Boundless Imagination: Understanding the Conceptual Origins of Contemporary Art

Boundless Imagination offers a fresh, conceptually driven challenge to the traditional elaborate, style-based approach to western art history. The book asks students to consider what is or might be art, and why as well as what art history is. Each chapter is presented as a separate, distinct essay with observations designed to spark reflection on the status quo. Students examine art and history as abstractions, consider four major precepts that guided two millennia of western art history, and learn how 19th Century French painting opened the door to 20th Century art. The book also teaches readers how to distinguish between different types of popular art criticism. It concludes with ten basic understandings informing the kind of contemporary western expression often seen in museums and galleries. Boundless Imagination helps readers understand the historical concepts informing today's contemporary artists. The book is an ideal text for art appreciation and survey level art history courses.