History of art

History of art

This article is an overview of the history of the visual arts worldwide.
For the academic discipline of art history, seeArt history.The Creation of Adam (1508–1512), byMichelangelo, in the Sistine Chapel (Vatican)The history of art is the history of any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, aworldview. Over time visual art has been classified in diverse ways, from the medieval distinction between liberal arts and mechanical arts, to the modern distinction between fine arts andapplied arts, or to the many contemporary definitions, which define art as a manifestation of human creativity. The subsequent expansion of the list of principal arts in the 20th century reached to nine: architecture,dance, sculpture, music, painting, poetry(described broadly as a form ofliterature with aesthetic purpose or function, which also includes the distinct genres of theatre and narrative),film, photography and graphic arts. In addition to the old forms of artistic expression such as fashion andgastronomy, new modes of expression are being considered as arts such asvideo, computer art, performance,advertising, animation, television andvideogames.The history of art is a multidisciplinary branch of the arts and sciences, seeking an objective examination of art throughout time, classifying cultures, establishing periodizations, and observing the distinctive and influential characteristics of art.The study of the history of art was initially developed during the Renaissance, with its limited scope being the artistic production ofWestern civilization. However, as time has passed, it has imposed a broader view of artistic history, seeking a comprehensive overview of all thecivilizations and analysis of their artistic production in terms of their own cultural values (cultural relativism), and not justwestern art history.Today, art enjoys a wide network of study, dissemination and preservation of all the artistic legacy of mankind throughout history. The 20th century has seen the proliferation of institutions, foundations, art museums and galleries, in both the public and private sectors, dedicated to the analysis and cataloging of works of art as well as exhibitions aimed at a mainstream audience. The rise of media has been crucial in improving the study and dissemination of art. International events and exhibitions like the Whitney Biennial and biennales of Venice andSão Paulo or the Documenta of Kasselhave helped the development of new styles and trends. Prizes such as theTurner of the Tate Gallery, the Wolf Prize in Arts, the Pritzker Prize of architecture, the Pulitzer of photography and theOscar of cinema also promote the best creative work on an international level. Institutions like UNESCO, with the establishment of the World Heritage Sitelists, also help the conservation of the major monuments of the planet.

History of united states

History of the United States

EditWatch this pageThe flag of the United States during the American RevolutionThe flag that the United States uses nowThe history of the United States is what happened in the past in the United States, a country in North America.Native Americans have lived there for thousands of years, long beforeEuropeans went there. In 1492,Christopher Columbus went to America. In 1607, English people went toJamestown, Virginia. This was the first successful English town in North America. The American colonies weresettled mostly by England. People fromFrance, Spain, and the Netherlands also lived in America. While the colonies were growing, many Native Americans died of disease or lost their land.By 1733, there were 13 colonies. In 1775, at Lexington and Concord, a war between the colonies and England called the Revolutionary War started. This war started because the American colonists believed that they were not being treated equally to the Englishmen living in England. On July 4, 1776, people from the thirteen coloniescreated the United States Declaration of Independence created by Thomas Jefferson. This said that they were free from England. George Washingtonhelped lead the Americans during the Revolutionary War, which the Americans won.After the Revolution, the United States set about becoming a new nation withGeorge Washington becoming its first president. The leaders of the states created a constitution in 1787 and a Bill of Rights in 1791. These were based on the idea of "social contracts". In the early 1800s, the new nation faced many controversial issues, such as slavery.During the 1800s, the United States gained much more land in the West and began to become industrialized. In 1861, several states in the South left the United States to start a new country called the Confederate States of America. This caused the American Civil War. After the war and reconstruction, many people immigrated to the United States from Europe, looking for work. Some Americans became very rich in this Gilded Age and the country developed one of the largest economiesin the world.In the early 20th century, the United States became a world power, fighting in World War I and World War II. Between the wars, there was an economic boom called the Roaring Twenties when people became richer and a bust called the Great Depressionwhen most were much poorer. The Great Depression ended with World War II during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency.After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union entered a time known as the Cold War. Most of this happened during the Dwight D. Eisenhower andJohn F. Kennedy presidencies. The Cold War included an expensive arms raceand space race. During the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency, the wars in Koreaand Vietnam cost even more money and effect on the United States. During this time, African-Americans, Chicanos, and women fought for more rights. In 1973, President Richard Nixon resigned as president due to the Watergate Scandal. In the 1970s and 1980s, the United States started to make fewer things in factories than they used to. The United States then went through the worstrecession it had since the Great Depression during the Gerald Ford andJimmy Carter administration.During the 1980s, the United States was dominated by the Reagan Era led by President Ronald Reagan. During the era, the American economy grew and American-Soviet relations got better. The Cold War ended, helping the United States out of recession by reducinginflation during the Bill Clintonpresidency. The Middle East became important in American foreign policy, especially after the September 11 attacks in 2001 during the George W. Bush administration. In 2009, Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States.

Pre-Columbian AmericaEdit

A Native American hunting buffaloSee also: History of North AmericaThe Pre-Columbian Era is the time before Christopher Columbus went to America in 1492. At that time, Native Americans lived on the land that is now the United States. They had differentcultures: Native Americans in the Eastern United States hunted game anddeer; Native Americans in the Northwestfished; Native Americans in the Southwest grew corn and built houses called pueblos; and Native Americans in the Great Plains hunted buffalo.[1][2]Around the year 1000, many people think that the Vikings visitedNewfoundland. However, they did not settle there.[3]

History in literature

History of literature

EditWatch this pageFor a more in-depth table of the history of literature, see List of years in literature.The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose orpoetry which attempts to provideentertainment, enlightenment, orinstruction to the reader/listener/observer, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in thecommunication of these pieces. Not all writings constitute literature. Some recorded materials, such as compilations of data (e.g., a check register) are not considered literature, and this article relates only to the evolution of the works defined above.

The beginnings of literatureEdit

Main article: Early literatureSee also: Sangam literature, Sumerian literature, Ancient Egyptian literature andBabylonian literatureLiterature and writing, though connected, are not synonymous. The very first writings from ancient Sumerby any reasonable definition do not constitute literature—the same is true of some of the early Egyptian hieroglyphics or the thousands of logs from ancient Chinese regimes. Scholars have often disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like "literature" than anything else; the definition is largely subjective.Moreover, given the significance of distance as a cultural isolator in earlier centuries, the historical development of literature did not occur at an even pace across the world. The problems of creating a uniform global history of literature are compounded by the fact that many texts have been lost over the millennia, either deliberately, by accident, or by the total disappearance of the originating culture. Much has been written, for example, about the destruction of the Library of Alexandriain the 1st century BC, and the innumerable key texts which are believed to have been lost forever to the flames. The deliberate suppression of texts (and often their authors) by organisations of either a spiritual or a temporal nature further shrouds the subject.A stone tablet containing part of theEpic of GilgameshCertain primary texts, however, may be isolated which have a qualifying role as literature's first stirrings. Very early examples include Epic of Gilgamesh, in its Sumerian version predating 2000 BC, and the Egyptian Book of the Deadwritten down in the Papyrus of Ani in approximately 1250 BC but probably dates from about the 18th century BC. Ancient Egyptian literature was not included in early studies of the history of literature because the writings ofAncient Egypt were not translated into European languages until the 19th century when the Rosetta stone was deciphered.Many texts handed down by oral tradition over several centuries before they were fixed in written form are difficult or impossible to date. The core of the Rigveda may date to the mid 2nd millennium BC. The Pentateuch is traditionally dated to the 15th century, although modern scholarship estimates its oldest part to date to the 10th century BC at the earliest.Homer's Iliad and Odyssey date to the 8th century BC and mark the beginning of Classical Antiquity. They also stand in an oral tradition that stretches back to the late Bronze Age.Indian śruti texts post-dating the Rigveda (such as the Yajurveda, theAtharvaveda and the Brahmanas), as well as the Hebrew Tanakh and the mystical collection of poems attributed to Lao Tze, the Tao te Ching, date to theIron Age, but their dating is difficult and controversial. The great Hindu epicswere also transmitted orally, likely predating the Maurya period.Other oral traditions were fixed in writing much later, such as the Elder Edda, written down in the 12th or 13th century.There are various candidates for the first novel ever written.