History of Art

Course summary

The study of Art in its historical and contemporary forms gives students crucial knowledge of world civilisations. It gives students visual and analytical skills that can be applied in many walks of life as well as the tools with which to understand how images and objects work to shape our social and political identities. The Edexcel specification has been designed to fulfil the following objectives: • To foster an understanding of the relationship between society, culture, technology, politics and art and to make comprehensible the ways in which art has been used and interpreted both in the past and in the present; • To develop an understanding of how visual language is used by artists to communicate ideas, including formal characteristics, materials, techniques, and processes; • To ensure that students are presented with a range of material that allows them to analyse and make critical judgements about art; • To give students an opportunity to study a sufficient range of artists and works of art to ensure an appropriate depth and breadth of understanding of specified movements/periods and themes.