But Is It Art?: An Introduction to Art Theory

Freeland's easy prose and organizational structure make this book a quick, fun, and insightful read into art-historical-philosophies with a brief look at Classical Greeks like Plato and Aristotle, a good look at the works of Kant, and a survey of contemporary philosophers and art critics book-ended and interspersed with looks at artworks and just enough context to make sense of their place in the timeline.

Said "like new" but there are pencil marks on almost every page. Disappointing.

I am very pleased with my purchase of But Is It Art? The book was in great shape, as advertised, and I am so glad that it was both very affordable and easy to purchase. Cynthia Freeman, the author, makes the concept of art, from a culturally educated perspective, refreshingly accessible. As she writes to bring the reader along on her logical and interesting journey, it becomes understandable that this is what any form of art is: the creator's journey. Thus, Ms. Freeman succeeds at either introducing or reintroducing the idea that art remains, however strange or even horrific that it gets, an invitation to relate to aspects of reality through creative means.

This book is a present for a college student of the Arts whose Art Theory teacher made them purchase her own sloppy work at great expense. On brief review, it seemed this book put art theory in an easily understood nutshell and will help to provide a good basis for her career. It was delivered by the seller in excellent condition and just in time for Christmas.

A short, breezy, swift tour of the philosophy of art from the Greeks to modern time. It starts out a bit dry but then picks up speed to give the novice a high level overview of how the critical and popular conceptions of art have changed over the centuries. Sort of fun.

I bought it to read for a class. The book is fairly easy. She takes you through several theories about art. She introduces everything as if you knew nothing about them. (Nice for the average reader who wants to learn more about art.) Very interesting views. I enjoyed the book.

I had to get this for a graduate course and was surprised by how much fun this book is to actually read. I made lots of notes in it and carried on lots of conversations. A great book about controversial​ art.

Cynthia Freeland does a great job backing up her arguments and providing both sides of the discussion in each chapter with enough resources. However, I got lost many times while reading because it seemed as if the repeated herself quite often.

I bought this along with Freeland's 'other' book 'Art Theory: a very short introduction' only to discover this is the exact same text retitled and repackaged. Even the plates and the description under them is identical.The text itself is a nice clear intro to art theory, I just didn't need it twice.

Great book, great size. 1st year art student. Art students need pack horses to carry about all the different equipment and this is a perfect size, almost pocket! It is easy to handle and throw in your bag without adding to much weight.Clearly written and easily understandable this has been a joy to read, lots of information to broaden your understanding, great book.

I wanted to read a book about art as I wanted to learn more about why those works of modern art are made and what they mean. This book did the job. It explains in a really chatty and readable style the history of modern art and gives some fascinating little stories and anecdotes. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to you if you are looking for an introduction to art.

If you are doing an art course this is for you... also not tooooooo dry

I am using the Kindle software on my BlackBerry PlayBook. This book is about art and the themes are worked around detailed reviews of artwork. There are about 20 colour plates listed in the contents, but they do not exist in the book. So the whole argument centres on an image which is not included. That renders the book essentially useless. I can only assume this is a PlayBook problem or other reviewers would have mentioned it.