Making sense of art history

You can prepare for this free course, Making sense of art history, by looking around you. It's likely that wherever you are you'll be able to see some images. It's also likely that many of these will be intended to have some sort of effect on you. In the course itself you will be exploring the power of images via a study of contemporary art from the 1980s onwards. Taking the time to look beyond the immediate appearance of an art work to consider what the artist might be trying to say can be immensely rewarding.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 What is art?
• 1 What is art?
• 2 The Turner Prize: an annual farce or a celebration of creativity?
• 2 The Turner Prize: an annual farce or a celebration of creativity?
• 3 Art works and their effects
• 3 Art works and their effects
• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 Recording your feelings
• 3.3 Reading an art text
• 4 The relationship between effects and techniques
• 4 The relationship between effects and techniques
• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 The form of art: looking at techniques
• 5 Colour
• 5 Colour
• 5.1 Introduction
• 5.2 Question 1: Has a wide or narrow palette of colours been used?
• 5.3 Question 2: Have contrasting colours been placed next to each other?
• 5.4 Question 3: Are there more warm colours than cool colours or vice versa?
• 5.5 Question 4: Are the colours largely bright or dull?
• 5.6 Question 5: In what way is dark and light colour used?
• 5.7 Comparing art works
• 6 Medium
• 6 Medium
• 7 Composition
• 7 Composition
• 7.1 Introduction
• 7.2 The representation of depth
• 7.3 The use of line
• 7.4 Summary
• 8 Meaning and interpretation
• 8 Meaning and interpretation
• Conclusion
• References
• Acknowledgements