| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|
| ART HIS 40A | HIST OF WESTERN ART | VON DIPPE, ROGER | The first quarter of a year-long course, “History of Western Art,” provides an overview of art in its various forms within the context of Western civilization, from the prehistoric period to the present. 40A surveys prehistoric art, the art of ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Rome. We will consider how and why the peoples of antiquity created art and architecture, the significance of art within its social, religious, and historical context, how the visual arts can illuminate cultural issues, and how ancient art takes on various meanings to us today. One mid-term examination, one paper based on a visit to a museum, quizzes in discussion sections, final examination. No prerequisite. |
| ART HIS 42A | HIST OF ASIAN ART | PATEL, ALKA | This course will present the art and architecture of South Asia from the 1st through the 18th centuries CE, with references to prehistoric periods. Surveying objects and buildings from the ancient through the Mughal periods, we will explore the constantly shifting boundaries between what is defined as Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Islamic in the post-Partition subcontinent. |
| ART HIS 114 | GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE: 1150-1500 | GONOSOVA, A. | In this course the architecture of Late Medieval Europe (ca. 1200-1500) will be examined both through the specific architectural categories (communal, private and religious buildings) and in a broader context of medieval urban planning and social function of built environment. Short class quizzes, two short papers, mid-term and final examinations. (Same as Humanities 110.) |
| ART HIS 140A | HIST OF CONTEMPORARY ART: OUTSIDE THE MUSEUM | BRYAN-WILSON, J. | This lecture course provides an overview of contemporary art -- circa 1965 to today -- with an emphasis on the contested relationship between art, audiences, and museums. How has art increasingly migrated beyond the walls of the gallery -- into public spaces, for instance, or onto the internet? We will look at practices that confront the conventional boundaries of the art object and challenge the traditional publics of art institutions, including collaborative projects whose participants don’t necessarily consider themselves artists. While special attention will be paid to site-specificity, activist art, community-based performance, electronica, earthworks, and street interventions, we will also investigate how current photography, painting, and sculpture are being reshaped by new viewers and display practices. Our approach will be thematic as opposed to strictly chronological as we address debates within contemporary art: artists as cultural workers, globalization and internationalism, collective memory and memorialization, surveillance, the construction of difference, the commodity status of art, and the corporatization of culture. Lectures will emphasize formal means and aesthetic strategies as well as social context, and readings will include critical theories, artists' writings, and case studies of controversial political interventions. |
| ART HIS 163 | ASIAN AMER ART HIST | WINTHER, D. | This course investigates a broad selection of Asian American art from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Moving roughly in chronological order, focus will be placed on a series of artists working in a wide range of media (painting, sculpture, architecture, performance, video) and representing diverse Asian American identities. These individuals were/are remarkable for their extraordinary accomplishments and exceptional life stories and in most cases their privileged backgrounds. While spotlighting these exceptional artists, emphasis will also be placed on their relationship to the broader social context of American and Asian American history. Students will be responsible for a writing assignment, midterm exam, and final exam. |
| ART HIS 165C | AMER ART:1900-1950 | WHITING, C. | Focusing on the period from 1900 until 1950, this course considers the emergence and institutionalization of modern art in the United States. We will look at the transformation of New York City into an international art capital, with new galleries, museums, and little magazines, devoted to modern art as well as the visual representation of the modern city by both abstract and realist artists. The relationship between New York City as a new art capital and various regional outposts where artists rediscovered native and folk arts will be discussed. Finally, we will also analyze the transatlantic exchange between New York City and European capitals of art, with particular attention to those American artists such as Marsden Hartley, who participated in the European avant-garde, and those European artists such as Marcel Duchamp, who spent time in New York. Mid-term and Final Examination |
| ART HIS 190W | PRACTCUM FOR MAJORS | COOKS CUMBO, B. | A required course for junior and senior art history majors, the practicum cultivates basic skills and knowledge necessary for specialized study in art history. We shall concentrate on basic bibliographic research skills and analytic reading skills in the field, while constantly honing skills in writing about art, and writing about writing on art. Accordingly, students should expect to write, edit, and revise numerous descriptive, technically oriented, and analytically oriented reading and research assignments. |