For many people their knowledge of art history goes something like this: Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Middle Ages, the Renaissance, some other stuff, Rembrandt, Impressionism. And after Impressionism it all got a little weird, and it looks funny, and that's not art, so let's just stop with Monet because I don't understand it after that point anyways.
Now this was my view before I went to college (though I didn't realize it at the time). It's very easy to be in a box and not know it. Thankfully, I had some wonderful art professors who really opened my mind, expanded my knowledge and taught me some good art history. Now you don't need a four year degree or to memorize all the -isms and definitions of the art world to enjoy a work of art. You can simply enjoy an object for its beauty. But knowing a little background information can greatly increase your understanding and help you see how this painting relates to that sculpture and how this sculptor might have been influenced by that painter. You can look at a painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, etc, in its historical context and see what might have influenced its creation and also what artists were inspired by it later.
Art History is not separate from World History; I think sometimes we forget that. Art is not created in a vacuum. Artists have always reacted to world events in their art making. Pablo Picasso made his famous Guernica painting in response to an event that actually happened. There's a reason that Michelangelo choose David instead of another Biblical figure for his statue for the city of Florence. There's always a reason and purpose behind every work of art. You just have to find out what it is,and suddenly you see a row of boxes in a completely different light.
I think in general, we have a good understanding of classical art--Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Medieval and Renaissance art history. It's not difficult to find books, videos, curriculum, on these time periods. It's easy for us to understand, there are only a few major artists and art movements to know. It doesn't seem like things changed very quickly. This art style led to that one, that artist built on his master's work and his apprentice continued with the ideas passed onto him. But right around the Renaissance things started to change and much quicker, we have a lot more information to sift through, art styles started to overlap, and one artist might be part of several different art movements during his lifetime.
Once we pass Impressionism, modern art as we know it starts to rear its head. And that's where a lot of people get turned off. It's weird, it makes me uncomfortable, it doesn't look like anything...I don't understand it. And if you don't understand the "why" of something, it's hard to teach the "what." You don't have to like it but modern art is an important part of the historical timeline. My personal aesthetic leans more towards the graceful, flowing lines of Art Nouveau and I used to find most modern art ugly and disconcerting. But since I started studying art history, I've come to the point where I can appreciate the ideas and meanings behind a work of art even if I don't necessarily find it "beautiful" in my eyes.
If I want to be a well rounded artist, I need to understand my work in context of art history, and I don't live in the 1800s. I need to understand my work in the context of today and the art of the last century. I can choose to reject the ideas of those who have come before or find ideas that speak to me and expand on those. I know art history overall and in general. But I also have specific, detailed knowledge of important movements and artists and art that speak to me specifically.
In the same way, as you are teaching you don't have to know, in every little detail, every single artist and art style. You can have a general grasp of the important ones, and you don't have to overly focus on art styles you don't like. But just because you don't like it doesn't mean you shouldn't teach it at all. It is important whether you like it or not. Each artist has their place on the art timeline and we can't just pick and choose who we want in the history books. They are there for a reason. Each art movement flows out of ideas and work from the ones that have come before, whether through embracing and expanding on those ideas, or completely rejecting them and going in a new direction.
So you're probably wondering at this point, "Well, how do I find all this information, in an easy to understand format, and turn it into something my kids will enjoy?" Well, that's what I'm here for! My goal for this site is to collect all the helpful stuff into one place for your perusal. I sift through all the junk floating out there to find the gems--things that are fun, interesting, and informational. And I'm here to share my own experience and knowledge of making and teaching art.
I'm also a huge fan of my local library. You can search through their system for books on a particular subject and just put as many as you want on hold. If a book isn't what you want or is too dull, you can just bring it back. That's how my siblings and I learned so much about topics that interested us--we'd get all the books we could on it from the library. For our library, you can have up to 100 books checked out at once, and believe me, we've done that more than once. I work at a bookstore and can tell you that that's a great resource as well. Booksellers have a lot of knowledge and are usually just waiting for someone to come along and ask for book suggestions.
If reading isn't your thing, you want someone to show you how it's done, youtube is a great resource. There's obviously a lot of junk on the site, but there's also a lot of great educational videos. I'll post good videos on here as I find them. Also, there are a lot of tv shows and documentaries, some of them you can watch online for free.
And I'm a big fan of Google, especially their image search. You'll notice me linking to that a lot. If you want to find information, that's a great place to start.
Art doesn't have to be boring, friends.
