Art of the Western World [antikvár]

PREFACEThe art of the West is one of humankind's most glorious achievements. From the dawn of civilization to the present day, our art has been ever present and essential. It has served as a physical and spiritual bridge between mortals and gods, has helped men and women understand the workings of the human soul, and in times of anguish and sorrow has offered solace and helped reconcile us to life. As in all cul tures and at all times, art is not a luxury but a necessity without which we would be vastly impoverished.For its particularly human orientation, the art of the West has an important place in the history of civilization. For much of its nearly two-thousand-year history, Western art has centered on the human form; alternately idealized, brutalized, or simply transcribed, it has served as a mirror of human thought and emotion. Moreover, in its long, unceasing, and brilliant attempt to define, interpret, and alter reality, Western art is exceptional and distinct from the other great arts.Despite its fundamental importance for all our lives, art has too often become the purview of specialists who have obfuscated it with obtuse theory and scholarly apparatus. Moreover, a naive and mis-guided cultural relativism which spurns qualitative judgments has recently obscured and downgraded the brilliance of Western art.Like the PBS series "Art of the Western World," to which we hope this book will serve as an agreeable companion, we unashamedly celebrate the art of the West from its glorious beginnings in ancient Greece to our own time. We have tried to tell this story clearly, with little of the cumbersome apparatus or terminology of art history. The artists and works we discuss are among the most seminal, moving, interesting, or just simply beautiful we know, and we hope that our readers will fall under their magic and transcendent spell.Our art is part of us; in it flows the spiritual and intellectual lifeblood which still nourishes and sustains our ancient civilization. It is also a living, redemptive force in an age that has witnessed the madness and destruction which is also, unfortunately, our Western heritage. Art can embody and transcend both its creators and its times to reveal enduring truths about the human condition; the more we understand art, the more we understand ourselves and the complexities of our world.Bruce Cole and Adelheid Gealt May 1989