Reframing Art History

Global perspectives through an open-access multimedia "textbook" for the 21st century

Reframing Art History, an open-access multimedia art history "textbook," gives you a guided journey through the living, breathing, meaningful side of art history. We’re less concerned with names and dates than with meaning and movement. With chapters developed by a group of more than 50 experts, it showcases art and history from the bottom up.

General resources for this book

Welcome! Learn more about how this textbook developed

Part 1: Introduction

An introduction to art history and this textbook

Part 2: The earliest art: the prehistoric period to c. 300 C.E.

Massive pyramids, delicate rock art, complex writing systems, and elaborate burials—learn about developments in early art from across the globe.

Part 3: Art and architecture c. 200–900 C.E.

The flourishing of Buddhism, the development of Islam, huge cities in the Americas, and the building of new "Romes" all occurred in this time span.

Part 4: Art and architecture c. 900–1400

Learn more about the material culture of the Crusades, art under the Mongols, the Inka Empire, and multi-paneled wooden altarpieces—among other topics.

Part 5: Art and architecture c. 1400–c. 1800

Chapters cover the four seasons in Japanese art, the Portuguese Empire, the Italian renaissance, and the Spanish viceroyalties in the Americas, and much more.

Part 6: Art and architecture c. 1800–present

Modernism in Latin America, empires and their endings in Europe, modern China, and print culture and propaganda—explore developments from the last 200 years

Part 7: Confirmed for iteration 2

A sampling of forthcoming chapters...

Contributors and Co-Conspirators

This textbook would not have been possible without the many collaborators and co-conspirators who helped to shape and develop this project.

General Editor

Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank

Chapter Authors