AP Art History
Unit 1: c. 30,000 - 500 BCE
Global Prehistory
Images 1-11
Main Ideas:
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Many paintings depicted wild animals, which is representative of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle
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Many works of art were meant for burials → Represents the concept of afterlife or other religious beliefs
Unit 2: c. 3,500 BCE - 300 CE
Ancient Mediterranean
Images 12-47
Main Ideas:
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As civilizations started to form, people appointed leaders to govern their civilizations, and they made artworks to showcase the power of their leaders, emphasizing a social hierarchy
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As civilizations started to expand, they often had conflict with other civilizations, so people created works of art to showcase their own civilization as superior
Unit 3: c. 200 - 1750 CE
Early Europe and Colonial Americas
Images 48-97
Main Ideas:
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As different cultural and intellectual movements sprung throughout Europe, artists sought to depict God in their artworks in different ways
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As different entities (such as the Catholic Church, French monarchy, Spanish monarchy in America, etc.) sought to expand their power, they commissioned artworks that glorified their power
Unit 4: c. 1750 - 1980 CE
Later Europe and Americas
Images 98-152
Main Ideas:
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As Europe and the Americas underwent rapid societal changes (such as urbanization, commercialization, imperialism, political revolutions, and world wars), works of art generally either sought to support or oppose those developments to advocate for greater harmony
Unit 5: 1000 BCE - 1980 CE
Indigenous Americas
Images 153-166
Main Ideas:
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Before 1492, the Indigenous Americans were disconnected from Afro-Eurasia and developed their own lifestyle. This Unit's artwork showcases that unique lifestyle
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Indigenous Americans often had much more extreme & personal relations with their Gods, and a lot of their artwork incorporates spiritual imagery to activate their Gods & natural/ancestral spirits
Unit 6: 1100 - 1980 CE
Africa
Images 167-180
Main Ideas:
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Africa was divided into many small kinship-based societies that each had their own religion and customs based on ancestral and nature worship; this idea is represented as the artworks have these similar ideas but vary in local styles
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As larger societies & civilizations started to form, communities commissioned artworks to showcase the wealth and power of their king and of their kingdom to encourage other neighboring people to submit to their power
Unit 7: 500 BCE - 1980 CE
West and Central Asia
Images 181-191
Main Ideas:
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As different leaders fought for control over areas dominated by a certain religion, they patronized religion in different ways through artwork to assert their control
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Additionally, as different religions (such as Islam & Buddhism) spread throughout major trade routes, their artworks were influenced by the different cultures they encountered
Unit 8: 300 BCE - 1980 CE
South, East, and Southeast Asia
Images 192-212
Main Ideas:
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Temples and other religious works were built on a grand scale to allow practitioners to more easily engage with them and engage with God
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Many smaller regions adopted the cultural framework of their larger neighbors (South Asia → Southeast Asia; China → Korea & Japan) but added their own cultural touches in their artwork
Unit 9: 700 - 1980 CE
The Pacific
Images 213-223
Main Ideas:
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The islands' small size prevented complex civilizations from developing, so a lot of these cultures viewed anything they couldn't understand (a leader, foreigner, luxury good, etc.) as an intermediary with the divine
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While these islands had different cultures, they shared many motifs about the sea and the natural world, which is why those themes are prevalent in their artwork
Unit 10: 1980 CE - Present
Global Contemporary
Images 224-250
Main Ideas:
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In an era of rapid modernization, these artworks touch upon its consequences such as gender & racial disparities, economic neocolonialism, and restrictions on basic freedoms
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These artworks use innovative methods often with mixed media and in-person installations to showcase different aspects of their central message