Exploring Art offers a thematic and global approach to teaching art appreciation. It balances Western and non-Western
approaches to art, unlike competing books, which concentrate much more on Western art, artists, and historical
styles. This global approach acknowledges the diverse backgrounds of today's art students, and explores the similarities
that unite culture, as well as difference or distinctions. In doing so, EXPLORING ART ultimately reveals the universality
of the human impulse to create art, as well as the persistence of basic themes.
Table of Contents
Part I: WHAT IS ART? WHO MAKES ART? WHO USES ART?
1. A Human Phenomenon.
2. Language of Art.
3. Language of Architecture.
4. Deriving Meaning.
5. Who Makes Art?
6. Who Uses Art?
Part II: WHY DO WE MAKE ART?
Survival and Beyond.
7. Food and Shelter.
8. Reproduction and Sexuality.
Religion.
9. Deities and Places of Worship.
10. Mortality and Immortality.
The State.
11. Power, Politics and Glory.
12. Social Protest/Affirmation.
Self and Society.
13. The Human Body.
14. Race, Gender, Clan and Class.
15. Nature, Knowledge and Technology.
16. Entertainment.
