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The Books That Shaped Art History: From Gombrich and Greenberg to Alpers and Krauss

by John Paul Stonard
Thames & Hudson. 2013. 264p. ed. by Richard Shone & . illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780500238950. $34.95. FINE ARTS
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Edited by Shone (editor, Burlington Magazine; The Janice H. Levin Collection of French Art) and Stonard (Fault Lines: Art in Germany 1945–1955), this well-produced book contains 16 essays by different authors that discuss books that shaped the discipline of art history in the 20th century; all but one of the essays originally appeared in Burlington Magazine. The essays are supplemented with a few illustrations (photos of the authors and books that are covered), and there are brief bibliographies of the art historians mentioned at the book's end. The titles discussed include Clement Greenberg's Art and Culture and Rosalind Krauss's The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths. Chronologically arranged (from Emile Mâle in 1898 to Hans Belting in 1990), each essay stands alone.
VERDICT Though the subject matter means that this book's audience will be students and scholars, the general level of writing is quite accessible for the nonspecialist. Useful as an overview of Western art history over the past century and its evolving methodology. Recommended.
Reviewed by Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Libs. , Jun 15, 2013
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