this aspect of the work! I would especially use the final chapters for my classes (such as Art and Power, Art and Ethics). I found these chapters to be thoughtful and relevant to students, and especially appreciated their being structured around case-studies.

I appreciated the general flow of the work beginning from simple definitions “what is art?,” “who is an artist?” to contemplating identity, power, ethics, and controversies in artmaking, though some sections seemed redundant. Good summaries and questions to accompany the readings, especially later in the text.

Worked great for me! I also appreciated how the Hyperlinks took me to new works, and that I could return to my spot on the page when I clicked the back button. Please note Relevance section regarding links.

I found limited grammatical errors.

I appreciated the interweaving of Western and Non-Western narratives, though found that, especially if one were focusing on the imagery, that the works presented felt skewed Western.

Great resource- will definitely utilize sections in my teaching.

Reviewed by Maria Guzman, Instructor - Art & Art History , Peralta Community College District on 9/26/19

I found this book to be a good "skeleton" text for a variety of courses. I liked that it had chapters dedicated to both formal analysis (Chapters Two, Four, and Five) but also managed to include global perspectives (Chapter Eleven: Art and Ethics was especially thought-provoking). The themed chapters (Chapter Eight: Art and Identity and Chapter Nine: Art and Power) are relevant for any Art History course, and I use them for all courses, including World Art, Art 1, 2, and 3 (these cover the prehistoric to contemporary periods, collectively). The addition of Key Terms at the end of chapters was also helpful.

When I decided to use this text, my main concern was regarding whether the content would be easy to connect to my prior courses' designs. I used Henry M. Sayre's "A World of Art" and the Marilyn Stokstad "Art History" textbooks. Thanks to the chapter that discussed the general theories about what art "is" (Chapter One), and the clear language that mirrored Sayre's creative drives (found in Chapter 6, mainly), I easily transitioned to using this book for my course. Most recently, I have adopted it for Art 101: Western Art History and ART 103: History of Modern Art.

Inclusivity is consistent in the discussion of works from different cultures and geographic areas. I was impressed by the mention of postcolonial topics, and even the addition of 4-D in relation to formal descriptions. This is a text that has incorporated recent scholarly perspectives and new genres in art. I had fun adding OER readings about identity, especially, in order to complement the chapter in this text.

I have had feedback from students regarding the easy-to-follow format and text used in this book. I also find it easy to get through in a short amount of time.

Overall, the terminology was clear and consistent.

Yes. I usually remix the chapter order, based on what type/periods I am addressing in a course. Chapters One, and Two are great for the first few weeks. I save Chapter Four for the middle of most classes, in which we are beginning to do more art descriptions as a group. I use Chapter Six towards the end of the courses, where the class begins to conduct research and observe more creative drives and themes. I apply Chapters Eight and Nine based on the time periods, and how relevant they are the subject matter or styles covered in the course. I have thought about inserting Chapters Eight and Nine right after Chapter One in order to address the modern period and the growing individualism in modern art.

Chapter Ten is especially good for any ART 1, 2, or World Art course, especially (ART 101 or 102 as well).

I will be teaching a short-term course about Architecture this semester, and am excited to use Chapter Seven: Form in Architecture.

Excellent -- these are short, include many genres, mediums, and cultural styles in a sensible way. Usually, the chapters include a variety, and this enhances the global perspectives that the authors encourage. It also makes it easier to select works of art to focus on, if you are covering particularly modern or World Art, for example.

No issues with interface. The format is easy to navigate, and my only suggestion is to create hyperlinked headings for chapters in the Table of Contents, so that you could jump to the chapters a little sooner. Small suggestion, though. It's very well formatted and designed.

As stated in the Relevance section, this book offered good topics that were easy to connect to contemporary or recent studies in non-Western art (Global Art perspectives). See pages 5, 8, and 9 for a few points made about this text's open format and my review of The Met Museum's OER text, "Art in Africa". It was a compatible text and I would recommend "Introduction to Art" for its culturally-sensitive and unbiased perspectives, especially if building a course about global approaches to art. Read my summary here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cSG4MWFta-nE9yTgSC__QP22D2dHpYjsg9evVysBQFg/edit?usp=sharing

No additional comments.

Reviewed by Mara Pierce, Assistant Professor of Art Education, TRAILS on 9/16/19

This text covers several, if not all, the bases needed to fully appreciate art making processes, historical perspectives, variations, time periods, methods, criticism, purposes, associations, and artists. Each chapter opens with objectives and concludes with an evaluative activity. The authors present varied perspectives that are appropriate to understanding the diversities that are encompassed in the art world. The images included are also significant and comprehensively representative. However, many of the images also depict the same imagery found in other books. Students reading this material need to also see work from a more balanced sampling of artist genders. The topic is discussed in Chapter 8, but not visual samples of women’s or other-gendered artists included there. I applaud the discussion of the Nazi art theft.

The text contains mostly accurate information, but could use further clarity. For example, if using Indigenous names, use tribal identifiers, such as Piikani for those who identify as Blackfeet. A piece of dance regalia is referred to as a “costume,” which elucidates the author’s limited understanding of the role of garb in ritual. While appropriation, as covered in Chapter 11, is an integral part of the contemporary artworld, it is also presented as acceptable and normalized. It should also be included that appropriation is not universally accepted and is fought by several artists today. For example, there was recently a court case by Ai Weiwei brought against Volkswagen for copyright infringement based on appropriation of his work used in an ad.

For a General Education class, there is no doubt that this text would work toward appreciation of art making, art history, criticism, and aesthetics. There is a great deal of insightful information that would be relevant to undergraduate students’ first exposure to the art world. Additionally, some points would be relevant to students who have been practicing in the art field already, as well as those who plan on teaching art at the K-12 level.

The authors have written using clear language and vocabulary that are appropriate and relevant to the early college student. However, it would be more effective to have the vocabulary listed at the onset of the chapter, as opposed to the end. In doing so, the students can reinforce learned words and make connections throughout the reading. It also acts as an introductory feature.

The flow and voice are consistent. Level of difficulty is upheld and relevant throughout, as well.

Each chapter in this text can work independently of each other. However, in being able to comprehend and apply information in some of the latter chapters, one would have needed to cover material, specifically, in Chapter 1 and 3-5.

The text is excellently organized. The authors began with the foundation of defining art through discussions of contemporary diverse purviews held. The organization is logical and would be in a manner that I would present in my course.

The text file is easy to access and navigate. The URL links are clear, as well. However, it would be helpful in supporting the learning to provide links on the images to their sources, as well.

There are no perceivable grammatical mistakes.

I found the cultural aspects of the text to be limiting. The authors touch on the fact that art is not viewed identically throughout the world, which I applaud given that this is a tremendous part of the art perspective today. However, there is also a need for greater underrepresented Indigenous discussion/examples. Between Chapter 1 & 2, for example, there is only one image of Aboriginal origin. Ch. 7 includes three architectural pieces. Consider Anasazi examples, such as Pueblo Pintado or Mesa Verde as part of early architecture. Chapter 10 discusses masks, but only examples one. There are thousands of cultural groups across the globe that use masks for purposes from theater to holidays.

The text is a good resource for basic understandings. It may be best served for an online course given that much of the relevant information is laid out in the text.

Reviewed by Stephanie Newton, Professor, Aims Community College on 7/26/19

The book could spend more time with processes of creating--the different types of paint, printmaking, etc. It seems to be very brief in introducing the elements and principles of art as well. Although each chapter has a glossary, it does not have an index, which I usually find to be helpful in textbooks. The images also lack some key information that is standard in other art textbooks--no dates, no dimensions, no media. I truly disliked that about the text.

While I appreciate the gender-neutral language of the text (craftsperson), I do not feel that it is totally error free and accurate. For example, the authors use the dated notion of "sympathetic magic" when discussing cave paintings, which is a theory, but is not widely accepted any longer. They also refer to cherubs or putti as cupids. Cupid is a specific deity. One really glaring problem is the use of "Eskimo" on page 270. They need to reframe the use of that term to indicate it is not an acceptable way of describing the Inuit or Yupik cultures.

The text has a nice mixture of old and new art, and examples of contemporary art could easily be updated. My one issue with the relevancy is that many of the contemporary works of art (and other examples they employ) are not pictured, but given as hyperlinks. Those links could easily be broken in the future. I understand that obtaining copyrights to those works could be prohibitive, but it's a distraction from reading the text to send students to a website to look for the example provided.

On page 208, paragraph three, the authors are referring to a conceptual artist, but they omit the word artist, and don't define what a conceptual artist is. They also often refer to historical styles of art without defining what that means. How are my students supposed to know what Beaux Arts or Art Nouveau are without some sort of explanation (p. 193)? On page 203, they mention the Franks, but don't explain who the Franks are. On page 205, they mention a tympanum, but don't define what a tympanum is, nor is it in bold (to indicate that it is in the glossary), although it is defined in the glossary. There are also some areas that are not very clearly written, such as paragraph 2 on page 202. On page 256, while discussing Chichen Itza, they discuss Quetzalcoatl but don't tie it to the pyramid in anyway at all.

Consistency rating: 3

I found the beginning of the text to be much more clearly written and compelling than the second half of the book. It provides almost too many examples of art to discuss an idea.

You could fairly easily rearrange the order of chapters or omit a chapter without needing the others to support the content. This for my class would be necessary in chapter 2, where bizarrely, they discuss processes before elements and principles.

It seems to be organized fairly well, although chapter 2 does have me a bit confused. It would also be good of them to introduce abstract vs. naturalistic earlier, perhaps in chapter 2.

Again, I worry about using so many hyperlinks in a text such as this. They could easily become dated or broken, leaving the reader frustrated. Some of the images are low quality, and some of the diagrams are very hard to see, so I am concerned about students with vision issues.

Grammatical Errors rating: 1

Oh boy! Again, I didn't start seeing major problems here until around page 200. Page 178, Fig 7.5, Skara Brae is misspelled as Sjara Brae Page 218, the word artist is missing after conceptual Page 235, Persepolis is spelled Persepholis Page 246: Iconoclasm is spelled as iconoclas Page 250: Bamiyan is spelled as Bamyan

I felt that it was very culturally inclusive, using artistic examples from around the globe, but perhaps focused too much energy on Christianity. Again, framing the use of the word Eskimo would be worthwhile.

There were some things I thought were really unique and wonderful about this textbook. The first four chapters had me very excited about the possibility of a OER book for my students. I especially thought chapter 3 had some valuable and unique ideas that would be super fun to share with my students. Chapter 5 is where it started to lose me. They discuss how important iconography is, but don't really give any analysis of specific symbols in a deep and meaningful way. They could have used the Merode Altarpiece as a platform to really dive deep into Christian symbolism, but only mention a few of the icons that are present. I know these are things that can be done in the classroom, but I was a little disappointed by the vagueness of their analyses and the overabundance of examples.

Reviewed by Michael Takemoto, Associate Professor, University of Hawaii Maui College on 5/24/19

This is a review of the hard copy, purchased from Amazon. Overall, for an art appreciation / introduction to visual art text, it is fairly comprehensive. However, compared to other books of a similar nature, it lacks in some aspects: it doesn’t include a glossary, many significant 20th and 21st century artists and their works are not included. A more in-depth exploration of the elements of design (or visual elements), the principles of design, as well as the deeper exploration of various art mediums and techniques would be helpful.

Each chapter begins with learning outcomes and ends with review questions and key term definitions, this is definitely helpful for students to understand the basic concepts of the text.

The book has accurate historical and cultural facts, and includes the correct titles of works and artists. However, most of the printed images have no dates, mediums, and dimensions.

The text is relevant for our times, as it introduces a wide range of Western and non-Western, multicultural artforms and traditions. It also includes sections on the role of politics, economics, and ethics in the visual arts.

The writing is clear and concise, it is easy to follow and understand. The Key Terms at the end of each chapter serve as a good review of the introduced vocabulary.

There is good internal consistency in the text, as each section follows a similar format.

Each chapter is broken up into smaller sections, so readers can proceed at their own pace and know what to expect is each subsequent chapter.

The text is organized in a logical, but not historical manner. The concepts presented flow smoothly from one postulation into the next.

Iʻm somewhat neutral on this, since Iʻm reviewing the hard copy. However, when exploring the PDF version, the links throughout the text are a great asset. Some links took a while to download, I’m sure this part will need constant updating.

The text is clearly written and grammatically correct. Readers are able to comprehend and understand the concepts and ideas presented.

While the content is dominated with Western Art concepts and examples, it still includes a number of diverse cultural works and traditions from different historical eras and locations.

Iʻve used this text for one semester so far, and plan to continue its usage. As a basic introductory book, it is more than adequate. Instructors can definitely pick and choose the parts they find useful and add their own additional content when needed. Students will understand the content and like its cost, even if they decide to order a hard copy.

Reviewed by Leila Armstrong, Visiting Faculty, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 5/9/19

The text covers a broad array of art movements both geographically, and temporally, though I think the non-Western selections are a bit slim. There are a number of mentions of modern/contemporary art, but the authors often provide links to images rather than embedding them. I imagine it has to do with copywright issues, but I think our student body would skip clicking on the links. The learning outcomes, key concepts, test yourself, and key terms sections provide a nice loop for students to reinforce material learned, and to give quick but accurate definitions of key terms that appear throughout the text.

The setup is different from most textbooks I've used, and some of the terminology is different (e.g. elements of design instead of visual elements). There are also some terms I've never seen used before (e.g. psychic line). I found some visual elements and some principles of design commonly found in other texts either missing or placed in categories that aren't where I'd put them (light//value, pattern, motion, isometric perspective), but overall the information is presented in an unbiased manner and the content is accurate.

The content is up to date and there's not much that will change in the historical sections of the textbook (particularly at this level), and making additions of new artworks, or updating the images used would be relatviely simple.

Again, the key terms, definitions etc will help students with new terminology, and I found the writing straight-forward, concise, and conrete. The explanation of terms are clear, and the authors have a number of good charts, diagrams and the like to help students understand the terms better and how they can be applied to different media.

The authors are consistent in their use of terminology throughout and each chapter is set up the same.

Each chapter and the text within each chapter follows a similar format, and the authors have made a number of subdivisions of the text with numbes which makes breaking the chapters up into modules very easy. The information is parsed in readable sections, but each subunit aligns with the ones before and after it.

The organization is logical, beginning with the the basic questions, moving into formal analysis and then into thematic units. Overall the text flows easily from one topic to the next.

The images, diagrams, etc. are all clear. I tested a number of the links (but not all) and they worked, but I've found links are one of the most problematic additions to course content, because the links often break. Furthermore, depending on whether the student is reading the text in Adobe or online, the link will take them out of one program and into another, which isn't a seamless reader experience, or in the case of online, if the link isn't right-clicked, you go straight to the web page and lose you spot in the text.

The text didn't contain any grammatical errors that I could see.

Although I found the non-Western selections slim, the book was inclusive of a variety of works from different cultures and time periods. I didn't come across any information that I would consider insenstitive or offensive, but since art often deals with subjects that can be considered controversial, there are there certainly sections that may offend (nude bodies, or looking at past representations of race that are unacceptable today). The book does have a nice section that covers some of the controversies of art.

Reviewed by Anthony Marchetti, Full-Time Faculty, Minnesota State on 5/4/19

This textbook is an impressive guide to the introduction of art and visual literacy. It is not an art history textbook. There is room for further examples of artwork or at least links to more visual resources. Also, more contemporary image examples would only strengthen this title. The Learning Outcomes provide a solid reference for the main themes presented in each chapter. The Key Terms, however, are less developed and seem more like an after thought. The text is organized thematically, but there is room for chronology to play a larger role, perhaps in individual topics/chapters or with an appendix that can trace back to image examples throughout the textbook.

The text is accurate, error-free and also unbiased. The shortcoming is one of omission - there should be more information presented with the images. Title, artist, scale/size, medium, current location, and any other pertinent information about process should be included.

Aside from the need for more contemporary examples (or links to contemporary work outside of the text), the information presented is relevant. Much of the text is historical so will remain so for as long as the text is available. The arrangement of content is easily modifiable for future editions. More contemporary work could be added, making the content even more up-to-date.

he text is written in a style that is easy to understand. Simple repeated visual devices (differences in color or size of text, bold text for important terms, etc.) organize the text. Topics and subtopics are broken up into manageable blocks of text that should retain student interest. As mentioned previously, more information is needed about the individual sample images.

The organizational template used and the writing style are consistent throughout the text.

The division of topics and subtopics is supportive of student comprehension. The organization of the text would allow for multiple class formats - one class session per week, multiple classes per week, or an online Art Appreciation/Intro to Art.

The thematic nature of this textbook would work well for an Art Appreciation or Introduction to Art seminar/survey course but would not be applicable to an Art History course that demands more chronological order. The text is successfully organized so a student would easily understand what to expect from chapters and subtopics. Text formatting unobtrusively guides the viewer to important concepts and key terms.

The PDF interface was a strength of this work - links to outside content supplement the text. Still, there is room for more of this type of content in this text. Images in the text are high quality reproductions. I found no navigational problems.

I did not detect any grammatical errors in the text.

In general, the text draws from different cultures to connect main concepts and themes throughout - this is an important distinction from some art appreciation texts that place the majority of non-Western cultural/artistic traditions into a single chapter. More contemporary examples are needed in this text.

Reviewed by Jeff Brown, Associate Professor of Art, Nicholls State University on 4/29/19

In its 11 chapters, the book covers the essentials for the overall subject. I appreciate how it is divided up, especially in the beginning where it starts with basic ideas and concepts of what is art. It can seem elementary to discuss this, but is so important to establish this with students who may not have had any or much interaction with fine art. The book includes learning outcomes for each chapter, which works well for instructors who use learning outcomes within their syllabus and for assessment purposes. I feel the selection of images are a good choice and diverse, using the traditional images found in just about all the other hardcover textbooks. A nice addition is the use of images of process and where artists are working. The inclusion of key words and meanings at the end of the end chapter is a useful tool for students utilize. One item that could use more attention would be to include dates and materials used for the chosen artworks.

Accuracy of content was error free and unbiased.

The content is current information about a historical event or current event as we know to this day. Updates can easily be made without much restructuring of the textbook.

The book was written in an easy read way with lots of imagery to match concepts. Key terms placed in bold text makes it possible for readers to easily locate if going back and forth from text to key term definitions, located at the end of each chapter.

The book is full of terms and its consistency to the concept or subject. Terms that may not seem clear to the reader are defined at the end of each chapter. This would allow the reader a more user-friendly way of referencing a term then the typical glossary at the end of the book.

The framework of the book that remained consistent from chapter one to the final chapter. An overall good structure to the textbook.

This is probably the toughest part to putting a book together in my view. Choosing what to include or how much to include of one topic or concept can truly make or break it for a textbook. This book is setup in a conventional way, such as chapters with subheadings. This way does work for the textbook, but is nice is that within each chapter the subheadings do not linger on and on when it could have been much shorter.

Organization of the chapters and subheadings work well. Easy to work through

I give the interface a low rating due to its setup of links and workings as a PDF. I like the fact that the textbook utilizes web links. This can be exciting for the reader to potentially experience other useful visuals or resources to help relate to a topic. Some web links within the text of the subheadings are sometimes often just images with no actual source listed and lack further information. This part could be revisited for better interfacing. One thing I noticed and hope it can be remedied, are the workings of the table of contents. Many dead jump links existed in the table of contents page. Some worked great, allowing you to jump to a chapter or subheading with the press of button. Frustrating when it did not.

It would be nice to be able to easily return to the table of contents from anywhere, rather than having to scroll back up to the table of contents page.

The text of book seemed to have no grammatical errors.

No cultural insensitivity stood out.

A useful online textbook. Images are of a choice and quality. However, more information is needed for each image used, such as dates, materials, and dimensions.

Reviewed by Michelle Dean, Assistant Professor, Thomas Nelson Community College on 3/27/19

Introduction to Art: Design, Context and Meaning is an appropriate title for this text. The 11 chapters explore structure, materials, meaning and context of artistic production in a somewhat comprehensive manner. It certainly provides a solid foundation for visual literacy and aligns with content in standard art history courses. This text is also well organized. Learning outcomes and an introduction are found at the beginning of each chapter. Key concepts, key terms and a self-test are found at the end of each chapter. This text, however lacks a comprehensive index or glossary.

The content of this text is accurate and essentially unbiased and error-free. Key terms are often defined in a universal manner and therefore aligns with terminology in standard art history texts. The text does not display any particular bias and appears error- free. The main criticism I have in this area is the information provided for images does not align with the standards. Title, artist, medium, size, and location for each image should be provided for the reader not just a reference to where the image was obtained.

The bulk of the content in this text will remain relevant for an extended period of time. Topics such as structure, materials, meaning and context of artistic production leading up to the modern age do not change significantly over time. The one criticism I have in this area is that there is not much contemporary art and that fact may lead to the text feeling out dated over time. Additional chapters would be perhaps the easiest way to update the content however this text in not arranged in chronological sequence and integrating contemporary example in previous chapter will be challenging.

This text is written for students who are new to art. It is an introduction to art. It presents information in an accessible manner and clearly defines most terms. Although the learning outcomes are stated in perhaps on overly cumbersome manner. The main criticism I have in this area is that the history of art and perhaps more importantly the evolution of art is difficult to ascertain when works of are referenced without regard to chronological sequencing. To talk about classical and modern examples in a section can be challenging for a new student in art to compare and comprehend.

The framework of this text is very consistent. The content of each chapter is organized in the same manner. As previously stated, learning outcomes and an introduction are found at the beginning of each chapter. Key concepts, key terms and a self-test are found at the end of each chapter. Key terms are in bold type in the chapter and also included in the list of key terms at the end of the chapters. Terms are used consistently throughout the text.

The chapters of this text are divided into sub-sections. For example Chapter 3 on materials is divided into 11 sub-sections which include sections on learning outcomes and introduction at the beginning and self-tests and key terms at the end. And although there are numerous sub-divisions in this chapter it is still reads as large blocks of text. Text boxes might be a more effective manner to present the content in a more accessible manner for our current student populations.

The overall organization of the content is presented in a clear a logical fashion. The first chapter asks the appropriate question ... What Is Art? Chapters 2-4 discuss the structures of art, the materials used in art and describing art. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss meaning in art and connecting with art. Chapter 7 is specifically focuses on architecture. And chapters 8-11 address art as related to special topics such as identity, power, ritual and ethics. A concern here is that architecture is not fully integrated into broader discussions.

The images and diagrams in this text were clear and of good quality. The inclusion of various links in the body of the text were well placed and on topic. But I could not open all the links.

I did not notice any significant grammatical errors.

This text is somewhat unbiased. I did not notice any culturally insensitive or offensive content. However, the content is primarily a discussion of the western tradition. Although, Eurocentric approaches are common in art education it is perhaps more appropriate to intentionally be inclusive of non-western traditions.

Reviewed by Mandy Keathley, part time professor, Linn-Benton Community College on 1/28/19

Considering how entry level and accessible the text is, it is also fairly comprehensive. I wish there were more contemporary art examples, but I was able to fill in as needed. I found it sufficient as an outline, and did a lot to fill in the gaps. read more

No errors noticed.

The book feels a bit out of date as it is, though not in danger of becoming more so over time.

The text is great on clarity and accessibility, written in a way that most entry-level students could understand. If anything, it errs on the side of over-simplification.

Very consistent

The modularity was one of the strongest aspects of this book which made it easy to teach in a course. Each unit feels contained and leads into the next. However, I think that some modules could be expanded.

The book is organized well. It is not in chronological order like might be expected, but this can be used effectively. I found it helpful to teach chapter 5 & 6 first, to get students to think about the meaning in art as a way to get them interested.

The interface was adequate. The design could be improved, including the sub-headings and organization of images.

no errors noticed

The book does a decent job of touching on a few global art examples, but could do better.

Reviewed by Bob Casper, Adjunct Faculty, Boise State University on 1/9/19

I used it a supplement for a Webdesign course, reinforcing artistic concepts, and it was well received by the students. read more

I used it a supplement for a Webdesign course, reinforcing artistic concepts, and it was well received by the students.

When it really comes down to it, some issues of toughness may have come up here and there, but, all in it was acceptable for my student's level.

Seemed to work well and present ideas and concepts that were relevant to for my students.

My students were a novice level and some details were not too in-depth.

Elements of the book followed a framework that as easily followed.

The book was presented in chapters that worked well in the course and for what I needed.

Each area was well put to together and bridged nicely.

Simple read, clear text.

Did not notice any errors.

Presented historical and cultural ideas and issues without calling out marginalised students.

Seemed to meet ADA standards.

Reviewed by Lori Parks, Visiting Assistant Professor, Art History, Miami University on 8/2/18

The focus and organization of this text is similar to a number of other Art Appreciation textbooks currently available. For example, there are a number of texts that present Art Appreciation through a thematic structure. The material is introductory which is positive in that it is very accessible to readers and thus would not be too intimidating to students new to this subject. The text also does a good job with listing and creating Learning Outcomes for each chapter along with a wide variety of mostly good quality open sourced images. While there are lists of Key Terms included in each chapter, they are minimal at best and there does not seem to be enough cross connection with the terms and their use within the body of the text. There is also some problems with being too simplistic with terms and concepts, one example being the use of icon which is very much dependent on both the historic and cultural context. Although the text is organized somewhat thematically, it would help to have chronology play a part within each chapter/topic as well as some form of an appendix or place where an overview of the history of art might be placed. This is often the problem with Art Appreciation texts and the reason why so many of them have a very condensed overview/history of the various periods. It is difficult to provide any depth without the context.

There are a number of issues with accuracy, which could also overlap with other subsections of this review. For example, the terminology is often overly simplified and inaccurate. While readability is important, it is equally important for a student to expand their vocabulary and become familiar with the language of the discipline. Simplification also comes in the form of analysis and description of the works of art without connecting it to formal elements and historical and cultural context. There are also assumptions being made in the analysis (e.g. students knowing what Prairie Style is and how that might influence another artist/movement). Another problem area are the huge leaps in time and generalizations made in content, for example, in connecting the ancient Greeks to Jackson Pollock on page 4. Another area of concern is the labeling and citations. The labels for the images give weight to the open sourced “author” rather than the information that is important to the work of art (artist, title, date, medium, dimensions, and museum/collection), this could be better by creating a reference page at the end of the text for the open sourced images. More examples of non-western art would also be important.

Overall good, I would have liked to see more contemporary art and topics/themes including areas like performance. The images chosen generally follow the typical works of art found within the canon of Western Art History.

Generally clear and readable, although as mentioned elsewhere in this review, at times overly simplistic and rambling and repetitive. And, as mentioned earlier, the labels for the works of art are in need of correction with emphasis placed on the artwork rather than open source.

The template used is consistent through the chapters. There are issues with consistency in use of terms, and citations/websites etc. This should be strengthened more. I also wonder about the sources and context with regards to the discussion of historical development of art.

Each chapter is organized into topic/theme and subsections that are meant to connect back to the theme of the chapter. While this is a good way to allow for quick access there is room for further development both by the authors and also within the classroom setting and by the teacher.

While the thematic approach is important, the chapters read as disjointed and the text is at places overly general and at times repetitious. There should be more focus on an overarching question of “what is art” which would allow the various themes explored in each chapter to read as more cohesive. The chapter on Art and Ethics could be strengthened more.

While there is a really good attempt at organizing the text, there are a number of issues that make it difficult. For example, the placement of the imagery and discussion becomes somewhat confusing when there are also a number of images that are discussed but not shown the body of the text. The reader is instead supposed to go to the link and toggle back and forth. Such long links in the body of the text are distracting and confusing. A better way to organize this might be creating case studies which would allow for more in depth focus on the particular artist/artwork. The lack of continuity would be confusing for a student who is new to the topic of art and art history. Overall the clarity of the images are okay with only a few that could be improved upon in quality.

While there are some typos, the formatting and use of citation is more distracting. As mentioned, the inclusion of large links in the midst of the text is frustrating as well as the lack of period to enclose this before beginning a new sentence. There are also things like the indentation in the footnotes that can be easily fixed.

Overall there is an attempt to draw from different cultures to connect to the themes and concepts without being overly biased. As mentioned earlier, more examples of non-western art might be helpful. Also, more contemporary examples and connecting them to issues that are currently relevant like identity and protest etc.

Overall an impressive project and a good foundation to build upon. This text is best for Art Appreciation or potentially studio classes (supplement).

Reviewed by Peter Spooner, Instructor, Lake Superior College on 5/21/18

With eleven chapters in just under 300 pages, the text provides a comprehensive framework with which to explore the topic of art appreciation. It does not (nor does it claim to) offer a complete art historical survey, but rather uses examples of visual imagery from a variety of cultures, time periods and genres to make larger points about how we actually use art. Its chapter and sub headings suggest a view where art is fully relational to its users, whether they are individuals, communities or nations. Rather than a comprehensive glossary, the authors place key terms at the end of each chapter. The text is searchable, making an index unnecessary. The text successfully presents art as both an individual and collective enterprise, appropriately offering a variety of ways to explore its multiple functions, from self-identity and spirituality to commerce and communication. It makes an attempt to compare artworks from different time periods and cultures in terms of their function in life, and looks specifically at the viewer’s role in the process. To its credit, the text concludes with a chapter devoted to ethics and art.

The text seems to be free of any overt bias, and authors attempt to bring a variety of viewpoints to bear on the art and ideas they present. The text is well balanced between the authors’ assertions and well-documented quotes and information from a variety of sources.

The text is organized thematically and in terms of large ideas, thus guaranteeing a degree of longevity and future relevance. With so many web links in the text, it will be important to check regularly to make sure they are active. While this text is not based only on contemporary art, it uses many examples of current art throughout. For this reason, longevity is always a concern in art appreciation and introductory art texts. Since by definition contemporary art is a moving target, and at times local or regional in its relevance, instructors may want to supplement the text with their own references to contemporary art.

The text is clear and accessible, written to encourage understanding, not to prove points or advance opinions. It is appropriately written for students who are introducing themselves to art, and contains a minimum of jargon and hyperbole. Relevant key words and technical terms are defined at the end of each chapter, as befits any introduction to a subject.

The organization of the text and its components is consistent throughout, as is tone and flow of the text. Care is given throughout to maintain a consistent tone, level of detail, and depth in the text. Each chapter contains the same useful sequence: Learning Outcomes, Introduction, “Before You Move On” and Key Terms. Generally, students find such consistent organization reassuring and helpful.

Each chapter of 25-30 pages is sub-divided into seven or eight subtopics, and these sub-topics are themselves broken down into easily readable paragraphs, were key ideas are evident. These subtopics are well related to chapter themes, but by themselves could be used as lessons or topics for assignments. Beyond the first two chapters, the tone of which is more introductory, it seems as though instructors could and should feel free to present chapter and subtopics in whatever order serves their needs. The text is flexible and relational to the degree that some, but not all, chapters and/or subtopics would need to be used in a course. Given the modular organization of sub-topics within chapters, the text could be efficiently updated, and it is easy to see how instructors could insert their own material into chapters. The sub-topics contain plenty of specific examples, yet it is always possible to trace their connection to the chapter’s larger ideas.

Major topics are presented in a clear fashion that has a logical sense of development. The subtopics within each chapter are also clearly organized. Blocks of text are broken up by copious illustrations, photographs and live links. Each chapter begins with a list of learning outcomes, and ends with a section titled “Before You Move On,” which reviews key concepts, and provides a list of study questions. In addition, key terms are defined at the end of each chapter, as opposed to a single glossary, which makes it likely that students will review terms after reading chapters.

The PDF form with live links to websites and on-line resources was easy to use. Links were placed within text immediately following the artist or artwork under discussion, making them easy to find. The links themselves were relevant and added to the topic(s) at hand. All of the links I checked were operational, but as one might expect, the quality and size of images and text varied from website to website.

I did not detect any grammatical errors in the text. However, in Chapter Eleven: Art and Ethics, a number of the pages contain the heading Chapter Ten: Art and Ritual Life.

The text makes reference to art from a wide variety of cultures and to the experience of people from diverse backgrounds. It is true that many of the artworks and artists are familiar and part of a standard canon of Western art and its cultural touchstones. However, each chapter also contains references to non-Western art, and a cross-cultural approach is evident throughout the book, not only in isolated chapters.

The inclusion of an entire chapter devoted to “Art and Ethics” is refreshing, and somewhat overdue. The authors discuss and provide examples of art that has provoked controversy in terms of censorship, first amendment rights, copyright, appropriation, and the role of artists and institutions in examining sensitive societal and political issues.

Reviewed by Arianne Fernandez, Full - Time Lecturer, LaGuardia Community College on 5/21/18

The range of topics this book covers provides a great resource for teaching students the basics of visual art and introducing them to various media and techniques as well as the process of art making, from multiple. Since the text covers a wide range of time periods, styles, and works from Western and non-Western cultures - enhanced by good images-it is appropriate for both Introduction to Art and Art in Society courses. Despite the minimal attention in regards to Contemporary Art, the text is well written , with great descriptions of the pieces presented, with accurate explanations of art vocabulary. Overall, a great source for students.

The text appears accurate.

The textbook is arranged in a logical manner that introduces students to important concepts which enable them to understand how to describe a work within its cultural framework and uses a logical sequencing of information. The textbook has many high-quality images of the works discussed within the chapters. A fallacy, however, is that the bulk of art emphasized is predominately pre-1960 art. Thus, the instructor will need to go beyond this book to discuss Contemporary works within a global spectrum.

The language used is appropriate for college-level readers, with sentences easily understood. The ned of chapter glossaries provided, re-enforce the art vocabulary presented in each topic. The images support the content effectively and illustrate beautiful the in depth discussions presented within the chapters of the text.

The writing throughout the text is consistent. Each is well organized: outcomes are highlighted. The vocabulary is written in bold type and the end chapter glossary provided enforces the vocabulary. The summary and review questions provided at the end, are a great way for students to check both comprehension and progress.

The manner in which the text is organized supports teaching visual literacy in a logical sequence with each chapter’s subcategories allowing for the topics discussed to be highlighted. Thus, the reader can approach these topics from various viewpoints. Having more contemporary images / historical information can allow for students to make more meaningful connections with the art of today.

Overall, the chapters are consistently and straight forward which allows students to understand the topics presented clearly, as the book seamlessly weaves introductory concepts – i.e. what art is, its function and various use of media- and makes connections in the way that art shapes society as a whole.

The images provided in the text, are clear and high quality. The chapter sections and subsections are clear. The font is appropriate and easy to read and the inclusion of vocabulary words in bold, allows students to pay closer attention to the material covered.

The textbook contains a few typographical errors but nothing major.

This text provides a solid foundation in the visual arts. By analyzing historical artworks in depth and including works from non-Western cultures – African, Asian cultures- and women -which despite significant contributions are always glossed over In introductory texts- providing a global platform for students. An instructor would need to bring in additional examples to strengthen student understanding. Specially in regard to contemporary art. The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive. The thematic approach instead of a chronological approach makes it reader friendly and not tedious to read.

Overall, this is a great introductory text that discusses important styles, concepts and historical context. Some chapters need expanding, or the instructor can mix and match chapters in this text with other supplementary material in areas that are lacking.

Reviewed by Jonathan Johnson, Associate Professor, Otterbein University on 5/21/18

This textbook is ambitious and covers a lot of ground—both theoretically and historically. The thematic (as opposed to purely chronological or geographical) approach and interface allows the soaring comprehensiveness of this text to take a digestible and highly modular form. The position of the writing seems to be educator and student centric, with pedagogical concerns. Art historical (or disciplinary) outcomes aren’t the main focus here—and that should please those looking for an introductory or non-major textbook. I imagine this would facilitate the outline and planning of a course—where course outcomes could be developed with this text in mind as opposed to developing the course and then searching for an appropriate textbook and supplements.

The themes address in the text are sufficiently supported and explored with ideas and artwork reproductions that flesh out the major social issues contained within the artwork. The process and historical/social conditions of the work’s creation are also covered in each section. In this way, these art works are placed within the time they were made and viewed through a contemporary lens.

Table of contents, key terms and “Test Yourself” sections are comprehensive and helpful from a teaching perspective.

The textbook is accurate and without bias according to my reading.

The overarching “big questions” are up to date, however it could beneficial to have more contemporary examples representing these themes/questions embedded within the pdf version of the book. Are there more recent examples of art that tackle issues of race, history and identity as in the given example of figure8.25, for instance?

As mentioned below in “Clarity”, the writing is clear—but undergraduate students might be more immediately engaged with the material if it was more often connected to a contemporary iteration of the social issue at hand. We are introduced to Maria Luisa of Parma immediately within the Class section (8.3.4)—which I find quite interesting. However, I wonder if an undergraduate or non-major might desire a class reference that they can relate more to? At least at first, and then delve into something more “historical”? I’m thinking a bit of the Oxford University Press’ A Very Short Introduction series here.

With this being said, I did enjoy looking at more historical works and works from the 19th century through the lens of these very contemporary themes. I was also newly introduced to a few engaging works such as Sargent’s Gassed (Fig. 9.10) and Daumier’s The Third Class Carriage (Fig. 8.20). When connected to these larger questions and contextual frameworks, these two pieces (and many others included in the book) seem fresh and imbued with a renewed relevance.

The writing style is very straight-forward and clear of unnecessary jargon. Well suited for non-majors and for building student interest in Art History. Writing style seems to match the audience and outcomes.

Visual and organizational layout is consistent and becomes helpfully predictable as you move through the text.

Thoughtful and relevant groupings and subheadings. The order is logical and terraced to build upon previously presented ideas and themes. Would function well as a “pick and choose” text for a introductory art course or a course designed for non-majors.

Structure, flow, sequencing and logic are amongst the greatest strengths of this text.

Overall, the interface is easy to follow and basic in design. The off-white framing of the images and figures is reminiscent of a Polaroid border, and is a little distracting. Having the date(s) of the artwork underneath each image would be convenient for reference. Having to go between the text body and the image for the date is a little inefficient. Image reproduction is mostly sufficient, but the Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket I (Fig. 1.14) would have benefited from a larger reproduction, especially since the text references technical nuances of the work in its analysis.

I found no grammatical errors in the textbook.

The larger questions and themes are well chosen, sequenced and organized. How do they manifest more directly today? Showcasing the cultural relevance of more established canonical artists is a strength of this text. Pairing up Auguste Clésinger (Fig. 8.17) and Kehinde Wiley (pp. 221-2) in the early portion of the 8.3.3 Sex/Gender Identity section is a great example of answering this question I’ve posed, but I think more of it would add a depth and extend the relevance.

It goes without saying that pursuing a textbook writing project such as this truly serves the greater good and the authors should be commended.

Reviewed by Dina Pizzarello, Adjunct Assistant Professor, LaGuardia Community College on 5/21/18

This textbook would be a wonderful source for any beginner art or art appreciation class. It does not delve too deeply, but that is a plus for the beginner and/or typical non-artist using this resource. An index and glossary would be great... read more

I found this textbook to be accurate and unbiased, although more examples of Non-Western art could have been added. Some of the CH 11 pages and titled CH 10 at the end of the text.

This text is current enough for the average art appreciation class. All of the links I checked worked perfectly. Since it is mostly based on works of the past, it will need little updating.

Clarity rating: 1

This text is written simply, clearly and with brevity. This can be especially helpful to international students and students with cognitive disabilities. Beginners can easily understand definitions and concepts.

The organization and writting are consistent throughout.

The chapter organization and subdivisions wold work really well for classes taught on single or multiple days. This is a big plus for those of us that teach at community colleges.

One strength is that the text is arranged thematically, not chronologically. This format has been proven to work better in art appreciation classes. Each chapter has a comprehensible and logical flow to the breadth of information covered.

I found no interface issues.

I found no grammatical errors.

I found this text to be un-biased and culturally sensitive.

I liked how the text included non-traditional images to explain some concepts. This gave the book a fresher feel that millennials could more easily connect with. Most of the images are of small or medium scale. It would be a nice to incorporate larger image examples of select artworks. This would be more visually impactful.

Reviewed by Eleanor Johnston, Academic Skills Librarian, Staffordshire University on 2/1/18

This texts provides a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art and contains 11 chapters, thematically arranged, to give an overview for beginners to the subject. The text contains enough content and examples to ensure that there in appropriate contextualisation and that the idea of Art as a concept is covered with sufficient depth and clarity. At the end of each chapter, there is a Key Terms list, which acts as a glossary for the readings just completed. There is no index at the end of the book, but this is not a problem as online PDFs can all be searched using the 'find text' function. There are areas where the text is not greatly detailed - any book of under 300 pages could not possibly cover all areas of art without omissions, so there is a greater emphasis on older works when used as examples. There is little on contemporary art, although it is covered in most detail in the final chapter. As there is no index of Artists, it can be tricky to locate movements using the 'find text' function. The outcome to 'build a broader, more comprehensive view of the nature and definition of visual art' (p.1) is impressively achieved.

The content of the book is accurate and I did not detect any particular biases or error. Of course, any Introduction to Art may inherently contain the biases of Western Culture in relation to the choice of themes and narrative, but there has genuinely been an acknowledgement of the importance of all cultures, and there has not simply been one token chapter to shoehorn in all other civilisations. There is one error in the layout - on pages 280, 282, 284, 286, 288, 290 and 292 in Chapter 11, these are titled 'Chapter 10: Art and Ritual Life" on the top right of these pages.

This text is arranged thematically, so this structure does ensure that there will not be any aspect of the contents that would quickly become obsolete or outdated. Any weblinks used within the text would have to be checked and maintained. These are contained throughout the book - I would surmise they were used if no Creative Commons image was available to illustrate a concept or technique. I did click through to a large number of the weblinks and am pleased to report that they not only were, without fail linking through, they also provided further details and areas for discussion that built upon the content of the text.

This area is a real strength of the book. The book explains complex concepts in a very clear and concise way, ensuring that any new or unfamiliar terms are included in the 'Key Terms' pages at the end of each chapter. I was particularly impressed with this in Chapter Seven: Form in Architecture. I think the authors had an intention to provide clear, accessible prose and to ensure that a reader with no knowledge of the areas of design, meaning and context would be able to understand and appreciate them.

Again, with the chapters arranged thematically with the same structure scaffolding each one (learning outcomes, introduction, before you move on and key terms) the text was consistent and the framework extremely clear. I did not find any examples where key terms were overlapping, confusing or contradictory.

As an Introduction to Art with easily digestible sections, these text deserves commendation. Each chapter is approximately 30 pages long, and sections within the chapters are subdivided into smaller sections (e.g. Chapter 8: Art and Identity contains 21 pages and has 5 subsections. The visual aspects of the text -multiple examples, images, photographs, artworks etc, ensure that there are no giant blocks of text, and the book taken as a whole is aesthetically pleasing and a pleasure to consult.

I would suggest that this area could be improved by expanding on descriptions in the contents page - there were sometimes cases of repetition when a concept was discussed across multiple chapters (e.g. the Sacred). This is a hazard of the thematic approach, but I understand that without reverting to a chronological timeline of art, it is very difficult to cover these in one or two paragraphs in one section of a text. The subjects of design, structure and materials provided better scaffolding for chapters.

The text was extremely clear and the images were reproduced at a high definition. Any links taking students through also provided clear images, although these were sometimes rather small. There was no confusion with the image labelling or creative commons attributions, and I found the single column view easy to read.

There were no grammatical errors that I was able to detect.

The text provided references to a variety of cultures throughout the pages. Once again it should be highlighted that non-Western cultural artistic traditions were not simply shoehorned into a chapter, but there was a great deal of inclusivity in the whole book. Indeed, the cultural relevance and variety mentioned is of great artistic importance and is refereed to as crucial to the ethics and raison d'etre of many prominent artists (see especially Chapter Eight: Art and Identity).

This Open Textbook is a valuable addition to the canon of texts currently recommended as an introduction to art. The thematic chapters provide a perfect platform to commence a discussion on a topic (for example, meaning in art). Students would be advised to read the chapter in advance of lectures / tutorials and to use this as a starting point for their research.

Reviewed by Victoria Hutson, Art Faculty, Lake Superior College on 2/1/18

This book covers a broad range of areas that are typically included in a college level art appreciation book. Because it covers so many different areas—it doesn’t go into a lot of depth in any one area. However, an instructor could easily provide more depth by providing supplementary material for specific areas. The book is arranged by topics or themes which is typical for most art appreciation books. It is not arranged chronological--which is usually the format for art history books.

The book appears to be accurate, error-free and unbiased--although I did catch one inaccurate statement regarding the Vietnam War Memorial. The memorial is below ground level but the book claims that this reflects “the belief that the Vietnam War was initially conducted ‘beneath the surface,’ that is, unknown to most Americans.” However, in the 1995 documentary, “A Strong Clear Vision” the designer (Maya Lin) explains a totally different reason why it is underground. This conflict between what the artist says and what the book says is worth noting. It did make me a bit concerned that other material may also be inaccurate—but I did not catch any other inaccurate statements.

This book should have relevance for a long time because the material it covers is primarily about past art—which for the most part doesn’t change. While it is possible that new information may become available that changes our understanding of the work—for the most part our educated guesses about the message, meaning, or function of the works will remain the same. In addition, the vast majority of images and information included in this book are also found in most of the standard art appreciation textbooks.

The textbook is written in a style that is clear and easy to understand and follow. Specific terms are written in bold text with their definitions listed at the end of each chapter.

There is a consistency in the way the material is presented in each chapter.

Each of the chapters are divided into smaller sections that make it easy to assign or highlight a specific portion of the text. In addition, each chapter starts with Learning Outcomes and ends with Key Concepts, Test Yourself, and Key Terms sections.

The topics in the text are presented in a fairly logical and clear fashion. It is very similar to other art appreciation textbooks I have used in the past. The book starts with fundamental concepts (what is art, art materials and techniques, describing art, finding the meaning, etc.) and then it proceeds into more advanced topics (connecting art to our lives, identity, power, ritual Life, and ethics). There is a separate chapter on architecture which seems a bit odd since no other area was given a specific chapter of its own.

The pdf interface is very functional to use and easy to navigate and download. While I understand the reasons for including links to copyright protected images I did find having to click on the link cumbersome and somewhat disruptive. In addition, often I felt a bit confused when I started reading about a work of art that did not have a printed picture to accompany it. I found myself glancing around the page trying to find the image that I was reading about only to see that later in the paragraph there was a link. Perhaps having the link at the beginning of the paragraph would have worked better. Plus, it would serve as a notice that the following text is about an image that needs to be viewed via a link. A few of the links brought me to pages that were no longer active.

I did not notice any grammatical errors.

The material in this book does includes examples from a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds—although most of the material is from what is traditional considered the origins and evolution of western civilizations.

This would be a good book for an art appreciation course. Because of its modularity it would be easy for an instructor to assign specific areas to establish a basic foundation and then provide supplementary material for in-depth explorations of chosen topics.

Reviewed by Elizabeth Maynard, Adjunct Professor, Rhode Island College on 2/1/18

This books is not an historical survey, but it offers a wide range of artworks from throughout history and the world to elucidate major themes and concepts. Even while it is non-linear or chronological, the text nonetheless covers terms and ideas specific to historical moments, taking them as case studies to illustrate larger themes. The end of each chapter includes questions to consider and a list of major terms with definitions.

excellent, to my knowledge.

While the book references very contemporary technology, including 3D printing, etc., it contextualizes them in more traditional methods; the themes and of the text remain timeless.

Both the imagery and the phrasing read easily. The images are very detailed and include helpful close ups.

The progression of chapter creates a very readable narrative.

The book is well divided up, and I appreciate the integration of both historical and formal terms throughout, to offer new historical information throughout without becoming dense.

The book lays out a great foundation for material and terms of analysis to get into deeper themes and modes of interpretation.

One thing I would add/change, is for the images to include the dates in the caption, not just in the text. While the text is non-linear, I think it's important for the dates to be readily available to understand the historical breadth of the works.

none that I encountered.

I especially enjoyed the integration of works from throughout the world. Often in more conventional texts, art of the non-western world gets relegated to their own, atemporal chapters. This format allows for thematic comparisons that helps to breakdown the hierarchies of the canon.

Reviewed by Renee Couture, Assistant Professor of Art, Umpqua Community College on 2/1/18

This book covers just about everything needed for teaching students the basics of visual literacy and introducing them to art. This text has a range of images and includes various time periods, styles, and works from Western and non-Western cultures. The textbook, however, lacks significant references to contemporary art. A vast majority of the work presented is pre-1960 and most of the media covered is traditional fine art media (painting, sculpture, drawing). That being said, the authors provide glossaries at the end of each chapter of target vocabulary, a comprehensive index, and write thoughtfully and thoroughly to provide a solid context to the works/images shown within the text.

The text appears to be accurate.

The textbook profiles works from ancient through modern times. The text is arranged in a way that introduces students to important concepts for viewing and considering artwork, and uses a logical sequencing of information. The textbook introduces students to some of the major “movers and shakers” in art history, and has many high-quality images of the works discussed within the chapters. The text, however, largely emphasizes pre-1960 art. In fact, it seems only a handful of post-1960 artists are mentioned and very few supporting images are provided of post-1960 artwork. To be fair, there are links provided, which will require upkeep. An instructor will need to find examples from other sources to expose students to contemporary art (artists, media, themes, and modes of working).

The text’s language is appropriate for college-level readers. Sentences are easily understood and the use of art-specific vocabulary (along with providing a glossary at the end of each chapters) shows students appropriate use of target vocabulary. Chapter topics are presented in clearly, accessibly, and with depth. Images are used effectively in supporting content.

The chapters are uniform in their organization; the writing is consistent. Each chapter starts with outcomes and an introduction. Headings for chapter subsections are clear and specific. Target vocabulary is written in bold type and each chapter has a glossary. Each chapter ends with a summary and review questions to check for student comprehension.

The text is divided in a way that supports teaching a foundation in visual literacy. Each chapter is clearly titled with subsections supporting the chapter’s topic. In some cases, subsections from different chapters could be mixed and matched. One of the strengths is the use of imagery from various time periods within each chapters as opposed to the standard chronological approach to an art history course. This could be further exploited by the addition more contemporary art by the instructor along side more historical examples the text provides.

The chapters are consistently structured. The choice of chapter topics and their flow is appropriate and student-centered. The book starts with basic information (what art is, its structure, media used) and works toward greater complexity (various ways art connects to and shapes our lives).

The supporting images are clear and high quality, allowing the reader to increase the size of the images without losing clarity. Some of the pages feel crowded and a few of the links were nonfunctional. The chapter sections and subsections are clear. The book's font is easy to read with line hierarchy is unmistakable and consistent, and the use of bold lettering indicates target vocabulary for students.

I found no grammatical errors within the text.

The text will provide students with a solid foundation in visual literacy using historical artworks as examples. It includes work and architecture of non-Western cultures and women. However, it (generally) ignores contemporary art (artists, media, modes of working, and thematics) which students will see in today’s world. There are missed opportunities to discuss more recent attitudes & intentions within the arts (for example, in Ch 4: Describing Art, it would seem appropriate to have subsections on Modernism and Post Modernism). It would be helpful if were either more examples of contemporary art along side the more historical examples or if there was final chapter on art post-1960. An instructor will need to find examples of contemporary art (through resources such as Art 21, museum catalogs, artist websites, articles/interviews for arts-related sources) to expose students to contemporary artists and art. Inclusion of more art post-1960 would: 1) present students with more challenging imagery, 2) expose students to themes that are more relevant to them, and 3) further introduce students to the works of more women and minorities. Nonetheless, this book would be an effective tool for an Intro to Art or Art Appreciation course. A strength of the book is its thematic approach instead of the standard chronological approach. I did not find it culturally offensive or insensitive.

This book has enough general information that certain chapters (or parts of chapters) can be used in a Basic Design or Drawing course as well as a general Art Appreciation/Intro to Visual Literacy course..

Reviewed by Nancy Pettigrew, Associate Instructor, Tidewater Community College on 8/15/17

For an art appreciation textbook, there is no set of required information that must be included and, therefore, a textbook's comprehensiveness is somewhat subjective. This textbook does cover some core areas for this discipline: the definition of art; the function of art; elements of art and principles of design; and different media used to make art. I thought that the treatment of the elements and principles and of the media was cursory. Beyond that the textbook is thematic, with the choices of themes being somewhat idiosyncratic.

The treatment of the subject was constrained by the authors' focus primarily on the traditional media associated with fine arts, such as painting, sculpture, and architecture. Other current art appreciation textbooks also include more modern media, such as film and design. The scope was also hampered, in part, by the distinction the authors' drew between art and craft.

The focus of the textbook is mostly on art made before 1960, with most of it produced long before that. There is a dearth of examples of contemporary art being made by artists in the last 20 years. An exception to this is the chapter on Art and Ethics, which addresses recent controversies in the field.

The textbook does not include an index or a comprehensive glossary. Terms are defined at the end of each chapter. The table of contents is not sufficient to function as an index.

The content of the textbook is generally error free. There are some opinions expressed that I do not agree with, but these are debates that are not settled within the art history community. The authors do not seem completely up to date on recent scholarship in some areas. For example, the "Snake Goddess" from Crete is included when modern scholarship has called into question the validity of its heavily reconstructed form.

Since much of the art covered in the textbook was made before 1960, the content is up-to date and will not become obsolete quickly. The exceptions to this are the links to external web pages that will need to be maintained on a regular basis. Without this regular maintenance, these links could become obsolete quickly. This could pose a problem since the links are embedded in the content of the text.

The textbook is written in prose that should be accessible for the average college freshman. Specialized discipline-specific terminology is defined in the text and in a list of terms at the end of each chapter. The text does lack an comprehensive glossary of these terms..

The textbook is internally consistent in organizational framework of each chapter and in the use of terminology.

The textbook is divided into small reading sections with clear headings and subheadings. These could easily be reorganized and realigned.

I found it difficult to follow the organization and structure of the text. There seemed to be no clear logic to much of the distribution of the chapters and the chapter sections. Related content can be found in different chapters of the text. For example, both the chapter on Form in Architecture and on Art and Ritual Life contain extensive sections covering sacred architecture.

Within the chapter sections, there is some organization based on chronology, although this is not consistent. This creates a problem in which chronology is repeated without a larger, cohesive historical narrative. .

The interface of the textbook was effective overall with no significant issues that would distract or confuse the reader. Of necessity, the textbook provides links to works of art that are not reproducible in the textbook due to copyright issues. These links can be clunky and I would be concerned that students will not take the time to click on them all while reading the textbook. Links need to be reviewed. At least one of the links within the text to external images was broken. For the most part the images included in the textbook are high quality, although I find their sourcing odd from random users on Wikimedia.

Overall, the textbook contains no major grammatical errors beyond a few typographical errors.

The textbook draws its examples primarily from Western (European and American) and Asian cultures. There is some inclusion of other cultures, races, and ethnicities, such as Native American or African, although this aspect of the textbook could be strengthened. An instructor would need to bring in additional examples to make a course using this textbook truly inclusive. The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive.

This textbook could be appropriate for usage in an Art Appreciation class, if the instructor of the course was comfortable with the somewhat idiosyncratic thematic choices of the authors. For example, the inclusion of the chapter on the Significance of Materials is not typically included in an art appreciation textbook. The textbook would not work for an Art History course that is taught in a chronological framework. Specific dates are not provided for most of the objects discussed, although birth and death dates of artists are. The historical context and timeline of the works covered by the text are subsumed within the thematic organization.

Reviewed by Samantha Moore, Adjunct Instructor, Art History, Northern Virginia Community College on 6/20/17

The text covers information listed in the table of contents adequately. Content is arranged thematically as is common in art appreciation courses. Each chapter includes a glossary of terms covered at the end of the chapter. It does not include an... read more

The historical information listed in the text was accurate. The text included accurate information regarding styles and movements and theory associated with art. However, the text presents basic and surface level information and lacks in depth views on any one topic.

The content of the text is up-to-date particularly in the discussion of media types. Should updates be necessary it would be easy to implement them.

The text clearly defines bolded terminology. Each chapter is divided into sections and information in each section is related to the theme of that content area. The language is clear and easy to read and follow.

The language used, content presented, and organizational themes are consistent throughout the text.

The text follows a pattern of listing objectives, sectioning off each chapter, and following up with review concepts and terminology. Sections of the text can be assigned at different points within the course.

The text includes eleven chapters divided into sections. While each chapter and subsequent section is rich with information, heading and subheadings do not give a clear sense of what content will be present in a given area. Without an index it is not clear to readers when or where readers will find certain information.

When reading the text online I encountered an issue clicking on links to images. The link would bring me to the image in the same window as the text. I would then have to go back to the text and find my place.

The text was inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities and backgrounds.

This would be a decent text to use in an art appreciation course but not in a survey art history course. The content is not arranged chronologically or by region. Rather it is divided thematically into broad sections. I was pleasantly surprised with the information listed in several portions of the text. While it does not cover any area in depth it does a fair job of presenting a basic foundation for most of the major topics covered in an art appreciation course. Instructors will find they need to expand on most concepts and should plan on supplementing the text with readings and lectures. Without an index it is difficult to gauge when and where readers will find specific content. Chapter titles and section sub heads are very broad and do not help with pinpointing the location of information.

Reviewed by Isabelle Havet, Faculty, Linn-Benton Community College on 6/20/17

The textbook thoroughly covers the topics of each chapter, and each chapter has enough range that it could easily be supplemented and ideas expanded upon. The "Key Concepts" and "Key Terms" sections after each chapter are very useful and would prove an effective study tool for students, as would the "Test Yourself" study questions. However, the textbook should have a master glossary of terms at the end for ease of reference. This is a large omission, especially for students studying for midterms and finals, or working on papers or larger group projects.

There are a small number of typos and usages of uncommon words when more simple words would suffice that are confusing and obscure meaning. (E.g., the tile for section 5.4.3: "Prohibition and Destruction of Imagery: Iconoclasm" misspells the word "iconoclasm," which is particularly problematic as "iconoclasm" could easily be reenforced as a key vocabulary word.)

The text is relevant, and one of its strengths is the breadth and depth of the visual examples anchoring the chapters.

The text is fluid, and the language accessible in a way that would be suitable for different levels of students.

While the text is generally well-organized, the organization of the chapters is somewhat confusing. The choice of chapter topics is also somewhat confusing. Certain major topics are omitted (for example, a chapter dedicated to a more in-depth survey of major artistic media), for what are some interesting but less necessary topics (e.g., Significance of materials in art). This will pose a challenge for instructors who might have to carefully weigh which chapters to teach. This might be especially problematic for instructors teaching in a 10-week term system, or who would supplement the text with additional lessons focused on the history of art (which is omitted from this volume).

The text would easily be divided, which is a strength as the organization of the chapters as it stands might not work for every instructor.

The topics are generally presented in a logical, clear fashion. The structure of chapters is easy to read and flows well.

The text cleverly utilizes open access images. The images are generally very compelling and of high-resolution, which is a big bonus in a visual arts textbook. There are only a few images that are grainy or fuzzy and would beed to be replaced (e.g., the statue of Menkaure and Queen). The interface is legible and pleasing to navigate.

The text contains no grammar errors.

An array of images from different time periods, geographical locations, and cultures. This is a huge bonus, as visual arts fields are moving to make curricula more inclusive. It would have been useful to include more contemporary art, as this is an important topic to emphasize when teaching about visual culture, and is relevant to students' lives. It is also important for instructors who might be teaching visual arts and studio students.

A unique text with a compelling choice of images and topics, and worthy entry in the expanding but still very limited field of art appreciation/visual culture textbooks. I would have liked to see a glossary of terms at the end of the text. It would also be useful to have a discussion of art history, and if not a chapter or more dedicated to art history, at least a timeline at the end of the text. The students are presented with an overwhelming number of artworks, so a general historical reference at the end of the text would be useful. Finally, there are some omissions of topics in favor of narrowing or less important topics that would necessitate some supplemental teaching materials or lessons.

Reviewed by Hilary Galián, Instructor, Portland Community College on 6/20/17

The text covers a broad survey of art including many art forms. Photography, digital media and relational aesthetics examples are lacking throughout the text. Chapters include examples of Western and non-Western art and architecture. More context could be fleshed out for how works of art were relevant in their own time. The text effectively references images and graphics that are either included in the text or linked on the web. There is no index, and a list of images would benefit the reader by seeing examples listed in chronological order or by medium. Image captions in the text should include mediums, date and location information, which would help with quick reference and to classify a work illustrating an era.

The wrong title is listed in a few image captions. Otherwise, the book appears error-free.

The content of the book spans the ancient world through contemporary art and reflects current art-world values and attitudes in broad terms -- defining art and artists through a contemporary lens and recognizing the omission of women and marginalized groups throughout the canon of art. Though the recognition is valid, more modern and contemporary art examples could be used to reflect the contributions of a broader group of artists. There are many links to outside sources for imagery, and it is unknown how often those may be checked for changes and errors. A safeguard against readers following links to sources that may have changed their content would be to insert those images directly into the text, which would also help the reading flow, particularly when two works are offered for comparison, such as Wiley’s and Clésinger’s "Femme Piquée par un Serpent," in which only Clésinger’s is included in the text.

Text is written clearly using accessible language for students. Adequate context is given for technical terms with minor exception. The questions at the end of each chapter to check for understanding reflect the text, though more attention could be aimed at mirroring the language and terms used in the chapter.

The chapters are subdivided consistently. There are a few instances in which the title of a work in the text narrative does not match the title given in the caption for the image. There are also some terms listed in the glossary that do not appear in the corresponding chapter. Similarly, there are some inconsistencies in the “Test Yourself” questions, in which the corresponding information is missing.

The chapters are clearly defined as are the concise, themed subsections. It could be easily reorganized to fit subunits of a course, though the text is jumbled chronologically due to classification by theme.

The text flows logically by the outlined themes. The book’s organization would benefit from some reference to a chronology. Without this context, a novice student may struggle to follow a somewhat disjointed selection of art and artifacts.

Internal references to images are made sufficiently clear. Over time, the numerous links to other web material may need updating. There is one reference in the text that is missing a link. A few links reveal images and are too small and low-resolution. The handful of formatting mistakes and typos are somewhat distracting, as is the single column layout.

The text appears free of grammatical errors.

The text is inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities and backgrounds. The balance of art examples still favors a white, male perspective. References to “our” perspective should be made explicit as such. Some general examples given to explain concepts lack universality, such as yoga as an example of art and science.

This book would serve well as primer for beginning art students for its far-reaching historical scope and theme-based approach, though a student would need supplemental material to address contemporary art forms and the contributions of a broader group of artists.

Reviewed by Sasa Miljevich, Adjunct Instructor (Fine Art), Portland Community College on 6/20/17

The text is organized thematically and covers some of the areas of Art. Some of the content is overly simplified , and some important artistic movements are omitted. There is no index, which make it difficult for students to comprehend some key... read more

Content is accurate and error free. Images shown and links to artists are mostly of Western Art/ Artist, very few examples , in comparison, of Non-Western Art/Artist.

The text is current and few sections would need updating.Necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.

The text is written in clear and concise manner.

The text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

The text is easily dividable into smaller sections to fit with various topics of discussion throughout a term.

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion, but smoother transitions between the different chapters would help.

The text is free of significant interface issues, easy to navigate , with clear images. very easy to download and print.

The text does not have many examples of non-western artist and is not overly inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, backgrounds, gender.

Reviewed by James Jewitt, Manager and Instructor, Arts Minor, Virginia Tech on 6/20/17

This text successfully manages the difficult task of synthesizing a plethora of approaches when studying art and its history. It considers numerous ethical, philosophical, and thematic issues typically left out of traditional survey books. While these comprise a robust and welcome conversation about the reception, agency, epistemology, and meaning of art, it comes at the cost of a slightly anemic treatment of major historical developments along conventional lines. No index is present or list of illustrations.

Some problems with Italian language terminology are evident, such as "giornate."

The content incorporates relevant and informed perspectives on crucial art world debates, including issues of ethical circulation of cultural property and material culture. Its content offers a broad appeal across the humanities and even social sciences, with relevance to students of philosophy and history as well archaeology and communication.

The prose tends to be clear and readable, though veers towards a somewhat overly conversational and colloquial tone. In places it seems imprecise and too rambling, needing much more concise and to the point verbiage. Also, captions for images are not given information relating to date, medium, or dimensions--a crucial oversight!

The text displays consistency throughout and does a good job of integrating key terms and concepts throughout its chapters. The bolded key terms that appear as a glossary at the close of each chapter is especially helpful, as well as the "test yourself" sections and introductory concepts that start each chapter. Such stand-alone devices are a great boon to students and surely aid with comprehension.

One keen advantage of this text is the authors' clever division of the material into cogent modules that mesh well with poignant themes currently driving the discipline of art history and also the best courses at colleges and universities. In this way, the text serves as an indispensable resources in introductory design and art history courses, as well as upper-level seminars focused on interpretation, methodology, and philosophy of art.

Overall the book is logically organized, particularly chapters 1-5 and 8-11. However, chapters 6-7 are oddly placed and the section on architecture is not well integrated into the rest of the text. It is treated like a separate and outlying practice instead of being carefully woven into the rest of the chapters on form, production, materials, etc. Likewise, chapter 7, though integral and vital, seems out of place. It would perhaps best be placed before the chapter on meaning, since it offers background on socio-cultural behavior as foundation through which to better understand art.

In general, the illustrations and figures are crisp and high resolution. However, they are not expandable or zoomable as is common in other electronic or digital textbook platforms currently available. Likewise, the internet hyperlinks could be replaced with embedded content to better increase the longevity of the text. Some odd spacing around the figures and illustrations is distracting as well.

See comment 4 above. In general, the discussions could be edited to offer a more precise and concise analysis that is less conversational and more direct. Right now it reads as if the authors are pandering a bit to a student audience by invoking memes, selfies, and other ostensibly trendy cultural phenomena.

Another great advantage of this text is its admixture of canonical and popular objects, drawing upon mainstays of art history as well as more of-the-moment visual culture. It is particularly adept at addressing themes that weave together global works in many media from makers of many backgrounds, thereby questioning the entrenched and monolithic canon.

Reviewed by Joe Macca, Adjunct Faculty, Portland Community College on 6/20/17

While the text covers such a vast amount of visual art history, genres, meaning, symbolism, materials, etc., because it's so much, it can only very briefly mention these topics. That said, the glossary of terms is thorough and appropriate. The 'learning outcomes' and 'test yourself' sections are also very well organized. It can help students understand the kinds of questions and testing done in art survey classes.

In terms of studio art though the book can be a supplement only. Textbooks can be excellent but still not substitutes for the instruction of the hands on manipulation of materials.

The book is unbiased (if there is any bias, it's very slightly European. But which comprehensive survey book is?!) and presents its varied historical genres accurately.

The book suffers slightly from not discussing more contemporary artists and genres, especially performance, installation and public- art based works. Mid 20th century and before, the book is quite thorough. Because of this it is perhaps mildly more prone to obsolescence.

The book is excellent in its prose. Very clear, easy to understand, many good images and illustrations.

The book feels consistent overall. As described elsewhere, it may suffer a little from its lack of discussion of contemporary genres, artists, techniques, etc.

The modularity is the book's necessary natural feature since it cover so much. The chapters are quick and concise.

The 'Personal and Communal Need to Create' sections are so important. I appreciate that this was covered at length. Some sections are not elaborated on as much. I believe the isolated discussion of different art materials (a section on oil paint, a section on print, etc.) is clear and organized- I also believe it should be discussed that these techniques and materials are also very interchangeable.

The book is very well organized. Illustrations and pictures are appropriately shown. More images of 'artists at work' could improve the text.

No grammar issues detected.

The book does a good job of being varied and unbiased, especially when describing art made in varying regions by peoples with different ethnic backgrounds.

I believe the book can function very well as an Open Art History/ Survey Textbook.

Reviewed by A.D. Rocha, Fine Arts Advisor and Instructor, Washington State University on 6/20/17

The text presents its themes in an order that is easy to follow. The examples provided are relevant and serve well to illustrate the concept. The prompts at the end of each chapter also present good starting points for class discussion. read more

The content is accurate. The definitions provided are concise.

The content is current. The inclusion of "fourth dimensional" art is particularly helpful in discussing contemporary art.

The terminology used is easy to understand. The "key terms" section is also helpful in its definition of terms that are introduced in that chapter.

The terminology used is consistent and works to expand on the content for proceeding chapters.

The arrangement of sections allow for each to be taken separately as necessary. The chapters can be presented in different order or omitted altogether.

The order of each chapter and its individual sections are easy to follow. Presenting basic concepts on the definition of art and the formal qualities that comprise an artwork in the first four chapters provides a good starting point for the context and meaning discussed further into the text. The only issue with the "flow" would be the inclusion of the chapter on architecture.

The images were presented within the appropriate text and were displayed clearly. The size of the PDF makes searching for a specific term or section a bit difficult, but otherwise there are no problems with the interface.

There were no grammatical errors in this version of the text.

A broader cultural range of examples would be more helpful, however, this is something an instructor can easily amend within classroom lecture or discussion.

This is an excellent introductory text to basic art elements and concepts. On its own, it provides a clear overview for students with no art history background. It can also be used to support other texts where more specific art movements are discussed.

Reviewed by Aderonke Adesanya, Associate Professor, James Madison University on 6/20/17

The text is a bold work in terms of content coverage. It focuses on the nuts and bolts of learning about and discussing art and its context, and combines these with some considerable information on art history, It therefore aptly fits the needs of a foundation class. Although it has semblances of existing studies, this is not your traditional introductory art textbook. Apart from the in-depth discussion of concepts, techniques, and terminologies, the authors have included learning outcomes at the beginning of each chapter, exercises (review questions) at the end plus key terms to help users review and affirm the content of every chapter. I also find very instructive the discussion of ways of looking at and understanding works of art in chapter 4; the distinction between formal and critical analysis, and the distinction in analysis, description, interpretation and evaluation. These comprehensive discussion make the text a great resource. The material is also reader friendly.

I find that there is minimal references to non-western art especially African and African Diaspora Art. This is palpably obvious even under the discussion 4.5.1 Cultural Style in Chapter 4. The illustrations in the text are also geared towards the examination of western art than other categories including Asian and African. In the discussion of two and three dimensional art (with highlights on materials and techniques), almost all illustrations and examples are western art, with some minimal references to Chinese and Japanese preferred materials for art, and their processes.

There are minor typos found in different pages of the text. For instance: i). Introduction: 2.4. Art Forms (cat egories should read categories)

ii). Chapter 8: p. 247 "iconoclas" should read "iconoclasm"'

Additionally, there is issue of consistency when "iconoclasm" is used as a sub-heading but not mentioned again in the body of the text.It also does not appear in the list of terms of reference. Consistency in reference to location: Benin is in Nigeria, West Africa and not just Africa as presented in the text on page 232. It is correctly referenced in previous pages.

Content is up-to-date. However, it may require updating in the next three years to expands coverage particularly the diversity of the subject matter covered, illustrations, and invariably to bring new content into the chapters.

The text is ready friendly, written in straightforward accessible prose. The definitions of terminologies accurate and simplified for readers to grasp the concepts quickly.

A consistent template runs through the chapters.

However, there is an issue with consistency when "iconoclasm" is used as a sub-heading but not mentioned again in the body of the text.It also does not appear in the list of terms of reference. Consistency issue with the way a culture's location is referenced: Benin is in Nigeria, West Africa and not just Africa as presented in the text on page 232. It is somewhat appropriately referenced in previous pages.

Consistency issue with the spelling of terracotta (pages 273-4, and 277)

Excellent compartmentalization, though I find the many sub-headings a bit problematic.

The structure of the book is very well organized. The topics are presented in logical sequence.

The interface appears many and a bit distracting. The links interspersed in the text forces the reader to go in and out of the text to check images being compared with those embedded in the text. It would have been more effective if these were readily accessible in the text for immediate comparison. No evidence of overtly distorted images (Perhaps Figure 10.37?). However, some of them could be improved for clarity (Figure 10.48 and 10.49).

No grammatical errors but there are typos.

The text could do with some examples of ideas and images about diverse cultures that the learner in the introductory class can later build upon.

Nothing beyond the outlined responses to other questions in this review.

Reviewed by Stephanie Wirt, ACA Art History Adjunct Professor, Reynolds Community College on 2/8/17

This text does cover the material its title implies at an introductory level. More depth could be used in some areas. In the chapter on describing art some major stylistic movements were omitted. The approach to describing art changes relevant to the time period and that is not addressed here by omitting some of the major Art movements like Impressionism, Cubism, Realism, photography and digital imagine.

All external Links work Information is accurate but seems to lack in depth in some areas. The artwork shown is primarily from the western world and the art of dead white men. In choosing which art to include as examples more diversity in artists’ ethnicity and gender should be included for a more balanced and realistic scope of art

The technical content of the text is up – to – date. The information as far as approaches to understanding art in general don’t change. Many of the artworks used to illustrate concepts are well known and appear in many standard art history textbooks. However, the lack of contemporary art examples makes some of the content less relevant to the life of the contemporary student. Art, how and why its made) is changing and this text does not necessarily address how to understand new practices in art

The text is clearly written in an easy to understand format.

The format, vocabulary and tone of writing is consistent throughout the text.

a. Each chapter is broken down into subsection that focus on a specific aspect of the overall chapter theme. b. Sections could be combined for instructional purposes c. Sections are brief enough to allow for quick coverage but also leave room for individual teacher adjustments to focus more time and discussion on specific concepts

a. The topics and objectives of each chapter are clear and flow in a logical format. While there could be an argument for some readjustment of chapter ordering, it progresses in a thoughtful format.

o This is a pdf text that can be downloaded to computer or tablet form the web. This allows students access to the main content without having to have internet for most of the content. o The outside links to artworks are necessary to view significant artwork that is not in the creative commons directly at this point. However over time that will change as the original artist dies and time has passed from the date of its creation.

The book's grammar is written using correct English.

The text does not show any outright bias against any specific cultural, racial or ethnic groups. However they are not many examples of non-western art or artists or women artists within the examples provided within the book. This is not unusual for many art survey books but there is a new movement in art education to expand the examples of art to include more people of color and women as well as more diversity in cultural arts within educational texts.

o This book is a good introductory text for a basic art survey class. It doesn’t go into depth in art history or studio practices but it does present a basic knowledgebase for understanding art in general and how to interpret and appreciate a variety of elements of art. o A teacher using this text would want to supplement the reading with practical studio experiences to give students a better understanding of some of the media and techniques presented in the book as well as an opportunity to practice the methods of analyzing artworks with more contemporary artworks.

Reviewed by RADFORD THOMAS, Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF ART, VIRGINIA WESTERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE on 2/8/17

Content adequately covers the subjects it purports to include. However, there is no comprehensive index. A brief list of Key Terms is included within each chapter. These lists are barely adequate and probably confusing to neophyte students with no art background. For instance, in 1.9 KEY TERMS, p.30, Icon is described primarily as often religious. “Icon”, in art, may have multiple meanings according to the culture that produced the artifact and its use by those members of that group. As an example, the image of “Isis” is an icon found throughout Egyptian culture with various “religious” as well as “power” and other cultural meanings. This criticism can be directed to all KEY TERMS lists in the text to some extent.

Illustrations appear to be consistent with the knowledge base of the written text. In other words, illustrations fit the need and are usually of good quality and reference the dialog effectively. Titles are included for each image along with the artist/author and sources where appropriate. Missing are important notes about media, method, size, and date alongside the illustration. Non-art students are wont to go to the trouble of looking up this important information.

Some KEY TERMS terminology is lacking in completeness or accuracy. Perhaps it is because the editors wished to make definitions simple, too simple. Bias is toward pleasing everyone while skimming over important iconographic details of the art forms examined. Dialog needs to be aimed at describing the iconographic content of art rather than ancillary historic events.

Content appears to be current in a way that will not make the text out-of-date within a normal time period. Updates, except for items that need immediate attention, should be easy to implement.

This text is actually written in a student-oriented manner that makes a connection between current student populations and information required to cover the subject matter. Applause to the editors.

This text is consistent with overall use of terms and organizational framework. Iconographic statements should be revised so they are accurate and clearly defined to explain the focus, use, and understanding of the art.

This text is divided into eleven rather arbitrary chapters. Editors chose these topics to somehow relate not only to history of art but to serious ways of making art. So this text is not aimed at teaching students about the why of art but about the construction of art. This makes it an art appreciation text, not an art history text. The format does not flow historically but topically.

It is difficult for the novice student to follow these disjointed chapters to a conclusion about what art really is. Each module or chapter is an end in itself and does not develop a cohesive theme about art itself. The Art and Ethics chapter is particularly misguided. This chapter’s content should be placed alongside relevant art objects and discussed in relation to that art.

Text is rife with various and confusing imagery placed next to each other making it difficult for the beginning art historian to make sense of it. There is a lack of cohesive structure throughout the text with a few exceptions. One example is the discussion of “porphyry” in chapter three. This dialog goes from the Sarcophagus of Constantina to the Palace Chapel of Aachen with no real discussion of how valuable materials are used for iconographic purposes. It then goes on to explain a "mausolea" for some reason.

In addition, I find reading the book difficult because it does not use two columns as a standard interface. It uses only a single column throughout the text.

I find no essential grammatical errors or problems.

Text is very inclusive and comprehensive in this matter.

In chapter five I found the Key Concepts very well written and useful to students

It is strange that there is a chapter on Architecture alone as an art form. Photography? or Painting? or Sculpture? or Ceramics? or Weaving...

Reviewed by Renee Garris, Adjunct Professor, J Sargent Reynolds Community College on 2/8/17

The text covers Art in a thematic approach. It explains concepts in an easy to understand manner. read more

The text covers Art in a thematic approach. It explains concepts in an easy to understand manner.

The content is accurate and error-free.

The text is current and few sections would need updating.

The text is written is a manner that those who are new to art and art history can easily understand. There are definitions for words that are new for the readers.

The text is consistent in its use of terms and the framework in which it is written.

The text is written with smaller rather than larger sections and is follow throughout the chapters of the book.

There is a logical progression to the text.

It is free of distortion of images and the illustrations are clear.

It is free of grammar errors.

It is culturally sensitive without bias. It could use more examples of art from the non-Western world for some sections to provide better balance.

Enjoyable read and could be used alone or with supplemental material.

Reviewed by Deborah Cibelli, Professor , Nicholls State University on 12/5/16

The text is organized thematically and does not offer a chronological survey of the history of art. Chapters discuss forms and materials, the processes of describing and interpreting art, aesthetics, architectural form, art and identity, art and power, art and ritual, and art and ethics. These topics are all covered effectively. Chapters include examples of Western and non-Western art and architecture and offer many comparisons of art from different cultures. While there is no index, the reader may refer to the chapter titles and the glossaries found at the end of each chapter.

The factual information provided is accurate, does not contain errors and is sensitive to world views.

The themes that have been selected are well chosen and will remain relevant so that the text will not require constant revision. However, the URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) or web addresses for different web sites may change over time and the authors may want to update the text by adding examples of contemporary art.

The text discusses complex ideas in a clear and concise manner. Terms used in each chapter are clearly defined in the text and in the chapter glossaries.

Each chapter covers material outlined in the table of contents and the introductory chapter. Each chapter also has a summary of key concepts and reinforces the themes developed throughout the text.

The chapters and sections within the chapters are clearly delineated. There are on average, eight sections in every chapter, making it easy to divide the text into discrete units and easy to refer to specific topics.

The themes and ideas covered in the text are clearly delineated. There are clear transitions from section to section and from one idea to the next.

The illustrations are clearly numbered and referenced in the text. The images are from public domain sources on the web and are identified as such. It would be helpful to have dates for the images and references to the museums where the art objects are located either in the text or as additional information added to the labels for the images.

There are few grammatical errors. There are a few typographical errors such as misspellings of memento mori on page 98, of Edgar Allan Poe on page 214, and of iconoclasm on page 246.

The text compares works of art from different cultures and seems inclusive, objective, and balanced in terms of the items included and the content.

The text departs from standard introductory surveys by referring to objects from different cultures and historical periods that have been selected to illustrate the myriad functions of art, that is, art as map, religious work, “secular icon”, etc. Material is organized thematically rather than chronologically using a comparative model. The chapters on forms, materials, description, symbolic interpretation, aesthetics, architectural form, identity, power, ritual, and ethics, also encourage the reader to make connections to contemporary art and culture. Key concepts are reviewed in the chapter summaries and each chapter has a list of questions that can be used by the student to review the material as well as a glossary of key terms. The chapters on forms and materials support the study of art based on media. In the discussion of interpretive methods, the reader also gains insight into the role of the viewer as well as the artist in determining meaning and is asked to consider the continued relevance of artistic expression. The book could be adapted for teaching a more conventional survey of art if sections are assigned based on content. Chapter 10 on art and ritual, for example, largely follows a historical trajectory that begins with Stonehenge and examines architectural forms in Hawaii and Japan before discussing the sacred spaces and art of the medieval period that have been produced in different media. The strength of this work is that students are asked to make comparisons. They are also asked to think contextually about global art.

Chapter One: What is Art?
Chapter Two: The Structure of Art
Chapter Three: Significance of Materials Used in Art
Chapter Four: Describing Art
Chapter Five: Meaning in Art
Chapter Six: Connecting Art to Our Lives
Chapter Seven: Form in Architecture
Chapter Eight: Art and Identity
Chapter Nine: Art and Power
Chapter Ten: Art and Ritual Life
Chapter Eleven: Art and Ethics

Ancillary Material

Ancillary materials are available by contacting the author or publisher .

About the Book

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses. Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students' educational experiences beyond the textbook. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making it an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.

About the Contributors

Pamela Sachant is an art history professor at North Georgia College & State University located in Dahlonega, Georgia.

Peggy Blood is Director of Confucius Institute and Full Professor in the Department of Fine Arts Humanities & Wellness. Prior to SSU she Directed satellite campuses (Fairfield &Travis AFD) for Chapman Universities in California. Her area of specialization is Fine Arts, Higher Education & Administration. She is a Fulbright Specialist & Fulbright Specialist Program Peer Reviewer, and reviewer for other academic fellowships and scholarships. Blood is a visiting scholar at Jiujiang University in Jiujiang, China.

Jeffery A. LeMieux is Professor Emeritus of Art at the College of Coastal Georgia. He is a practicing artist with works in private and public collections including the University System of Georgia Board of Regents and the College of Coastal Georgia. He holds an M.F.A in 2D Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.S. in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. His area of specialization is college level art foundations and art appreciation which he has been teaching for over 20 years.

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Visual Analysis: How to Analyze a Painting and Write an Essay

A visual analysis essay is an entry-level essay sometimes taught in high school and early university courses. Both communications and art history students use visual analysis to understand art and other visual messages. In our article, we will define the term and give an in-depth guide on how to look at a piece of art and write a visual analysis essay. Stay tuned until the end for a handy visual analysis essay example from our graduate paper writing service .

What Is Visual Analysis?

Visual analysis is essential in studying Communication, English, and Art History. It's a fundamental part of writing about art found in scholarly books, art magazines, and even undergraduate essays. You might encounter a visual analysis as a standalone assignment or as part of a larger research paper.

When you do this type of assignment, you're examining the basic elements of an artwork. These include things like its colors, lines, textures, and size. But it goes beyond just describing these elements. A good analysis also considers the historical context in which the artwork was created and tries to understand what it might mean to different people.

It also encourages you to look closely at details and think deeply about what an artwork is trying to say. This kind of analysis makes you appreciate art more and teaches you how to explain your ideas clearly based on what you see in the artwork.

What is the Purpose of Visual Analysis?

The purpose of a visual analysis is to recognize and understand the visual choices the artist made in creating the artwork. By looking closely at different elements, analysts can learn a lot about how an artwork was made and why the artist made certain choices.

For example, studying how colors are used or how things are arranged in the artwork can reveal its themes or the emotions it's trying to convey. Also, understanding the time period when the artwork was created helps us see how societal changes and cultural ideas influenced its creation and how people reacted to it.

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How to Write a Visual Analysis Step-by-Step

To create an insightful visual analysis, you should not only examine the artwork in detail but also situate it within a broader cultural and historical framework. This process can be broken down into three main steps:

Identifying, describing, and analyzing the visual material
Situating the visual material in its context
Interpreting and responding to the content of the visual material.

Let’s discuss each of these steps in more detail.

Step 1: Identify, Describe, and Analyze the Visual Material

Begin by clearly identifying the visual material you will analyze. This could be a painting, photograph, sculpture, advertisement, or any other visual artwork. Provide essential information such as the title, artist, date, and medium.

Next, offer a detailed description of the visual material. Focus on the key elements and principles of design, such as:

Composition

Describe what you see without interpreting its meaning yet. For instance, note the use of bright colors, the placement of objects, the presence of figures, and the overall layout. This descriptive part forms the foundation of your analysis, allowing your reader to visualize the artwork.

Afterward, consider how the artist uses elements like contrast, balance, emphasis, movement, and harmony. Analyze the techniques and methods used and how they contribute to the overall effect of the piece.

Step 2: Situate the Visual Material in its Context

To fully understand a piece of visual material, you need to consider its historical and cultural context. Start by researching the time period when the artwork was created. Look at the social, political, and economic conditions of that time, and see if there were any cultural movements that might have influenced the artwork.

Next, learn about the artist and their reasons for creating the visual material. Find out about the artist's life, other works they have made, and any statements they have made about this piece. Knowing the artist’s background can give you valuable insights into the artwork's purpose and message.

Finally, think about how the visual material was received by people when it was first shown and how it has impacted others over time. Look for reviews and public reactions, and see if it influenced other works or movements. This will help you understand the significance of the visual material in the larger cultural and artistic context.

Step 3: Interpret and Respond to the Content of the Visual Material

Now, combine your description, analysis, and understanding of the context to interpret what the visual material means. Talk about the themes, symbols, and messages the artwork conveys. Think about what it reveals about human experiences, society, or specific issues. Use evidence from earlier steps to support your interpretation.

Afterward, consider your own reaction to the visual material. How does it personally resonate with you? What emotions or thoughts does it provoke? Your personal response adds a subjective aspect to your analysis, making it more relatable.

Finally, summarize your findings and emphasize the importance of the visual material. Highlight key aspects from your identification, description, analysis, context, and interpretation. Then, it concludes by reinforcing the impact and significance of the visual material in both its original setting and its enduring influence.

Who Does Formal Analysis of Art

Most people who face visual analysis essays are Communication, English, and Art History students. Communications students explore mediums such as theater, print media, news, films, photos — basically anything. Comm is basically a giant, all-encompassing major where visual analysis is synonymous with Tuesday.

Art History students study the world of art to understand how it developed. They do visual analysis with every painting they look it at and discuss it in class.

English Literature students perform visual analysis too. Every writer paints an image in the head of their reader. This image, like a painting, can be clear, or purposefully unclear. It can be factual, to the point, or emotional and abstract like Ulysses, challenging you to search your emotions rather than facts and realities.

6 Questions to Answer Before Analyzing a Piece of Art

According to our experienced term paper writer , there are six important questions to ask before you start analyzing a piece of art. Answering these questions can make writing your analysis much easier:

Who is the artist, and what type of art do they create? - To place the artwork in context, you should identify the artist and understand the type of art they create.
What was the artist's goal in creating this painting? - Determine why the artist created the artwork. Was it to convey a message, evoke emotions, or explore a theme?
When and where was this artwork made? - Knowing the time and place of creation helps understand the cultural and historical influences on the artwork.
What is the main focus or theme of this artwork? - Identify what the artwork is about. This could be a person, place, object, or abstract concept.
Who was the artwork created for? - To provide insight into its style and content, consider who the artist intended to reach with their work.
What historical events or cultural factors influenced this painting? - Understanding the historical background can reveal more about the significance and meaning of the artwork.

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Elements of the Visual Analysis

To fully grasp formal analysis, it's important to differentiate between the elements and principles of visual analysis. The elements are the basic building blocks used to create a piece of art. These include:

Art Element 🎨	Description 📝
✏️Line	A mark with length and direction, which can define shapes, create textures, and suggest movement.
🌗Value	The lightness or darkness of a color, which helps to create depth and contrast.
🔶Shapes	Two-dimensional areas with a defined boundary, such as circles, squares, and triangles.
🔲Forms	Three-dimensional objects with volume and thickness, like cubes, spheres, and cylinders.
🌌Space	The area around, between, and within objects, which can be used to create the illusion of depth.
🌈Color	The hues, saturation, and brightness in artwork, used to create mood and visual interest.
🖐️Texture	The surface quality of an object, which can be actual (how it feels) or implied (how it looks like it feels).

Principles of the Visual Analysis

The principles, on the other hand, are how these elements are combined and used together to create the overall effect of the artwork. These principles include:

Principle of Art 🎨	Description 📝
⚖️Balance	The distribution of visual weight in a composition, which can be symmetrical or asymmetrical.
🌗Contrast	The difference between elements, such as light and dark, to create visual interest.
🏃‍♂️Movement	The suggestion or illusion of motion in an artwork, guiding the viewer’s eye through the piece.
🎯Emphasis	The creation of a focal point to draw attention to a particular area or element.
🔄Pattern	The repetition of elements to create a sense of rhythm and consistency.
📏Proportion	The relationship in size between different parts of an artwork, contributing to its harmony.
🔗Unity	The sense of cohesiveness in an artwork, where all elements and principles work together effectively.

Visual Analysis Outline

It’s safe to use the five-paragraph essay structure for your visual analysis essay. If you are looking at a painting, take the most important aspects of it that stand out to you and discuss them in relation to your thesis.

In the introduction, you should:

Introduce the Artwork : Mention the title, artist, date, and medium of the artwork.
Provide a Brief Description : Offer a general overview of what the artwork depicts.
State the Purpose : Explain the goal of your analysis and what aspects you will focus on.
Thesis Statement : Present a clear thesis statement that outlines your main argument or interpretation of the artwork.

The body of the visual analysis is where you break down the visual material into its component parts and examine each one in detail. This section should be structured logically, with each paragraph focusing on a specific element or aspect of the visual material.

Description: Start with a detailed description of the visual material. Describe what you see without interpreting or analyzing it yet. Mention elements such as color, line, shape, texture, space, and composition. For instance, if analyzing a painting, describe the subject matter, the arrangement of figures, the use of light and shadow, etc.
Analysis of Visual Elements: Analyze how each visual element contributes to the overall effect of the material. Discuss the use of color (e.g., warm or cool tones, contrasts, harmonies), the role of lines (e.g., leading lines, contours), the shapes (e.g., geometric, organic), and the texture (e.g., smooth, rough). Consider how these elements work together to create a certain mood or message.
Contextual Analysis: Examine how the context in which the visual material was created and is being viewed influences its interpretation. This includes historical, cultural, social, and political factors. Discuss how these contextual elements impact the meaning and reception of the visual material.
Interpretation: Discuss your interpretation of the visual material. Explain how the visual elements and contextual factors contribute to the meaning you derive from it. Support your interpretation with specific examples from the material.
Comparative Analysis (if applicable): If relevant, compare the visual material with other works by the same creator or with similar works by different creators. Highlight similarities and differences in style, technique, and thematic content.

The conclusion of a visual analysis essay summarizes the main points of the analysis and restates the thesis in light of the evidence presented.

Restate Thesis: Reiterate your thesis statement in a way that reflects the depth of your analysis. Show how your understanding of the visual material has been supported by your detailed examination.
Summary of Main Points: Summarize the key points of your analysis. Highlight the most important findings and insights.
Implications: Discuss the broader implications of your analysis. What does your analysis reveal about the visual material? How does it contribute to our understanding of the creator's work, the time period, or the cultural context?
Closing Thought: End with a final thought that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. This could be a reflection on the significance of the visual material, a question for further consideration, or a statement about its impact on you or on a broader audience.

If you want a more in-depth look at the classic essay structure, feel free to visit our 5 PARAGRAPH ESSAY blog.

Visual Analysis Example

In this section, we've laid out two examples of visual analysis essays to show you how it's done effectively. Get inspired and learn from them!

Key Takeaways

Visual analysis essays are fundamental early in your communications and art history studies. Learning how to formally break down art is key, whether you're pursuing a career in art or communications.

Before jumping into analysis, get a solid grasp of the painter's background and life. Analyzing a painting isn't just for fun, as you need to pay attention to the small details the painter might have hidden. Knowing how to do this kind of assignment not only helps you appreciate art more but also lets you deeply understand the media messages you encounter every day.

If you enjoyed this article and found it insightful, make sure to also check out the summary of Lord of the Flies and an article on Beowulf characters .

If you read the whole article and still have no idea how to start your visual analysis essay, let a professional writer do this job for you. Contact us, and we’ll write your work for a higher grade you deserve. All college essay service requests are processed fast.

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What are the 4 Steps of Visual Analysis?

How to write a formal visual analysis, what is the function of visual analysis.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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Duke University. (n.d.). Visual Analysis . https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/visual-analysis.original.pdf
Glatstein, J. (2019, December 9). Formal Visual Analysis: The Elements & Principles of Composition . Www.kennedy-Center.org. https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/articles-and-how-tos/articles/educators/visual-arts/formal-visual-analysis-the-elements-and-principles-of-compositoin/
MADA: Visual analysis . (n.d.). Student Academic Success. https://www.monash.edu/student-academic-success/excel-at-writing/annotated-assessment-samples/art-design-and-architecture/mada-visual-analysis

How to Write a Music Essay: Topics and Examples

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Art History Analysis – Formal Analysis and Stylistic Analysis

Typically in an art history class the main essay students will need to write for a final paper or for an exam is a formal or stylistic analysis.

A formal analysis is just what it sounds like – you need to analyze the form of the artwork. This includes the individual design elements – composition, color, line, texture, scale, contrast, etc. Questions to consider in a formal analysis is how do all these elements come together to create this work of art? Think of formal analysis in relation to literature – authors give descriptions of characters or places through the written word. How does an artist convey this same information?

Organize your information and focus on each feature before moving onto the text – it is not ideal to discuss color and jump from line to then in the conclusion discuss color again. First summarize the overall appearance of the work of art – is this a painting? Does the artist use only dark colors? Why heavy brushstrokes? etc and then discuss details of the object – this specific animal is gray, the sky is missing a moon, etc. Again, it is best to be organized and focused in your writing – if you discuss the animals and then the individuals and go back to the animals you run the risk of making your writing unorganized and hard to read. It is also ideal to discuss the focal of the piece – what is in the center? What stands out the most in the piece or takes up most of the composition?

A stylistic approach can be described as an indicator of unique characteristics that analyzes and uses the formal elements (2-D: Line, color, value, shape and 3-D all of those and mass).The point of style is to see all the commonalities in a person’s works, such as the use of paint and brush strokes in Van Gogh’s work. Style can distinguish an artist’s work from others and within their own timeline, geographical regions, etc.

Methods & Theories To Consider:

Expressionism

Instructuralism

Postmodernism

Social Art History

Biographical Approach

Poststructuralism

Museum Studies

Visual Cultural Studies

Stylistic Analysis Example:

The following is a brief stylistic analysis of two Greek statues, an example of how style has changed because of the “essence of the age.” Over the years, sculptures of women started off as being plain and fully clothed with no distinct features, to the beautiful Venus/Aphrodite figures most people recognize today. In the mid-seventh century to the early fifth, life-sized standing marble statues of young women, often elaborately dress in gaily painted garments were created known as korai. The earliest korai is a Naxian women to Artemis. The statue wears a tight-fitted, belted peplos, giving the body a very plain look. The earliest korai wore the simpler Dorian peplos, which was a heavy woolen garment. From about 530, most wear a thinner, more elaborate, and brightly painted Ionic linen and himation. A largely contrasting Greek statue to the korai is the Venus de Milo. The Venus from head to toe is six feet seven inches tall. Her hips suggest that she has had several children. Though her body shows to be heavy, she still seems to almost be weightless. Viewing the Venus de Milo, she changes from side to side. From her right side she seems almost like a pillar and her leg bears most of the weight. She seems be firmly planted into the earth, and since she is looking at the left, her big features such as her waist define her. The Venus de Milo had a band around her right bicep. She had earrings that were brutally stolen, ripping her ears away. Venus was noted for loving necklaces, so it is very possibly she would have had one. It is also possible she had a tiara and bracelets. Venus was normally defined as “golden,” so her hair would have been painted. Two statues in the same region, have throughout history, changed in their style.

Compare and Contrast Essay

Most introductory art history classes will ask students to write a compare and contrast essay about two pieces – examples include comparing and contrasting a medieval to a renaissance painting. It is always best to start with smaller comparisons between the two works of art such as the medium of the piece. Then the comparison can include attention to detail so use of color, subject matter, or iconography. Do the same for contrasting the two pieces – start small. After the foundation is set move on to the analysis and what these comparisons or contrasting material mean – ‘what is the bigger picture here?’ Consider why one artist would wish to show the same subject matter in a different way, how, when, etc are all questions to ask in the compare and contrast essay. If during an exam it would be best to quickly outline the points to make before tackling writing the essay.

Compare and Contrast Example:

Stele of Hammurabi from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), ca. 1792 – 1750 BCE, Basalt, height of stele approx. 7’ height of relief 28’

Stele, relief sculpture, Art as propaganda – Hammurabi shows that his law code is approved by the gods, depiction of land in background, Hammurabi on the same place of importance as the god, etc.

Top of this stele shows the relief image of Hammurabi receiving the law code from Shamash, god of justice, Code of Babylonian social law, only two figures shown, different area and time period, etc.

Stele of Naram-sin , Sippar Found at Susa c. 2220 - 2184 bce. Limestone, height 6'6"

Stele, relief sculpture, Example of propaganda because the ruler (like the Stele of Hammurabi) shows his power through divine authority, Naramsin is the main character due to his large size, depiction of land in background, etc.

Akkadian art, made of limestone, the stele commemorates a victory of Naramsin, multiple figures are shown specifically soldiers, different area and time period, etc.

Iconography

Regardless of what essay approach you take in class it is absolutely necessary to understand how to analyze the iconography of a work of art and to incorporate into your paper. Iconography is defined as subject matter, what the image means. For example, why do things such as a small dog in a painting in early Northern Renaissance paintings represent sexuality? Additionally, how can an individual perhaps identify these motifs that keep coming up?

The following is a list of symbols and their meaning in Marriage a la Mode by William Hogarth (1743) that is a series of six paintings that show the story of marriage in Hogarth’s eyes.

Man has pockets turned out symbolizing he has lost money and was recently in a fight by the state of his clothes.
Lap dog shows loyalty but sniffs at woman’s hat in the husband’s pocket showing sexual exploits.
Black dot on husband’s neck believed to be symbol of syphilis.
Mantel full of ugly Chinese porcelain statues symbolizing that the couple has no class.
Butler had to go pay bills, you can tell this by the distasteful look on his face and that his pockets are stuffed with bills and papers.
Card game just finished up, women has directions to game under foot, shows her easily cheating nature.
Paintings of saints line a wall of the background room, isolated from the living, shows the couple’s complete disregard to faith and religion.
The dangers of sexual excess are underscored in the Hograth by placing Cupid among ruins, foreshadowing the inevitable ruin of the marriage.
Eventually the series (other five paintings) shows that the woman has an affair, the men duel and die, the woman hangs herself and the father takes her ring off her finger symbolizing the one thing he could salvage from the marriage.

The Value of Art Why should we care about art?

One of the first questions raised when talking about art is simple—why should we care? Art in the contemporary era is easy to dismiss as a selfish pastime for people who have too much time on their hands. Creating art doesn't cure disease, build roads, or feed the poor. So to understand the value of art, let’s look at how art has been valued through history and consider how it is valuable today.

The value of creating

At its most basic level, the act of creating is rewarding in itself. Children draw for the joy of it before they can speak, and creating pictures, sculptures and writing is both a valuable means of communicating ideas and simply fun. Creating is instinctive in humans, for the pleasure of exercising creativity. While applied creativity is valueable in a work context, free-form creativity leads to new ideas.

Material value

Through the ages, art has often been created from valuable materials. Gold , ivory and gemstones adorn medieval crowns , and even the paints used by renaissance artists were made from rare materials like lapis lazuli , ground into pigment. These objects have creative value for their beauty and craftsmanship, but they are also intrinsically valuable because of the materials they contain.

Historical value

Artwork is a record of cultural history. Many ancient cultures are entirely lost to time except for the artworks they created, a legacy that helps us understand our human past. Even recent work can help us understand the lives and times of its creators, like the artwork of African-American artists during the Harlem Renaissance . Artwork is inextricably tied to the time and cultural context it was created in, a relationship called zeitgeist , making art a window into history.

Religious value

For religions around the world, artwork is often used to illustrate their beliefs. Depicting gods and goddesses, from Shiva to the Madonna , make the concepts of faith real to the faithful. Artwork has been believed to contain the spirits of gods or ancestors, or may be used to imbue architecture with an aura of awe and worship like the Badshahi Mosque .

Patriotic value

Art has long been a source of national pride, both as an example of the skill and dedication of a country’s artisans and as expressions of national accomplishments and history, like the Arc de Triomphe , a heroic monument honoring the soldiers who died in the Napoleonic Wars. The patriotic value of art slides into propaganda as well, used to sway the populace towards a political agenda.

Symbolic value

Art is uniquely suited to communicating ideas. Whether it’s writing or painting or sculpture, artwork can distill complex concepts into symbols that can be understood, even sometimes across language barriers and cultures. When art achieves symbolic value it can become a rallying point for a movement, like J. Howard Miller’s 1942 illustration of Rosie the Riveter, which has become an icon of feminism and women’s economic impact across the western world.

Societal value

And here’s where the rubber meets the road: when we look at our world today, we see a seemingly insurmountable wave of fear, bigotry, and hatred expressed by groups of people against anyone who is different from them. While issues of racial and gender bias, homophobia and religious intolerance run deep, and have many complex sources, much of the problem lies with a lack of empathy. When you look at another person and don't see them as human, that’s the beginning of fear, violence and war. Art is communication. And in the contemporary world, it’s often a deeply personal communication. When you create art, you share your worldview, your history, your culture and yourself with the world. Art is a window, however small, into the human struggles and stories of all people. So go see art, find art from other cultures, other religions, other orientations and perspectives. If we learn about each other, maybe we can finally see that we're all in this together. Art is a uniquely human expression of creativity. It helps us understand our past, people who are different from us, and ultimately, ourselves.

Reed Enger, "The Value of Art, Why should we care about art?," in Obelisk Art History , Published June 24, 2017; last modified November 08, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/essays/the-value-of-art/.

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Home Essay Samples

Essay Samples on Art

While it may seem easy to compose essays about art, it’s not really so because you have to offer background information in your introduction part and explain why some exhibition or a school of thought is important. This should go to your first paragraph because your purpose is to inspire your readers and provide enough background information. When you already have a prompt that must be followed, determine what kind of essay must be written. It can be a descriptive essay, which is great for a description of the works of art or photography. Some other cases may require working with an explanatory tone where you have to explain why an artist has chosen certain palettes or what has been an inspiration. See various free art essay examples below for inspiration. It also helps to learn how to structure your writing and implement quotes or footnotes that are used to highlight the images. Remember to focus on the ways how to cite images and multimedia elements, depending on the chosen style. Your writing should address every image that you have by checking twice with the grading rubric to ensure that you use the sources that may have already been specified.

What Does Creativity Mean to You

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ARTS - Herzberg: Writing Essays About Art

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Writing Essays About Art
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What is a Compare and Contrast Essay?

What is a compare / contrast essay.

In Art History and Appreciation, contrast / compare essays allow us to examine the features of two or more artworks.

Comparison -- points out similarities in the two artworks
Contrast -- points out the differences in the two artworks

Why would you want to write this type of essay?

To inform your reader about characteristics of each art piece.
To show a relationship between different works of art.
To give your reader an insight into the process of artistic invention.
Use your assignment sheet from your class to find specific characteristics that your professor wants you to compare.

How is Writing a Compare / Contrast Essay in Art History Different from Other Subjects?

You should use art vocabulary to describe your subjects..

Find art terms in your textbook or an art glossary or dictionary

You should have an image of the works you are writing about in front of you while you are writing your essay.

The images should be of high enough quality that you can see the small details of the works.
You will use them when describing visual details of each art work.

Works of art are highly influenced by the culture, historical time period and movement in which they were created.

You should gather information about these BEFORE you start writing your essay.

If you describe a characteristic of one piece of art, you must describe how the OTHER piece of art treats that characteristic.

Example: You are comparing a Greek amphora with a sculpture from the Tang Dynasty in China.

If you point out that the color palette of the amphora is limited to black, white and red, you must also write about the colors used in the horse sculpture.

Organizing Your Essay

Thesis statement.

The thesis for a comparison/contrast essay will present the subjects under consideration and indicate whether the focus will be on their similarities, on their differences, or both.

Thesis example using the amphora and horse sculpture -- Differences:

While they are both made from clay, the Greek amphora and the Tang Dynasty horse served completely different functions in their respective cultures.

Thesis example -- Similarities:

Ancient Greek and Tang Dynasty ceramics have more in common than most people realize.

Thesis example -- Both:

The Greek amphora and the Tang Dynasty horse were used in different ways in different parts of the world, but they have similarities that may not be apparent to the casual viewer.

Visualizing a Compare & Contrast Essay:

Introduction (1-2 paragraphs) .

Creates interest in your essay
Introduces the two art works that you will be comparing.
States your thesis, which mentions the art works you are considering and may indicate whether the focus will be on similarities, differences, or both.

Body paragraphs

Make and explain a point about the first subject and then about the second subject
Example: While both superheroes fight crime, their motivation is vastly different. Superman is an idealist, who fights for justice …… while Batman is out for vengeance.

Conclusion (1-2 paragraphs)

Provides a satisfying finish
Leaves your reader with a strong final impression.

Downloadable Essay Guide

How to Write a Compare and Contrast Essay in Art History Downloadable version of the description on this LibGuide.

Questions to Ask Yourself After You Have Finished Your Essay

Are all the important points of comparison or contrast included and explained in enough detail?
Have you addressed all points that your professor specified in your assignment?
Do you use transitions to connect your arguments so that your essay flows into a coherent whole, rather than just a random collection of statements?
Do your arguments support your thesis statement?

Art Terminology

British National Gallery: Art Glossary Includes entries on artists, art movements, techniques, etc.

Lee College Writing Center

Writing Center tutors can help you with any writing assignment for any class from the time you receive the assignment instructions until you turn it in, including:

Brainstorming ideas
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Thesis statements
Second set of eyes before turning in

Contact a tutor:

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Other Compare / Contrast Writing Resources

Southwestern University Guide for Writing About Art This easy to follow guide explains the basic of writing an art history paper.
Purdue Online Writing Center: writing essays in art history Describes how to write an art history Compare and Contrast paper.
Stanford University: a brief guide to writing in art history See page 24 of this document for an explanation of how to write a compare and contrast essay in art history.
Duke University: writing about paintings Downloadable handout provides an overview of areas you should cover when you write about paintings, including a list of questions your essay should answer.
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Writing About Art

Introduction

This text is intended to help students improve their ability to write about visual things. I explain the most common types of analysis used by art historians and a little bit about how these methods developed. This is not a history of art history, however, nor is it an introduction to the theory and methods of art history. Major scholars are not mentioned and complicated ideas have been presented only in terms relevant to their practical application. It also is not a guide to learning how to look at art. For that, Joshua Taylor’s Learning to Look remains unsurpassed. 3

Almost all of my examples come from texts written in English. Translations change exactly what is of greatest interest here: the words and concepts used by good writers about art. Furthermore, there is a history to the language used in English by art historians. Sometimes this has shaped the meaning of a term, occasionally in significant ways. A few examples will be discussed below. Even in their use of ordinary words, however, these writers can serve as models. Their vocabulary and ideas offer a wealth of contributions to the internal resources upon which we all draw when we write. The more developed these resources are, the more fluent and expressive writing based upon them will be.

Painting, sculpture, and architecture have been considered the major forms of the fine arts during much of the Western tradition. They have attracted many of the most ambitious artists and, consequently, more attention from art historians. Architecture, however, like video and electronic mediums, requires a specialized descriptive and analytical vocabulary. Just as the art historical methods I explain are the ones most commonly used, so the forms of art discussed in the passages I have selected are those most frequently covered in art history courses. For the same reason, most of the art analyzed in the text comes from the West.

I have not included any reproductions, in the hope that more attention will be given to the passages quoted. Glancing at a picture and then skimming text about it is not the same as trying to create a mental image of something from words alone. The absence of illustrations also should make it easier for each reader to decide which words seem particularly effective in communicating information about visual things. However, I have given enough information about each work so that a picture of it can be found without difficulty. Many of them will be familiar from art history surveys.

Another editorial decision I made was to cite the names of the authors quoted within my text. The normal practice of putting that information in the notes makes it easier for the reader, who is given a smoothly flowing argument instead of one constantly interrupted by names and book titles. Here, however, since my subject is writing, identifying the writer with the passage seemed useful. The most important art historians of the past have birth and death dates in parentheses after the first mention of their names.

This is a guide to writing about art, not to writing itself. It is no substitute for a book like The Elements of Style , the classic but still inspiring text by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. 4 Nonetheless, I would like to begin with a few fundamental principles. Paragraphs should be the basic organizing unit of any essay. Each one should develop a single idea, introduced at the beginning of the paragraph by a topic sentence. The paragraphs should be organized so that the ideas follow one another in a logical sequence. This means that the topic sentences should form an outline of what the writer intends to express. Sentences should be complete, and grammar and spelling must be correct. Words should convey the writer’s meaning as directly as possible.

The choice of which verb tenses to use must be consistent throughout a single piece of writing. My personal choice is to use the present tense for anything that still exists, like a work of art or a book, and the past tense for a completed action. In other words, Michelangelo sculpted David (because he did it centuries ago), but David shows Michelangelo's interest in the Classical conception of the nude male body (because it still does). This seems to me the most logical approach, although sometimes it leads to awkward phrasing. Many people use the present tense for both cases. In other words, Michelangelo uses the Classical conception of the nude male body in his sculpture David . Whatever the choice, it must be adhered to throughout any particular essay.

To be effective, a paper must be directed toward a single goal. The purpose matters to the writer and it matters to the reader, who will have expectations about what comes next based on what has been promised. Writing intended to evoke a vivid impression of a work of art has to present very different information from an interpretation of the subject that depends upon detailed historical arguments. For this reason, it is important to let the reader know as soon as possible what kind of analysis will follow. Every aspect of the paper should contribute to it.

Success is measured by how well the intended meaning has been communicated to the intended reader. There is no substitute for having someone read a draft, or for putting a paper aside and returning to revise it later. Even before that, though, a writer should try to assess the clarity and logic of the presentation. Underlining topic sentences to see if they really do outline the argument is helpful. Quickly sketching elements mentioned in a visual description is another revealing exercise. If there is no place in the drawing for a particular detail, it has been introduced at the wrong point in the essay or essential elements have been neglected. Most of all, the writer should be prepared to revise and revise and revise. Good papers never just happen.

Formal Analysis
Personal Style
Period Style
"Realistic"
The Biography
Iconographic Analysis
Historical Analysis
Bibliography
Appendix I: Writing the Paper
Appendix II: Citation Forms
Visual Description
Stylistic Analysis
Doing the Research
The First Draft
The Final Paper
About the Author

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Art Essay Writing Guide

By: Henrique Bertulino

Art Essay is a job that has primarily aesthetic or entertaining value. This term most often uses when referring to literary jobs. A literary and artistic career has primarily aesthetic or fun value. Thus, they are opposed to documentary or scientific positions, because, for the latter, the principal is cognitive value.

What Is an Art Essay?

What is a short art essay, choose your art topic, research your claims, provide visual analysis, offer clear analysis, how to start your art essay, and what to include, the body of your art essay, how to conclude your art essay, art essay topics examples, art essay outline example, general information, brief description, describe art elements, describe principles of design, opinions and conclusions.

The specificity of art jobs is that they often tell about events that seem to have taken place in a fictional world, with fictional characters. Sometimes a job of craft tells about people who exist or existed, but at the same time, the author of such an action can add fictional details.

The essay's concept is a unit of which concept defines as pictures, thoughts, and experiences that arise in the reader's imagination during the text's perception. All job aims at analyzing the situation of art through a system of images.

The artwork is a kind of art that shows us about the world in the form of poems, paintings, books. In scientific and artistic careers, cognitive information reveals through the plot, characteristics of illustrations, events, phenomena, and years of creation.

In terms of genre and thematic diversity, it is stories, cognitive tales, natural phenomena, historical events, outstanding personalities, discoveries in various fields of knowledge. Work with this text format aims to develop students' ability to find cognitive information, identify essential features, establish cause-and-effect relationships, and so on.

Art is a complex combination of artistic and professional qualities that determine the painter's job in literature. Art is directly related to creative freedom, originality, taste, a sense of proportion of the author in covering the topic.

The painter's process and the principles of each painter's art are based on life's realities. However, a creative idea is not limited to one fact, even if it is incredibly significant. The painter generalizes a specific phenomenon, distinguishes it from similar ones.

A high-level professional achieves the desired result due to thorough training, multiplied by the daily job - this is the highest manifestation of the craft embodied. A position of art is a complex unity of components that interconnect into a harmonious whole.

The work's ideological content finds its expression through a system of illustrations, which acts as its form, and the type of illustrations, in turn. With the help of the author's word, the student conveys the hero and the author language, which allows them to express the attitude to the world, to give it an assessment.

How Do You Write an Art Essay?

The author and the narrator's coincidence, bright and free expression of the author's "I."
Linguistic means are a way to convey the narrator's artistic image, emotional state, and mood.
The use of stylistic figures in the text includes metaphors, comparisons, metonymy, emotionally expressive vocabulary, and phraseological units. Create an art history research paper outline for convenience in the topic.
Versatility - the use of linguistic means of other styles (colloquial, journalistic) subordinate to the implementation of a creative intention. From these combinations, what is called the author's style is gradually formed.
Use of verbal polysemy - words are chosen to not only "draw" illustrations and put a hidden sense into them.
The artistic style aims to convey the author's emotions and create a mood and emotional mood in the reader.

It is important to pay sufficient attention to writing. It is good to write on any topic for a literature essay, and then a good grade is provided. It would help if you navigated in general directions; in this case, any item will be within our reach.

In addition to the ability to draw up a plan and express your thoughts, it is also essential to get acquainted with various literary jobs: to read. Compare and contrast essay topics on literature are closely related to literary jobs and require reading them.

You will need to refer to the characters and argue with facts from domestic and world writers' specific jobs. Read as much as possible, and then writing essays will not be a problem. Over time, the experience of presenting thoughts on a research paper in a structured form appears, then, on the contrary, any topic is understandable.

Avoid general wording. If the job talks about treason, this does not mean that this example will fit any topic of the direction. Claims must confirm the thesis, and the argument will answer the question of the definition of the concept.

You can use one claim, but in this case, it is necessary to give a full parsing of the job within the framework of the topic. It would help if you did not overload the essay with literary arguments, either for typing words or getting a good grade. As a rule, this only leads to disastrous consequences.

Use only the research work that you have read to support the thesis to avoid factual errors. Don't retell the piece. Parsing and your reasoning are needed. Each claim should support your argument, so the topic should make micro-conclusions.

There are many types of text analysis: linguistic, lexical, stylistic, literary. The latter includes reviews of a lyric job and a report of a prose job. In addition to a holistic parsing, it is possible to single out such types of parsing as parsing of a separate episode, characterization of a hero, group characteristics of heroes, comparative aspects of two heroes, two jobs, parsing of decorative details (portrait, landscape).

All of these types of parsing need to be taught to students. But at the same time, one should not forget that the study's task is not to disassemble a literary job in sections. Mainly the mission is to facilitate an in-depth reading of the research text.

It doesn't have to be meaningless. Deep meaningfulness is the first and foremost requirement for parsing and its indispensable conditions. Thus, the report must always assume a goal.

In a lesson, we give students an assignment: find in the story a plot, a climax, a denouement. What is the teacher for this assignment? If this is a lesson where the concept of "composition" is first introduced. And its purpose is to give an idea of the composition of a story and teach how to find elements of writing; then, such task justify.

If the teacher gave this task to highlight the compositional elements, then the job will already be meaningless, formal. To subordinate the parsing to the goal means studying the situation's aspects to understand its content and meaning.

These goals must relate to the matter's essence, leading deep into the essay writer's inner world. It is essential to reveal through parsing what would have gone unnoticed without it.

Structure of the Art Essay and Its Features

The structure of the essay consists of three required elements: introduction, body, and conclusion. The absence of one of the article's composition elements is considered a mistake and taken into account in the assessment.

It is challenging to write the introduction and conclusion. The presentation's function is to introduce a topic and give preliminary, general information about the problem behind the proposed issue. The end goal is to summarize, summarize what said, complete the research text, and draw attention to the most important thing.

The most common flaws when writing an introduction and conclusion:

presentation of general information that is not directly related to the topic;
expression of one's enthusiastic attitude towards job or author, one's desire to be like the author or hero;
very long, protracted introduction.

The introduction should not contain all the information we know about the author and his job. The presentation can introduce the topic and parsing of the post.

The introduction may contain an answer to the question asked in the topic. Your opinion can present if the title of the issue includes a reference to the applicant's view. A fact from the biography of the author of a literary job can give. Or a feature of the historical period can be characterized if this information is essential for the subsequent parsing of the text.

There is no one type, perfect, an excellent introduction that would fit any topic. The presentation, like the rest of the essay, is written individually. You don't need to go into long arguments right away. First, formulate those problematic questions that can answer in line with your topic.

The central section of the essay is parsing a literary job in the aspect set by the theme. The main thing to avoid when writing the main body is to retell a literary task. Retelling the storyline instead of interpreting the idea, supported by references to the job's relevant episodes, lacks content, leading to a decrease in the score.

The nature of the topic determines the content and composition of the central section of the essay. The general principles can summarize in short:

the reasoning should be strictly subordinate to the topic in question;
the selected literary material (if the article is written not one at a time, but according to several jobs) must accurately correspond to the topic (its excess or incompleteness will be a lack of the essay);
parity should observe between the general provisions, forward theses and comments, and examples from the job's text in the piece.

The essay ends with a conclusion. The main requirement for the completion: it should not be purely formal. The teacher reading the project should not doubt its necessity. The conclusion should organically link to the previous presentation.

In conclusion, it is sometimes appropriate to give an overview of all the points you understood in the central section. Especially if the topic required various material or a long chain of evidence. In conclusion, the writer's attitude to the job, it's heroes, and the problem can express.

It must start correctly that without affectation, excessive enthusiastic assessments have a clearly expressed definite sense and must prepare by the central part's material. Otherwise, it would help if you refrained from expressing your opinion. Many students are looking on the Internet - write my essay for me cheap , if you still do not have time to write in person, then use these services.

Women Artists in Art History. Why are there so few great artists?
The place of contemporary craft in the cultural process and its differences from classical literature.
Popular culture and its relationship with contemporary art.
Evolution of the media and their role in the culture.
Outline the essence of the institutional approach to the definition of art.
Essays by Etienne Maurice Falcone.
Musical communication in pop vocal music.
Exhibition activities and curatorship.
Comparative parsing of the theory and evolution of visual forms.
What does "greatness and humility" mean about Roman Baroque?
If the film is successful, then it is business. If the film is not successful, then it is art.
Tell about a sculpture/painting from the 18th century.
The image of the mother goddess in the culture of the ancient Sumerians.
Description of an antique item.
What did we like about the anatomical museum?

Introduction:

invitation to the conversation;
definition of the topic (problem) of the text;
author's presentation;
transition to the central section, connection with it.

The next stage is to reflect the position of the author of the text on the highlighted problem. This can sum up in one phrase. How does the author answer this question?

Your point of view may coincide with the author's point of view, which may differ from it. To say, "I agree/disagree with the author" is not enough. It is required to bring two arguments. If you provide the same case as the author himself, it does not count.

A significant conclusion is a big minus, which says that you cannot summarize your thoughts. The introduction and conclusion should not be more than 25% of the entire job. Schematically, your composition should be similar to the shape of a circle, should be closed.

Guidelines for Analysis of Art in Your Essay

Outline of a written analysis of the artwork:

What kind of job are we talking about? Author, title, years, collection, technique, pages. There is no need to retell the biography. For brainstorming, do creative writing exercises .
The purpose and objectives of the job. What and why are you writing it? Why are these jobs chosen? How exactly will the parsing be done? What is this parsing for? Why is it necessary to compare practices?
In each of the subsections, a relationship made between the formal reception and the image. In the comparison, the description and parsing go sequentially (the second job compare with the first) or in parallel.
Repetition of the main conclusions regarding the image this is the sense of the job. Answering the questions above, one can define a position of art, mastering a variety of thinking skills. The artist breaks out of the framework of his horizons.

When writing your essay, give your definition of "art." Explain why this is how you define the concept. Give two examples to support your reasoning. One example should be from a literary text, and the second example can be from life.

Here general information depends on the quality of assimilation and the speed of understanding the text. The continually growing volume of information forces schoolchildren and students to work with documents and adults. Highlighting the main idea quickly will allow you to reduce the time spent on reading.

The main body of the text is what the text creates. What the author approves, what denies, what he warns against. The text has a title, which expresses its topic or main idea. The author gradually reveals the text's topic: he moves from one part of the problem to another.

Describe what you see in the picture in your own words. You can use epithets, comparisons. Pay attention not only to the main details but also to the secondary ones. Let the picture come to life, become understandable and close.

It's always interesting to know why the author chose this particular plot. Perhaps the ever dreamed of writing something like that, or the idea came suddenly, as an inspiration? Was there an incident or the artist was in a non-standard life situation? Maybe age or surroundings played an important role?

Sometimes pictures are written in just a few hours and become famous. Sometimes it takes decades to write a canvas. Describe all jobs using this algorithm. Sometimes the plot depicted seems not very attractive, but some fantastic stories connect with the picture itself.

First, you need to choose the kind of art with which the knowledgeable are the best, what they like the most. Second, you need to know the appropriate terminology. When writing a response about a fiction job, you need to remember what the plot, composition, means of creating a comic, lyrical hero, artistic ways, theme, idea is.

When working on a response about a picture, it is necessary to skillfully use such terms and concepts: the genre of the film, the technique of execution and materials, color, tones and halftones, contrast, the first, second plan, background, the nature of overlaying colors.

If a specific person named in the text, you need to be especially careful and cautious in your assessments, their expression, so as not to offend the person, not to put her in an uncomfortable position. This applies not only to some negative phenomena, facts, but also positive ones.

The main element of art can be called the jobs themselves, as its physical display. These are pictures, graphics, actors' play, lyrics, and poetry. They can divide into several main types.

Before we get into the details of how to value craft, let's re-emphasize that the whole point of recognizing creativity is to explain why we like or dislike something, not just whether we want it or not.

For example, you might not like a picture because it is too dark, but you might still like its theme or appreciate it in general. Put, saying, "I don't like this picture" is not enough. We need to know the reasons for your opinion and whether you think that the job has any positive qualities.

The easiest way to make out and therefore appreciate a job of craft is to examine its context or premises. This is because it helps us know what was in the painter's mind when creating the post.

Art and design are two inextricably linked concepts. The role of design often underestimate, considering its only task to be excessive decoration, and some do not recognize designers as creators, calling them "just decorators." However, this opinion is wrong. Design is one of the highest forms of human creativity because it serves real people's real needs.

Design is always functional, and the function can even be the emotion it evokes. Some objects do not need to be practical or economical. But the idea behind them is modern and innovative. Foresees the future trends that make people use them and think, learn, and create.

A drawing or illustration conveys the painter's final vision of the idea. This results in an illustration in a book, a canvas in a gallery, a job in a frame that hangs on the wall.

Conclusions are a short, concise summary of the main results of the job. Findings should write in the form of short sentences, each of which represents a complete thought. As a rule, conclusions reflect the practical section of the job.

Usually, the number of conclusions corresponds to the number of tasks assigned. When completing theses, at least six ends are required. This means that the results obtained by solving one of the problems can describe in several conclusions.

Usually, the conclusion is based on the content of the job. For example, in the first part, the main results obtained from the literature's parsing should be presented.

It is difficult for students to write new jobs and, therefore, more often search engines, the phrases " write my paper for me " hear. We advise you to use the letter-to-order function, and it saves time, value youth!

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Writing Guides

Art Essay Writing Guide

Table of Contents

What is the purpose of an art essay?

Generally, an art essay is an essay that talks about art in sculpture, paintings, architecture, music and portraits.

These kinds of essays are used for:

Painting visual pictures: an art essay is an essay that showcases visual arts and creative ideas that people have come up with.
Improving creativity: the whole purpose of art essays is to provide a platform for students to tap into their creative side and vividly paint a picture of a certain image using words.

Art essay topic choice

Like every other essay, there are general tips that should be considered when coming up with an art essay writing topic.

The type of art: this may include a painting, a sculpture or just a simple hand diagram. The type of art is important as it sets out what you are supposed to write about.
What intrigues you about the art: this is the most important part of the essay. The whole art essay is based on what you want others to know about the piece of art.
Personal interests: what you, as a writer, love is very important as it narrows down the topic. It is easier to write on topics that are well-known to you.

There are a number of art essay writing topics to choose from.

Below is a list of topics for an art essay

Differences between Picasso’s concepts and Matisse’s
The history of art in the Netherlands
Differences between Bernini and Borromini
The inspiration behind famous painting
The Mona Lisa
Leonardo Da Vinci
Ancient Roman structures
The sculptures of nude women
Impressionism era of art in Netherlands
The graphics of modern day art
Insinuations behind ‘The Thinker’
The Pieta of Michelangelo
The contribution of Vincent Van Gogh and Piet Mondrian
Flemish Baroque in the 17th century.

The above are some of the good topics for an art essay.

Structure of an art essay

The art essay topics determine the kind of structure to build on. However, most have a standard art essay structure.

Sample of art essay outline

Introduction.

The Mona Lisa is one of the most known paintings in the world. This is the painting of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco Del Giocondo, believed to have been painted in the 16th century. It is the work of Leonardo da Vinci and it was purchased by King Francis I. The Mona Lisa is currently under the ownership of the French government.

Thesis statement

The Mona Lisa has had a great impact towards the contribution of art in France:

(i) It is one of the most famous paintings in the world. The Mona Lisa is the painting that everyone wants to see. It is so precious that only a copy of it is actually showcased in the museum.

(ii) It has led to the growth of art. The Mona Lisa has inspired artists all over France. There has been a rise of many artists including Camille Pissarro, a painter, and Etienne-Jules Marey, a photographer.

It is clear that the Mona Lisa is the soft spot in France. The French take pride in it and have used it to improve their lives. Besides its contribution to art, it has also placed France among the leading countries that celebrate art. This has therefore created a culture of being drawn to art and it is reflected in their way of life.

The above is a sample of outline for an art essay.

Arts essay tips on writing the introduction

An art essay introduction identifies the art and the artist. Art is diverse, as it could be sculptures, architecture, performing arts or paintings in it. This is where you state why you chose that topic. It also contains a history of the said art and brief details, like who the artist is, the year, the location, etc.

The introduction for an art essay states the thesis. It may be a general statement about the art or a specific aspect of it.

Tips on thesis writing

The thesis statement should be simple and easy to write about. Too complex statements tend to be confusing.

Pick a statement that is closer to your understanding.
Ensure it is as simple as possible.
To avoid irrelevancy, one can have an art essay draft that they can build on.

Tips on the body (transitions, paragraphs, and length)

This is the main part of the essay where you derive analysis based on your point of view. Describe why the art is so appealing to you. Ensure that your defense covers an angle that has not already been covered for uniqueness. For example, one can focus only on the strokes of a portrait. However, ensure that what you describe is relevant to the thesis of your art essay topics.

The essay should not be too long. The sentence construction should also be well done. For this reason, it is advisable to have your points arranged into paragraphs. Ensure that each paragraph is independent and speaks volumes. This ensures that the art essay hooks the reader.

The transition from one paragraph to the next should also be smooth. Using cliché transitions makes the essay boring; therefore, you need to be creative.

Tips on conclusion writing

In an art essay conclusion, one needs to state their opinion. What you think the artists` feelings were and why they decided to paint it the way they did. At this point, you can state the events that contributed to the artist coming up with that art. The conclusion for an art essay requires a lot of research into the background of both the art and the artist(s). For this reason, the references and sources of the information should be cited.

Advice for writers

In art essay writing it is important to first do your research. Art is so diverse and this can be sometimes confusing. The topic to write on should be related to your interests, for example, as a musician, you would find it easier to write about performing arts and music. Besides this, do not plagiarize any work done. Cite and state all sources, making sure that you observe all rules of patent and copyrights.

For you to be a good writer, these art essay tips will be very helpful. The best writer is the one who admits to being in a need of help. The art essay writing guide can also be used to find more about art essay writing steps. Different sources could give different art essay outlines so you need to be careful.

Finalizing the essay

After writing the art essay, it is important to have a clean essay. This calls for proofreading and editing. Proofreading ensures that you do not have any grammatical errors, the art essay outlining is as required, your sentence construction is good and the language used is the required one. Some sites offer art essay writing guide for use when one gets stuck. Proofreading also ensures that the art essay structure is followed. After this is done, ensure that the format used is correct whether APA, MLA or Chicago.

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Cite Sources UT Austin Guide Learn more about what citations are and how to manage them. Includes information about citation tools like Noodle Tools and Zotero.
UT Austin University Writing Center A resource for help with your writing. The Writing Center includes one on one consultations as well as classes.
OWL Purdue - Chicago Style The OWL Purdue is a great resource for writing and citation help. Chicago Style is the preferred citation format for art history. The OWL also includes citation help for other styles include APA and MLA.

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"Self-Portrait with Straw Hat (verso: The Potato Peeler)," oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh, 1887. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 40.6 x 31.8 cm.

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Humanities LibreTexts - Introduction to Art - Design, Context, and Meaning
Art in Context - Types of Art - A Brief Exploration of the Different Kinds of Art
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - The Definition of Art
Official Site of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, United States

art , a visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination. The term art encompasses diverse media such as painting , sculpture , printmaking , drawing , decorative arts , photography , and installation.

(Read Sister Wendy’s Britannica essay on art appreciation.)

The various visual arts exist within a continuum that ranges from purely aesthetic purposes at one end to purely utilitarian purposes at the other. Such a polarity of purpose is reflected in the commonly used terms artist and artisan , the latter understood as one who gives considerable attention to the utilitarian. This should by no means be taken as a rigid scheme, however. Even within one form of art, motives may vary widely; thus a potter or a weaver may create a highly functional work that is at the same time beautiful—a salad bowl, for example, or a blanket—or may create works that have no purpose beyond being admired. In cultures such as those of Africa and Oceania, a definition of art that encompasses this continuum has existed for centuries. In the West, however, by the mid-18th century the development of academies for painting and sculpture established a sense that these media were “art” and therefore separate from more utilitarian media. This separation of art forms continued among art institutions until the late 20th century, when such rigid distinctions began to be questioned.

Particularly in the 20th century, a different sort of debate arose over the definition of art . A seminal moment in this discussion occurred in 1917, when Dada artist Marcel Duchamp submitted a porcelain urinal entitled Fountain to a public exhibition in New York City . Through this act, Duchamp put forth a new definition of what constitutes a work of art: he implied that it is enough for an artist to deem something “art” and put it in a publicly accepted venue . Implicit within this gesture was a challenge to the established art institutions—such as museums, exhibiting groups, and galleries—that have the power to determine what is and is not considered art. Such intellectual experimentation continued throughout the 20th century in movements such as conceptual art and minimalism . By the turn of the 21st century, a variety of new media (e.g., video art ) further challenged traditional definitions of art.

Art is treated in a number of articles. For general discussions of the foundations, principles, practice, and character of art, see aesthetics . See also art conservation and restoration .

For the technical and theoretical aspects of traditional categories of art, see drawing ; painting ; printmaking ; sculpture . For technical and historical discussions of decorative arts and furnishings, see basketry ; enamelwork ; floral decoration ; furniture ; glassware ; interior design ; lacquerwork ; metalwork ; mosaic ; pottery ; rug and carpet ; stained glass ; tapestry . See photography for a complete history of that medium.

For treatments of the various arts as practiced by specific peoples and cultures, see , for example, African art ; Central Asian arts ; Egyptian art and architecture ; Islamic arts ; Oceanic art and architecture ; South Asian arts .

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Introduction to World Art

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Introduction to art analysis.

Writing an essay on art is a unique challenge that combines aspects of history, culture, and personal interpretation. Start your essay by defining what aspect of art you will be discussing. This could be an analysis of a specific artwork, an exploration of a particular artist’s style and contributions, or a broader examination of a movement or period in art history. Your introduction should set the stage for your analysis, providing context about the artwork or art movement, and outlining the main points that your essay will cover. Be sure to convey your enthusiasm and interest in the subject, as this will engage your reader from the outset.

Analyzing the Artwork

In the main body of your essay, delve into a detailed analysis of the artwork or art movement. If focusing on a single piece, discuss its visual elements such as color, line, shape, and texture. Explain how these elements contribute to the overall impact and meaning of the work. If you’re discussing an artist or art movement, explore the defining characteristics and how they reflect the cultural and historical context of the time. Include your interpretation of the artwork, but make sure to back up your points with research from credible sources, such as art critics, historians, or the artists themselves.

Connecting Art to Broader Themes

Art often reflects broader themes and issues within society, and your essay should explore these connections. Discuss how the artwork or movement relates to social, political, or cultural themes. For example, how did Renaissance art reflect the philosophical ideas of the time? Or how does contemporary art address modern issues such as globalization or environmentalism? This part of the essay is where you can delve into the deeper meanings and implications of the art, demonstrating its relevance and significance beyond just aesthetics.

Concluding with Personal Reflections and Impact

In your conclusion, bring together the main points of your analysis, summarizing the key aspects of the artwork or art movement you have discussed. Reflect on the personal impact of the art, what you have learned from it, and why it is significant to you or to society in general. Offer a final thought or question for the reader to consider, which might relate to the future of the art form or its ongoing relevance. A thoughtful conclusion will leave your reader with a deeper appreciation of the art and its place in the broader tapestry of human culture and history.

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Fine Arts Open Textbooks

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning

Pamela Sachant , University of North Georgia Follow Peggy Blood , Savannah State University Follow Jeffery LeMieux , College of Coastal Georgia Follow Rita Tekippe , University of West Georgia Follow

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Description

Editor's Description:

Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students’ educational experiences beyond the textbook. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making it an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.

A Japanese translation is available from Better Late Than Never: Japanese Translation . The translated text is also available as an additional file.

Accessible files with optical character recognition (OCR) and auto-tagging provided by the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation .

Course Title

Art Appreciation

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University System of Georgia, University of North Georgia Press

art appreciation, art history

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Art and Design

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Sachant, Pamela; Blood, Peggy; LeMieux, Jeffery; and Tekippe, Rita, "Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning" (2016). Fine Arts Open Textbooks . 3. https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/arts-textbooks/3

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How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples

How to Write an Essay Introduction | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on February 4, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A good introduction paragraph is an essential part of any academic essay . It sets up your argument and tells the reader what to expect.

The main goals of an introduction are to:

Catch your reader’s attention.
Give background on your topic.
Present your thesis statement —the central point of your essay.

This introduction example is taken from our interactive essay example on the history of Braille.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

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Step 1: hook your reader, step 2: give background information, step 3: present your thesis statement, step 4: map your essay’s structure, step 5: check and revise, more examples of essay introductions, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.

Your first sentence sets the tone for the whole essay, so spend some time on writing an effective hook.

Avoid long, dense sentences—start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

The hook should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of the topic you’re writing about and why it’s interesting. Avoid overly broad claims or plain statements of fact.

Examples: Writing a good hook

Take a look at these examples of weak hooks and learn how to improve them.

Braille was an extremely important invention.
The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

The first sentence is a dry fact; the second sentence is more interesting, making a bold claim about exactly why the topic is important.

The internet is defined as “a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities.”
The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education.

Avoid using a dictionary definition as your hook, especially if it’s an obvious term that everyone knows. The improved example here is still broad, but it gives us a much clearer sense of what the essay will be about.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a famous book from the nineteenth century.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement.

Instead of just stating a fact that the reader already knows, the improved hook here tells us about the mainstream interpretation of the book, implying that this essay will offer a different interpretation.

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Next, give your reader the context they need to understand your topic and argument. Depending on the subject of your essay, this might include:

Historical, geographical, or social context
An outline of the debate you’re addressing
A summary of relevant theories or research about the topic
Definitions of key terms

The information here should be broad but clearly focused and relevant to your argument. Don’t give too much detail—you can mention points that you will return to later, but save your evidence and interpretation for the main body of the essay.

How much space you need for background depends on your topic and the scope of your essay. In our Braille example, we take a few sentences to introduce the topic and sketch the social context that the essay will address:

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and show exactly what you want to say about the topic. This is your thesis statement —a sentence or two that sums up your overall argument.

This is the most important part of your introduction. A good thesis isn’t just a statement of fact, but a claim that requires evidence and explanation.

The goal is to clearly convey your own position in a debate or your central point about a topic.

Particularly in longer essays, it’s helpful to end the introduction by signposting what will be covered in each part. Keep it concise and give your reader a clear sense of the direction your argument will take.

As you research and write, your argument might change focus or direction as you learn more.

For this reason, it’s often a good idea to wait until later in the writing process before you write the introduction paragraph—it can even be the very last thing you write.

When you’ve finished writing the essay body and conclusion , you should return to the introduction and check that it matches the content of the essay.

It’s especially important to make sure your thesis statement accurately represents what you do in the essay. If your argument has gone in a different direction than planned, tweak your thesis statement to match what you actually say.

To polish your writing, you can use something like a paraphrasing tool .

You can use the checklist below to make sure your introduction does everything it’s supposed to.

Checklist: Essay introduction

My first sentence is engaging and relevant.

I have introduced the topic with necessary background information.

I have defined any important terms.

My thesis statement clearly presents my main point or argument.

Everything in the introduction is relevant to the main body of the essay.

You have a strong introduction - now make sure the rest of your essay is just as good.

Argumentative
Literary analysis

This introduction to an argumentative essay sets up the debate about the internet and education, and then clearly states the position the essay will argue for.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

This introduction to a short expository essay leads into the topic (the invention of the printing press) and states the main point the essay will explain (the effect of this invention on European society).

In many ways, the invention of the printing press marked the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval period in Europe is often remembered as a time of intellectual and political stagnation. Prior to the Renaissance, the average person had very limited access to books and was unlikely to be literate. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century allowed for much less restricted circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.

This introduction to a literary analysis essay , about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , starts by describing a simplistic popular view of the story, and then states how the author will give a more complex analysis of the text’s literary devices.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale. Arguably the first science fiction novel, its plot can be read as a warning about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, and in popular culture representations of the character as a “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein represents the callous, arrogant ambition of modern science. However, far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to gradually transform our impression of Frankenstein, portraying him in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

It gives your writing direction and focus.
It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

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Essay Papers Writing Online

Tips for crafting an outstanding essay that captivates readers and earns top grades.

Essay writing is an essential skill that can greatly impact your academic success and beyond. Crafting a well-written essay not only demonstrates your understanding of the topic but also showcases your ability to communicate effectively.

Whether you are a student looking to improve your grades or a professional aiming to write compelling reports, mastering the art of essay writing is a valuable asset.

By following certain techniques and strategies, you can elevate your writing to the next level and create essays that are engaging, persuasive, and well-structured.

How to Master Essay Writing

Essay writing is a crucial skill that every student should strive to master. Whether you are writing an analytical essay, a persuasive essay, or a narrative essay, there are certain key principles that can help you craft a top-notch piece of writing.

1. Understand the Assignment: Before you begin writing, make sure you fully understand the requirements of the assignment. Pay attention to the prompt, the formatting guidelines, and any specific instructions provided by your teacher or professor.

2. Plan Your Essay: Take the time to brainstorm ideas, create an outline, and organize your thoughts before you start writing. A well-structured essay is much easier to write and will ultimately result in a more coherent and cohesive final product.

3. Write a Strong Thesis Statement: Your thesis statement is the backbone of your essay. It should clearly state your main argument or position on the topic and guide the rest of your writing.

4. Support Your Arguments with Evidence: Use facts, examples, and expert opinions to back up your arguments. Make sure to cite your sources properly and avoid relying on unsupported claims.

5. Revise and Edit: Once you have written your essay, take the time to revise and edit it carefully. Check for spelling and grammar errors, improve the clarity and coherence of your writing, and ensure that your arguments are well-supported and logical.

By following these tips and practicing regularly, you can improve your essay writing skills and master the art of crafting the perfect essay.

Understand the Essay Prompt

Before you start writing your essay, it is crucial to thoroughly understand the essay prompt. The prompt provides you with the specific guidelines and requirements that you need to follow to create a successful essay. Take the time to carefully analyze the prompt and identify the key components, such as the topic, the main question or issue to address, the purpose of the essay, and any specific instructions or limitations.

Pay attention to the keywords used in the prompt, as they can give you valuable insights into what is expected of you. Look for action words such as “analyze,” “discuss,” “compare,” or “evaluate,” which indicate the type of response you need to provide. Additionally, note any terms or concepts that are central to the prompt, as they will help you stay focused and on topic throughout your essay.

Understanding the essay prompt is the first step towards crafting a well-structured and cohesive essay that effectively addresses the given topic.

Research and Gather Information

Before you start writing your essay, it is crucial to conduct thorough research and gather relevant information on the topic. This will not only help you understand the subject matter better but also provide you with valuable content to include in your essay.

Begin by exploring a variety of sources such as books, academic journals, websites, and reputable databases. Make sure to take notes and keep track of the sources you use, as proper citation is essential in academic writing.

Additionally, consider discussing the topic with experts or conducting interviews to gain deeper insights and different perspectives. By collecting a diverse range of information, you will be able to present a well-rounded and well-informed argument in your essay.

Tip:	Organize your research material into categories or subtopics to make it easier to reference and incorporate into your essay.

Create a Strong Thesis Statement

One of the most important elements of a well-crafted essay is a strong thesis statement. Your thesis statement serves as the main point or argument of your essay and sets the tone for the rest of your writing. A strong thesis statement should be clear, concise, and specific, giving the reader a clear idea of what to expect from your essay.

To create a strong thesis statement, you need to clearly state your main argument or position on the topic. This statement should be debatable and present a unique perspective that you will support throughout your essay. Avoid vague or broad statements that lack specificity and focus. Instead, provide a clear and specific assertion that you will defend with evidence and analysis.

Additionally, your thesis statement should make a strong claim that can be supported with evidence from your research or personal experience. It should not simply restate facts or summarize the topic. Your thesis statement should express your opinion or interpretation of the topic and provide a roadmap for the reader to understand the direction of your essay.

	Climate change poses a significant threat to our planet’s future, and urgent action is needed to mitigate its devastating effects.
	Climate change is a big problem that affects the environment.

Structure Your Essay Effectively

When it comes to crafting the perfect essay, having a well-structured and organized piece is key. The structure of your essay plays a crucial role in conveying your ideas effectively to your readers. Here are some tips to help you structure your essay effectively:

Introduction: Start your essay with a strong introduction that grabs the reader’s attention and sets the tone for the rest of the piece. Your introduction should clearly outline the main points you will be discussing in the essay.

Thesis Statement: A thesis statement is a vital part of your essay as it provides the main argument or claim that you will be supporting throughout the piece. Make sure your thesis statement is clear, concise, and specific.

Body Paragraphs: Divide your essay into multiple body paragraphs, each focusing on a different aspect of your topic. Make sure to include topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph to introduce the main idea.

Transition Words: Use transition words and phrases to connect your ideas and create a smooth flow between paragraphs. Transition words like “however,” “in addition,” and “moreover” help guide your reader through your essay.

Conclusion: End your essay with a strong conclusion that summarizes your main points and reinforces your thesis statement. Avoid introducing new ideas in the conclusion and instead, focus on tying everything together.

By following these tips and structuring your essay effectively, you can create a well-organized piece that is easy to read and understand.

Revise and Edit Your Work

After completing your essay, it’s essential to revise and edit your work thoroughly. This step is crucial in enhancing the quality of your writing and ensuring that your ideas are well presented.

Revision: When revising your essay, focus on the overall structure and organization of your content. Check if your introduction is engaging, your body paragraphs are coherent, and your conclusion effectively summarizes your main points. Revise for clarity, grammar, and punctuation.

Tip: Read your essay aloud to catch any awkward phrasing or unclear sentences.

Editing: Editing involves fine-tuning your essay for style, tone, and consistency. Look for repetitive words or phrases, cliches, and unnecessary jargon. Ensure that your writing flows smoothly and that each paragraph transitions seamlessly to the next.

Tip: Use a spell checker but also look out for common mistakes that spell checkers may miss, such as homophones (e.g., their/there/they’re).

By revising and editing your work diligently, you’ll be able to polish your essay and make it more impactful and engaging for your readers.

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Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art

In 1953, Roald Dahl published “ The Great Automatic Grammatizator ,” a short story about an electrical engineer who secretly desires to be a writer. One day, after completing construction of the world’s fastest calculating machine, the engineer realizes that “English grammar is governed by rules that are almost mathematical in their strictness.” He constructs a fiction-writing machine that can produce a five-thousand-word short story in thirty seconds; a novel takes fifteen minutes and requires the operator to manipulate handles and foot pedals, as if he were driving a car or playing an organ, to regulate the levels of humor and pathos. The resulting novels are so popular that, within a year, half the fiction published in English is a product of the engineer’s invention.

Is there anything about art that makes us think it can’t be created by pushing a button, as in Dahl’s imagination? Right now, the fiction generated by large language models like ChatGPT is terrible, but one can imagine that such programs might improve in the future. How good could they get? Could they get better than humans at writing fiction—or making paintings or movies—in the same way that calculators are better at addition and subtraction?

Art is notoriously hard to define, and so are the differences between good art and bad art. But let me offer a generalization: art is something that results from making a lot of choices. This might be easiest to explain if we use fiction writing as an example. When you are writing fiction, you are—consciously or unconsciously—making a choice about almost every word you type; to oversimplify, we can imagine that a ten-thousand-word short story requires something on the order of ten thousand choices. When you give a generative-A.I. program a prompt, you are making very few choices; if you supply a hundred-word prompt, you have made on the order of a hundred choices.

If an A.I. generates a ten-thousand-word story based on your prompt, it has to fill in for all of the choices that you are not making. There are various ways it can do this. One is to take an average of the choices that other writers have made, as represented by text found on the Internet; that average is equivalent to the least interesting choices possible, which is why A.I.-generated text is often really bland. Another is to instruct the program to engage in style mimicry, emulating the choices made by a specific writer, which produces a highly derivative story. In neither case is it creating interesting art.

I think the same underlying principle applies to visual art, although it’s harder to quantify the choices that a painter might make. Real paintings bear the mark of an enormous number of decisions. By comparison, a person using a text-to-image program like DALL-E enters a prompt such as “A knight in a suit of armor fights a fire-breathing dragon,” and lets the program do the rest. (The newest version of DALL-E accepts prompts of up to four thousand characters—hundreds of words, but not enough to describe every detail of a scene.) Most of the choices in the resulting image have to be borrowed from similar paintings found online; the image might be exquisitely rendered, but the person entering the prompt can’t claim credit for that.

Some commentators imagine that image generators will affect visual culture as much as the advent of photography once did. Although this might seem superficially plausible, the idea that photography is similar to generative A.I. deserves closer examination. When photography was first developed, I suspect it didn’t seem like an artistic medium because it wasn’t apparent that there were a lot of choices to be made; you just set up the camera and start the exposure. But over time people realized that there were a vast number of things you could do with cameras, and the artistry lies in the many choices that a photographer makes. It might not always be easy to articulate what the choices are, but when you compare an amateur’s photos to a professional’s, you can see the difference. So then the question becomes: Is there a similar opportunity to make a vast number of choices using a text-to-image generator? I think the answer is no. An artist—whether working digitally or with paint—implicitly makes far more decisions during the process of making a painting than would fit into a text prompt of a few hundred words.

We can imagine a text-to-image generator that, over the course of many sessions, lets you enter tens of thousands of words into its text box to enable extremely fine-grained control over the image you’re producing; this would be something analogous to Photoshop with a purely textual interface. I’d say that a person could use such a program and still deserve to be called an artist. The film director Bennett Miller has used DALL-E 2 to generate some very striking images that have been exhibited at the Gagosian gallery; to create them, he crafted detailed text prompts and then instructed DALL-E to revise and manipulate the generated images again and again. He generated more than a hundred thousand images to arrive at the twenty images in the exhibit. But he has said that he hasn’t been able to obtain comparable results on later releases of DALL-E . I suspect this might be because Miller was using DALL-E for something it’s not intended to do; it’s as if he hacked Microsoft Paint to make it behave like Photoshop, but as soon as a new version of Paint was released, his hacks stopped working. OpenAI probably isn’t trying to build a product to serve users like Miller, because a product that requires a user to work for months to create an image isn’t appealing to a wide audience. The company wants to offer a product that generates images with little effort.

It’s harder to imagine a program that, over many sessions, helps you write a good novel. This hypothetical writing program might require you to enter a hundred thousand words of prompts in order for it to generate an entirely different hundred thousand words that make up the novel you’re envisioning. It’s not clear to me what such a program would look like. Theoretically, if such a program existed, the user could perhaps deserve to be called the author. But, again, I don’t think companies like OpenAI want to create versions of ChatGPT that require just as much effort from users as writing a novel from scratch. The selling point of generative A.I. is that these programs generate vastly more than you put into them, and that is precisely what prevents them from being effective tools for artists.

The companies promoting generative-A.I. programs claim that they will unleash creativity. In essence, they are saying that art can be all inspiration and no perspiration—but these things cannot be easily separated. I’m not saying that art has to involve tedium. What I’m saying is that art requires making choices at every scale; the countless small-scale choices made during implementation are just as important to the final product as the few large-scale choices made during the conception. It is a mistake to equate “large-scale” with “important” when it comes to the choices made when creating art; the interrelationship between the large scale and the small scale is where the artistry lies.

Believing that inspiration outweighs everything else is, I suspect, a sign that someone is unfamiliar with the medium. I contend that this is true even if one’s goal is to create entertainment rather than high art. People often underestimate the effort required to entertain; a thriller novel may not live up to Kafka’s ideal of a book—an “axe for the frozen sea within us”—but it can still be as finely crafted as a Swiss watch. And an effective thriller is more than its premise or its plot. I doubt you could replace every sentence in a thriller with one that is semantically equivalent and have the resulting novel be as entertaining. This means that its sentences—and the small-scale choices they represent—help to determine the thriller’s effectiveness.

Many novelists have had the experience of being approached by someone convinced that they have a great idea for a novel, which they are willing to share in exchange for a fifty-fifty split of the proceeds. Such a person inadvertently reveals that they think formulating sentences is a nuisance rather than a fundamental part of storytelling in prose. Generative A.I. appeals to people who think they can express themselves in a medium without actually working in that medium. But the creators of traditional novels, paintings, and films are drawn to those art forms because they see the unique expressive potential that each medium affords. It is their eagerness to take full advantage of those potentialities that makes their work satisfying, whether as entertainment or as art.

Of course, most pieces of writing, whether articles or reports or e-mails, do not come with the expectation that they embody thousands of choices. In such cases, is there any harm in automating the task? Let me offer another generalization: any writing that deserves your attention as a reader is the result of effort expended by the person who wrote it. Effort during the writing process doesn’t guarantee the end product is worth reading, but worthwhile work cannot be made without it. The type of attention you pay when reading a personal e-mail is different from the type you pay when reading a business report, but in both cases it is only warranted when the writer put some thought into it.

Recently, Google aired a commercial during the Paris Olympics for Gemini, its competitor to OpenAI’s GPT-4 . The ad shows a father using Gemini to compose a fan letter, which his daughter will send to an Olympic athlete who inspires her. Google pulled the commercial after widespread backlash from viewers; a media professor called it “one of the most disturbing commercials I’ve ever seen.” It’s notable that people reacted this way, even though artistic creativity wasn’t the attribute being supplanted. No one expects a child’s fan letter to an athlete to be extraordinary; if the young girl had written the letter herself, it would likely have been indistinguishable from countless others. The significance of a child’s fan letter—both to the child who writes it and to the athlete who receives it—comes from its being heartfelt rather than from its being eloquent.

Many of us have sent store-bought greeting cards, knowing that it will be clear to the recipient that we didn’t compose the words ourselves. We don’t copy the words from a Hallmark card in our own handwriting, because that would feel dishonest. The programmer Simon Willison has described the training for large language models as “money laundering for copyrighted data,” which I find a useful way to think about the appeal of generative-A.I. programs: they let you engage in something like plagiarism, but there’s no guilt associated with it because it’s not clear even to you that you’re copying.

Some have claimed that large language models are not laundering the texts they’re trained on but, rather, learning from them, in the same way that human writers learn from the books they’ve read. But a large language model is not a writer; it’s not even a user of language. Language is, by definition, a system of communication, and it requires an intention to communicate. Your phone’s auto-complete may offer good suggestions or bad ones, but in neither case is it trying to say anything to you or the person you’re texting. The fact that ChatGPT can generate coherent sentences invites us to imagine that it understands language in a way that your phone’s auto-complete does not, but it has no more intention to communicate.

It is very easy to get ChatGPT to emit a series of words such as “I am happy to see you.” There are many things we don’t understand about how large language models work, but one thing we can be sure of is that ChatGPT is not happy to see you. A dog can communicate that it is happy to see you, and so can a prelinguistic child, even though both lack the capability to use words. ChatGPT feels nothing and desires nothing, and this lack of intention is why ChatGPT is not actually using language. What makes the words “I’m happy to see you” a linguistic utterance is not that the sequence of text tokens that it is made up of are well formed; what makes it a linguistic utterance is the intention to communicate something.

Because language comes so easily to us, it’s easy to forget that it lies on top of these other experiences of subjective feeling and of wanting to communicate that feeling. We’re tempted to project those experiences onto a large language model when it emits coherent sentences, but to do so is to fall prey to mimicry; it’s the same phenomenon as when butterflies evolve large dark spots on their wings that can fool birds into thinking they’re predators with big eyes. There is a context in which the dark spots are sufficient; birds are less likely to eat a butterfly that has them, and the butterfly doesn’t really care why it’s not being eaten, as long as it gets to live. But there is a big difference between a butterfly and a predator that poses a threat to a bird.

A person using generative A.I. to help them write might claim that they are drawing inspiration from the texts the model was trained on, but I would again argue that this differs from what we usually mean when we say one writer draws inspiration from another. Consider a college student who turns in a paper that consists solely of a five-page quotation from a book, stating that this quotation conveys exactly what she wanted to say, better than she could say it herself. Even if the student is completely candid with the instructor about what she’s done, it’s not accurate to say that she is drawing inspiration from the book she’s citing. The fact that a large language model can reword the quotation enough that the source is unidentifiable doesn’t change the fundamental nature of what’s going on.

As the linguist Emily M. Bender has noted, teachers don’t ask students to write essays because the world needs more student essays. The point of writing essays is to strengthen students’ critical-thinking skills; in the same way that lifting weights is useful no matter what sport an athlete plays, writing essays develops skills necessary for whatever job a college student will eventually get. Using ChatGPT to complete assignments is like bringing a forklift into the weight room; you will never improve your cognitive fitness that way.

Not all writing needs to be creative, or heartfelt, or even particularly good; sometimes it simply needs to exist. Such writing might support other goals, such as attracting views for advertising or satisfying bureaucratic requirements. When people are required to produce such text, we can hardly blame them for using whatever tools are available to accelerate the process. But is the world better off with more documents that have had minimal effort expended on them? It would be unrealistic to claim that if we refuse to use large language models, then the requirements to create low-quality text will disappear. However, I think it is inevitable that the more we use large language models to fulfill those requirements, the greater those requirements will eventually become. We are entering an era where someone might use a large language model to generate a document out of a bulleted list, and send it to a person who will use a large language model to condense that document into a bulleted list. Can anyone seriously argue that this is an improvement?

It’s not impossible that one day we will have computer programs that can do anything a human being can do, but, contrary to the claims of the companies promoting A.I., that is not something we’ll see in the next few years. Even in domains that have absolutely nothing to do with creativity, current A.I. programs have profound limitations that give us legitimate reasons to question whether they deserve to be called intelligent at all.

The computer scientist François Chollet has proposed the following distinction: skill is how well you perform at a task, while intelligence is how efficiently you gain new skills. I think this reflects our intuitions about human beings pretty well. Most people can learn a new skill given sufficient practice, but the faster the person picks up the skill, the more intelligent we think the person is. What’s interesting about this definition is that—unlike I.Q. tests—it’s also applicable to nonhuman entities; when a dog learns a new trick quickly, we consider that a sign of intelligence.

In 2019, researchers conducted an experiment in which they taught rats how to drive. They put the rats in little plastic containers with three copper-wire bars; when the mice put their paws on one of these bars, the container would either go forward, or turn left or turn right. The rats could see a plate of food on the other side of the room and tried to get their vehicles to go toward it. The researchers trained the rats for five minutes at a time, and after twenty-four practice sessions, the rats had become proficient at driving. Twenty-four trials were enough to master a task that no rat had likely ever encountered before in the evolutionary history of the species. I think that’s a good demonstration of intelligence.

Now consider the current A.I. programs that are widely acclaimed for their performance. AlphaZero, a program developed by Google’s DeepMind, plays chess better than any human player, but during its training it played forty-four million games, far more than any human can play in a lifetime. For it to master a new game, it will have to undergo a similarly enormous amount of training. By Chollet’s definition, programs like AlphaZero are highly skilled, but they aren’t particularly intelligent, because they aren’t efficient at gaining new skills. It is currently impossible to write a computer program capable of learning even a simple task in only twenty-four trials, if the programmer is not given information about the task beforehand.

Self-driving cars trained on millions of miles of driving can still crash into an overturned trailer truck, because such things are not commonly found in their training data, whereas humans taking their first driving class will know to stop. More than our ability to solve algebraic equations, our ability to cope with unfamiliar situations is a fundamental part of why we consider humans intelligent. Computers will not be able to replace humans until they acquire that type of competence, and that is still a long way off; for the time being, we’re just looking for jobs that can be done with turbocharged auto-complete.

Despite years of hype, the ability of generative A.I. to dramatically increase economic productivity remains theoretical. (Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs released a report titled “Gen AI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?”) The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write anything for others to read. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning. It reduces the amount of intention in the world.

Some individuals have defended large language models by saying that most of what human beings say or write isn’t particularly original. That is true, but it’s also irrelevant. When someone says “I’m sorry” to you, it doesn’t matter that other people have said sorry in the past; it doesn’t matter that “I’m sorry” is a string of text that is statistically unremarkable. If someone is being sincere, their apology is valuable and meaningful, even though apologies have previously been uttered. Likewise, when you tell someone that you’re happy to see them, you are saying something meaningful, even if it lacks novelty.

Something similar holds true for art. Whether you are creating a novel or a painting or a film, you are engaged in an act of communication between you and your audience. What you create doesn’t have to be utterly unlike every prior piece of art in human history to be valuable; the fact that you’re the one who is saying it, the fact that it derives from your unique life experience and arrives at a particular moment in the life of whoever is seeing your work, is what makes it new. We are all products of what has come before us, but it’s by living our lives in interaction with others that we bring meaning into the world. That is something that an auto-complete algorithm can never do, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. ♦

New Yorker Favorites

An Oscar-winning filmmaker takes on the Church of Scientology .

Wendy Wasserstein on the baby who arrived too soon .

The young stowaways thrown overboard at sea .

As he rose in politics, Robert Moses discovered that decisions about New York City’s future would not be based on democracy .

The Muslim tamale king of the Old West .

Fiction by Jamaica Kincaid: “ Girl .”

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Review Article
Open access
Published: 03 September 2024

Harnessing the capabilities of VCSELs: unlocking the potential for advanced integrated photonic devices and systems

Guanzhong Pan 1 ,
Meng Xun 1 ,
Xiaoli Zhou 1 ,
Yun Sun 1 ,
Yibo Dong ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7376-3485 2 &
Dexin Wu 1

Light: Science & Applications volume 13 , Article number: 229 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Integrated optics
Micro-optics
Optical manipulation and tweezers
Semiconductor lasers

Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have emerged as a versatile and promising platform for developing advanced integrated photonic devices and systems due to their low power consumption, high modulation bandwidth, small footprint, excellent scalability, and compatibility with monolithic integration. By combining these unique capabilities of VCSELs with the functionalities offered by micro/nano optical structures (e.g. metasurfaces), it enables various versatile energy-efficient integrated photonic devices and systems with compact size, enhanced performance, and improved reliability and functionality. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art versatile integrated photonic devices/systems based on VCSELs, including photonic neural networks, vortex beam emitters, holographic devices, beam deflectors, atomic sensors, and biosensors. By leveraging the capabilities of VCSELs, these integrated photonic devices/systems open up new opportunities in various fields, including artificial intelligence, large-capacity optical communication, imaging, biosensing, and so on. Through this comprehensive review, we aim to provide a detailed understanding of the pivotal role played by VCSELs in integrated photonics and highlight their significance in advancing the field towards efficient, compact, and versatile photonic solutions.

Introduction

The field of integrated photonic devices has witnessed significant progress in recent years, largely driven by potential applications and by the increasing demand for compact, efficient, and multifunctional optoelectronic systems 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . The ability to integrate multiple optical functionalities onto a single chip holds great promise for enhancing device performance, reducing power consumption, and unlocking new opportunities to revolutionize various areas ranging from artificial intelligence and optical communication to sensing and imaging systems.

Semiconductor lasers, including edge emitting lasers (EELs) and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), have gained considerable attention in the context of integrated photonics due to their small size, light weight, and high power conversion efficiency. Compared with VCSELs, EELs can generally achieve higher output power for a single emitter, which is attractive for long-distance sensing like LiDAR. Besides, EELs are easier to achieve long wavelengths transparent for silicon materials, and their edge-emitting configuration makes them easier to integrate with in-plane horizontal waveguides, making them be usually used in two-dimensional (2D) in-plane integration like silicon photonics integrated circuits (PICs). Unlike EELs, VCSELs emit light perpendicular to the surface of the wafer, which are more suitable for three-dimensional (3D) vertically stacked integration. Nevertheless, methods such as using end-to-end coupling 5 , tilted configuration with grating couplers 6 , or 45 o microreflectors 7 can be used for VCSELs to achieve the integration with in-plane horizontal waveguides in silicon photonics. More importantly, compared to EELs, VCSELs are of more symmetric beam profile, lower threshold, higher temperature stability, and easier of achieving 2D laser arrays 8 , 9 , which are getting more and more intention in integrated photonics. Besides, the wafer-normal emission makes VCSELs highly scalable and compatible with wafer-scale manufacturing processes, enabling scalable integrated photonic devices and mass production with relatively low cost. Moreover, VCSELs can achieve relatively high bandwidths and support high-speed direct modulation, making them suitable for integrated photonic devices/systems that require high-speed data transmission. These charming advantages make VCSELs very suitable candidates for integrated photonics, especially for vertically stacked photonics integration.

So far, VCSEL-based integrated photonics have been widely investigated. The monolithic vertically stacked integration capability of VCSELs allows for compact integration with other optical components, such as micro lenses 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 and diffractive optical elements 16 , 17 , 18 , laying the foundation for complex and compact integrated photonic systems. Various fabrication techniques, such as lithography 17 and etching 13 , 14 , have been explored to achieve on-chip integration of VCSELs with micro optical elements. Moreover, advancements in nanofabrication technologies, such as ultrafast laser three-dimensional (3D) printing technology 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , have enabled the fabrication of various versatile micro optics, providing a more convenient way for photonic integrations. By combining the unique characteristics of VCSELs with the functionalities offered by functional optical elements, it enables various versatile integrated photonic devices and systems with compact size, low power consumption, high modulation bandwidth, and increased functionality.

In this review, we delve into the recent progress made in harnessing the capabilities of VCSELs for advanced integrated photonic devices and systems, highlighting their potential role in shaping the future of photonics. We start from the fundamentals of VCSELs and their advantages for forming integrated photonic devices and systems. Then, we discuss the operation principle, performance, and application of the state-of-art VCSEL-based integrated photonic devices and systems, including photonic neural networks, vortex beam emitters, holographic devices, beam deflectors, atomic sensors, and biosensors. At last, we conclude the paper and discuss the key challenges and future development direction of these integrated devices and systems. By shedding light on the latest developments, we aim to provide inspiration and guidance towards unlocking the full potential of VCSEL technology and its integration into advanced photonic solutions.

Fundamentals, advantages, and advancements of VCSELs

Structure and working principle of vcsels.

The central graph in Fig. 1a shows a schematic diagram of a top-emitting VCSEL, of which the epitaxial structures from bottom to top contain substrate, n-type distributed Bragg reflector (N-DBR) mirrors, active region, oxide layer, p-type DBR (P-DBR) mirrors, and Ohmic contact layer. The P-DBR and N-DBR mirrors consist of alternating layers of high- and low-index materials, typically formed by varying the mole fraction x in Al x Ga 1-x As in GaAs-based VCSELs. For top-emitting configuration, the N-DBR mirrors have a high reflectivity close to 1.0, while the P-DBR mirrors have a lower reflectivity around 98.0–99.9% for light extraction. The DBR mirrors form the resonant cavity of VCSEL and provide optical feedback to the active region. The active region sandwiched by the P-DBR and N-DBR mirrors, generally consisting of multiple quantum wells, is responsible for generating light at a specific wavelength and providing optical amplification. To maximize the optical gain, the quantum wells in the active region are placed in the antinode of the standing wave. The oxide layer is formed by selective thermal oxidation of Al-rich AlGaAs layers, of which the Al component is generally higher than 0.98 and the thickness is typically 20–30 nm. The forming oxide aperture can provide excellent current confinement and optical confinement, leading to reduced threshold and increased power conversion efficiency. The oxide layer is generally placed in the node of the standing wave to optimize the far-field divergence. When the device is forward biased, the injected carriers are confined in the oxide aperture and undergo radiative recombination in the active region, and the generated photons experience multiple reflections within the resonant cavity and are amplified by the gain materials in the active region. When the threshold condition is reached, the amplified photons will radiate in a coherent manner, forming a monochromatic and coherent laser beam, of which the emission direction is perpendicular to the substrate.

a Schematic diagram of a top-emitting VCSEL and integrated devices and systems based on VCSELs. b Timeline of VCSEL development

Advantages of VCSELs for integrated photonics

Compared with other lasers such as solid/gas lasers or EELs, VCSELs exhibit unparalleled advantages in size, power consumption, modulation bandwidth, and scalability 27 , 28 . In recent years, VCSELs open up a brand new path to realize compact, lightweight, and scalable advanced integrated photonic devices and systems, including 3D photonic neural networks, micro vortex beam emitters, polarized beam emitters, integrated holographic devices, integrated beam reflectors, and integrated sensors, as shown in Fig. 1a , which enriches their functionality and application. There are several unique characteristics and advantages that make VCSELs ideal laser sources for advanced integrated photonic devices and systems:

Wafer-normal emission and scalability

The wafer-normal, circular-beam emission of VCSELs is advantageous for 3D vertically stacked integration because it allows for easy alignment and straightforward efficient coupling with other optical components, facilitating compact and integrated photonic systems. Besides, it allows wafer-level manufacturing and testing for high-yield mass production, leading to lower cost. More importantly, the perpendicular emitting feature of VCSELs makes themselves can be fabricated into large scalable two-dimensional arrays, allowing for massive parallelism and high-density integration. By integrating multiple VCSELs with different wavelengths on a single chip through using patterned substrate 29 , grading spacer layer 30 , or intra-cavity grating with varying fill factor 31 , complex functions such as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) 32 , 33 can be implemented. This scalability is vital for applications where high-density integration is required.

High-speed direct modulation

VCSELs can be directly modulated at a very high speed, typically in the range of several gigahertz, due to their small volume. This allows for efficient high-speed data transmission without the need for external modulators. The direct modulation capability of VCSELs simplifies system design and reduces power consumption. More importantly, the modulation bandwidth of VCSELs can be greatly improved by proper epitaxial and structural design. Methods such as increasing the differential gain by adding strain in quantum wells 34 , 35 , 36 , decreasing the photon lifetime and the active area volume 37 , 38 , or reducing parasitic capacitance 39 , 40 , 41 have been demonstrated efficient to increase the modulation bandwidth of VCSELs. Therefore, adopting VCSELs as the laser source can impart additional high-speed modulation characteristic to the integrated photonic devices or systems. By leveraging VCSELs’ inherent high-speed modulation characteristics, integrated photonic devices and systems can achieve increased data bandwidth, enhanced signal quality, and improved system performance, which is very important for applications such as optical computation and optical communication where high-speed data transfer is essential.

Low power consumption

Reducing the power consumption of the systems is one of the primary purposes of integration. With the advent of the big data era and the rapid development of AI computations like ChatGPT, energy consumption is an inevitable challenge to face. As the mainstream laser source for data center, VCSELs can achieve very low threshold currents at the sub-mA level 42 , 43 , 44 and high power conversion efficiency larger than 50% 45 , 46 , which leads to relatively low power consumption. Additionally, high-speed VCSELs with energy-to-data rate ratio <100 fJ/bit have been reported 47 , 48 . This characteristic allows for lower energy consumption, reduced heat generation, and longer device lifetime.

Temperature stability

VCSELs exhibit better temperature stability compared to edge-emitting lasers 49 , 50 , 51 . Their emission wavelength shifts minimally with temperature variations, allowing for stable operation over a wide range of environmental conditions. Unlike EELs’ stronger dependence of gain-peak wavelength shift as a function of temperature, VCSELs operate only in a single longitudinal mode and their emission wavelength is highly stable against temperature and has minimal temperature dependence of optical cavity 8 . This attribute is crucial for applications requiring reliable performance in challenging thermal environments. In addition, the smaller wavelength shift of VCSELs allows using narrower-bandwidth filter in the receiver of detection systems like LiDAR, which is beneficial for obtaining a higher signal-to-noise ratio.

Advancements of VCSELs

Figure 1b shows the timeline of VCSEL development. Since the idea of surface emitting laser (SEL) was proposed by Professor Iga in 1977, VCSELs have attracted a great deal of interest and extensive research in the past four decades. The first SEL was experimentally realized by Professor Iga group in 1979 52 . After that, various methods, including using semiconductor distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) as mirrors 53 , introducing quantum wells in active region 54 , 55 , 56 , and implementing oxide apertures for current confinement 57 , have been demonstrated to evolve and improve the device we now call a VCSEL. Due to the significant and pioneering contributions of all researchers in this field, VCSELs have made great progress in material growth, device structure, fabrication process, and device performance. So far, VCSELs have been widely used in optical communication, optical mouse, laser printer, optical storage, and consumer electronics such as smartphones, vehicle LiDAR, AR/VR, etc.

In recent years, VCSELs with new structures and new materials have been continuously developed to further improve their performance. Dalir et al. recently proposed a novel VCSEL design of a multiple transverse-coupled-cavity (MTCC) coupled through a central cavity 58 , of which the structural schematic diagram of the VCSEL is shown in Fig. 2a . The MTCC can provide slow light optical feedback into the modulation cavity, and thus extends the VCSEL bandwidth beyond the limit of relaxation oscillation frequency. The VCSEL demonstrates a state-of-art modulation bandwidth of 45 GHz and can be further increased to beyond 100 GHz by optimizing the device structure 59 , which is unparalleled by other lasers.

a Novel VCSEL design of a multiple transverse-coupled-cavity for achieving high modulation bandwidth beyond 45 GHz 58 , 59 . b Multi-junction configuration of VCSEL for boosting the output power 70 . c VCSEL using perovskite as the gain material in active region 72 . d Micropillar VCSEL array 75 . e Topological insulator VCSEL array 76 . f GaN-based UVB VCSEL 82 . g InP-based VCSEL with nanoporous DBRs 87 . Figure a is reprinted from ref. 59 with permission from the De Gruyter by CC BY 4.0. Figure b is reprinted from ref. 70 with permission from the Springer Nature by CC BY 4.0. Figure c is reprinted from ref. 72 with permission from the American Chemical Society, Figure d is reprinted from ref. 75 by CC BY 4.0. Figure e is reprinted from ref. 76 with permission from the American Association for the Advancement, figure f is reprinted from ref. 82 with permission from the American Chemical Society by CC BY 4.0, and figure g is reprinted from ref. 87 with permission from the Optica Publishing Group

To boost the output power of VCSELs, multi-junction VCSELs have been proposed 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 and rapidly developed in recent years 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 . Figure 2b shows a schematic diagram of a typical three-junction VCSEL. The multi-active regions connected via tunnel junction can greatly improve the roundtrip gain in the cavity, thus boost the output power and the differential quantum efficiency. Recently, 15-junction VCSELs with a recorded power conversion efficiency of 74% at room temperature under nanosecond driving current has been realized 70 , the corresponding differential quantum efficiency exceeds 1100%. To reduce the large divergence of multi-junction VCSELs caused by the strong optical guiding introduced by multi-oxide layers, Zhang et al. introduced a novel antireflective light reservoir into multi-junction VCSELs and achieved a small full divergence angle of 8.0 o and a recorded single-mode output power of 28.4 mW 71 . In addition to new device structures, new gain materials such as perovskite were tried to serve as the gain medium materials in the active region 72 , 73 , 74 , as shown in Fig. 2c . Compared with traditional semiconductor gain materials, perovskite materials can be solution-processed easily without the need of high-temperature heating or epitaxy, and their optical bandgaps can be tuned in the visible to infrared regions, which is attractive for low-cost large-area optoelectrical applications. But how to achieve monolithic epitaxial growth of the DBRs structure and realize electrically injected perovskite-based VCSELs is still challenging.

In recent years, driven by applications such as neuromorphic computing and topological photonics, some new types of VCSEL arrays have been proposed, such as micropillar VCSEL arrays for reservoir computing shown in Fig. 2d 75 and topological insulator VCSEL array shown in Fig. 2e 76 , respectively. These arrays exhibit excellent characteristics such as high spectral homogeneity and high coherence, which hold significant potential in applications varying from neuromorphic computing to optical communication. Although optically pumped topological insulator lasers have witnessed fast advancements, electrically pumped topological insulator lasers are currently in their early stages of development. The hurdle lies in designing a topological structure that simultaneously provides effective carrier injection and large mode confinement 77 .

GaN-VCSELs and InP-based VCSELs have also made great progress in recent years. Unlike GaAs-based VCSELs, the material systems of GaN-based VCSELs and InP-based VCSELs do not support a high index contrast and have a larger lattice mismatch, making it challenging to grow high-quality DBRs. However, considerable efforts have been made to circumvent the challenge. Different cavity structures, including double dielectric DBR cavities, hybrid DBR cavities, and fully epitaxial DBRs have been developed for GaN-VCSELs 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 . So far, electrically injected GaN-based VCSELs covering 405–565 nm have been realized 81 , but the development of ultraviolet (UV) VCSELs operating below the 400 nm wavelength presents a more complex challenge and electrically injected UV VCSELs within the sub-400 nm region are yet to be achieved. Key obstacles encompass the high-gain active layer growth in the UV range, the creation of a low-loss microcavity, and the achievement of efficient current injection mechanisms. Recently, optically pumped UV VCSELs in the UVB spectrum (280–320 nm, Fig. 2e ) and the UVC spectrum (200–280 nm) were realized 82 , 83 . The future work is to find solutions for developing electrically injected UV VCSELs.

In terms of InP-based VCSELs, numerous strategies have been devised to address the obstacles posed by heteroepitaxial DBRs on InP. These methods encompass growing long-wavelength active regions on GaAs substrates (such as dilute nitrides 84 ), dual-dielectric DBRs 85 , and wafer fusion of InP active regions with AlGaAs DBRs 86 . More recently, Li et al. provided an alternative pathway of creating highly uniform, monolithic, and homoepitaxial DBRs on InP substrates (Fig. 2f ) 87 . By manipulating the index contrast through photonic nanostructures formed by electrochemical porosification, alternating nanoporous (NP) and nonporous InP layers with a record index contrast near 1.0 and near-unity reflection of DBRs with around 10 pairs can be achieved, and VCSELs with 1380 nm and 1550 nm wavelengths have been realized, which are attractive laser sources for silicon photonics and long-reach data communications.

Advanced integrated photonic devices and systems based on VCSELs

Vcsel-based micro vortex beam emitters.

Vortex beams have a helical wavefront and naturally carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), so vortex beams are also known as OAM beams, of which the complex amplitude expressions have a helical phase term exp( ilφ ), where l is the topological charges of the OAM state and φ is the azimuthal angle 88 . OAM can be utilized as a new degree of freedom for information encoding. Due to the orthogonality and infinite topological charge number of OAM states 89 , 90 , vortex beams can be used to greatly improve the capacity and spectral efficiency of optical communication systems 91 , 92 , 93 . Apart from large-capacity optical communication, vortex beams also exhibit enormous potential in myriad applications, including quantum information 94 , 95 , 96 , particle manipulation 97 , 98 , holography 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , optical data storage 104 , 105 , and optical encryption 106 .

Compared with the bulky optical systems composed of cascaded optical elements for generation of vortex beams, integrated chip-scale vortex beam emitters offer a more compact and robust solution. Monolithic OAM laser has been realized by integrating a DFB laser with a ring vortex emitter where the OAM beam can emit vertically 107 . However, the threshold of the laser is larger than 50 mA and the optical output power is lower than 0.4 mW, resulting in a relatively high power consumption. In contrast, VCSELs offer a much more energy-efficiency manner to realize chip-scale OAM emitters. By utilizing the feature of wafer-normal emission of VCSELs, micro spiral phase plates (SPPs) can be integrated directly on the emission surface of VCSELs, as shown in Fig. 3a 108 . The circularly symmetric beam profile of VCSELs can uniformly illuminate into the integrated SPPs, which makes it easy to generate structured light and OAM beams. Spiral phase shift sectors with a 0–2π phase variation are fabricated well atop the VCSEL emitting aperture, and the total phase shift of 2π is divided into eight equally spaced discrete levels within each phase shift sector. The SPPs were fabricated in a 1000 nm thick silicon nitride film deposited on the top of the VCSEL and patterned using a focused ion beam (FIB) etching technique. The integrated device can generate high-purity OAM modes and their superposition states. The threshold current and maximum output power of the device is 1 mA and 4 mW, respectively, showing great improvement than the DFB laser-based OAM solution. Similarly, micro dielectric axicon can be integrated with VCSEL by FIB etching technique to realize Bessel beams 109 . This method relies on controlling the optical path of light to manipulate the phase retardance of the emitting beam from VCSEL, which cannot control the polarization states.

a Schematic of the VCSEL with an integrated spiral phase plate on the emitting surface for direct OAM beam generation 108 . b Schematic illustration of the VCSEL with integrated metasurface to create complex vectorial fields with well-defined wavefronts, the inset shows the employed meta-atom with rectangular cross-section 114 . c Top row: schematic illustration of the VCSEL with an integrated non-contact spiral phase plate fabricated by fs laser 3D printing 115 . Bottom row: Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a fabricated VCSEL integrated with two-layer cascaded SPPs for generating vortex beam with l = 15. d Addressable and scalable 1 × 5 vortex micro laser array with specific topological charge in each channel 115 . Figure a from ref. 108 . with permission from the Optica Publishing Group. Figure b is reprinted from ref. 114 . with permission from the John Wiley and Sons. Figures c and d are adapted from ref. 115 . with permission from the American Chemical Society

Metasurface consisting of 2D array of birefringent nano-antennas enables an ultracompact and powerful solution to control both phase and polarization properties of the light 110 , 111 , 112 . Compared with conventional diffractive optical elements (DOEs), metasurface is a kind of two-dimensional optical component with planar configuration. The distinctive flat design, potential for large-scale integration, and compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor processing make metasurfaces highly suited for optoelectronic integration. Besides, metasurfaces have a more powerful light-field modulation capability. For example, the plasmonic metasurfaces based on metal nanorods enable the multiplexed modulation of multiple physical dimensions of light including polarization, OAM, and wavelength 113 . Fu et al. proposed a chip-scale OAM emitter achieved by integrating metasurface on the back side GaAs substrate of a bottom emitting VCSEL 114 , as shown in Fig. 3b . The GaAs nano-pillars with rectangular cross-sections can be considered as truncated waveguide with anisotropic effective refractive indices of the waveguide modes polarized along their fast and slow axis (see the inset in Fig. 3b ). Consequently, independent control of the propagation phase imposed to the orthogonally polarized light along these two axes can be achieved by changing its width ( D u ) and length ( D v ), respectively, which can be leveraged to manipulate both the local polarization states and the phase retardance. By controlling the phase propagation, phase offset along the two orthogonal directions of the metasurface elements, and their orientation angles, the linearly polarized beam of the VCSEL can be easily transformed into any complex wavefront with desired phase profiles and polarization states. By integrating such a kind of metasurface with VCSELs, vector vortex beams with different polarization orders (m = 1, 2, and 3) have been realized.

However, the current VCSEL-based vortex lasers have difficulty in realizing large topological charges larger than l = 5 due to the insufficient space-bandwidth product (SBP) caused by the inherent limited emitting area of VCSELs. This will limit the information capacity of OAM-based multiplexing applications. To address this issue, cascaded SPPs are designed and directly integrating on top-emitting VCSEL by using fs laser 3D printing technique 115 , as illustrated in Fig. 3c . The printed phase plates are integrated with VCSELs through a non-contact way, which can minimize the impact of the phase plates on the VCSELs’ inherent characteristics. To achieve large topological charges, two SPPs with l = 5 and l = 10 are cascaded to generate a vortex beam for l = 15. And larger topological charges were also proven to be feasible by increasing the phase plates. This breaks the limit of the topological charges of current vortex microlasers and may unlock the on-chip application of OAM-based information multiplexing with more channels. In addition, the VCSEL shows a modulation bandwidth larger than 11 GHz, indicting high-bit-rate data can be imprinted on the OAM beam by directly modulating the high-speed VCSEL, which may further increase the capacity of on-chip information multiplexing communication. More importantly, addressable and scalable vortex micro laser array with specific topological charge in each channel can be realized by harnessing the scalability of VCSELs, as is proved by a 1×5 addressable vortex laser array shown in Fig. 3d . These capabilities hold great promise for applications ranging from high-capacity optical communications to data storage.

VCSEL-based integrated holographic devices

Holography has revolutionized imaging and display technologies by enabling the reconstruction of three-dimensional scenes with stunning realism, which provides realistic and immersive visual experiences 116 , 117 , 118 . Traditional two-dimensional images lack depth and fail to convey the full spatial information of an object. Holography addresses this limitation by capturing and reproducing the complete wavefront of light, resulting in lifelike three-dimensional representations. Traditional spatial light modulator (SLM) based holography methods can achieve dynamic and reconfigurable holograms. However, the large size of SLMs inevitably increasing the optical system size and makes it difficult to achieve integration with VCSELs 119 . In addition, the large pixel size, low resolution, small field-of-view (FOV), limited space-bandwidth, and unwanted diffraction orders of SLM-based holography restrict the possibility of improving the quality of reconstructed images 120 , 121 .

VCSELs provide a perfect integration platform for miniaturizing holographic devices. With VCSELs as coherent light sources, holographic displays can be realized with improved performance and reduced complexity. Wang et al. proposed an integrated holographic device based on VCSELs 122 . By integrating VCSELs with metasurface holograms that can be encoded with arbitrary complex beam patterns, chip-level holographic devices have been realized. Hsu. et al. extended this method to photonic crystal surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs) and demonstrated a reconstruction of holographic images by integrating metasurface holograms with PCSELs 123 . The left column in Fig. 4a illustrates the schematic of a chip-level VCSEL-based holographic device. A phase-only metasurface hologram with a lattice size of 260 nm is designed using the classical Gerchberg–Saxton algorithm to construct an image of the university logo in the far field of the VCSEL. The right column in Fig. 4a shows a measured holographic image projected onto a screen placed at Z = 1 cm under an injection current of 3 mA. Thanks to the subwavelength lattice constant of the metasurface hologram, high efficiency and large FOV of 124° were realized. Besides, the holographic image is free of the zeroth-order laser mostly due to the divergence of the incoming wave, which is beneficial for a simple design and a high signal-to-noise ratio. It should be noted that once the metasurface structure is designed and fabricated, the generated hologram is usually fixed, which is still challenging in achieving dynamic and reconfigurable holograms. Therefore, developing tunable metasurfaces is a direction to circumvent this challenge. Alternatively, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) can be considered to integrate on the VCSELs to achieve dynamic modulation. In addition, by integrating metasurface consisting of 2D array of birefringent nano-antennas with VCSELs, polarization multiplexed holography can be realized. Ni et al. utilized Jones matrix metasurfaces composed of birefringent nano-fin arrays to monolithically integrate with bottom-emitting 980 nm VCSELs for on-chip decouple the circularly polarized (CP) states of the laser beam and modulate the phase profiles of each spin component independently to realize dual-channel holographic images projection 124 , as shown in the left column in Fig. 4b . The VCSEL substrate is with a large thickness of 630 μm to expand the laser beam, thus to ensure sufficient diffraction through the interaction with the most part of nanostructures forming the integrated metasurfaces. A basic rectangular pillar of the metasurfaces can be used as a truncated waveguide that controls the propagation phases of two eigenmodes with different polarizations. By adjusting the width ( W ) and length ( L ) of the pillar, the propagation phases for the fast and slow axes can be independently controlled, as illustrated in the inset of Fig. 4b . To achieve a full 2π modulation of propagation phase, six nanopillars numbered 1–6 were employed, each providing an equivalent phase step of π/3. The phase difference between the two eigen-polarization channels remained fixed at π, as shown in the right column of Fig. 4b . The wavefronts of both the output right-circularly polarized (RCP) and left-circularly polarized (LCP) components were holographically structured to display two different far-field images, and each component can be filtered out with a CP polarization filter, as shown in Fig. 4c . More importantly, the orthogonality of the VCSEL spin states can be utilized to further encrypt the images with polarization selectivity. By designing the CP components of the holographic VCSEL to travel in the same direction, their beam patterns are allowed to mix. This mixture enables access to distinct holographic information separately by utilizing CP filtering, as illustrated in Fig. 4d . Such multiplexing techniques are highly desired to optimize the tremendous information capability and improve the space-bandwidth product of metasurface holograms. Since a polarization multiplexed holography can carry high-dimensional information rather than the simple scalar intensity information, combining polarization multiplexed holography with VCSELs allows to fully exploit their polarization degree of freedom as an additional information channel, which could substantially boost the capacity of VCSELs in optical communication, display, data storage, and optical encryption, etc.

a Left: schematic illustration of a holographic VCSEL integrated with metasurface for constructing a university logo image. Right: Experimentally reconstructed image 122 . b Left: polarization multiplexed holography to display two different holographic images in the far field. Right: calculated transmission amplitude and phase of the selected six meta-atoms. A complete 2π modulation range of propagation phase is achieved 124 . c Left: SEM images of the integrated holographic metasurface. The inset schematically summarizes the example of dual-channel holographic design to structure the far-field intensity profiles of the polarization-decoupled VCSEL into two channels, in which two infrared images of the letters of “BJUT” and the university logo were directly projected onto a white screen for observation 124 . Right: the recorded far-field beam patterns without and with a polarizer, in which the uncontrolled co-polarization channel can be filtered out using a polarizer. d The divergent co-polarization beam spot can be removed from the holographic images with a polarizer, revealing the hidden information 124 . Figure a is adapted from ref. 122 with permission from the John Wiley and Sons. Figure b – d are adapted from ref. 124 . with permission from the Springer Nature by CC BY 4.0

VCSEL-based integrated beam deflector

Beam deflectors are essential components in numerous applications, including LiDAR, projection displays, and free-space communication 125 , 126 , 127 . Traditional mechanical beam deflectors are often bulky and suffer from mechanical wear due to the moving parts. In contrast, nonmechanical beam-steering techniques eliminate the need for mechanical components, reducing the risk of wear, mechanical failures, and the associated maintenance requirements, which offer a more reliable, flexible, and compact beam-steering solution. In recent years, tremendous nonmechanical beam-steering techniques based on an optical phased array (OPA) 128 , 129 , 130 , SLM 131 , 132 , etc., have been demonstrated, yet additional off-chip laser sources are needed.

VCSELs provide an excellent platform for implementing beam steering due to their inherent easy monolithic integration and fast modulation capabilities. By on-chip integration of phase control elements with VCSELs, precise control and steering of the emitted beam can be achieved in a compact and efficient manner. One direct beam steering method is to adjust the phase difference between neighbor elements of an addressable coherently coupled VCSEL arrays through asymmetry current injection 133 , 134 . By varying the injection current, the refractive index of the semiconductor materials changes due to the combined effect of carriers and thermal effect, thus the phase difference between the emitters varies and finally beam steering happens. This method does not require additional integrated optical elements, but the output power and emitted wavelength are unstable due to the varied emitted modes caused by varied injection currents.

To address this issue, Pan et al. proposed a nonmechanical beam steering device composed of a coherently coupled VCSEL array and a liquid crystal OPA 135 , as illustrated in Fig. 5a . Since there is a fixed phase difference between the emitters in the coherently coupled VCSEL array, dynamic beam steering can be achieved by tuning the phase difference through adjusting the voltages loaded on the liquid crystal OPA. The OPA has less impact on the stability of the VCSEL array’s output power and wavelength due to the modulation of the laser beam is implemented outside the VCSEL cavity. Zhao et al. proposed a beam deflector achieved by integrating microfluidic channel on a coherently coupled VCSEL array 136 , as shown in Fig. 5b . Dynamic beam steering can be achieved by the injection of liquids with different refractive index into the microchannel. These two devices provide solutions to implement a compact laser system with real-time beam steering, but at the cost of limited steering range within 6.06°and slow response time larger than 500 ms due to the inherent properties of liquid crystal and the slow exchange of liquids.

a Schematic illustration of a coherent VCSEL array integrated with OPA for beam steering 135 . b Schematic illustration of the integration of microfluidic channel with VCSEL to control the laser beam 136 . c Schematic of a beam scanner based on the integration of VCSEL with slow light waveguide 137 . Figure a and b are reprinted from refs. 135 . and 136 . respectively with permission from the Optica Publishing Group. Figure c is reprinted from ref. 137 . with permission from the Chinese Laser Press

Hu et al. proposed a VCSEL-based beam steering device with large steering angle and high steering speed 137 , as shown in Fig. 5c . The monolithic beam steering device is realized by laterally integrating a VCSEL with a slow-light waveguide (amplifier) which has a longer wavelength. The slow-light waveguide can enable large dispersion, thus large steering range with high resolution can be achieved by tuning the input wavelength or tuning the refractive index of the slow-light waveguide material 138 , 139 , 140 , 141 . By continuously changing the injection current of the VCSEL, the lasing wavelength varies continuously due to the self-heating effect, and then the slow light coupled from the VCSEL is amplified in the waveguide and continuous sweep of the beam deflection angle is achieved. At the same time, beam steering can be realized by changing the refractive index of the amplifier. The 3 dB bandwidth of beam steering is over 70 kHz, which is much faster than that of the liquid crystal OPA-integrated beam steering devices.

An alternative method to realize chip-scale beam reflector is to integrate VCSEL with metasurface. Wang et al. demonstrated an on-chip 2D metasurface-integrated 8×8 VCSEL array allows for programmable beam steering with a large deflection angle ranging from 0° to 60° 122 , as shown in Fig. 6a . Each metasurface on the chip is designed with a different phase profile for different deflection angle. The fabricated beam steering chip has a small size comparable with a coin. This large-angle beam steering chip is beneficial for high-speed applications and the generation of wide-field spatially structured light. Juodėnas et al. demonstrated the integration of a novel axicon formed by curved GaAs metagratings with a VCSEL to enable high-angle and high-efficiency deflection 142 , as shown in Fig. 6b . The unique axicon design that achieves both high-angle deflection and quasi-collimation by utilizing the curvature of the metagrating. The design effectively aligns the tangential hyperbolic phase gradient with the input phase generated by the VCSEL through an offset distance. The integration of metagrating-based VCSELs as illumination sources in microscopy demonstrates impressive switchable dark-field and total internal reflection (TIR) illumination capabilities. Compared to advanced illumination devices, this solution offers the advantages of affordability, efficiency, compactness, and a built-in, pre-aligned light-coupling system.

a On-chip 2D metasurface-integrated 8 × 8 VCSEL array allows for programmable beam steering with large deflection angle ranging from 0° to 60° (ref. 122 ). b Schematic illustration of an oxide-confined bottom-emitting GaAs-VCSEL and its integration with a metagrating that enables high-angle deflection for high-contrast dark field and total internal reflection microscopy 142 . Figure a is reprinted from ref. 122 . with permission from the John Wiley and Sons, Figure b is reprinted from ref. 142 . with permission from the Springer Nature by CC BY 4.0

VCSEL-based integrated sensors

The characteristics of VCSELs, such as low power consumption, circular beam emission, small size and high temperature stability, make them quickly become the mainstream light source for various sensing applications. Typical sensing applications, including mice, gesture recognition and face recognition in smartphones, LiDAR for autonomous vehicle, have been already demonstrated detailly 7 , 57 . Here, we focus on miniaturized VCSEL-based biosensor and atomic sensors.

Biosensors based on VCSELs

Small portable miniaturized total analysis systems based on microchannels or microarrays hold the promise of providing immediate point-of-care services that could facilitate the detection of common diseases and early cancers 143 . In addition, integrated bioanalysis systems can provide a parallel architecture for high-throughput experiments such as drug screening and enable scientists to better understand complex biological processes, such as protein interactions with potential drug targets. More importantly, the development of miniaturized analysis systems will improve and enable in flexible diagnostic tools such as imaging and real-time drug delivery systems. Fluorescence sensing remains one of the most widely used techniques in biotechnology. Unfortunately, traditional bioluminescence sensing systems use bulky discrete components that are expensive and require a large footprint and precise alignment 144 . The integrated on-chip sensing architecture makes portable and powerful medical diagnostic devices practical and is expected to reduce the cost of instruments.

The field of biosensing is increasingly relying on integrated photonics for label-free and highly sensitive detection of various biological analytes. VCSELs have unique advantages in this field due to their small size, low power consumption, superior wavelength stability 145 . More importantly, the narrow linewidth of single-mode VCSELs is generally less than 0.2 nm, which can generate sharp excitation of the desired fluorescent probe and maximize its spectral separation from the emission peak for more efficient spectral filtering and thus improve fluorescence sensitivity and resolution 146 . VCSELs can enable highly integrated biosensors with a size of 100 μm-level 143 , 147 , as shown in Fig. 7a, b . Integrating VCSEL, photodetector, and filter on the same substrate in a single piece can dramatically reduce the cost and size, and increase functionality and sensitivity of the biosensors. With the monolithic approach, the detection channel spacing or pixel spacing can be reduced to less than 100 μm, which is challenging in discrete component systems. The sensor units can be manufactured in parallel using traditional semiconductor manufacturing techniques and used as the building blocks of highly parallel detection systems.

a is reprinted from ref. 143 . with permission from the IEEE. b is reprinted from ref. 147 with permission from the Optica Publishing Group

Despite the potential for extreme miniaturization, monolithic designs suffer from performance limitations due to interlayer and lateral optical crosstalk (spontaneous emission) between the laser and the photodetector 146 . To address this issue while still maintaining a small device footprint, Mahzabeen et al. proposed a solution involves discreetly integrating separate VCSELs and detector components into a packaged sensor 146 , 148 , as shown in Fig. 8a . The biosensor consists of a 675 nm VCSEL and a custom PIN GaAs detector wire bonded to a TO-5 metal can package, which is designed to excite and record fluorescence in the near-infrared region. The VCSEL is placed on a quartz spacer for galvanic isolation and spatial separation from the detector, reducing the optical crosstalk, which is further mitigated by a black Ti/Au baffle. Placing the VCSEL and detector in a coplanar arrangement reduces background interference and increases the detection limit compared to the arrangement where the excitation light is incident on the detector. At the top of the detector is an integrated dielectric notch filter combined with a hybrid-bonded fluorescence emission filter that contains a 2 mm thick layer of RG695 absorbing glass for maximum rejection of excitation light. The multilayer filter emits through a positive incidence fluorescence centered at 750 nm with a bandwidth of 40 nm and rejects at least 6 orders of magnitude of the 675 nm excitation. The packaging sidewalls are painted black to reduce stray light reflections. The integration completes the installation of an anti-reflective collimating lens. The whole sensor package is only 9 mm in height and diameter, exhibiting a relatively small footprint. The authors used protein-induced fluorescence enhancement of a near-infrared cyanine dye to achieve instantaneous detection of protein in serum or urine samples. The non-covalent interaction between the dye and protein leads to the stabilization of the trans conformation in the photoactive state. This stabilization effect causes the excited-state lifetime to increase and enhances its quantum yield. When the VCSEL laser excites the sample, the enhanced emitted fluorescence is captured by the hybrid-integrated photodetector. The detected fluorescence generates an electric current that directly correlates with the concentration of protein present in the sample, as illustrated in Fig. 8b . This biosensor exhibits exceptional sensitivity (urine LOD = 0.023 g/L, LOQ = 0.075 g/L) and can accurately detect protein levels across a wide range of concentrations relevant to the human body. When compared to standard clinical assays and fluorimetry tools, this sensor consistently delivers precise quantification of total protein in urine samples from diabetic patients. Additionally, the VCSEL biosensor’s compatibility with miniaturized electronics makes it suitable for integration into a portable, cost-effective, user-friendly device that can provide sensitive and real-time measurements of total protein from small biofluid samples.

a Cross-sectional view of the biosensor showing the optical components - VCSEL, PIN photodetector, and optical filters 146 , 148 . b Protein-induced fluorescence enhancement of a cyanine dye 146 , 148 . Figures a and b are reproduced from ref. 148 . with permission from the Elsevier

Atomic sensors based on VCSELs

Atomic sensors such as atomic clocks, magnetometers, and gyroscope, relying on the interaction between laser and atoms to achieve precise measurements of time, magnetic field, and attitude, play a crucial role in various scientific and industrial applications due to their exceptional accuracy and sensitivity 149 , 150 . One of the major trends for atomic sensors is the volume reduction that facilitates the integration into compact electronic devices and systems.

Chip-scale atomic sensors are highly attractive due to their advantages of small size, low power consumption, high precision and sensitivity, and excellent stability and long-term reliability 151 . However, conventional bulk lasers are not suitable for achieving chip-scale atomic sensors. In contrast, VCSELs with single mode, narrow linewidth, and stable polarization for atomic sensing have been demonstrated 152 , 153 , 154 and enabled small low-power atomic sensors, including atomic clocks, magnetometers, and gyroscopes 155 , 156 . Vicarini et al. proposed an 895 nm VCSEL-based (tuned on the Cs D1 line) miniature atomic clocks based on coherent population trapping with improved fractional frequency stability of 7.5 × 10 −11 at 1 s and better than 2 × 10 −11 at 1 day 157 . The improved mid- and long-term frequency stability benefits from the implementation of additional stabilization loops, including a loop for stabilizing the actual temperature of the VCSEL chip, and another loop for maintaining the total microwave power absorbed by the laser to a value that maximizes the optical absorption and significantly reduces the laser power dependence of the clock frequency (Figure 9a left column). The implementation of these additional stabilization loops can reduce temperature-induced light-shift effects and lead to improved clock frequency stability. The clock system is packaged into a cube with small external dimensions of 15 mm ×15 mm × 13 mm, which is comparable with a five EURO cent coin.

a Architecture of a clock system with additional stabilization loops on the mid- and long-term stability. The clock physics package is fully integrated in a 15 × 15 × 13 mm 3 cube 157 . b The cross-sectional view, the expanded view, and physics package of a chip-scale atomic clock with 3D integrated physics package 158 . c Left: configuration of single-beam miniature atomic magnetometer applying VCSEL 159 ; FG function generator, TIA transimpedance amplifier, LIA lock-in amplifier, DAQ data acquisition. Right: photograph of VCSEL pump laser, GP lens, and vapor cell. Figures a – c are reproduced from refs. 157 , 158 , 159 , respectively with permission from the IEEE

Park et al. proposed a flexible hybrid approach for a 3D integrated physics package of chip-scale atomic clocks 158 . The cross-sectional view, the expanded view, and physics package of the chip-scale atomic clock are shown in Figure 9b . The package consists of a vertically stacked configuration incorporating a VCSEL, a MEMS hotplate, a quarter wavelength plate (QWP), and an alkali MEMS vapor cell, all bound together using aluminum foil. The aluminum-bound structure is suspended by the polyimide core of the flexible circuit board (FPCB) to ensure high thermal resistance. Additionally, a mu-metal fixture is utilized for magnetic shielding and FPCB suspension, while the MEMS hotplate and thermistor facilitate effective thermal management. The planar integrated FPCB is folded and stacked at an intersection with the mu-metal fixture. These innovations enable the chip-scale atomic clock with the proposed physics package to achieve a coherent population trapping (CPT) linewidth of 5.6 kHz and consume approximately 200 mW of power. The measured frequency short-term stability at 1000-second integration is around 5.2 × 10 −12 . These encouraging results demonstrate the promising performance of the flexible hybrid physics package for use in miniaturized atomic clocks.

In terms of miniature atomic magnetometer, Zhang et al. proposed a compact 795 nm VCSEL-based atomic magnetometer based on a Rb microcell 159 . The configuration of the miniature atomic magnetometer applying VCSEL is shown in Figure 9c . The authors used a geometric-phase (GP)-lens to accomplish both the collimation of divergent beam and the selection of circularly polarized light. When the incident laser has an arbitrary polarization, the RCP σ+ component is focused into a collimated beam. This beam then passes through the vapor cell, serving as the pump light. On the other hand, the LCP σ- component is split and results in a defocused beam exiting the light path. Thus, this process purifies the circular polarization degree and effectively suppresses polarization noise. The GP-lens collimated VCSEL is applied in compact magnetometers. A square glass cell with external dimension 4 × 4 × 4 mm 3 and interior dimension 3 × 3 × 3 mm 3 is employed, containing a droplet of 87Rb. The photograph of VCSEL pump laser, GP lens, vapor cell, and the supporting structure are shown in the right of Figure 9c . The vapor cell is enclosed within a boron-nitride oven and subjected to a temperature of 150 °C. This is achieved by utilizing an electronic heater powered by a 200-kHz ac current. To ensure accurate temperature control, a nonmagnetic Pt1000 temperature sensor is securely affixed to the surface of the vapor cell. The temperature fluctuations are kept below 10 mK through the use of a real-time PID controller. Additionally, any magnetic field produced by the heating current can be counterbalanced by the tri-axis coils. High sensitivity up to 30 fT/Hz 1/2 was achieved in this single-beam miniature atomic magnetometer.

According to the above-reported results, chip-scale atomic sensors offer a compelling combination of small size, high precision, stability, low power requirements, and scalability. These attributes make them attractive for various applications where accuracy, reliability, and integration are crucial, paving the way for advancements in sensing technology and enabling the development of innovative devices and systems.

VCSELs with polarized beam emissions

In many applications, like atomic sensors mentioned above, high polarization stability is required for the light sources. However, the traditional methods of generating polarized beam often involve using bulky and expensive components like linear polarizers and quarter-waveplates. These methods also require meticulous assembly for proper functioning, posing a challenge to device miniaturization for portable and wearable applications. Hence, there is a pressing need for ultracompact polarized lasers that are simple to operate, enabling the development of highly integrated and cost-effective optical systems. VCSELs provide a promising platform to achieve this objective. However, conventional VCSELs generally have difficulty in achieving polarized light with a high orthogonal polarization suppression ratio (OPSR). The fundamental principle of polarization stabilization involves enhancing the desired polarization and suppressing other adverse effects to ensure its dominance. Adhering to this principle, various approaches, such as introducing anisotropic gain/loss 160 , 161 , and using asymmetry mesa 162 , have been explored to control the polarization of the output light.

In addition to these methods, high-index-contrast metastructures offer a more flexible and effective way to achieve stable polarization while maintaining a high compactness 163 , 164 . High-contrast gratings (HCGs) are a type of optical metastructure used to manipulate light at the sub-wavelength scale. These gratings consist of alternating regions with high and low refractive indices, creating strong variations in the optical properties of the material. By carefully designing the periodicity and dimensions of the grating, HCGs can control the reflection, transmission, and diffraction of light. C. J. Chang-Hasnain group utilized HCGs with high reflectance and broad bandwidth to replace the DBRs of VCSELs to achieve stable polarization and solve the small DBR bandwidth problem (Fig. 10a ) 165 . Since the HCG reflectivity is polarization-dependent, the device emission has a preferred TM-polarization with its electric field perpendicular to the grating lines, and an OSPR of 20 dB was achieved. In addition, this group tailored the angular transmission characteristics of HCGs to shape the angular profile of the VCSEL output beam, and realized single-lobe, double-lobe, triple-lobe, “bow-tie,” “sugar cone,” and “doughnut” beam patterns (Fig. 10b ) 166 . Recently, the same group realized chiral lasing from electrically pumped VCSELs at room temperature without spin injection via incorporating a high-contrast chiral metasurface reflector as the VCSEL top mirror (Fig. 10c ) 167 . When there is a difference in reflectivity between the top mirror for the two orthogonal circular polarizations, it leads to distinct threshold gain values for the two chiral modes. Consequently, the lasing behavior becomes dependent on circular polarization. More specifically, if the reflectivity of the top mirror is greater for RCP component compared to LCP component, the threshold gain for RCP component will be comparatively lower. As a result, the VCSEL tends to favor lasing in RCP polarization and vice versa. Based on this principle, the group designed the structure of the high-contrast chiral metasurface consisting of gammadion-shaped GaAs nanostructures arranged in a square lattice, sitting on top of a low-index aluminum oxide spacer. By adjusting the geometrical parameters (a, b, c, d) for the gammadion shape and the period of the square lattice (p) as shown in the inset of Fig. 10c , it is possible to control the circular-polarization-dependent reflection of the chiral metasurface. Through numerical simulations, it has been observed that the geometric parameter c, which corresponds to the length of the four orthogonally arranged arms of the gammadion shape, can be effectively utilized to manipulate the sign of the reflectivity difference. By setting proper geometrical parameters of (a, b, c, d), the VCSELs showed stable single-mode chiral lasing and achieved a circular-polarization degree of up to 59%.

a Schematic cross-sectional layout of the VCSEL with the top mirror consisting of a freely suspending HCG and four pair DBRs 165 . b The cross section of a VCSEL with HCGs for beam shaping 166 . c Schematic of a VCSEL featuring a chiral metasurface as the top reflector for circularly polarized emission; the top-left inset shows a top view of the metasurface unit cell, with the geometric parameters labeled 167 . d VCSEL with a-Si metasurface on top facet. Device can simultaneously generate RCP and LCP beams when operating as a laser (forward biased) 168 . Device can also distinguish helicity of incident light when operated as a photodetector (reverse biased). Figure a is reprinted from ref. 165 . with permission from the Springer Nature. Figure b and c are reprinted from ref. 166 . and ref. 167 . respectively with permission from the he Optica Publishing Group. Figure d is reprinted from ref. 168 . with permission from the John Wiley and Sons

Figure 10d shows a VCSELs with on-facet metasurfaces for polarization state generation and detection proposed by Wen et al. 168 An amorphous silicon (a-Si) metasurface was fabricated and integrated on the VCSEL facet. When LCP and RCP waves interact with the amorphous silicon nanopillars, they undergo a separation process where each component is directed towards a different path due to the opposite phase gradients provided by the nanopillars. Additionally, the device can function as a detector by applying a reverse bias and illuminating it with light in the first-diffraction-order.

VCSEL-based 3D photonic neural networks

With the rapid development of large models of artificial intelligence (AI), the problems of insufficient computing power and excessive energy consumption of existing von Neumann architecture computers have emerged 169 , 170 . Taking ChatGPT-3 for example, it contains 175 billion parameters, and the total computing power needed for training is 3.14 × 10 23 flops 171 , which requires running on 1,024 NVIDIA A100 graphics processing units (GPUs) for up to one month. In this context, neuromorphic computing mimicking the nervous system of the human brain has become a widely recognized solution 172 . Among them, photonic neural networks (PNNs) have significant advantages over their electrical counterparts in terms of power consumption and speed because of their light-speed passive propagation, high bandwidth, low crosstalk, and multiple physical dimensions 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 . Bhavin J. Shastri et al. estimate that the energy efficiency and computing power of the PNNs based on nanophotonics will be 4 orders of magnitude and 5 orders of magnitude higher than the state-of-the-art neuromorphic electronics, respectively 177 .

Spatially, PNNs can be categorized into two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D). 2D PNNs mainly refer to photonic integrated circuits represented by Si-photonics technology. So far, integrated 2D PNNs including deep neural networks 177 , 178 , spiking neural networks 179 , 180 , tensor cores 181 , and convolutional accelerators 182 , 183 have been demonstrated. However, due to the working wavelength, the synaptic device size of 2D PNNs typically reaches the micrometer level, resulting in a much lower device density than current electronic integrated circuits. Because of the limited chip size, 2D PNNs cannot achieve large-scale device integration. Thus, despite better energy efficiency, the computing power of 2D PNNs is difficult to surpass existing commercial GPUs.

3D PNNs are a promising way forward. By increasing the spatial dimension, the number of devices can be greatly increased to improve the performance. In electronic circuits, increasing the spatial dimension involves complex circuit design and fabrication, whereas in PNNs, this problem is drastically simplified. Light can propagate on demand in free space using conventional DOE devices 184 , 185 , 186 , optical fibers 187 , 188 , 189 , or holography 190 , 191 , 192 , 193 . VCSELs have played an important role in 3D PNNs. The unique characteristics of VCSEL, including 2D array, addressability, low threshold, and high modulation bandwidth, enable it to meet the high demands of 3D PNNs for high-throughput input, low energy consumption, and compactness.

Figure 11a, b show a schematic drawing of a biological neuron and its mathematical model, respectively. The weight function of synapses, the summation function of soma, and the nonlinear functions are key elements in building PNNs. Mathematically, the weight and summation functions can be represented by matrix multiplication. Figure 11c is a typical framework of a fully connected deep neural network with an input layer, multiple hidden layers, and an output layer. Each hidden layer consists of many neurons carrying different weights. When the input signal in matrix form passes through a hidden layer, it performs matrix multiplication with the weight matrix stored in the hidden layer. Matrix multiplication includes multiplication operations and summation operations, which can simulate the functions of synapse and soma respectively.

a Schematic illustration of a biological neuron 170 . b Schematic illustration of the mathematical model of a biological neuron. c Schematic illustration of a typical framework of a fully-connected deep neural network. Figure a is adapted from ref. 170 . with permission from the Springer Nature by CC BY 4.0

The advantages of VCSELs to be used in PNNs and/or optical computing can be broadly categorized as follows. (1) As active devices, VCSELs can be pumped and lasing by optical injection 194 , 195 . The pumped laser can be modulated electrically 196 or by introducing other materials, like saturable absorber 189 , 197 . Therefore, VCSEL can accomplish the weight function or the summation function and have been used as photonic neurons in deep neural networks, spiking neural networks, and reservoir computing. (2) The optical pumping of VCSEL reacts highly nonlinearly to optical injection 198 , so VCSEL-based PNNs naturally have a nonlinear activation function. (3) Electrically driven VCSELs also can be used as input layers to generate high-throughput signals for PNNs 199 . (4) In superconducting processors and quantum computing, low-temperature environments are often required. VCSELs can be designed to operate stably at low temperatures, and the high-speed feature of VCSELs allows them to be used for data transfer from ultralow temperature to the end-user at room temperature 200 .

VCSEL-based deep neural networks

Recently, Chen et al. reported an optical deep neural network based on a 5×5 coherent VCSEL arrays (Fig. 12a ) 184 . The synaptic weight function is realized by controlling the phase difference between the VCSELs. First, they achieved coherence of VCSELs by optical injection phase-locking. As illustrated in Fig. 12b, a leader laser was illuminated on the VCSELs by a DOE device. Therefore, the VCSELs serve as the slave lasers. When the frequency detuning between VCSELs and the leader laser is in a certain range, the phase of all the VCSELs will be locked to the leader laser. Thus, the VCSELs become coherent. The locking range, i.e. the range of frequency detuning, is related to the injection ratio, which is defined as the ratio of output power of the VCSELs and power of the injected signal 195 . As the ratio increases, the locking range increases. Then, under injection locking, tuning the individual VCSEL resonance with varying driving voltages allows phase tuning. In their work, the voltage range V π to achieve a phase shift of (−π/2, π/2) is 4 mV, and such a small V π allows phase-only linear modulation with negligible amplitude coupling. Therefore, all the data, including input signals and weights can be encoded as the phase of VCSELs.

a Optical image of the used VCSEL array. The inset: scanning electron microscope image of a VCSEL. b Schematic illustration of the optical setup. c Benchmarking of optical inference with the VCSEL-based deep PNNs. Figure a is adapted from ref. 184 with permission from the Springer Nature. Figure b and c are reprinted from ref. 184 with permission from the Springer Nature

During the computing, a single VCSEL in the array served as the signal input and was encoded by sequential input signals x . Then, the signals were fanned out to multiple light spots by another DOE device and illuminated on multiple photodetectors respectively. Other VCSELs served as the weights encoding different sequential weights w and were also illuminated on these photodetectors respectively. As a result, the photocurrent I of one of the photodetectors satisfies the following relationship,

where A x , A w , φ x , and φ w are the amplitude and phase of the input and weight VCSEL, respectively. Since the information is encoded in the phase, which means the amplitude of the VCSELs can be regarded as a constant, this equation can be rewritten as

where \(w=\sin {\varphi }_{w}\) and \(x=\sin {\varphi }_{x}\) . Thus, the synaptic weight function is successfully realized. The circuit of the photodetector was designed to accumulate the photocurrent generated by the sequential optical signal, thus realizing the summation function of soma.

Based on the above mechanism, the authors trained a bilayer deep neural network and implemented it through two rounds of calculations on the VCSEL array (Fig. 12c ). The authors demonstrated recognition tasks of different datasets. Among them, the accuracy of 10-type handwritten digit recognition can reach 93.1%. With optimized electronics and photonic packaging, the computing power and energy consumption of the optical part of the network can reach 6 TeraOP/(mm 2 ·s) and 7 fJ/OP, respectively, which are improvements of 100× and 20× compared to digital hardware.

VCSEL-based spiking neural networks

In the human brain, biological neurons are excitable and respond by firing spikes when stimulated 201 . The spiking neural networks (SNNs) mimic this model and are known as the third-generation artificial neural network. In SNNs, signals are transmitted in the form of spikes rather than simulated continuous values 179 , 180 . The leaky integrate and fire (LIF) model is one of the most commonly used models for spiking neurons. In the LIF model, the spiking neuron integrates the stimulus. When the accumulation exceeds the threshold, the spiking neuron will be activated and generate a spike to pass backward 188 .

VCSEL can be used as an optical LIF spiking neuron. In 2012, A. Hurtado et al. reported the spiking behavior of VCSELs under optical injection and correlated VCSELs with spiking neurons 202 . Compared to biological neurons, the optical spiking phenomenon of VCSELs is several orders of magnitude faster, typically at the picosecond level 202 , which helps to significantly increase the processing speed. Parallelly, excitable spiking characteristics of VCSELs containing intracavity saturable absorbers have also been investigated 197 . This phenomenon can be simply understood as an increase in carrier concentration in the active layer of the VCSEL caused by optical injection, which is similar to the summation function of soma. When the carrier concentration exceeds a certain threshold, the VCSEL can be pumped, and due to the recombination of holes and electrons, the carrier concentration drops rapidly and falls below the threshold. As a result, spike-shaped laser pulses are generated by the VCSEL.

Recently, spiking VCSEL-neurons have been used for different tasks, such as logic operations 203 , image edge detection 204 , convolution kernel 205 , 206 , and pattern classification 188 . Here we select the pattern classification task to introduce. In the work 188 , as shown in Fig. 13a, a 4-bit pattern is encoded as time-sequential optical signals. After being weighted by a Mach-Zehnder modulator, only the sequence of the target pattern can produce two stimulus pulses within the integration time of the VCSEL. The used VCSEL could only be activated by two pulses stimulated during the integration time. Therefore, when these optical signals are injected into the VCSEL, only the signals of the target pattern can activate the VCSEL to produce a spiking response. Based on the high-speed characteristic of VCSEL, the recognition of a 4-bit pattern only takes 650 ps.

a 2-bit image recognition based on spiking VCSEL-neurons 188 . b Reservoir computing based on LA-VCSEL 198 . c Matrix multiplication using VCSEL as 1D vector input device 236 . d 2D VCSEL array can be used as high-through-put input device for DNNs to implement 3D photonic chips 199 . Figure a is reprinted from ref. 188 . with permission from the Springer Nature by CC BY 4.0. Figure b is reproduced from ref. 198 . with permission from the IOP Publishing by CC BY 4.0. Figure c is reprinted from ref. 236 . with permission from the Optica Publishing Group. Figure d is reprinted from ref. 199 . with permission from the De Gruyter by CC BY 4.0

Currently, VCSEL, as a spiking neuron, mainly plays the role of integrating optical signals. Optical signals are mainly transmitted through optical fibers, therefore, the number of VCSEL neurons used is limited, resulting in the demonstrated tasks being generally simple. In the future, if the network connections of spiking VCSEL-neurons can be constructed through DOE devices, it may be possible to construct large-scale SNNs to implement more complex AI tasks.

VCSEL-based reservoir computing

VCSEL can also be used to build recurrent reservoirs to implement reservoir computing 199 , 207 , 208 , 209 . The reservoir is a fixed, nonlinear system with an internal dynamic process that maps the input signal to a higher-dimensional computational space. The reservoir can be regarded as a “black box”. We do not need to care about the signal transmission and connection in it and only need to train the readout weights to process the output. In the work shown in Fig. 13b , the authors used a large-area VCSEL (LA-VCSEL) as reservoir 198 . The LA-VCSELs indicating the VCSELs with large emitting surface, are multimode. This type of VCSEL can implement all the components of the reservoir through their spatio-temporal nonlinear dynamics. Here, the input optical signals are generated by a digital micromirror device (DMD) and transmitted through a multi-mode fiber. During this process, the signal is implemented with complex input weights because of the optical mode mixing induced by birefringence and scattering. Then, the signals are injected via imaging onto the LA-VCSEL top-facet. The optical signals illuminate at different locations, representing the nodes of the reservoir, of the emitting surface of the LA-VCSEL. Optical diffraction, as well as carrier diffusion in the LA-VCSEL intracavity field, induces interactions between different locations, i.e., coupling between the photonic nodes. Thus, a reservoir is formed inside the LA-VCSEL. Afterward, the pumped optical signals from the LA-VCSEL are then transmitted to another DMD encoded with output weights. Finally, the outputs are captured by a large-area detector. Based on this architecture, they demonstrated the tasks of 2-bit digit recognition and XOR.

In addition to the above work, VCSELs have been widely used to construct spiking reservoir computing 210 . Besides, micropillar VCSELs can also be for reservoir computing 75 , 211 . For more information about VCSEL-based reservoir computing, please refer to these reviews 187 , 210 .

VCSEL-based optical input layer

Through the design of circuits, an addressable VCSEL array can become an ideal laser source serving as an input layer for generating optical data. VCSEL can be used to implement matrix-vector multiplication (MVM). MVM occupies the most of computing power in AI tasks. In models, such as GoogleNet and OverFeat, more than 80% of computing is MVM 212 . Therefore, realizing MVM through optical methods is of great significance. As early as 1978, J. W. Goodman et al. had demonstrated optical MVM through light-emitting diodes 213 . After the 1980s, VCSEL began to be used in MVM 214 , 215 , 216 , 217 . In VCSEL-based MVM, 1D or 2D VCSEL arrays are used to generate optical input signals. A basic optical setup is shown in Fig. 13c . The generated signals by a one-dimensional (1D) VCSEL array are first fanned out by a DOE device and multiplied with the transmittance matrix and then fanned in by another DOE to implement addition operation. Finally, these signals are captured by a detector array, thus realizing the multiplication of a 1D vector and 2D matrix.

In addition to being used in MVM, VCSEL can also be used in diffractive neural networks (DNNs) 199 . First reported in 2018, DNNs based on optical holography consist of cascade diffractive layers 190 . Each pixel in the layer can be regarded as a neuron. Based on optical diffraction, neuron connections can be constructed without DOE devices. In this work 190 , the authors successfully demonstrated handwritten digit recognition with a 5-layer DNN, and the accuracy can reach 88%. Subsequently, based on different implementation technologies of the diffractive layers, reconfigurable DNNs 193 , programmable DNNs 218 , and integrated DNNs 219 , 220 , 221 were successively realized. DNNs can directly process optical images, thereby enabling high throughput data processing. Currently, DNNs have been widely used in a variety of AI tasks, such as recognition 222 , 223 , beam shaping 224 , lensless imaging 225 , and phase imaging 226 .

However, one of the bottlenecks of DNNs is the slow speed of the signal-generation devices. At present, the optical image signals processed by DNNs are mainly generated by a SLM, DMD, or masks, which have a low modulation rate, thereby greatly limiting the real computing power of the DNNs. The high modulation speed of VCSEL just meets this high demand. Recently, Min Gu et al. published a perspective article detailing the huge role that VCSELs may play in DNNs 199 . They proposed a VCSEL-based 3D photonic chip architecture shown in Fig. 13d and discussed the potential developments, including spiking DNNs, multiplexing DNNs, and programmable DNNs. As well as they put new requirements for VCSELs to be used in DNNs.

Conclusions and outlook

VCSELs possess unique advantages in the field of integrated photonics, including perpendicular emission, low power consumption, high temperature stability, high direct modulation speed, scalable two-dimensional arrays, and ease of monolithic integration. By utilizing VCSEL as a laser source and integrated platform, it is possible to directly integrate micro/nano functional optical components such as metasurfaces, phase plates et al., enabling various chip-level versatile photonic devices and systems. This integration allows the transfer of the charming inherent characteristics of VCSELs to the integrated devices and systems, creating great potential for the next generation of highly integrated, portable, high-performance, and low-power optoelectronic systems. In the context of VCSEL-based integrated devices, metasurfaces demonstrate powerful wavefront manipulation capabilities, which can enable multi-functionalities including beam control, polarization control, holographic imaging and generation of vortex beams, and so on. Furthermore, the ultrathin two-dimensional structure of metasurfaces makes them unparalleled in the field of miniaturized integrated photonics. Future efforts need to address the challenges of high-yield and large-scale manufacturing of metasurfaces.

In this review, we summarized and discussed recent developments in VCSEL-based integrated photonic devices and systems, including photonic neural networks, vortex beam emitters, holographic devices, beam deflectors, atomic sensors, and biosensors. These advanced integrated devices based on VCSELs exhibit strong appeal in specific domains. For instance, VCSEL-based photonic neural networks offer powerful parallel computing capabilities, ultra-low power consumption, and extremely fast operation speeds, making them promising alternatives for post-Moore computing architectures. Another example is VCSEL-based vortex beam emitters, which can easily achieve multi-channel vortex beam arrays due to the direct high-speed modulation capability of VCSELs and their addressable and scalable two-dimensional arrays. By utilizing vortex beam multiplexing techniques, these devices can significantly enhance optical communication capacity, which will become highly attractive in future large-capacity optical communication applications once the long-distance transmission challenges of vortex beams in optical fibers are solved.

To better support the development of VCSEL-based photonics, VCSELs may need to be further developed in the following aspects. First, there is a need to further develop long-wavelength VCSELs covering from 1.3 to 2.3 μm in a more cost-effective and mass-production way, which is very important for applications such as silicon PICs, long-reach data communications, and gas sensing. In the short-wavelength regions, ultraviolet (UV) VCSELs operating below the 400 nm wavelength are attractive for applications ranging from disinfection to compact ytterbium-ion based atomic clocks, and have great potential to be used in the state-of-the-art 3D laser nanoprinting 227 . Efforts should be made in developing electrically pumped UV VCSELs. Second, developing larger-scale addressable coherent VCSEL arrays with high modulation bandwidth is necessary for PNNs. To solve the problem of addressing circuits, it is necessary to consider using back-emitting VCSELs flip-chip bonded on the integrated circuits. In addition, in large-scale VCSEL driving, to ensure the high stability of VCSEL, heat dissipation issues need to be considered. Third, new types of surface-emitting lasers with improved performance should be developed and considered as light sources for integrated photonic devices and systems to overcome certain limitations of VCSELs and extend their functionalities. For instance, photonic-crystal surface-emitting lasers (PCSELs) offer advantages such as higher single-mode output power exceeding 10 W, extended wavelength range, and much smaller divergence below 0.5 degree 228 , 229 , 230 . In addition to PCSEL, micro/nano surface-emitting laser arrays with high-performance are also attractive laser sources for communication, computing and spectroscopy applications 231 , 232 , 233 , 234 , 235 . By leveraging and extending the capabilities of VCSELs, these integrated photonic devices/systems will open up new opportunities in various fields, including artificial intelligence, large-capacity optical communication, imaging, biosensing, and so on.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62374179, 62104251, and 62174178,) the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS (ZDBS-LY-JSC031), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (2022115), the Beijing Nova Program (2022032), the National Key Basic Research Program (2022YFB2803000), the Shanghai Sailing Program (23YF1429500), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No. 21DZ1100500), the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project, and the Shanghai Frontiers Science Center Program (2021–2025 No. 20).

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Guanzhong Pan, Meng Xun, Xiaoli Zhou, Yun Sun & Dexin Wu

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Pan, G., Xun, M., Zhou, X. et al. Harnessing the capabilities of VCSELs: unlocking the potential for advanced integrated photonic devices and systems. Light Sci Appl 13 , 229 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01561-8

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Received : 04 January 2024

Revised : 03 July 2024

Accepted : 31 July 2024

Published : 03 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-024-01561-8

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Essay On Art in English for Students
Answer 2: Art is essential as it covers all the developmental domains in child development. Moreover, it helps in physical development and enhancing gross and motor skills. For example, playing with dough can fine-tune your muscle control in your fingers. Share with friends. Previous.
Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning
Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses.
Visual Analysis: How to Analyze a Painting and Write an Essay
Step 1: Identify, Describe, and Analyze the Visual Material. Begin by clearly identifying the visual material you will analyze. This could be a painting, photograph, sculpture, advertisement, or any other visual artwork. Provide essential information such as the title, artist, date, and medium.
What is an Art Essay? Tips to Elevate Your Art Essay Writing
An art essay is a literary composition that analyzes different aspects of artwork, including paintings, sculpture, poems, architecture, and music. These essays look at the visual elements of different artworks. ... The pivotal thing to remember is that your art essay must have three distinct parts- an introduction, the main body, and the ...
Writing Essays in Art History
Art History Analysis - Formal Analysis and Stylistic Analysis. Typically in an art history class the main essay students will need to write for a final paper or for an exam is a formal or stylistic analysis. A formal analysis is just what it sounds like - you need to analyze the form of the artwork. This includes the individual design ...
Introduction to Art
Introduction to Art30,000 years of human creativity. The history of art is a vast story of human creativity, a record of our passions and struggles from before written history through today. Obelisk is a free, online art history textbook, sharing the wild, tragic and inspiring stories of artists and their work from 30,000 BCE through Modern Art.
The Value of Art
The value of creating. At its most basic level, the act of creating is rewarding in itself. Children draw for the joy of it before they can speak, and creating pictures, sculptures and writing is both a valuable means of communicating ideas and simply fun. Creating is instinctive in humans, for the pleasure of exercising creativity.
PDF How to Do Things with Pictures
pier writing experience will be a better essay remains to be seen—but it is a reasonable expectation. If this happens, we might also get happier teachers. Though not intended specifically as an introduction to writing art history, this book is written from the perspective of an art historian. This is in part a limitation of the au-
Art Essay Examples for College Students
See various free art essay examples below for inspiration. It also helps to learn how to structure your writing and implement quotes or footnotes that are used to highlight the images. ... The Impact of Technology on Art: A Modern Renaissance. Introduction The influence of technology on art is an evolving narrative that reflects the symbiotic ...
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Introduction (1-2 paragraphs) Creates interest in your essay. Introduces the two art works that you will be comparing. States your thesis, which mentions the art works you are considering and may indicate whether the focus will be on similarities, differences, or both.
Introduction
The most important art historians of the past have birth and death dates in parentheses after the first mention of their names. This is a guide to writing about art, not to writing itself. It is no substitute for a book like The Elements of Style, the classic but still inspiring text by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. 4 Nonetheless, I would ...
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Structure of the Art Essay and Its Features. The structure of the essay consists of three required elements: introduction, body, and conclusion. The absence of one of the article's composition elements is considered a mistake and taken into account in the assessment. It is challenging to write the introduction and conclusion.
How To Write An Art Essay, Topics And Structure
An art essay introduction identifies the art and the artist. Art is diverse, as it could be sculptures, architecture, performing arts or paintings in it. This is where you state why you chose that topic. It also contains a history of the said art and brief details, like who the artist is, the year, the location, etc. ...
LibGuides: Art and Art History: How to Write About Art
Like its predecessor, this new edition consists of essays that cover a wide variety of "loaded" terms in the history of art, from sign to meaning, ritual to commodity. Each essay explains and comments on a single term, discussing the issues the term raises and putting the term into practice as an interpretive framework for a specific work of art.
Writing About Art
How to Write Art History by Anne d'Alleva The book introduces two basic art historical methods - formal analysis and contextual analysis - revealing how to use these methods in writing papers and in class discussion. The common strengths and weaknesses of an art history essay are highlighted by using real examples of written work, and at each stage of the writing process DAlleva offers ...
Art
art, a visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination. The term art encompasses diverse media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative arts, photography, and installation. (Read Sister Wendy's Britannica essay on art appreciation.) memorial board Memorial board, wood.
Introduction to World Art: [Essay Example], 635 words
Introduction to World Art. World art is a vast and diverse field that encompasses a wide range of artistic traditions, styles, and techniques from various cultures and time periods. It offers a unique opportunity to explore the rich tapestry of human creativity and expression throughout history. This essay aims to provide an overview of world ...
Art Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas
Introduction to Art Analysis. Writing an essay on art is a unique challenge that combines aspects of history, culture, and personal interpretation. Start your essay by defining what aspect of art you will be discussing. This could be an analysis of a specific artwork, an exploration of a particular artist's style and contributions, or a ...
Khan Academy
If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.
Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning
Editor's Description: Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses. Combining the best ...
Art makes society: an introductory visual essay
Abstract. In this visual essay that serves as an introduction to the set of articles presented in this issue, we illustrate four ways that art makes society. We adopt a stance informed by recent perspectives on material culture, moving away from thinking about art purely in aesthetic terms, instead asking how art objects have significance in ...
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Table of contents. Step 1: Hook your reader. Step 2: Give background information. Step 3: Present your thesis statement. Step 4: Map your essay's structure. Step 5: Check and revise. More examples of essay introductions. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.
Master the Art of Crafting the Perfect Essay
A well-structured essay is much easier to write and will ultimately result in a more coherent and cohesive final product. 3. Write a Strong Thesis Statement: Your thesis statement is the backbone of your essay. It should clearly state your main argument or position on the topic and guide the rest of your writing. 4.
Why A.I. Isn't Going to Make Art
It's harder to imagine a program that, over many sessions, helps you write a good novel. This hypothetical writing program might require you to enter a hundred thousand words of prompts in order ...
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Mastering the Art of Using Transitions and Signposting Transitions and signposting are essential for creating a smooth and coherent flow in your essay. They help the reader navigate through your ideas and understand the logical connections between different paragraphs and sections. Here are some tips to master the art of using transitions and signposting: 1.
Harnessing the capabilities of VCSELs: unlocking the potential for
Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) have emerged as a versatile and promising platform for developing advanced integrated photonic devices and systems due to their low power ...