Janson's History of Art - edition preferences?

[kevin sawad brooks]

In article <jzimm-150...@slip-1-46.ots.utexas.edu> jz...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Joann Zimmerman) writes:
>In article <CMEMJ...@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>,
>jw...@amazon.evsc.Virginia.EDU (Augusta Morbeck) wrote:
>
>> William G. Martin wrote in response to an entry on my top ten books that
>> I could not live without list (10. Janson's History of Art - the last
>> edition but one):
>
>> >Anyone want to comment on the evolution and changes of Janson? I still have
>> >mine from when I took art history in the mid-sixties and am not familiar
>> >with whatever might have changed over the ensuing decades. I take it
>> >from the above comment that there was some major revision recently?
>> >Shall I interpret it to mean that it went down the tubes, like everything
>> >else in recent years?... :-)
>
>
>> I'll bite. I bought the most recent edition (gack! 5 years ago.
>> There could very be another edition) and the book itself was not well made.
>> The binding fell apart in 2 days. In my class, 100% of the books were losing
>> pages, cracking, having covers fall off. Simply put, the binding was too weak
>> for a book of that size. It was most frustrating. If I'm going to wear out
>> a book, I want it to be over time.
>
>It's done another edition since. I have the next-to-latest, bought as a
>remainder as the new edition was coming out. Since the mid-sixties, they've
>had major fits of diversity: women artists, ethnicity of all sorts, etc.
>
>As to binding quality, this is *not* a book you lug around to class. You
>keep it at home on your shelf as a reference. The paperback editions (split
>in two, I think?) may fare a bit better.
>
>> Actually, I think Janson's has gotten a little better - Looking at the
>> second edition, and the one I have, I prefer some of the images pictured in
>> later editions. Plus, more diverse art is depicted. The commentary is still
>> better than Honour and Fleming. As for Gardner, well, it never seemed to match
>> up to Janson.
>
>Janson and Gardner both have their uses, as does the other member of our
>local Pantheon (i.e. his book gets assigned for survey classes), Frederick
>Hartt. Gardner and Hartt seem to present a more continuous narrative than
>does Janson, whose writing is old-fashioned, opinionated and choppy.
>
>I'm using Gardner for teaching this semester--not my decision--and am
>reasonably satisfied with it. Doesn't seem to matter anyway; as near as I
>can tell, about half the kids don't bother to read the text. Of course the
>rest industriously underline every paragraph in yellow marker.
>
>--
>
>"Attempts to turn universities and intellectual life into just another
>form of enterprise, a business to be run like a corner shop, must be
>resisted ..." -- Miri Rubin
>
>Joann Zimmerman jz...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu

i like to cut the pictures out and play with them: make new pictures from
them.

kevin sawad brooks

"I hope that the word 'anarchy' in the title of these lectures does not
suggest that I shall speak in defence of order."
-- Edgar Wind, _Art and Anarchy_
--
"This is a signature?"