In this volume, the third in his classic series of texts surveying the history of art theory, Moshe Barasch traces the hidden patterns and interlocking themes in the study of art, from Impressionism to Abstract Art. Barasch details the immense social changes in the creation, presentation, and reception of art which have set the history of art theory on a vertiginous new course: the decreased relevance of workshops and art schools; the replacement of the treatise by the critical review; and the interrelation of new modes of scientific inquiry with artistic theory and praxis. The consequent changes in the ways in which critics as well as artists conceptualized paintings and sculptures were radical, marked by an obsession with intense, immediate sensory experiences, psychological reflection on the effects of art, and a magnetic pull to the exotic and alien, making for the most exciting and fertile period in the history of art criticism.

在这一卷中，摩西-巴拉什是他勘察艺术理论史的经典系列文章中的第三部，他追溯了从印象派到抽象艺术的艺术研究中隐藏的模式和交错的主题。巴拉什详细介绍了艺术创作、展示和接受方面的巨大社会变化，这些变化使艺术理论史走上了一条崭新的道路：工作室和艺术学校的相关性下降；批评性评论取代了论文；以及新的科学调查模式与艺术理论和实践的相互关系。批评家和艺术家将绘画和雕塑概念化的方式随之发生了根本性的变化，其特点是对强烈的、直接的感官体验的迷恋，对艺术效果的心理反思，以及对异国情调和外来事物的吸引力，使之成为艺术批评史上最激动人心和富饶的时期。