art history

Also known as history of art, art studies

academic study of objects of art in their historical development

AI overview

Art history is the academic study of how works of art have developed and changed over time. It matters because it helps us understand artworks not just as individual objects, but as products of their historical periods and contexts.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of: academic discipline
Subclass of: visual art education
Image: South Ionian Wild Goat Style SiA Ic - Swallow Painter - krater - men and mythological animals - Roma MNEVG - 08.jpg

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Commons category: Art history
topic's main category: Category:Art studies
topic's main Wikimedia portal: Art Studies and History
is the study of: history of art
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
P8168: Lucia Cunanan

Sources (6)

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Encyclopedic overview

Soir Bleu by Edward Hopper, c.1914

Art history is an academic discipline devoted to the study of artistic production and visual culture throughout human history. Art historians use a historical method or a philosophy, such as historical materialism or critical theory, to analyze artworks. Among other topics, they study art's impact on societies and cultures, the relationship between art and politics, and how artistic styles and formal characteristics of works of art have changed throughout history. As a discipline, art history is distinguished from art criticism, which is concerned with establishing a relative artistic value for critiquing individual works, and aesthetics, which is a branch of philosophy.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “art history” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.