9780130193742

An ideal supplemental text for any undergraduate course in humanities, or Introduction to the Arts. Helping students learn how to observe, enjoy, think about and feel in response to the arts, this practical beginner's guide to appreciating and experiencing culture gives students a handy introduction to the world of arts that they can carry with them. Self-contained chapters provide an essential companion guide to understanding a specific arti.e., painting, sculpture, music, theaterwith concisely defined key terms one should know, as well as a clear and insightful explanation of its process of creation.

Painting

1

(14)

How to Talk in Pictures

1

(1)

The World of Painting

2

(1)

A Real Encounter: Diego's Dog

3

(2)

Extreme Art: The Paintbrush as Naked Woman

4

(1)

The Took Kit: Painting

5

(4)

Medium

5

(1)

Form

5

(2)

Color

7

(1)

Subject

8

(1)

Pictorial Miscellany

8

(1)

The Experience: How to Look at a Picture

9

(1)

Style Guide: The Tradition

10

(1)

Companion to Painting

11

(4)

Sculpture

15

(12)

Giving Shape to the World

15

(2)

A Real Encounter: A Shrine of Sorrow

17

(2)

Extreme Sculpture: Bust in Blood

18

(1)

The Tool Kit: Sculpture

19

(2)

The Sculptural Process

19

(1)

Sculptural Types

20

(1)

Sculptural Materials

20

(1)

Form

20

(1)

Sculptural Subjects

20

(1)

Sculptural Miscellany

21

(1)

The Experience: Sizing Up a Sculpture

21

(1)

Style Guide: Sculptors---Greats Since the Greeks

22

(1)

Companion to Sculpture

23

(4)

Architecture

27

(17)

Why Buildings Stand

27

(1)

What Buildings Mean

28

(2)

A Real Encounter: The Magic of Fallingwater

30

(1)

The Tool Kit: Architecture

31

(6)

Materials

31

(1)

Methods of Construction

32

(1)

The Arch

32

(1)

The Classical Temple

33

(1)

The Church

34

(1)

Architectural Decoration

35

(1)

Architectural Miscellany

36

(1)

The Experience: How to be In a Building

37

(1)

Style Guide: Architecture in American Cities, c. 2000

38

(2)

Companion to Architecture

40

(4)

Music

44

(16)

Music Class

44

(1)

The Essentials of Music

45

(2)

A Real Encounter: Four Seasons in a Gothic Light

47

(1)

The Tool Kit: Music, Technically Speaking

47

(6)

Musical Scales

47

(1)

Harmony

48

(1)

The Instruments

49

(1)

Dynamics

50

(1)

Vocal Forms

50

(1)

Instrumental Forms

50

(1)

Theatrical Forms

51

(1)

Music A to Z

51

(2)

The Experience: How to Listen---Really Listen

53

(1)

Style Guide: Musical Styles You're Most Likely to Hear

54

(2)

Companion to Music

56

(4)

Theater

60

(16)

The Elements of Drama

60

(1)

Who Makes the Play?

61

(1)

A Real Encounter: An Angel over America

62

(2)

The Tool Kit: Theater

64

(3)

The Stage

64

(1)

The Set

64

(1)

Theater by Degree

65

(1)

A Theater Glossary

66

(1)

The Experience: Playing Along

67

(2)

Style Guide: A User's Guide to the Theater

69

(2)

Genres

69

(1)

Historical Types (European only)

69

(2)

Companion to Theater

71

(5)

Opera and Musical Theater

76

(15)

Opera---The Greatest Art?

76

(3)

The Voice Is the Thing

78

(1)

Operatic Voices

79

(1)

A Real Encounter: Opera's Unrepentant Sinner

79

(2)

Open for Debate: Operatic Re-makes...or Rip-offs?

80

(1)

The Tool Kit: Opera

81

(2)

Opera by Degree

81

(1)

Opera Miscellany

81

(2)

The Experience: Stories in Song

83

(2)

Style Guide: Operatic Operators

85

(2)

Companion to Opera and Musical Theater

87

(4)

Dance

91

(14)

The Poetry of Movement

91

(1)

Elements of Dance

92

(2)

A Real Encounter: The Continuity of Dance

94

(1)

The Tool Kit: Dance

95

(3)

Types of Dance

95

(1)

The Ballet Company

95

(1)

Dance Technique

96

(2)

Dance Miscellany

98

(1)

The Experience: Move to the Music

98

(1)

Style Guide: Great Names in Dance

99

(3)

Great Ballets

99

(1)

Choreographer and Company

100

(1)

Dancers of the Modern

101

(1)

Companion to Dance

102

(3)

The Printed Image: Prints, Photos, Digital Art

105

(16)

The Arts of Mechanical Reproducibility

106

(1)

Open for Debate: Falsifiable Photographs

107

(1)

The Tool Kit: Printmaking

107

(3)

Engraving

107

(1)

Relief

108

(1)

Other Processes

109

(1)

Printmaking Miscellany

109

(1)

The Tool Kit: Photography

110

(4)

The Film

110

(1)

The Camera

110

(2)

The Darkroom

112

(1)

Color Photography

112

(1)

Photographic Genres

113

(1)

Photographic Miscellany

113

(1)

The Tool Kit: Digital Images

114

(1)

The Experience: Pictures, Pictures Everywhere

115

(1)

Style Guide: Masters of the Printed Image

116

(1)

Companion to the Printed Image

117

(4)

Movies

121

(14)

The Novel of the Twentieth Century

121

(1)

Who Makes a Movie?

122

(1)

A Real Encounter: A Shot Heard `Round the Film World

123

(1)

The Tool Kit: The Movies

124

(4)

Camera Work

124

(1)

The Shot (Continued)

125

(1)

The Story

126

(1)

Editing

126

(1)

Sound and Effects

127

(1)

Film Miscellany

128

(1)

The Experience: Watching While Thinking

128

(1)

Style Guide: Movie Genres

129

(2)

Companion to Movies

131

(4)

Encountering the Arts

135

(6)

Touring a City

135

(2)

Visiting a Museum

137

(2)

Attending a Performance

139

(2)

Index

141

What is included with this book?

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The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

I remember beginning to play basketball at age eight, a game I still play twice a week, rickety knees and all. My dad handed me a basketball and told me to throw it as high as I could against the garage wall. He wanted to see if I could reach the ten-foot rim. I must have done okay, because he went right out to dig the post-holes in the backyard for a basketball goal. I played my best games on that goal in the Winter moonlight, dribbling on a frozen mud court. Think of this handbook as the garage wall and postholes for a different game--a lifelong enjoyment of the arts. It's easy for folks to think they don't measure up to high culture. They're intimidated by the orchestra in white tie and tails, or the hallowed silence of a museum. They're puzzled by the painting they see on the walls or by the drama where nothing seemed to happen. And opera--isn't that fat ladies singing? If it's confidence you lack, this handbook offers a gentle push through the door of that museum, theater, or concert hall. Once your fanny's in a seat at the Met or you're wandering the Louvre, this guide will deepen your experience of the moment. It teaches you to observe and enjoy, to think and feel in response to the arts. And afterwards at the bar or coffee-shop, or reading the museum guide or a newspaper review a day later, you'll find you speak the critical language of the arts. You'll know you're in the game when you find yourself in conversation with friends and family, and someone asks how you know all that. Maybe I'm the person to give you courage because I started where many of you do--as a beginner. I was reared in a small-town family that hardly ever ventured to the big city for culture. The first real play I remember was my sister's high school musical. I wandered through some museums in college, but as a literature major, I didn't pay much attention. I could tell you the plots of dozens of novels, but just one painting sticks in my memory--Goya'sSaturn Devouring His Children.As a college student loose in Madrid, I wandered through a door at the Prado, turned, and Saturn stopped me cold. Now I teach and write professionally about the visual arts (I'm art critic for a medium-sized city newspaper) as someone who's mostly self-taught. What I know about the visual and performing arts comes from reading books, magazines, and newspapers, and listening to smart people, and then constantly seeking out new experiences in the world of high culture. I have learned to understand and love the arts through a lifelong, incremental layering of knowledge and experience. As a teacher by vocation, I think that's the best way to learn. Being smart about art (and about other things, too) doesn't require a sophisticate's birthright or a minimum intelligence score or even a college degree. Art smarts come to an open mind that's willing to reach out, take a risk, and encounter new experience. I'm hoping that mind is yours. WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK Nine of the chapters that follow are each devoted to an art as you'll encounter it out there in the real world of museums, galleries, concert halls, theaters--all the places and spaces of culture where it actually exists. In each chapter, you'll find some or all of these elements. REAL ENCOUNTER Recollections and reflections are from my own encounters with works of art in this medium. Some are drawn from my own journal entries, written in the shelf-full of spiral notebooks. Some are based on my collection of performance programs, newspaper articles and reviews, and postcards--all the stuff I keep as a physical memory of the encounter. I often do the same thing with great meals at friends' homes or restaurants as a way of recalling the pleasure of the moment. It's a mental snapshot of the encounter. TOOL KIT A glossary of essential terms provides definitions of everything you need to know about this ar

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Beginner's Guide to the Humanities, A

Beginner's Guide to the Humanities, A

0130193747

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