This book, organized alphabetically by artist, will go with my other book, "1000 paintings of Genius", which is organized chronologically.

A massive volume with one page for each artist. ( )

This very handy book is an A to Z guide of 500 painters and sculptors from medieval to modern times. Each artist is given a full page color plate showing the most representative work of the artist, along with explanatory and biographical notes. What is great about this guide is that all artists are represented together no matter what their period or school or technique was; if you want to know about an artist, you just need to know the alphabet. Glossaries are included. It is an ideal introduction to art. ( )

So if you re-titled this, "The (Almost Entirely Western) Painting and Sculpture (14th - 20th Century) Book, you'd know what you're in for - but it's not exactly pithy. Only the "Painting and Sculpture" part is openly acknowledged by the editors. The rest is deduced from what actually appears in the book, which is an alphabetically arranged list of 500 artists with one image each and a paragraph or two of annotation about the artist and the work displayed. There's also basic biographical details and information on the chosen image.

As the editors note, the alphabetical arrangement leads to some startling contrasts since proximate works in the book can be separated by centuries and continents in terms of their actual production. This was actually quite fun, just look elsewhere for an education on how everything fits together conceptually, geographically and historically. 500 entries gives room for all the most famous artists (given the constraints of my alternative title) with plenty of space left over for people I had not heard of, some of whom piqued my interest. It was also pleasing to find women represented as far back as the 1600s, their work being of a quality matching that of the book generally.

Great for flipping through - a perfect "coffee table" book. ( )

I feel like this is required reading for all Art Studies 101 courses. And if not, it should be. It's not going to teach you everything there is to know about art and artists, but it is an invaluable resource for understanding the difference between Manet and Monet. ( )