Questions in art history

This course is a part of Approaches to art history, a 7-course Topic series from Khan Academy.

This course contains 6 segments:

What is Cultural Heritage?

Unlock Art: Where are the Women?

This video brought to you by Tate.org.uk By calling attention to identity, sexuality, politics, and history, women artists have dominated the art debates for the last several decades. Despite this, only a small percentage of gallery collections and displays belong to women artists, even today. So how do we go about talking about women in art history? Learn more about the changing role of female artists in a male dominated art world over the centuries. Join Jemima Kirke as she guides us through a history of women in art, exploring the ways in which they have been represented, underrepresented, and sometimes misrepresented. Should there exist a separate Women’s Art History to tell this story, or is it simply a matter of inserting women into existing narratives? What about removing the label altogether, and referring to women artists as just artists? Would this ignore an important component of identity or recognise that women and men can be artists in equal measure? How can women artists be sufficiently recognised without distancing them from art history as we know it?

Art Must Be Beautiful

Should art be beautiful? Revisit ancient philosophers' thoughts on beauty and consider why we might be skeptical of beauty today. From The Art Assignment

Is there a difference between art and craft?

Was da Vinci an artistic genius? Sure, but he was also born in the right place at the right time -- pre-Renaissance, Western artists got little individual credit for their work. And in many non-Western cultures, traditional forms have always been prized over innovation. So, where do we get our notions of art vs. craft? Laura Morelli traces the history of how we assign value to the visual arts. Lesson by Laura Morelli, animation by Sandro Katamashvili.

The Case for Realism

What's the point of making realistic paintings when photography can do the trick? We look at the history of artists recreating the world as we see it and ponder why it's still happening.

What makes art valuable—then and now