• [NEW] Look at This! (Asa Sion Mittman, 2023) – Smart History (CC BY-NC)

  An introductory Art Appreciation text that focuses on tools of visual analysis, followed by an exploration of themes: religion, nature, power, garden realms, and copying. The book does not include an overview of art historical periods or movements. “Instead,” as Dr. Mittman writes, “by using examples chosen from throughout the globe, and from prehistory to the present day, the book should help you learn how to apply the basic tools of visual analysis to any object.”

• Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning (Sachant et al.) (CC BY-SA)
  • “This text offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advanced degrees in the arts, this textbook offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses. Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students’ educational experiences beyond the textbook. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making it an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.”
  • Reviewer’s note: the version in LibreTexts may not be fully accessible; the images, in particular, are not correctly captioned and don’t have appropriate alt-text. There is a lovely PDF version available that Galileo labels as accessible, but I have my doubts. This textbook provides little of the chronological art history often provided in art appreciation courses, and so may best be paired with the following textbooks or resources from Smarthistory.
• A World Perspective of Art Appreciation (Gustlin and Gustlin) (CC BY-NC-SA)
  • “An OER text to cover world art on a timeline from prehistoric to modern times with an emphasis on female artists.”
  • Reviewer’s note: this text focuses much more on a chronological, art historical approach than other texts that divide the course into thirds, with the first third covering visual elements and principles of design, the second third covering two- and three-dimensional media, and only the final third giving a brief overview of art history.
• Art Appreciation (Christopher Gildow) (CC BY)
  • Full course in Canvas (CC BY NC-SA)
  • (Google Drive) Text of the book in “chapters” arranged by module—as well as assignments

• Introduction to Art History I: An OER Textbook for Survey of Western Art from Prehistory through the Middle Ages (Myers, Caldwell, Taylor, ) (ASCCC OERI, 2022) (CC BY-NC-SA)
  • This textbook, designed specifically for C-ID ARTH 110 and produced by a team of art historians working within the CCC system, curates Smarthistory and other scholarly resources into a coherent textbook by providing chapter introductions, a comprehensive glossary, and explanatory editors’ notes. Throughout, it acknowledges and explores the historiography of art history and brings in global connections to provide a broader, more diverse, and more inclusive survey of art history from the Paleolithic through Gothic periods.
• Reframing Art History (Smarthistory) (CC-BY-NC-SA)
  • “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 40 experts, it showcases art and history from the bottom up.”
  • Reviewers’ note: this project is still in progress, with many of the individual chapters marked “coming soon” and scheduled for publication in upcoming phases of the project. Even still, it is a highly usable textbook alternative that provides new Smarthistory content to help introduce and structure existing resources.
• Smarthistory Guide to AP® Art History, Volume 1 (Global Prehistory, Ancient Mediterranean) (CC BY-NC-SA)
  • Reviewer’s note: It is unfortunate that this textbook is branded as AP, as the level is appropriate for college learners, but the label might be off-putting. (Hopefully the forthcoming Reframing Art History will solve this problem.) Volume 1 covers material from the Paleolithic through Late Antiquity; to get through the Gothic period, instructors would need to add Smarthistory Guide to AP® Art History, Volume 2 (Early Europe, Colonial Americas), which picks up where Volume 1 leaves off and extends through Hogarth’s Marriage a la Mode. For C-ID ARTH 120
  • An alternative is the Smarthistory Guides by Subject:
    • Ancient Near Eastern Art
    • Ancient Egyptian Art
    • Ancient Aegean Art
    • Ancient Greek Art
    • Ancient Etruscan Art
    • Ancient Roman Art
    • Guide to Italian Art in the 1300s
    • Guide to Italian Art in the 1400s
• Art History (Boundless) (License Varies)
  • Reviewer’s note: a very basic, somewhat outdated, text, based largely on Wikipedia and with some formatting and/or accessibility issues. May be helpful for filling small gaps in other resources.
• SUNY’s Art History and Appreciation I (Lumen Learning) (License Varies)
  • “This courseware includes resources copyrighted and openly licensed by multiple individuals and organizations. Click the words ‘Licenses and Attributions’ at the bottom of each page for copyright and licensing information specific to the material on that page.”
  • Reviewer’s note: arguably the weakest of the full-text resources presented here, but may give a starting point for some resources
• Sheila P. Lynch, ASCCC OERI ARTH 110—Glossary Project on Canvas (CC BY-NC 4.0)
  • “This glossary contains over 250 key terms and is illustrated with more than 100 images. A few of the key terms are repeated to give a different context to the term with each use. In such cases, a different illustration may be used, in keeping with the culture and time period under which the key term is listed. This resource can be used digitally, as a series of webpages (on Canvas, for example) or as a PDF of this entire glossary that is made available on certain platforms. As a series of webpages, the book is organized in modules. The PDF, when available, can also be printed into a hard copy of the entire glossary. The structure of this glossary follows art historical periods culturally. When viewing this glossary as a series of webpages, each of the topics listed under Table of Contents (see previous page) is contained on its own page. The length of each page varies a great deal due to the arbitrary “length” of a webpage. All image captions, as well as their attributions and licenses, are listed at the bottom of each page.”

• Reframing Art History (Smarthistory) (CC-BY-NC-SA)
  • “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 40 experts, it showcases art and history from the bottom up.”
  • Reviewers’ note: this project is still in progress, with many of the individual chapters marked “coming soon” and scheduled for publication in upcoming phases of the project. Even still, it is a highly usable textbook alternative that provides new Smarthistory content to help introduce and structure existing resources.
• A World Perspective of Art History: 1400 CE to the 21st Century (Gustlin and Gustlin) (ASCCC-OERI, 2022)
  • An art history textbook (ARTH 120) inclusive of women artists, artists of color, and diverse cultures written chronologically from a world perspective.”
• Smarthistory Guide to AP® Art History, Volume 1 (Global Prehistory, Ancient Mediterranean) (CC BY-NC-SA)
  • Reviewer’s note: It is unfortunate that this textbook is branded as AP, as the level is appropriate for college learners, but the label might be off-putting. (Hopefully the forthcoming Reframing Art History will solve this problem.) Volume 1 covers material from the Paleolithic through Late Antiquity; to get through the Gothic period, instructors would need to add Smarthistory Guide to AP® Art History, Volume 2 (Early Europe, Colonial Americas), which picks up where Volume 1 leaves off and extends through Hogarth’s Marriage a la Mode. For C-ID ARTH 120
  • An alternative is the Smarthistory Guides by Subject:
    • Ancient Near Eastern Art
    • Ancient Egyptian Art
    • Ancient Aegean Art
    • Ancient Greek Art
    • Ancient Etruscan Art
    • Ancient Roman Art
    • Guide to Italian Art in the 1300s
    • Guide to Italian Art in the 1400s
• Art History (Boundless) (License Varies)
  • Reviewer’s note: a very basic, somewhat outdated, text, based largely on Wikipedia and with some formatting and/or accessibility issues. May be helpful for filling small gaps in other resources.

Grateful thanks to Ellen C. Caldwell for helping to compile the following resources:

• Asian Art History (Lumen Learning) (Licenses vary)
  • Mostly resources compiled from Smarthistory
• Kristina Kleutghen, Introduction to Asian Art (CC BY-NC-ND)
  • Syllabus, assignments, and readings; shared at CAA, NY, 2019
• Noah Levin, South and East Asian Philosophy Reader: an Open Educational Resource (CC BY-NC-SA)
  • Includes religious texts and background biographies of key religious figures

• Resources from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (licenses vary)
  • Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums (catalog for the 1982 exhibition)
  • The Art of South and Southeast Asia: A Resources for Educators © 2001
  • The Art of Korea: A Resource for Educators © 2001
  • Art of the Islamic World

• Kathy Curnow, The Bright Continent: African Art History (CC BY-NC-SA)
  • “This book aims to act as your map through the world of African art. As such, it will help you define the competencies you need to develop–visual analysis, research, noting what information is critical, asking questions, and writing down your observations–and provide opportunities for you to practice these skills until you are proficient. It will also expose you to new art forms and the worlds that produced them, enriching your understanding and appreciation. This is an ongoing project. Your text will not be complete the day you first click on it, but will be written as we proceed through the course. Because it will be used for other courses beyond your own, you may find that it includes materials beyond those your class demands. Encourage your curiosity–chase after it.”
• Angela L. Miller, Janet Catherine Berlo, Bryan J. Wolf, Jennifer L. Roberts, American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (CC BY-NC-SA)
  • Reviewer’s note: the PDF version of this text appears to have been scanned from the print version, and thus isn’t accessible.