Smarthistory – An introduction to art history

Art history "is a way to see what people thought, felt, believed, did, and imagined, by looking at the material things – buildings, paintings, gardens, sculptures, images, cities, objects – and the worlds that they made." (Griselda Pollock) We're adding new content all the time! Mudras are a set of hand gestures and finger positions that serve as symbols in Buddhist art. “Art history is relevant” is not how the discipline of art history is typically framed in popular discourse. The reason people study the art of the past are varied - but all agree, it can tell us a lot about our own world. Studying art history isn't a conventional path to success — so why do people do it? Empathy is a term we hear a lot, but what does it mean and how does it work? Methods change, the canon expands, and we write history anew. Long focused on the West, the field is going global. Sculptors have had different goals at different times. Two recur: naturalism and abstraction. Respond to contemporary culture,

Art history "is a way to see what people thought, felt, believed, did, and imagined, by looking at the material things – buildings, paintings, gardens, sculptures, images, cities, objects – and the worlds that they made." (Griselda Pollock) We're adding new content all the time! Mudras are a set of hand gestures and finger positions that serve as symbols in Buddhist art. “Art history is relevant” is not how the discipline of art history is typically framed in popular discourse. The reason people study the art of the past are varied - but all agree, it can tell us a lot about our own world. Stu