60+ chapters · 200+ hours of video · 10,000+ pages of notes · 400,000+ views · Free forever
This website and our YouTube channel are together a free, in-depth tour of Western art with over 6,700 subscribers and 473,000 views. It is like a giant book with about 10,000 pages and 200 hours of video.
Don’t worry if that seems daunting, you can dip in wherever you wish and to help it is divided into about 60 sections. Each one has one or more 45-60 minute YouTube videos and 50-80 pages of notes.
New here? Start with Chapter 00 for an overview of the whole course, or jump straight to any period in the list below. You can dip in wherever you like — each chapter stands alone.
Please note that some sections contain artworks that depict nudity, violence or disturbing images that may not be suitable for all viewers. The website is for educational purposes only and viewer discretion is advised.
00 Introduction
These talks are an introduction to the history of Western art from cave painting to today. The following section headings start with the section number and link to a page containing one or more talks on that topic. Each talk includes an infographic, a summary, my notes in PDF format, interesting facts and a conversation created by Gemini Notebook. I am an enthusiastic user of AI as it was my research area in the 1970s.