Historical Context

Historic Context Definition:

All art exists in history. Every art object is a product of materials, intentions, and outcomes that reflect a time and place. People seeking to understand and benefit from the cultural legacy art provides may travel across time and space through art to discover its various interwoven histories. Students should be motivated to pursue this inquiry.

Individuals conception of what art is comes from the art that they see, what is deemed to be of aesthetic value by their culture or subculture and from which artists and objects are included in histories or traditions they are taught. Art history is not one history but many. These histories have been developing throughout time, since before recorded history, yet many only recently are being included in art history texts and discussions.

A global approach to art history includes a myriad of artists, objects, cultural and individual viewpoints and interpretations. The stories of diverse women and men who have created artistic these objects, events and ideas, bring the excitement and influence of history into the present. Art history reveals the many ways that people make art and how technologies, events and resources affect art making. Intentions, audiences and interpretations vary even more than styles and media. Formal and contextual appreciation with emphasis on both form and meaning should be incorporated into a more encompassing view of art objects. Museums and classrooms should center on the learner's motivation, questions and reference points bringing art to life, not facts to memorize.