Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts

by Debra J. Dewitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

The revised and expanded edition of the market-leading art appreciation college textbook. The Second Edition of Gateways to Art features an even greater emphasis on visual culture and contemporary art. All new "Visual Galleries" conclude each chapter, creating valuable connections throughout the text, while a unique chapter on Content and Analysis leads students step-by-step through detailed analyses of seminal artworks. Last, but not least, recurring “Gateways to Art” features teach students to examine works of art from all formal analysis, media, history, and themes.

Genres: Art, Art History, Nonfiction, College, Textbooks

688 pages, Unbound

First published October 27, 2011

Reviews

[Gerald Thomson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A high overview of art vocabulary, movements and interaction with society, this book covers only the visible part of the iceberg. It is hard to fault a book’s depth when they are purposefully taking on a large range of subjects, but this will only be the start of someone’s study of the visual arts. Some of the topics at the end, like Art and War, Art and Science, and Art and Gender, seem pretty focused for a book of this type, whereas there are no chapters on specific movements and the people behind those moves. Still, not a bad introduction.

[Damien · Rating 5 out of 5]

As its title suggests, the book is a very long and very comprehensive look into the visual arts. As a neophyte who has tried a few times to get into art history with not much success, I found this book to be a good primer not only for understanding the fundamentals of art, but also where to go from there and what I would like to learn more about. The book is thick with many illustrations dotting the page, which sometimes proved a bit challenging to read and see them all (some of the illustrations are quite small), but I intended to read more in details about them later on so it wasn't too much of a disadvantage to me. I'd surely find myself leafing back on this often for a refresher in my journey into art.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

For better and for worse, this is what you expect from a textbook. It's very thorough, covers all sorts of stuff, and has lots of really pretty pictures. But it's also dry, exhausting - and covers so many things that it never goes into detail with any of them.

[evlove]

Textbook vibes

[Valerie Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually have the second edition, but I've read the majority about the artworks for my course. It was nice reading into what inspired the artists and where/how/when they were made. Big book filled with little details you wouldn't normally look at.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this new textbook for my intro to art history class at the local community college this past semester. I was intrigued by the layout and supposed flexibility of the book, as well as by its greater global focus and broad definition of art (the students really did seem to respond to the references to graphic arts and grafiti artists that were familiar to them). However, I found it difficult to jump around in the book on the first go through, and so I taught it pretty much front to back. The level of scholarship seemed about right for this intro college course, but having the information scattered throughout the book was a bit distracting. I am hoping that my second semester can take better advantage of the book's format now that I am much more familiar with all it has to offer. I did like having the eight focus images to return to again and again.

[Jazmine]

I want to read thi book please

[Silver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to read this from cover to cover for my art appreciation class and I learned quite a lot.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very fascinating textbook...as far as textbooks go. I did, however, enjoy this much more than previous text books I have had to read for classes.