AP Art History is designed to provide the same benefits to secondary school students as those provided by an introductory college course in art history: an understanding and enjoyment of architecture, sculpture, painting, and other art forms within historical and cultural contexts.

This introductory course provides a selective survey of periods in the history of Western art that presents a narrative of its development over time, acknowledges the relation to this narrative of major artists and their media, and clarifies the transcultural influences that account for changing perceptions in the imaginative recreation of experience; the techniques created to accommodate those perceptions; and the dynamics of audience reception.