Welcome!
My name is J. Cook, and I teach art history in Houston, Tx. I have created this site for my students as an ancillary source for my lectures and schoolwork. For optimum use of this site, make sure you also make use of the lectures in class, and DEFINITELY read the source material.
Before you begin, let me say that journeying into art history is just that... a journey.
Not only a journey through the pages of a book, but it can be so much more. My journey has allowed me to lay hands on ancient temples, gaze skyward in a gothic cathedral, feel the stones under my feet in Pompeii, and see individual brush strokes on a masterpiece. When you do these, you feel as if you are right there with generations past, feeling what they felt. Seeing what they had seen. You are now a part of the living experience. You understand you are another cog in the machine of mankind.
If you want to uncover how the many civilizations became the world we know today, and see how the world affects art, and when we are lucky... how art can affect the world, then art history is for you.
To be honest, I enjoy learning art history immensely because I discover new things everytime I explore it. I cannot go anywhere without seeing its echoes in everything around me. It is with this love that I pass it on to my students.
I hope you can feel the same way.
(I use Gardner's Art Through the Ages by Fred Kleiner (13th ed.), so you may find that this website follows the text. There are other sources to be found here. If you have any questions or suggestions for my website (or find any....gulp...errors), contact me.
Thanks, and Happy learning!
J. Cook, art history educator and enthusiast
Inroduction to Art History:
The Powerpoint at right is available for download, and covers some of the basic terms that one should be familiar with before jumping into the world of art history.
| intro.arthist.ppt |
| purposes_of_art.ppt |