E. H. Gombrich's classic The Story of Art, published 60 years ago and now in its 16th edition, is still a benchmark for accessible narratives of the Western canon. Despite recent additions, including one or two female 20th century artists, and large scale pull-out pages of key works, this is a traditional view of the development of European art which attempts to "bring some intelligible order into the wealth of names, periods and styles which crowd the pages of more ambitious works", and help us see the history of art as "a continuous weaving and changing of traditions in which each work refers to the past and points to the future... a living chain that still links our own time with the Pyramid age." As a general introduction to the subject, this is still hard to beat. However, there are numerous other texts available which help to question some of the assumptions made by Gombrich, do a better job of assessing the development of modern and contemporary art, explore institutional and curatorial issues and outline some of the key concepts related to art theory. I have begun to create a Reading List (top right) wich includes two Gombrich texts but also suggests other important material. I have attempted to recommend texts which are as inexpensive and accessible as possible. What should be added to or removed from the list?Those of you considering studying for the AQA AS level History of Art qualification would do well at this stage to check out the specification online. We will begin our exploration of various art works fairly soon.
