Mark Getlein arrived in New York to pursue advanced music studies at the Juilliard School, but he quickly became equally fascinated by the city's vibrant downtown art scene and magnificent museum collections. For a decade or so he led an interesting but precarious life as a pianist and painter. As a writer and development editor, he has helped to create a series of ground-breaking college textbooks in art and literature, including Art History (Abrams, 1995), A History of Art in Africa (Abrams, 2001), The HarperCollins World Reader, The Longman Anthology of British Literature, and The Longman Anthology of World Literature. This is his fourth edition as author of Living with Art.

• Part One: Introduction 1 Living with Art 2 Artists and Audiences3 Themes of Art Part Two: The Vocabulary of Art 4 The Visual Elements5 Principles of Design Part Three: Two-Dimensional Media6 Drawing 7 Painting 8 Prints  9 Camera and Computer Arts 10 Graphic Design Part Four: Three-Dimensional Media 11 Sculpture and Installation 12 Arts of Ritual and Daily Life 13 Architecture Part Five: Arts in Time 14 Ancient Mediterranean Worlds15 Christianity and the Formation of Europe 16 The Renaissance17 The 17th and 18th Centuries18 Arts of Islam and of Africa 19 Arts of Asia: India, China, and Japan 20 Arts of the Pacific and of the Americas21 The Modern World: 1800–1945 22 From Modern to Postmodern23 Contemporary Art around the World