As Art across Time goes to press for publication in December of 1998, Laurie Adams takes a moment to reflect on the experience of teaching the survey course and on her goals in undertaking a new textbook in this crowded field. You have been teaching art history survey courses since 1966. Teaching art survey has made me aware of the most basic levels of learning how to approach the visual arts. Since we are bombarded with images from birth, we tend to assume that we understand their meaning. The complexity of images is more readily understood by students if the text describing works of art is clear and simple.
Some works of art are more difficult than others to comprehend.
Other works, such as Duchamp's Ready-Mades and Warhol's Soup Cans or Heinz Boxes, also tend to raise eyebrows in a survey course. In these responses, students recapitulate the responses of the general public throughout history. Another basic consideration in teaching an art history survey is how to convey the power of images in virtually all cultures. Students so take images for granted that they often fail to comprehend the ways in which images manipulate them. AAT looks significantly different from other art survey books.