The Oxford Dictionary of Art

By Dennis Farr: Editors Chilver, Ian, Harold Osborne

Book Overview

This new paperback edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Art reaffirms the esteemed book's place as the most authoritative one-volume guide to the art of the western world. Surveying painting, sculpture, drawing, and the applied arts from the 5th century to the contemporary scene, over 3,000 entries provide the reader with instant information in succinct and readable form about styles, techniques, collections, artists, and historians. And what's more, this new edition contains an original reference section containing a chronology of major works in their historical context, a practical list of museums and major collections worldwide, and a select list of biblical and classical themes and examples of major works.
This second edition also includes new material on twentieth-century art including entries on graffiti art, David Hockney, Tamara de Lempicka, Richard Long, Neo-Expressionism, New Realism, the Pompidou Centre, and the Turner Prize.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198604270
• ISBN13: 9780198604273
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 660 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.9" x 1.4" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A MUST HAVE

This is a must have for any art history person or anyone in sales for art. It's a complete who's who and what's what of art. It has useful information and is a great resource. I highly recommend this book.

Excellent guide to the field

Over the past few years, Oxford University Press has continued to develop its line of excellent reference works, revising older volumes and adding new subjects. The latest edition of "The Oxford Dictionary of Art" carries on that tradition. The guide offers to the general reader an excellent grounding in the facts and philosophies that underlie the media. The entries cover artists, movements, museums (with addresses and websites), materials and, in the back, a chronology listing key works and when they were completed. While it sometimes falls into the thicket of scholarly jibber-jabber -- and one should recognize the possibility exists while trying to describe visual art using only words, in a book which contains no pictures -- the dictionary is even-handed in describing the critical reaction to a work. With its wide range of descriptions, both geographically and chronologically, this revised guide allows armchair art appreciators to brush up on their learning.

Handy and useful articles on art terms and artist bios

This is a very handy and informative dictionary of terms you will likely encounter in reading about painting and sculpture. If you think of the definitions as short articles on a topic you will be closer to the mark. There are also many short biographies of important historical artists. One of the nice conventions is an asterisk before terms used in the articles that are also themselves the subject of articles. There are no illustrations, plates, or diagrams in the book. However, there is a short foreword and an introduction. All in all, this is quite a useful handbook and I use it with some frequency.