| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ART HIS 40C | BAROQUE & MODERN | NISBET, J. | Open your eyes to the major artists of Baroque and Modern art—including Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Turner, Manet, Monet, Picasso, Pollock, and Warhol. Explore the meaning and function of artworks—painting, sculpture, architecture—in Europe and America at various moments in time, from the dawn of the seventeenth century to the beginning of twenty-first century. This course will address the fundamental question of how art-making responds to and informs the changing face of the modern world. |
| ART HIS 42C | ARTS OF JAPAN | WINTHER-TAMAKI | We will explore compelling images and objects of spirit and power created in Japan over many centuries in this course. You will gain a general understanding of developments of art in the Japanese archipelago from prehistoric times to the present day. Focus is placed on religious expression, techniques of making art, urban design, political functions of art, and art historical methods. Topics range from Samurai castles and gilded carvings of Amida Buddha to manga cartoons of Atom Boy and nude avant-garde performance. Japanese interactions with Korean, Chinese, and European cultures are emphasized. This course fulfills General Education Requirements IV (Arts and Humanities) and VIII (International/ Global Issues). No prerequisites. |
| ART HIS 114 | MEDIEVAL APOCALYPSE | BETANCOURT, R. | Hell and high water, judgment, salvation, pain, and bliss are all terms associated with the Apocalypse. The Apocalypse happens at the end of terrestrial time and space, but it is also the gateway into eternal suffering or bliss after the Last Judgment. This course looks at how the medieval world thought about the end of time, the events that occurred in that moment, and afterwards for eternity. From the resurrection of the dead to the condemnation of sinners into a fiery chasm, we will pay particular attention to how art was used to produce visions and experience of these events in advance – and how such art changed the manner in which medieval people thought about the flow and progress of time. Students will be encouraged, through readings and writing assignments, to think critically about how these medieval notions of the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment have endured in contemporary culture. |
| ART HIS 120 | GLOBAL RENAISSANCE | POWELL, A. | This class focuses on artistic, religious, material, and technological exchanges between European cultures and African, Asian, and American cultures in the early modern period (roughly 1400-1800). The emphasis will be on how these exchanges manifest themselves in visual culture from prints to paintings, sculptures, architecture, porcelain, textiles, and more. |
| ART HIS 145C | LA COOL ARCHITECTURE | MASSEY, L. | Discover architecture in Los Angeles from ca. 1900 to the present. From Art Nouveau to Art Deco, Frank Lloyd Wright to Charles and Ray Eames, from mid-century modernism to Frank Gehry, this course will explore the extraordinary built environment of the big Orange. Course includes field trips and films that feature LA architecture. Themes covered will include concepts of the urban jungle, space age and car culture, mid-century modernism and architecture as film set. |
| ART HIS 150 | ANCIENT EMPIRES | PATEL, A. | This course will focus on the architecture and other material culture of the great world empires originating in Iran and India, spanning the millennium between c. 600 BCE-600 CE. Beginning with the great Achaemenids of Iran (c. 500-300 BCE) and the Mauryas of India (4th-2nd centuries BCE) we will traverse the early centuries CE and end with the Sassanians of Iran (3rd-7th centuries CE) and the Guptas of India (4th-7th centuries CE). The course offers the unique opportunity to examine the political and cultural legacies of Alexander the Great and the spread of Hellenism throughout Asia, as his armies encountered Iranian and Indian civilizations, and the interpretation of these cross-cultural contacts in the present day. We will gain intimate knowledge of world-renowned sites such as Persepolis and Pasargadae in Iran, Kabul and Bamian in Afghanistan, and Mathura and Pataliputra in India, also learning about the world religions of Zoroastrianism, Manicheism, Nestorian Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the beginnings of Islam. Mid-term, museum assignment, take-home final. No prerequisite. Rel Std Category: 2,3 |
| ART HIS 162C | CONTEMPORARY JAPAN | WINTHER, D. | This course examines Japanese contributions to world art in recent decades. We will explore Japanese architecture, graphic design, painting, and photography. You will learn about Japanese artistic responses to WWII, the revival of traditional arts, avant-garde groups, corporate advertising, and popular culture. Topics range from Emperor Art and Department Store Art to Cute Style and Pet Architecture. Three frameworks of study are used: individual artists’ careers, historical movements or groups, and social systems or institutions of art. No prerequisites. |
| ART HIS 190W | PRACTCUM FOR MAJORS | PATEL, A. | The practicum, a required course for junior and senior art history majors, will require 1) a close examination of the tools, methods and approaches of the art historian and 2) strengthening students' writing skills and strategies. Students will investigate major methodologies employed by art historians as well as their implications for how we understand the work of art through analytic readings, presentations and discussion. Students will practice their own analytical and writing skills through a series of paper assignments focusing on art historical formats, ranging from formal analyses to a final research paper. We will, in particular, examine the ethics of photography and the role of art in activism, while exploring the "revolutionary" status of photography and how it has radically changed the visual arts. |