Prebles' Artforms, 13th edition

Published by Pearson (July 20, 2026) © 2027
  • Patrick L. Frank
  • Duane Preble
  • Sarah Preble

Title overview

For courses in Art Appreciation.

An introduction to Art Appreciation that highlights how we form art and art forms us

Prebles' Artforms introduces the disciplines of the arts and examines their impact on individuals and society as a whole. Building on the foundation laid by Duane and Sarah Preble, author Patrick Frank combines coverage of classic and contemporary works to reflect the ever-evolving state of human creativity. This approach helps students understand that as humans form works of art, we’re shaped by what we've created.

The 13th Edition has been updated to reflect the art world today. Topics receiving fresh coverage include contemporary digital artforms, censorship and more.

Hallmark features of this title

  • Learning objectives, at the beginning of each chapter and echoed in subheadings, help students identify the key content to focus on.
  • UPDATED: Creators essays highlight the contributions of key artists, including classic artists such as Michelangelo and Vincent Van Gogh. The 13th Edition includes new profiles of 7 artists.

New and updated features of this title

  • NEW: Chapter 1, Your Brain on Art, offers a new discussion of recent advances in brain research that shed new light on our experience of art.
  • UPDATED: The coverage of censorship in Chapter 5, Evaluating Art, focuses on recent incidents on university campuses.
  • UPDATED: A substantially revised Chapter 25, After Modernism: Telling New Stories, reflects the latest in contemporary art, highlighting 13 new works.
  • NEW: The 13th Edition offers expanded coverage of digital arts, with 10 new works and 2 new biographical essays.
  • UPDATED: The inclusion of 6 new works by Latin American artists broadens the scope of the text to better reflect art from around the globe.
  • NEW: 113 fresh images engage readers and ensure that the text remains up to date.

Table of contents

  1. The Nature of Art and Creativity
  2. The Purposes and Functions of Art
  3. The Visual Elements
  4. The Principles of Design
  5. Evaluating Art
  6. Drawing
  7. Painting
  8. Printmaking
  9. Photography
  10. Cinema and Digital Arts
  11. Design Disciplines
  12. Sculpture
  13. Craft Media in Useful Objects
  14. Architecture
  15. From the Earliest Art to the Bronze Age
  16. The Classical and Medieval West
  17. Renaissance and Baroque
  18. Traditional Arts of Asia
  19. The Islamic World
  20. Africa, Oceania and the Americas
  21. Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
  22. Early Twentieth Century
  23. Between World Wars
  24. Postwar Modern Movements, 1945 to 1975
  25. After Modernism: Telling New Stories

Author bios

About our authors

Patrick Frank has taught in many higher education environments, from rural community colleges to public and private research universities. Most recently, he was Regents’ Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles. His specialty as a scholar is modern art of Latin America, and he has authored or co-authored 6 academic books in this field. He has guest curated 5 exhibitions at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California. He has lately branched out into the history of art and technology. His most recent book is Art of the 1980s As If the Digital Mattered, published by de Gruyter/Brill. He earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He lives in Venice, California, where he devotes his spare time (if any) to perfecting pizza dough and promoting the guitar as a contemporary classical instrument.

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