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Does anyone know if there are any notes out there(online) on AP Art History?

Or any good sites with help/prep for the class?

Thanks, any help would be much appreciated.

By Thvudragon (Thvudragon) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 03:55 pm: Edit

Ahhhh, I went on this search a year ago. Nothing turned up. It's not that popular of a class as there aren't even any good study books to accompany the course. From my search, I didn't find any.

IMO, the course is simply too comprehensive in terms of visuals and concepts to be simplified into notes. My advice, read. The course is alot of work and reading is necessary if you want to do well on the exam.

Just out of curiosity, what textbook are you using?

By Girlforever101 (Girlforever101) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 07:00 pm: Edit

I found a companion website to my AP Art History Book, and a couple other websites, hope you can use them. My book is "Gardner's Art Through the Ages"

http://www.wadsworth.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=0534167039&discipline_number=37

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html

By Blindedzeppelin (Blindedzeppelin) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 09:22 pm: Edit

Thanks alot guys. My book is titled:

Art A World History

-DK Publishing

By Cybernetica (Cybernetica) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 02:44 am: Edit

Read: Annotated Mona Lisa, Annotated Arch, Janson's book (the main one...he also has one for kids that is kind of amusing if you can find it). Stokstad is nice and clean when you are overwhelmed. I recommended checking back with Gardner's by the time you get to the 18th/19th/modern centuries to see if the prose finally seems sane/comprehendible/informative to you. If it doesn't you may be better just sticking with those above.

The web absolutely sucks for apah though in my absolute desperation taking the class i remember coming across some very mildly useful websites but I can't seem to find their URLS. Just read those books, its really the best shot you have.

Also,

Don't forget the free Annenberg videos on learner.org. THOSE are one very useful internet resource.

http://www.learner.org/resources/series1.html

To watch the videos, you must 'register' once (they will not actually check the validity of the email you provide) and then you can view them infinite times on the web. These ARE a good tool (or at least as close as you'll get) for reinforcing all the conceptual in your head.

After you've assimilated bits and pieces of information from the readings etc, try playing curator by putting your hand over the captions of various works (their pictures) in a chapter and saying aloud as much as you can remember / reasonably extemp about them. Learning to talk in the florid/flowery pseudo-eloquence of the art history textbooks (particularly learning THEIR terminology...painterly vs. linear...composition...iconography...etc) can only help to get you more points come AP exam time.

I hope you find those suggestions useful...I know they helped save me when I did APAH.

-S

By Ml41588 (Ml41588) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 05:12 pm: Edit

im taking the class now and am using gardner's also which is one hell of a big textbook. i bought the annotated mona lisa, but in my opinion its not too good. its sooo broad, and for what the textbook spend 10 pages covering, they spend 1/4. i really wanna do well on the ap, but there are absolutely 0 resources besides the text book.

By Iplayoboe (Iplayoboe) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 06:59 pm: Edit

i used the Gardner pretty much as my only resource last year. i found these sites while studying for the AP exam tho..

http://www.gibnet.gi/~shms/just4kids/kids_study/art_sculpture/art_sculpture.htm

ok, i lied, ive lost hte urls to the other sites cause i went back and deleted the emails i sent them to myself in, sorry. but i know this site is helpful for a quick review
good luck

By Thvudragon (Thvudragon) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 07:35 pm: Edit

Gardner's is amazing. Read it and you'll do fine (as long as you understand the concepts).

The Annotated Mona Lisa is garbage, a glorified piece of trash not fit to sit on a coffee table. Read it only if you want to be confused about even the basic concepts of art. It does little to actually explain the context of art and does nothing to explain the influences of non-western art, or even present non-western art itself. Run away from Strickland as fast as you can. It should be called Non-Western Art for dummies, the only problem being that even after reading, one is still a dummy on the subject of art.

By Cybernetica (Cybernetica) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 04:01 am: Edit

Thvudragon,

To put it nicely, I am a bit skeptical of the advice you have given this poster.

Granted, Hellen Gardner's original work (and subsequent editions) probably WAS a revolutionary text in the history Art History pedagogy up until around the 60s or so, but as all of these publishing companies, other scholars (Tansey, etc), etc have brought their own interests to bare on her work and blown it up to ever increasing proportions, I feel the text is no longer as useful as it once may have been.

I am not disparaging Gardner's for those who have access to a copy. Indeed, if you find yourself greatly 'hitting it off' with the text from the chapter on Sumeria and feel like you are iteratively mastering concepts and at least some of the specific content along the way, if you find yourself having fun and learning a great deal, by all means stick with this text - it WILL contain MORE THAN ENOUGH for you to ace the AP exam (assuming your level of comprehension is sufficient.)

But if, like many students I know, you find the text to be unclear, rambling, a poor indicator of which points are most important, or simply boring and unenjoyable reading, you likely would benefit a great deal from seeking alternate ways to get the information into your head.

While I have heard many mixed reviews of Gardner's, I have never once heard a person complain that Jason was not READABLE. I have heard OTHER valid complaints about his own egotism, his eurocentrism, and his flagrant lack of non-western covereage (of which you need a 'working knowledge' for the AP exam, but to be honest no more...you simply need to prepare your outside non western pieces and you should do well), but no one has ever told me he was UNCLEAR to read or that for the content he chose to cover he was unthorough in his coverage. Given this, Janson's is probably not a bad text to glance at periodically when you find yourself a bit caught up with Gardner's...

And of course, actually going to museum's and testing yourself is one of the best possible ways, but the entire country unfortunately does have the museum advantages of those who live nearby, for example, the Met.

So THE VIDEOS! Yes they may seem trite, overdone,e tc, but they at least help to TRY and bring some of these concepts to life in a way that sticks...thus providing you a format that at least forces you to pay attention and keep moving to some degree.

Concerning the Annotatated Arch and Mona, I find your assessment Thvu, to be quite misleading.

Indeed, they do organize certain conceptual ideas and periods differently than other texts, thereby allowing the reader to ferment even more knowledge he or she may have previously acquired by comparing what he/she heard 'once' to what they read 'know', but mainly they provide simple, quick introductions to important topics - even if these intros are not sufficient in and of themselves.

Using the organizing principles of those books, one can actually survey the chapters of tomes and themselves much more efficiently because it becomes much easier to get 'the big picture' (no pun intended) for any given piece a book begins to ramble on about in the context of the era.

Furthermore, it makes constructing an internal chronology easier because it puts representative pieces from each era side by side.

A big piece of this course, remember, and there really isn't anyway of getting around it, is pure memorization.

Given acceptance of this fact, employing a few classical mnemonics here and there can't possibly hurt.

If something about a work's iconography or style somehow seems evocative of the name of its artist or vice versa, by all means try to mentally form the link so that when you actually see the painting/artist's name, evoking the counterpart metnally will not be a big deal.

Having a working knowledge of thematic european and 'world' history obviously helps immensely with all of this...a real strength of Hellen Gardner is her dramatic attempts to help you in this regard.

All in all, there's no 'one' best way to learn this subject (as with many). I even found Strickland helpful on occassions where i wanted a quick idiot's review of a topic because i didn't feel like slugging through jansons's again.

Also, when you get to more 'celebrated' eras of western art (such as the baroque) and are seemingly overwhelmed by the mess of examples thrown your way in a text such as Gardner's, though I don't know about the standards of your invididual teacher, realize that much of that is there for 'useful repetition' and to please the conflicting interests of various connosieurs/academics who see the 'canon' as consisting of a very wide variety of things. Therefore, sometimes just getting the biggest details on the 'key' pieces (such as, in this case, ecstacy of Theresa) and not neccessarilly fretting over even memorizing loads about all the other and others and others may actually lead you to do just fine on the ap exam and keep your sanity at the same time. (most people i know who hardly had a mastery of ah made 5's...it's really a matter of capitalizing on your strenghts...from a practical standpoint realize that most art historians do NOT keep all the information in a book like Gardner's instantaneously on their fingertips/neurons...their body of common ideas and methods of inquiry are largely what seperate them from the non-initiated...)

But if you want to be neurotic and try memorizing every work in Gardner's (or if you are such a savant that this all comes naturally; i've certainly known some), by all means do so. That can also work.

I hope these reams of letters eventually help some art history student find an extra resource / study more efficiently.

Good Luck,
SSG

By Flachica412 (Flachica412) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 08:28 pm: Edit

I used Gardner's books last year and got a 5. While the books are slightly dry and at times hard to read, they are very good for the exam. I also got some art books from my local book store for overviews of general art movements. I had no luck last year finding useful, comprehensive art guides. Good luck!!

By Singingal78 (Singingal78) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 09:16 pm: Edit

I am taking Art History AP, and my teacher is kind of looney at times. I am really concerned that with her not teaching us I might not do well on the exam. Last year, she had a student who got a 1, and in a class of 15, only 1 got a 5. How difficult is the ah exam? I got a 5 on the European history exam last year. How did you study? I am a little concerned. I am reading out of Jansen, and there is just so much information. How much of the material is acually on the exam? All help is greatly appreciated!

Liz

By Guyute (Guyute) on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 04:18 am: Edit

ap art history was my favorite class in high school.

all you can do is study hard =)