Onians was Founder Editor of the journal Art History in 1978. He was professor of Visual Arts and Director of the World Art Research Programme at the University of East Anglia[3] from 1971 until his retirement in 2007 where he was instrumental in the development of the Art History department, and the creation of the School of World Art Studies and Museology.
He has authored a number of books, Art and the Thought in the Hellenistic Age,[6]Bearers of Meaning,[7] for which he was awarded the Sir Bannister Fletcher Prize,[4]Classical Art and the Cultures of Greece and Rome,[8]Art, culture and nature: from art history to world art studies,Neuroarthistory: From Aristotle and Pliny to Baxandall and Zeki[9] and, most recently, European Art: A Neuroarthistory.[10] He has edited Sight and Insight,[11]Atlas of World Art,[12]Compression Vs. Expression,[13] and The Art Atlas.
Onians has been discussed in books such as Art History and its Methods (1995)[14] and Raising the Eyebrow (2002).[15] His photographic work also features in the Conway Library, whose archive of primarily architectural images is being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project.[16]
^Carey, Brainard (29 July 2016). "John Onians". Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
^Onians, J. (1979) Art and Thought in the Hellenistic Age: Greek World View, 350-5 B.C. (Paperback) Thames & Hudson Ltd
^Onians, J. (1989) Bearers of Meaning: Classical orders in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Princeton University Press; New Ed edition (1 July 1992)
^Onians, J. (1999) Classical Art and the Cultures of Greece and Rome Yale University Press
^Onians, J. (2008) Neuroarthistory: From Aristotle and Pliny to Baxandall and Zeki Yale University Press
^Onians, J (2016). European Art: A Neuroarthistory. Yale University Press. ISBN978-0300212792.
^Onians, J. (Ed.) (1994) Sight and Insight: Essays on Art and Culture in Honour of E.H.Gombrich at 85 Phaidon Press Ltd
^Onians, J. (Ed.) (2004) Atlas of World Art Laurence King Publishing
^Onians, J. (Ed.) (2006) Compression Vs. Expression: Containing and Explaining the World's Art (Clark Studies in the Visual Arts) Yale University Press
^Fernie, E. (1995) Art History and its Methods: A Critical Anthology Phaidon
^Golden, L. (Ed.) (2002) Raising the Eyebrow: John Onians and World Art Studies
