| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|
| ART HIS 40A | HISTORY OF WESTERN ART | CASSIBRY, K. | 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, reading response essays, and a final examination. No prerequisite. |
| ART HIS 42A | HISTORY OF ASIAN ART | PATEL, A. | This first course of the year-long series “History of Asian Art” will examine the art and architecture of India and Pakistan, and parts of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — the region known as South Asia. We will cover the ancient through contemporary periods, exploring well-known areas and sites such as the Indus Valley, the Bamiyan Buddhas, and the Taj Mahal. The modern period will include the buildings of the British Raj, and works of contemporary artists like M.F. Husain. A general knowledge of the Indic visual traditions will lead to study of some of the world’s great religions — Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam — and examination of the effects of nationhood on cultural, political and religious identities. One pre-exam, mid-term examination, one catalogue entry, quizzes in discussion sections, final examination. No prerequisite. |
| ART HIS 100 | ART OF THE CELTS: CREATION, REPRESENTATION, AND LEGACY | CASSIBRY, K. | This course will look at Celtic material culture from three different perspectives. We will begin with an introduction to Celtic art itself, specifically the Hallstatt and La Tène periods. Because Celtic art survives without a related body of literature—the Celts did not become literate until they fell under the sway of the Greek and Roman world—we will consider the problems and possibilities of recovering a prehistoric civilization through its art alone. Greeks and Romans, in contrast, wrote evocatively about the ferocious Celts they encountered with increasingly frequency on the battlefield. We will read excerpts from the writings of Caesar and Tacitus and look at classical sculptures of Celtic warriors in order to understand what was at stake in representing the Celt as an enemy. As the Celts lost ground to the Roman Empire, they encountered new political, religious, and artistic forms in their daily lives. We will also examine how the material culture of ancient France and the British Isles changed—and resisted change—under Roman rule.
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| ART HIS 114 | ROMANESQUE ART | GONOSOVA, A. | This course will explore the art of Medieval Europe between ca. 1000 and 1200 as represented by wall painting, illuminated manuscripts, and large and small scale sculpture in stone and other materials. Romanesque art as we know it today is primarily official art created for the use by a society dominated by the Christian faith. Although its content is, therefore, mainly religious, its forms are varied and imaginative, revealing both their different artistic sources and independent creativity of medieval artists. Short class quizzes; 3 short papers, final examination.
The same as Humanities 110 |
| ART HIS 121 | THE MEDICI & FLORENCE | MASSEY, L. | In this course we will explore the art of Renaissance Florence during the two-hundred year period in which the city's political, economic and cultural fortunes were controlled by one family, the Medici. Reminiscent of the Sopranos, the Medici were experts in the arts of revenge and public displays of prestige and power. At different points in time they were exiled, subject to assassination conspiracies, pious, amoral, extravagant, and above all, active patrons of the arts. Beginning with Cosimo de Medici in the early 1400s, moving through Lorenzo il Magnifico in the late 1400s, and ending with the installation of Cosimo I de Medici as Grand Duke of Florence in the 16th century, we will examine how this powerful banking family developed and exercised the faculties of taste and judgment, thus helping to inaugurate the new artistic styles that became associated with Renaissance Florence. |
| ART HIS 134D | EUROPEAN ART: 1907-1940 | HERBERT, J. | The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed major shifts in the cultural hierarchies of Europe inherited from the nineteenth century. The status of Paris as the cultural capital of Europe began to face serious challenges from other European artistic centers. The privileged standing of painting--and even of high art--came under question. The upheavals of the First World War and the Russian Revolution opened new possibilities for art overtly engaged in social engineering. This lecture course will trace these developments in painting, sculpture, photography, and the decorative arts from the turn of the century to the beginning of the Second World War. |
| ART HIS 153 | LATER CHINESE ART, SONG THROUGH QING DYNASTIES | WUE, R. | This course will examine Chinese art and visual culture in the last millennium, beginning with the ascendancy of landscape painting for the court in the Song dynasty (960-1279) to popular art forms created for a mass public by the end of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). We will not only examine the different uses of art geared for different audiences and markets in later imperial China in media ranging from mural painting, brush-and-ink painting to the printed image, we will also discuss the various and changing identities of the artist, as well as the nature of representation and image in a Chinese context. |
| ART HIS 164B | AFRICAN AMERICAN ART: 1930-PRESENT | COOKS CUMBO, B. | In this course students will study artworks created by African Americans beginning chronologically with government sponsored art programs in the 1930s and ending with contemporary art of the twenty-first century. |
| ART HIS 164C | ART & COLONIAL AFRICA | MITCHELL, L. | This course will use art created by Africans, European visitors, and colonial residents as a way of exploring the role of culture in colonial encounters. Many of the objects we will examine have fallen between the cracks of existing art history scholarship, considered either ethnographic objects, amateurish, or scientific illustration rather than “art.” Looking carefully at the contexts of production, the forms, and the ways in which items circulated reveals a wide range of artistic creation in colonial Southern Africa. A focus on art provides insights not available to historians working predominantly with textual sources; this inquiry shows the profundity of colonial interactions from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries.
The same as History 134C |
| ART HIS 167 | LATIN AMERICAN ART | BRYAN-WILSON, J. | Frida Kahlo’s work was once likened to “a ribbon around a bomb.” This lecture course considers Latin American art from the end of the Mexican Revolution to the present moment, with an emphasis on precisely this conjunction between the beautiful and the explosive. The class examines how Latin American artists have utilized indigenous traditions as well as avant-garde innovations. Special focus is placed on performance and conceptual work under the dictatorial regimes in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. In addition, it includes art from Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, as well as Californian Chicano artistic practices. |
| ART HIS 190W | PRACTCUM FOR MAJORS | PATEL, A. | As a requirement for Art History Majors, the Art History Practicum develops the knowledge and methods necessary for specialized study in Art History. Students will acquire the discipline-based skill of writing informed formal analyses; they will also strengthen bibliographic research skills, and build analytic reading skills. Overall, students will engage in the process of writing about art. Since this is a writing-intensive class, students should expect to write, edit, and revise numerous descriptive, analytical, and technical readings and research assignments. |