Art History (ARTH1-UC)

This seminar provides the opportunity for intensive study of a narrowly focused topic. The course schedule for the semester indicates the specific subject, which is chosen from the previous year's art history course topics.

The years between 1300 and 1550 saw the political and social reorganization of Italian life, including new ways of representing the image of that society in the visual arts. The sum of these changes constituted a cultural revolution described as "the Renaissance," the tenets of which have dominated Western culture until the early twentieth century. This course takes a critical look at the dynamic interplay between the social, cultural, and political institutions and the art and architecture produced in this period. The material is organized around a roughly chronological sequence and concentrates on the centers of Florence, Rome, Venice and the north Italian courts. One goal of the course will be to understand Italian Renaissance art in its larger social and intellectual context.

This course focuses on developments in the northern Europe from approximately the 14th to the 16th century through examining how its visual culture helped to define and was influenced by its cultural environment. Course material is organized geographically - the Netherlands first, then Germany - reflecting the preeminence of Dutch art during the 15th century, and the dramatic emergence of the arts in Germany in the 16th century. Within this framework, the course examines a number of themes such as devotional practices and popular piety, the art market, artists' guilds, systems of patronage, the development of genres such as portraiture and landscape; and the new technology of printmaking.

From the Nubians in the Nile Valley to the Yoruba people in Nigeria, this course studies the style and iconography of the African peoples and nations. Primarily a study of sculpture, the course seeks to relate this art form to the people who created it, their history, myths, and rites.

The course explores the arts of China and Japan and the development of regional and national styles through an understanding of the social and cultural development in those countries. In addition to sculpture and architecture, the course explores the subtlety of painting and prints, as well as the refinements in silks, porcelains, and bronzes.

Between the middle of the 7th and 19th centuries, Islamic art developed in an expansive geographic area stretching from Spain in Europe to India and beyond in Asia, and from West Africa in the south to Central Asia in the north. This course surveys the chronological development of Islamic arts and explores the variations of regional styles. Architecture, the arts of the book, and decorative arts are discussed in their social contexts.

This course explores the recurring themes in Latin American and Native American Art. The course provides an historical overview as well as an exploration of the vibrant world of contemporary art of this region. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the ways in which these varied visual expressions reflect and influence culture both past and present.

Much of what people think of as "Western culture" was, in fact, formulated and codified in the period known today as the Middle Ages. This course is designed to introduce the art of what is sometimes referred to as the "High Middle Ages," - Romanesque and Gothic, approximately the years 1100-1500.

This course explores the art and architecture of Western Europe's diverse and transforming cultural, social, and political contexts from approximately the fourth to the eleventh century, a time inaugurated by both the legitimization of the powerful new religion of Christianity and the disintegration of the power structure of the Roman Empire.

The course traces the history of photography in a variety of mediums ranging from famous photographs to new practices that challenge traditional definitions of photography, such as selfies, Instagram and other social media. Emphasis is on understanding photography as a creative and critical medium within the context of modern art movements and current world events. Students will visit exhibits and other sites as part of the course.

This course focuses on the architectural history of New York and its unique mix of public and private buildings. Field trips, walking tours, and museum visits are included.

Designed to develop a visual appreciation of the special character of New York City¹s architectural landscape, this course focuses on the iconic structures of New York¹s skyscrapers. Field trips as well as in-class lecture and discussion form the structure of the course.

This course examines the creation, purpose, and controversy surrounding the City's Public sculptures, murals and installations. The course includes field trips and discussions with artists who create public art.

Advertising and design have been vital to consumer culture since the Industrial Revolution. And they have only gained power and market penetration since the digital era put the tools of opinion-making in our middle-class hands. How have print ads and graphics, pulled from high art and popular culture since the early 19th century, influenced our purchases, our votes, our self-images, and our concepts of our country and the world? How does advertising work? What is "good" graphic design? This chronologically organized course answers these questions by focusing on game-changing individuals--designers, artists, photographers, entrepreneurs--and successful campaigns and their under pinning principles from c.1800 to the present.

Description: The aim of this course is to provide a historical overview of the styles and social movements which preceded and laid the foundation for the contemporary practice of interior design. It includes an examination of related areas and explores a range of scales from micro to macro-that is, from furniture, lighting and decorative arts to architecture, landscape design and city planning. We will discuss some of the discipline's most significant examples as we examine the relationship of the interior built environment to technological and economic development, as well as changes in allied fields of decorative arts and architecture. Projects will be located in the rich contexts of culture, politics, and history, allowing us to examine the intentions of designers and patrons. Class sessions will be a combination of lecture, discussion, and field trips.

This course focuses on the European avant-gardes of the 20th century and the modern art they created. This course studies the increasing abstraction in modern art, not as a single stylistic and aesthetic development, but as a series of heterogeneous experiments by distinct groups of artists, the avant-gardes. The course covers both the works of art and the wider cultural context in which they were created.

This course is designed as an introduction to the art of Western culture - in reality European culture - from cave art through the medieval times. Within this considerable span of time, students examine examples of architecture, sculpture, and painting, focusing on their relationship to specific historical and cultural realities.

This course is designed as an introduction the art of Western culture - in reality European culture - from the Renaissance through modernism of the 20th century. Within this considerable span of time, students examine examples of architecture, sculpture, and painting, focusing on their relationship to specific historical and cultural realities.

This course is an introduction to the architecture of the western tradition from prehistory to the present day. The course discusses key works with attention not only to the issues of function, structure, and style, but also to the role and impact of these works within their diverse cultural, social, and political contexts.

Images are everywhere in contemporary society. In such an environment, they often become mere background noise and are rarely viewed critically. What purpose do these images serve? How does the style of their presentation affect their meaning? This course employs a wide range of imagery to address these questions, including painting, sculpture, architecture, public monuments, photography, film, and graphic design. This course aims to develop a visual literacy by teaching the student how to read and decipher the social and cultural messages of images that lie hidden beneath their aesthetic surfaces.

In this course, the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome are studied from the Minoan period through the Age of Constantine. Formal development, technical innovation, and social context are emphasized in this survey of the foundations of Western art.

This course focuses on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century art and architecture produced in Western Europe. Among the major artists studied are Caravaggio, Bernini, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin, Watteau, Fragonard, and Gainsborough, whose works are considered in the context of the political, religious, and social issues of the era.

Examines the fate and achievement of women artists and some of the controversial questions surrounding them, from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the 20th century, from Artemisia Gentileschi and Properzia de'Rossi to Mary Cassatt and Georgia O'Keeffe.

This course provides an examination of major postwar artists and movements, including pop art, minimalism, conceptual art, photorealism, pattern and decoration, neo-expressionism, and appropriation. The course considers the transition from high modernism to postmodernism and the role of art criticism in relation to these art movements.

The course explores artistic production in America from the 18th to 20th centuries. Portraiture, landscape, genre, and architecture are shown to relate to history, geography, and society so that the artworks can be considered in the context in which they were produced.

This course will investigate the art of the 19th century – a period of profound political and social transformation – as it developed in Europe and America. As with every historical period, the 19th century felt a need to create narratives that would help to explain and rationalize its own contemporary history. The dramatic break with the past that occurred in this period encouraged just such mythic creations, helping to shape what we recognize today as the modern world.

Description: This course will explore how dress, both in terms of personal self fashioning and looks connected to subcultural or countercultural groups has served to communicate oppositional statements in the twentieth century. Questions concerning the definitions of subculture will be addressed, in addition to expanding on how particular looks have informed the fashion industry and what this has meant to the history of fashion studies. Drawing from examples in the Unites States and Britain primarily we will focus on distinctive styles, and explore what these looks signified at the time of their inception and how they have come to be read as iconic today. A variety of sources including photography, film and musical performances will be considered using an interdisciplinary approach drawing from Subculture studies, Fashion Theory, Sociology, and Cultural Studies. An examination of how specific elements of dress, such as zoot suits, bell-bottoms, or safety pinned T-shirts inform the study of fashion as material culture but also how they have been interpreted in scholarship and the popular media

This class is a historical survey of fashion through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It will incorporate critical readings, film, images and primary sources with the aim of understanding significant changes in dress and how clothing functions in culture. We will look at couture, ready to wear, along with subculture and counterculture styles in Europe and the United States with an emphasis on how they fit into the visual culture and social environment of the period. Upon completing this class students should be able to identify clothing within the periods covered, understand the terminology, and recognize the application of historic styles in contemporary fashion design.

Through an exploration of art historical approaches and methodologies, this course introduces and familiarizes students with the discipline of art history and its various and changing goals over time. Students become familiar with many of the important foundational and contemporary contributors to the discipline of art history, and become comfortable analyzing and manipulating theoretical ideas.

The course provides the opportunity for intensive study of specific topics in art history. The specific topic is listed in the semester's course schedule.