The Oxford Dictionary of Art.

Oxford University Press, 1-May-88. Hardcover. Like New. Nice book! Clean pages, no writing or marks, light shelf wear on black dustjacket. From School Library Journal: Grade 9 Up; Chilvers provides more than 3000 concise, lucid entries in this second revision of Harold Osborne's one-volume dictionary, which first appeared in 1988. A preface explains the scope: Western and Western-inspired painting, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing from ancient times to the present day,"" with the qualification that no artists born after 1965 have their own headings. An introductory list of entries, organized geographically and chronologically for artists, and then thematically (terms, techniques, academies, etc.) reveals the Anglocentric focus. Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway, and Arthur Rackham mingle with Henry Moore and John Constable in the English lineup. Major African-American artists such as Romare Bearden, Augusta Savage, and Jacob Lawrence are absent. Chilvers fails to include the infamous Guerilla Girls, and he misstates the relationship between the National Gallery and the Smithsonian. Nancy Frazier's The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History (Penguin, 2001), with its interdisciplinary approach, quotes from each artist, and more inclusive scope, offers an alternative, although with fewer entries. Neither source has any pictures, a situation requiring the additional use of monographs or online resources for most questions.–Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Reed Business Information. From Library Journal: A handy work based on earlier Oxford Companions and revised from previous editions, this single-volume reference contains 3000 entries that discuss Western and Western-inspired art from antiquity on. It considers paintings, graphics, sculpture, and architecture in terms of artistic figures, periods, schools, techniques, critical terms, and museums; lesser artists are treated more concisely than major ones. Despite editorial claims that the dictionary is ""up to date,"" coverage of recent activities is uneven, with Neo-expressionism and other contemporary movements and artists omitted. An easy format, accurate facts, and good cross-referencing make this a useful lexicon for the layperson or for general and public collections. Robin Kaplan, The Information Group, Los Angeles Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.