If one expands the study of art beyond the works valued by Europeans to consideration of all human artifacts of visual interest it becomes clear, notes Onians (director, World Art Research Programme, U. of East Anglia, UK), that a fundamental rethinking of the field must take place. He presents 16 papers from a conference held in 2000 in order to advance this agenda and consider the problems inherent in such an endeavor, including the issues, reflected in the title and subtitle, of how to embrace the vaster field of knowledge than typical of art history (compression) without losing depth of presentation and intellectual reflection (expression), how it is to be constituted and defined (contained), and how it is to be studied (explained). The collection offers museological studies, comparative analysis of how art history is pursued in different geographical settings, discussion of different approaches to art-history, exploration of an attempt to root world art history in neuroscience, and reflections on the difficulties of distilling world art history into a single text or theory, among other topics. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
