Art and Man

Book Details:

• ISBN: 9788130716992
• Author: Edwin Swift Balch & Eugenia Macfarlane Balch
• Pages: 230 including color illustrations
• Year of Publishing: 2020
• Binding: Hard Bound
• Publisher: COSMO PUBLICATIONS

Description:

Edwin Swift Balch is credited with opening the gates for the inclusion of art, especially that from Africa, Australasia, and American native races, into ethnological and anthropological studies. Before the publication of his articles and books on comparative art, archaeologists, ethnologists, and art critics largely avoided dealing with primitive art. The word "art" was almost taboo in ethnological museums, and works of primitive arts were only sporadically admitted to art galleries. It was only after the publication of Balch's book Comparative Art that the doors of recognition began to open for art critics and ethnologists alike.

The author's aim has been to examine and compare as many art specimens from as many places as possible to determine whether art is one unified whole or a collection of diverse arts. He traces resemblances and differences between the arts of various global regions and seeks to formulate the most accurate deductions about art and humanity. In certain respects, this work is a study of the fine arts across the world, and in others, it is an attempt to trace the story of mankind as revealed through the fine arts.