A vivid and compelling history of human artistic achievements, from the first stone fashioned into a figure by a hunter-gatherer to the latest new media and installation work.With remarkable clarity, Julian Bell tells the story of how art has evolved through the millennia and across the world. He follows the changing trends in the making and significance of art in different cultures, and explains why the art of the day looked and functioned as it did. Key images and objects—some of them familiar works of art; others, less known but equally crucial to the story—act as landmarks on the journey, focal points around which the discussion always centers. Along the way, Bell answers fundamental questions such as "What is art and where does it start?" and "Why do humans make it and how does it serve them?"Previous histories tended to focus only on the masterpieces of Western art, in the process excluding the work of women or non-Western artists, or else considering developments around the world as separate, unrelated phenomena. Bell's achievement is to take a global perspective, bringing the distinct stories together in one convincing narrative. He draws insightful and inspired connections between different continents and cultures and across the millennia, which results in a rich and seamless introduction to the world of visual creativity.Hundreds of carefully selected illustrations show how artists from different ages and societies often shared the same formal, technical, and aesthetic concerns, while others took divergent paths when their vision dictated it. 460 illustrations, 300 in color.

一部生动而令人信服的人类艺术成就史，从狩猎采集者将第一块石头塑造成人物，到最新的新媒体和装置作品。朱利安-贝尔以非凡的清晰度，讲述了艺术在几千年来和世界各地的演变过程。他跟踪了不同文化中艺术制作和意义的变化趋势，并解释了为什么当时的艺术具有这样的外观和功能。关键的图像和物品--其中一些是人们熟悉的艺术作品；另一些则不太为人所知，但对故事同样重要--作为旅程中的地标，讨论始终围绕着这些焦点进行。一路上，贝尔回答了一些基本问题，如 "什么是艺术，它从哪里开始？"以及 "人类为什么要做艺术，艺术如何为他们服务？"以前的历史往往只关注西方艺术的杰作，在这个过程中排除了女性或非西方艺术家的作品，或者将世界各地的发展视为独立的、不相关的现象。贝尔的成就是采取了全球视角，将不同的故事汇集到一个令人信服的叙述中。他在不同的大陆和文化之间以及跨越千年的时间里建立了有洞察力和灵感的联系，从而对视觉创造力的世界进行了丰富和无缝的介绍。数百幅精心挑选的插图显示了来自不同时代和社会的艺术家如何经常分享相同的形式、技术和审美关注，而其他艺术家则在他们的愿景要求下采取不同的路径。460幅插图，300幅为彩色。

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