Art History (ARTH-UH)

These courses offer detailed engagements with key works of art - masterpieces to material culture across a range of media from different times and places - to develop the critical apparatus of visual analysis. They introduce the methods and fundamental concepts of art history by taking one work of art and constructing around it a web of diverse objects and practices that allow us to grapple with the meanings of art and its histories within global and trans-historical perspectives. Among the questions we ask throughout the course are: What is art? What is art history? What are the institutions that shape the practice and dissemination of art? How is art affected by histories of cultural exchange? What is the nature of tradition? The course will be conducted through both lecture and discussion. Evaluation will be through written assignments, PowerPoint presentations, and active class participation. No previous knowledge of art history is required.

These courses offer detailed engagements with key works of art masterpieces to material culture across a range of media from different times and places to develop the critical apparatus of visual analysis. They introduce the methods and fundamental concepts of art history by taking one work of art and constructing around it a web of diverse objects and practices that allow us to grapple with the meanings of art and its histories within global and trans-historical perspectives. Among the questions we ask throughout the course are: What is art? What is art history? What are the institutions that shape the practice and dissemination of art? How is art affected by histories of cultural exchange? What is the nature of tradition? The course will be conducted through both lecture and discussion. Evaluation will be through written assignments, PowerPoint presentations, and active class participation. No previous knowledge of art history is required.

Visual Culture Studies branches away from traditional Art History towards new subjects and methodologies. The primary area of interest is not works of art but rather other forms of visuality, such as advertising, fashion, comics and graphic novels, television, the internet, graffiti and tattooing, as well as the visual formulations of cultural, racial, and gender difference. Today, the study of Visual Culture is the focus of a vast body of scholarly investigation and continues to raise new questions in the wake of technological advances and a demand for visual satisfaction. This class offers an introduction to visual analysis in a world increasingly dominated by the graphic transmission of information, knowledge, and aesthetic experience.

Since the 1960s rise of conceptual art, artists around the world continue to create idea-based art using popular imagery, mixed media, photography and new technologies. Considered as the true global art form of the twentieth century, conceptual art manifests itself in ideas that challenge the current sociopolitical forces of our times and the commonly held notions of what art is about. The course will examine contemporary art from the lens of conceptual art focusing on key works by international artists. Students will examine the definition/s of 'contemporary' and the current debates around the modern and contemporary in relation to Western and non-Western art.

Berlin is a city in transformation. In this seminar we will focus on relationships between art and architecture in public places that make such transformations visible. We will explore how relationships of art and architecture are influenced by political, social and cultural contexts. We approach the topic by site visits e.g. the Place of the United Nations, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Track 17, the Elliptical Pavilion and the 'Café Bravo' from the American artists Dan Graham. We will study more closely the connection of the planning of a space and the use of it. And how does a place get affected, if the space gets used for another purpose? The seminar is focused on art and architecture as main features of public places that make the larger environment and its historical, social and political contexts more conspicuous.

The term modernism encompasses the activities and creations of those who have felt since the late nineteenth century that traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious habit, social organization and ways of living are inadequate to the realities of an industrialized world. Such activities and creations have sought to initiate an understanding of the world that would ultimately lead to a new cultural, economic, social, and political environment. This movement has involved experimentation and the creation of an awareness of possibilities never thought of before as well as a constant change and competition, especially in the arts. The course will provide an art historical survey from the late 19th century to the late 1960s. It will focus primarily on Europe and the United States and will explore art movements, ideas and exemplary individual artworks, but also on the dynamics of the art historical development on the whole.

From the Baathist regimes of Syria and Iraq to Egypt's pan-Arabism under Gamal Abdel Nasser, paintings and sculptures in addition to film and performing art have been employed by various governments as a tool of soft power to propagate their policies to the public not only in their respective states but throughout the region and beyond. Despite this government patronage of the arts, many artists have chosen to challenge their authorities through their art practices. This course examines the political undertones of iconic artworks of the 20th century in the post World War II period in the Arab world as well as Iran, Turkey and Israel. Class discussions will shed light on an often neglected dimension in the modern history of the Arab world and other parts of the Middle East. The course includes field trips to art exhibitions and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi's collection.

From the House of the Prophet in Medina in the 7th century to the high-rises of Dubai today, this course casts architecture as the most expressive embodiment of the historical conditions within which Islam was formed and acquired meaning, and to which it in turn gave form and context. Spanning fifteen centuries and three continents, the course focuses on key episodes from the foundational moments of an Islamic architecture in Arabia and the territories of the major cultures of Antiquity with which Islam came in contact to the interaction with the West in the age of colonialism, independence, development, and the consequent revival of Islamic architecture today while emphasizing the interconnectivity of cultures in shaping architecture. The analysis of buildings and cities is framed by discussion of religion, society, polity, and culture. Each class covers a specific time/place but keeps the thread of the entire story active and moving. The course is primarily an introductory overview. Its requirements include discussions and oral and graphic presentations that feed into a continuous enrichment of our understanding of Islamic architecture and history.

The Buddha seated in deep meditation having renounced all desires; Shiva performing his cosmic dance in a ring of fire or a Mughal emperor seated in his court in all his regal splendor are some of the most reverberating and paradoxical motifs of South Asian art. The course offers a survey and analysis of the aesthetic diversity of art from South Asia within a historical and socio-cultural perspective. Much of what we understand as art today are relics of the past, icons of devotion or objects of decorative and everyday use. Through the medium of sculpture, paintings, illustrated manuscripts, calligraphy and architecture the course will help to cultivate an art historical vocabulary, explain the visual symbolism, discover the language of sacred and ritual representations, and underscore the power of myths and narratives which give life to these motifs. Covering a broad time period- from the pre-historic to the 19th century the course will focus upon select themes of South Asian art. In the process, the course will address questions of representations of body, landscapes, image making, patronage, individual artists and their styles, materials, techniques and aesthetic turns.

This class explores the production, sale, display and exchange of works of art, and the patrons, artists and collectors who participate in this economic, social and political form of cultural production and aesthetic valuation. While students will learn about global art patrons, our focus will be on the creation of art markets in Europe beginning in the sixteenth century and expanding globally to the present day. Case studies will explore patterns of transportation, exchange and trade; interactions of collectors, critics and curators; contexts of contemporary collections; new museum architecture; auction houses and commercial galleries; and cultural heritage theft and restitution. Special attention will be paid to the emergence of the contemporary art markets globally via trade routes, migration, cultural revolution, technological innovation, political conflict, energy markets and global competition. Global art markets in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas will be discussed alongside institutions such as art fairs, art foundations, artists' collectives, and museums.

The early architecture from South Asia is very diverse, belonging to various religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam. The course addresses the complex ways in which consciously or unconsciously people of varied religious communities engage with shrines and sacred spaces. Ritual and worship are just one of the many roles that shrines and temple spaces have. In the context of South Asia, shrines have also provided a space for social and political interaction and growth. At the same time certain sites and shrines in South Asia are also associated with people who arrived into the region from other parts of the world. Moving beyond merely their aesthetics and architecture, the course will examine temples, shrines and their associated iconography in sculptures and paintings, to explore the diverse ways in which devotees, patrons and visitors have engaged with temples, shrines and their larger cultural landscapes. The course will further explore how through patronage, rituals, pilgrimage and art, shrines came to be associated with a sense of place, historical memory and sacred cartography.

A broad survey, we will consider works of architecture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles and the arts of the book. Given the span of centuries embraced by the term 'Islamic art' - from the 7th century up to the present day - and the expanse of geography - from Spain to China and beyond - this course cannot be a complete survey within the constraints of a single semester. Instead, this course will present a select group of materials within a chronological and dynastic framework, with an emphasis on specific case studies. These selections will highlight important internal developments as well as 'points of contact' between cultural entities. This approach - at once global and local - speaks to the dynamic and fluid qualities of many of the arts produced in the regions under scrutiny.

Focusing on the art, architecture, and cultural exchanges that occurred across the Gulf and Indian Ocean networks, this course explores the history of artistic production in the Islamic world. Presenting a select group of materials within a chronological and dynastic framework, the course will investigate the art and architecture produced in regions including the Swahili coast, the Red Sea, the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf and South Asia, and the relationships between them. We will consider important and representative works of architecture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles and the arts of the book. These selections will highlight important internal developments as well as 'points of contact' between cultural entities. This approach - at once global and local - speaks to the dynamic and fluid qualities of many of the arts produced in the regions under scrutiny. Class meetings will combine both lectures and seminar discussions of visual presentations and assigned readings.

This course introduces students to the history, theory, and practice of photography. Students will learn foundational image-making techniques with a focus on Black and White analog photography. A range of studio and darkroom tools and approaches will be explored. Students will be introduced to key artists, themes, and developments in photography and will consider the impact of photographic media on the development of art and society.

It can be said that drawing is to the visual arts what mathematics is to the sciences. Like mathematics drawing is a universal language. Basic visual cues function the same for all people. Notwithstanding our increased dependence on technology, marking on paper continues to be the most expedient means to express ideas for painting, sculpture, or simple things like quickly making a map for someone. The paradox is that learning to see 2-dimensionally increases one's ability to see and project ideas that also take place in 3-dimensional space and time. Inventing 2-dimensional shapes to express multi-dimensional ideas or feelings requires a high degree of abstract thinking. With this course we use drawing as a tool for understanding 2-dimensional visual perception. The drawings we make in class document the degree of our ability to see 2-dimensionally.

This course explores the medium of sculpture and other 3D forms through the principles of three-dimensional design and the concepts that drive developments in contemporary art. Projects may include mold making, ceramics, and the use of wood working tools, as well as the use of sculpture as costume, performance, environment, or kinetic form. Students use a variety of materials from wood and cardboard to metal, plaster, paper, cloth and found objects to expand their understanding of form and space.

This course offers an intensive exploration of analog and digital media. Students are introduced to aesthetic, conceptual, and historical aspects of contemporary art by interfacing with a variety of imaging, audio, and communication applications. Students work in photography, video, digital art, performance, gaming, sound, and emerging practices.

Type Design is the art and craft of designing typefaces. From calligraphy and stone carving to digital type, the history of type recounts the discoveries and technological progress made through human inventions. While some typefaces are insignificant and forgotten, others will survive mankind, such as Futura engraved on the Apollo 11 plaque, left on the Moon. Some typefaces were revolutionary, others reactionary. But behind each of them there was an inventor. Students will follow the 'traces' and the stories of the type masters who shaped our visual typographical landscapes. Western and Arabic versions of typefaces will be examined and students will learn to identify and combine fonts on real visual design layouts. We will see how typefaces can become visual metaphors of towns and nations - Johnston Underground is London - or marketing tools for the advertising industry. Typography and type design in the digital age will be investigated via practical exercises and printing workshops. The course will include calligraphy classes with the UAE State Calligrapher Mohammed Mandi at the National Theater Art Workshop, Abu Dhabi.

This immersive studio course in graphic design combines practice and reflection with a project-based approach to graphic design. Students develop creative and collaborative design skills for problem solving. Lectures and readings address Western design history, contemporary Arabic graphic design, and cross-cultural design issues. Assignments focus on the design process from conception to distribution. Students will acquire proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite software.

This immersive studio course combines practice and reflection through a project-based approach to graphic design. Lectures and readings address Western graphic design history and visual communication in the 20th and 21st century, and contemporary Arabic graphic design. Students are exposed to the multiple facets of visual communication and understand its importance in cross-cultural contexts. The theoretical component of the class will focus on the role of the graphic designer today, in his/her constantly shifting role as artist/problem solver/skilled executant, with readings from Munari, Shaughnessy, Spiekermann. Students will receive first-hand experience grappling with the practical issues faced by design professionals worldwide. Exercises in visual communication, creative methodologies, cross-cultural design, and branding will allow them to develop creative and collaborative design skills for problem solving. Students will develop key design skills in research, gathering, analysis, decision making, brainstorming and teamwork.

This course guides students through the many facets of graphic design and visual communication, with a focus on the cross-cultural visual environment of Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. Students explore multiple aspects of visual design from aesthetics to user interfaces and usability, with special consideration of signage in Abu Dhabi. They also develop graphic designs that respond to the Abu Dhabi environment. Practical exercises that emphasize visual communication skills are central to the class. Students become familiar with the design procedures at the core of successful visual identity systems, thus developing their skills in research methodologies, data gathering, analysis, decision making, brainstorming and creative solutions, team work and monitoring. Above all, the practical aspects of the course allow NYUAD students to contribute to the emerging Abu Dhabi design style.

This immersive studio course in graphic design combines practice and reflection through a project-based approach to branding. Logos are graphic marks or emblems used by commercial enterprises, organizations and individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. How are Logos doing today? How designers are coping with new emerging standards? How do we deal with a brand when a Favicon or screen buttons become more important than header paper? We will see how some of the most successful logos only seem to be set in stone, while in reality they constantly mutate and adapt. We also examine how and why certain logos in the last two decades have become metaphors for the worst outcomes of corporate cultures and the targets of anti-globalization activists everywhere. We investigate how and why in our Age of Brands, logos ended in the spotlight for reasons opposite to the ones they were created for. Particular emphasis will be placed on the challenges faced by contemporary designers when handling assignments outside their own cultural backgrounds: do we have what it takes to make a logo function at its best in Abu Dhabi, New York or Shanghai?

Arabic exists as one of the world's most ancient and poetic languages. This course will introduce students to the rich traditions of Arabic calligraphy that date back millennia and which form the basis for many of today’s modern font types. Students will examine some of the challenges associated with applying western typographic conventions and traditions to Arabic type and will experiment with letterforms and typographic concepts as key elements of graphic communication.

The course will initially address the invention of cinema in the late 19th century and the development of its narrative language in the early 20th century. As Europe witnessed innovations in all of the arts, especially during and after WWI, photography and cinema opened up to visual experiments while both media also underwent significant technical improvements. We will discuss the work of major artists such as Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, Alexander Rodchenko as well as the Bauhaus and New Vision movements in pre-Nazi Germany. We will look into some of the ground-breaking experimental films from the American post-WWII avant garde. As a conclusion to the course, we will examine how photography and film merged into a different form of narrative exemplified by works such as Chris Marker's iconic "La Jetée".

These courses focus on topics that are central to the study of the art and culture of China, Korea, and/or Japan. These courses investigate the social and historical contexts of artistic practice, as well as the construction of national or geographical conceptions of artistic traditions. These courses may also offer comparative perspectives that forge links to other areas of the curriculum.

This course focuses on topics that are central to the study of the art and culture of such countries as Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, or Vietnam. The course investigates the social and historical contexts of artistic practice, as well as the construction of national or geographical conceptions of artistic traditions. The course may also offer comparative perspectives that forge links to other areas of the curriculum.

This course focuses on topics that are central to the study of the art and culture primarily of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and/or Sri Lanka. Traditions from other parts of the region (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, and Nepal) may also be considered. The course investigates the social and historical contexts of artistic practice, as well as the construction of national or geographical conceptions of artistic traditions. The course may also offer comparative perspectives that forge links to other areas of the curriculum.

This course investigates the social, political, and imaginative roles played by grand architecture from ancient times to the present day. Through case studies such as the Temple of Luxor, Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal, the Hagia Sophia, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, and the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, students investigate the historical contexts of monumental buildings and other structures that have been erected to serve as emblems of a national culture, as well as the ways that these monuments take on new life in literature and other forms of culture.

This course focuses on topics that are central to the study of architecture and its relation to the urban environment. Students investigate architecture in its urban setting from the different perspectives of architectural history, engineering, and urban planning, taking into account technological and environmental factors, as well as construction and transportation systems.

This course will introduce students to a wide range of contemporary photographic practices in the Middle East, South Asia, and the Far East. Through slide lectures, readings, museum visits and presentations by local artists, students will explore the issues that artists, photography collectives and competitions of the region are concerned with. This course will cover a range of genres, including Landscape, Performance, Portraiture, and Documentary.

In the short span of thirty years, art of the Arab World moved from the periphery of international art to the center of global visual art production. This course examines the conditions that prompted this change and the theoretical framework that currently situates Arab art within the global discourse on visual art. Focusing on selected artists from key periods of art production, the course will explore the impact of political, social and market forces on the region's art. Examining art production in relation to state formation, identity, gender politics, representation and reception, globalization, and activism. The course will also explore the recent discourse on Islamic art and its links to modern and contemporary art of the region.

The course offers an introduction to the theoretical and practical knowledge on the curatorial process, exploring new alternative curatorial strategies that re-examine the role of the curator and the art institution. Using case studies, the course will look at current models in curatorial practice and the relationship of the curator with artists, the art market, and the public, both inside and outside traditional art institutions. Students will work on a collaborative project curating an art exhibition that may be realized virtually or inside a gallery space. Working in teams, students will become familiar with the different aspects of exhibition production from research to writing wall texts, to designing the exhibition, and its educational program.

This course surveys the history and social role of art museums, from their origins in cabinets of curiosity formed during the age of exploration to their global proliferation today. We will consider how Enlightenment collecting practices led to the development of the "universal museum" in an era of nationalism and colonial expansion, and examine how this dominant model has expanded and been challenged over the past century. Among the issues to be discussed are: the organization and display of collections, the language and symbolism of museum architecture, heritage and repatriation, cultural diversity and the politics of representation, and globalized collecting and exhibiting today. Classroom lectures will be supplemented by talks by local specialists and field trips drawing on the rich diversity of museums in the London area.

In 2017, 30 years after his death, Andy Warhol was the most-shown artist in the world. At auction, he competes annually with European artists such as Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) or the Chinese painters Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) and Qi Baishi (1864-1957) in terms of overall profitability. In influence, he remains a force among contemporary artists. From his famous Campbell’s soup cans to his enduring aphorism that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes," Warhol's art and thinking saturate contemporary culture. This seminar examines his 25-year career as a painter, filmmaker, writer and publisher, music producer, photographer, TV personality, collector, and artistic mentor and collaborator, as well as his legacy in what has been described as our brand-oriented "Warhol economy." What can Warhol's output and reception tell us about class, gender and sexuality, religion, media, and ideas about celebrity and self-hood over the last half-century? And how should we understand his role in global culture today?

Countries in Western Asia, Southeast Asia and China are witnessing a significant rise in the number of art museums as part of their urban regeneration. Focusing on examples from these regions, the course will examine the changing role and function of art museums in the 21st century offering a theoretical and practical understanding of the current discourse on contemporary art, social practice and the community. Students will meet with curators and administrators at art museums, galleries and alternative art spaces to analyze how art exhibitions and museum acquisitions are shaping art history and the relationships between the art institution and society. Class will gain an understanding of the forces that are shaping the UAE art history and its nascent art ecosystem.

The 1960s experienced the emergence of new approaches to the making of art, while the art world became international to an unprecedented degree. Pop art and Minimal art used painting and sculpture as a means to confront contemporary culture with itself. In Fluxus, Video art and Performance artists found ways to involve the viewer. Earth art and Conceptual art were stretching the traditional boundaries of art in order to find a new grounding, while other artists experimented with sound, light, and movement in a way that led to a crossing of boundaries between dance, sculpture, music, and theater. All this happened in many places at the same time. The course will consider in detail many individual works of art while at the same time pursuing a comparative approach to the various outcomes of the new aesthetics. It will make it clear that the art of the 1960s is foundational for almost all further developments of art.

The 1970s and 80s saw a number of significant shifts in the art world and new approaches to art making. Some of the most radical outcomes of art movements of the 1960s only emerged in the 1970s and 1980s with so-called "institutional critique", whereas a strong resistance to exactly this genealogy made itself felt in a wave of neo-expressionist painting (Arte Cifra, Neue Wilde, figuration libre, Transavantguardia, New Image Painting). This was countered by the "picture generation" whose image production was based on photography and related to discussions of "postmodernism" and of "appropriation". Female artists gained in stature to a previously unprecedented degree (especially in video and photography) and made gender-issues and relations of power a major theme in art. It became clear at the same time that the phase of the dominance of American art after World War II was over. This lead to a more widespread and diverse circulation of ideas. The course is based on a comparative approach, highlighting commonalities as well as differences between various artistic endeavors.

This course explores the transformative process of cross-cultural inspiration in art traditions by examining Japanese art from two perspectives: its absorption of influence and its stimulation of influence. We will investigate cross-cultural influence by following two directional currents over time: Eastward from China, Korea, Portugal and Holland to Japan; then Westward from Japan to Europe and America. We will explore what artists admired in newly introduced works of art, what they choose to integrate into their own practices and how this impacted their work. We will gain insight into the transformative effect of outside influence on indigenous art traditions; of how artists in Japan, Europe and America did not merely 'copy' what inspired them, but how they internalized new ideas to create something original, even revolutionary, within their own art traditions.

Iberia was Islamic for many centuries. Remains of that legacy still show in its cities, architecture, topography, flora, culture, and languages. This class reconstructs the history of the Iberian Islamic culture through its architecture, art, urbanism, landscape, and poetry from 755 to 1492. It surveys cities, castles, villas, waterworks, and gardens with in-depth analysis of the major Islamic landmarks such as the Mezquita de Córdoba and the Alhambra. It examines inscriptions, artifacts, poetry, agricultural manuals, and literary works to contextualize the Andalusian material culture. It also explores echoes of the Andalusian traditions in the architecture of Europe and the Middle East. Moving beyond 1492, the class reviews efforts to emulate, erase, or preserve the Islamic heritage in Iberia and traces the echoes and revivals of that vibrant culture in modern art, architecture, and literature. Scores of Westerners produced novels, poetry, sketches, watercolors, line drawings, buildings, and entire books on Andalusia that drove Orientalizing trends in Romantic Europe. Arabs and Muslims too found inspiration in al-Andalus. To them, however, the inspiration was suffused with nostalgia and a yearning to a bygone —and imagined— Golden Age.

This course situates artistic production in the late middle ages and early modern period in the maritime cultures of Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. Informed by approaches from art history, history, economics, and anthropology, it examines the role of cross-cultural exchange, banking, trade, finance, collecting, and patronage in shaping artistic production. Secondly, it explores in turn the ways in which works of art played a role in the evolution of commercial and political culture of the period. It will begin with an examination of the recent scholarship on the connectedness of the early modern world and the formulation of Global Renaissance. While looking from the perspective of Europe and the Islamic world, it will pay particular attention to interactions between the latter and Italy.

This course delves into the fundamentals of Japanese design - both traditional, applied arts and modern/contemporary design - by exploring the distinctive principles, concepts, theories, philosophies, aesthetics, sensibilities, practices and meanings. It offers a means of deciphering the often subtle and nuanced interests, intentions, perceptions and sensory experiences elicited through Japanese design. Our investigation into the obtuse realm of ancient aesthetics - mu, ma, yûgen, shibui, wabi, sabi, kizen, mitate, hana, etc., which arises from deep awareness of the sacred, nature, beauty, time, form, space, emptiness, etc. - will lead to an understanding of the inherent, intangible cultural properties and values that continue to inform the best of contemporary Japanese design. By studying diverse works across the disciplines of architecture, interior design, product design, graphic design, fashion design, book binding, metalwork, lacquerware, textiles, ceramics, basketry, paper making, tea ceremony, gardening and culinary arts, students will gain insight into the multifaceted, integral, processes of Japanese design, spanning conceptualization, production, appreciation and use.

The surrealist movement began in early-twentieth century France as a revolutionary proposal to discard the rational foundations of Western knowledge and unleash humanity's fullest capabilities through the unconscious and dreams. In dynamic networks, surrealism expanded beyond Western Europe to other regions including Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Around the world, it was viewed as an aesthetic and political tool to combat colonialism and position indigenous forms of knowledge as counterpoints to Eurocentric ways of thinking. This course will examine these cultural intersections and creative crosscurrents in visual art, writing, and film from the 1920s-present. It will place special emphasis on surrealism's experimental practices - ludic activities often meant to encourage collaboration - and its innovative exhibition strategies. Students will explore the history of the movement and also practice its art techniques through hands-on workshops. Artists, writers, and filmmakers that will be considered include André Breton, Leonora Carrington, Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Harue Koga, Ted Joans, Maria Martins, Jan Švankmajer, and Ramsès Younan.

This course will explore the dynamics of artistic production along the exchange routes often referred to as the Silk Roads and related Sea Routes, stretching from China to the Mediterranean, and beyond. Through the examination of key case studies, this course will investigate exchanges ranging from the 1st to the 18th century within Asia and Europe, as well as the Americas. A special focus will be on the role of artists, traders and travelers in the Islamic world as dynamic innovators and active intermediaries within these exchanges. We will discuss the transmission of new technologies along these routes, and witness the resulting shifts in artistic production in areas such as painting, papermaking, weaving and ceramics. We will make use of textual, archaeological, and art historical sources from across this vast region to illuminate the effects of these long histories of contact.

We will study the new NYUAD campus and use these public or semipublic spaces as a site to develop temporary sculptural interventions. We will begin by coming to terms with conceptualizations of sculpture since the 1960s that have led to the need to distinguish between site-dominating, site-adapted, site-specific, and site-determined approaches. We will ask how the interventions developed in class relate to the architectural, institutional, social, and cultural circumstances of the campus. What sort of public should a sculptural intervention take into account and how does this public differ from the audience at an art gallery? What qualities does public space have that are distinct from those of private space and what characterizes a semi-public space? The students will develop their proposals for interventions with the aid of photographic documentation, models, and a project description before realizing the interventions in coordination with the university administration and presenting them to the public for a limited time.

Fiber Studio students learn and explore a range of textile practices including embroidery, sewing, quilting, crochet and knitting, and weaving. Throughout the term, students will build skills in these basic textile practices. Incorporating "textility" into other mediums is encouraged, such as mixing stitching and painting, stitching and writing, and exploring the sculptural possibilities of textile. The following concepts characterize the fiber arts and will be discussed and explored in practice: repetition, labor, hand versus machine, portability, utility, the relationship between thread and line, the binary between art and craft, and the gender of textiles. We will also explore how textile objects and practices have informed and might extend, reshape, or even render mute certain art-world terms like "minimalism," "abstraction," and "collage." Representative artists and traditions include Sheila Hicks, the silk sari weavers of Kanchipurum, the al sadu weavers of the Gulf region, the Siddis quilters of the Gujarat, the quilters of Gee's Bend Alabama, Ghada Amer, Faith Ringgold, The Institute for Figuring Crochet Coral Reef, Louise Bourgeois, Anni Albers, Emily Jacir, among others.

Printmaking at its most basic level involves the creation of a matrix (wood block, litho stone, etching plate, etc.), inking that matrix, and then transferring the ink onto paper. Essential to printmaking is the production of multiples and repetition. This class will introduce several printmaking media and techniques including, but not limited to: drypoint, woodcut, linocut, screenprinting and monotype. The focus will be on fine art printmaking. The technical aspects of each technique will be presented and then investigated through in-class demonstrations, readings, and slide lectures, all designed to tie the history of printmaking with hands-on learning. Success in this course depends on combining technique with strong concepts, the development of an aesthetic, and a willingness to take risks to challenge your abilities and ideas. Through group critiques you will learn to speak effectively about and to analyze your work and the work of others, questioning the decisions made in the development of the image, and assessing how successfully the technical and conceptual work together to communicate ideas.

Students in this course will produce sculptural and site-specific works of Sound Art, using sound, materials, and space as their palette. The class will focus its study on artists who primarily work with sound in gallery-based situations and the surrounding fine art discourses. While the term "Sound Art" is not as old, the practice of using sound as both material and concept in the context of gallery-based visual arts stretches back over 100 years, and comes from various artists and art movements, such as Marcel Duchamp, the Futurists, Dada, and forward to the happenings of Fluxus, the Minimalists, specifically Robert Morris, and through to the procedural art making methods of John Cage and the countless artists he influenced. We will examine the use of the term "Sound Art" carefully and draw our own conclusions about its utility, while exploring the use of sound to unlock sculptural, architectural, material, and conceptual potentials.

This course will focus on production of an individual art project and then will experiment with various forms to present the artwork. Students are invited to develop works in different kinds of media (e.g. sculptures, collages, photos, drawings). Through discussions and one-on-one meetings, the student will be given direction for what form the art project will take. The evolution of various concepts to present art works will be discussed including some historical examples of convergence between artistic concepts and modes of presentation (e.g. the dada movement, the surrealist movement etc.). The goal of this seminar is to explore what it means to translate an idea into material and then to experience how the meaning of the artwork can change depending on method of presentation.

We are all familiar with surface decoration and pattern design, irrespective of our cultural origins. In fashion, textiles, design, architecture, advertising and fine art these visual patterns of daily life both identify our different backgrounds and help share connections between them. With this in mind, the course will introduce students to surface decoration and pattern-making skills, using relevant printmaking processes and other media. Illustrated talks will reference pattern-based imagery across the fine and applied arts, exploring their application and meaning, whilst demonstrations, discussion and group presentations will help course participants develop and complete personal projects with confidence.

This course explores the history and practice of Documentary Photography. Through lectures, seminars, and photo-based projects, students will learn to record, understand, and present narratives that shape the world in which we live. Coursework will examine and complicate divisions between fact and fiction and will help students explore and develop their own photographic narratives and convincing visual stories. Throughout, students will be asked to question the role that documentary photography can and does play in the constantly changing and endlessly photographed world around us.

What is it about an "artistic approach" that proves to be especially useful to exploring and reimagining the city? This course takes such an approach to the existing landscape of Abu Dhabi. Students will visit public parks, streetscapes, markets, super-blocks, the port, shopping malls, and industrial districts. We will document our observations through field notes, drawings, photography, video, and sound recordings. This research will be a foundation for creating objects, sculptures, and installations. Students will learn to develop forms of artistic and architectural presentation and representation that reflect the urban design and development of the city. This research and artistic production will be accompanied by selected readings that address theoretical, historical, and contemporary perspectives from authors and artists such as Atelier, Bow Wow, Denise Scott Brown, Homi Baba, Dan Graham, Kevin Mitchell, and Robert Venturi, Andrea Zittel.

Can an urban artistic practice claim one’s ‘right to the city’? Can artists embed their questions into the social fabric of the metropolis, as against on the canvas or the page? How can we think of the city as our studio? How do we expand the private zone of our ‘social space’ from our living rooms and classrooms into the urban sprawl that is largely designed for transactional exchange? What happens when we step out with these questions into a diverse and complex city like Abu Dhabi that is constantly shifting its social, political, and economic dynamics while being host to a transient population? We will begin this course by conducting research at two sites in Abu Dhabi that echo a theme pertinent to the UAE: urban development vs impermanence. Employing various field research methods to collect primary research material, students will transform this research into an artwork accompanied by an artist statement articulating their themes and concerns. Students will complement their inquiry by studying a range of historic and contemporary urban based artistic practices that work with performance, public art, interventions, film, photography, text, and other media

Students in this class will engage in a critical discourse about the material world with an emphasis on wood-based forms, materials and fabrication tools. Students will experiment with contemporary ideas, techniques, and technologies and will be introduced to contemporary artists and designers who work with wood and wood-based materials. Students will learn historic and contemporary sculpture techniques and will experiment with digital fabrication tools including the laser cutter and CNC router. Emphasis will be placed on independent investigations and creative problem solving.

This class for experienced students is constructed around a series of projects realized in any available media or medium. How the mind constructs pictures from visual data is an extremely complicated set of behaviors that are biological, psychological, social, and cultural. Students are given in-depth exposure to the conditions that are necessary for artworks to "read" and how these conditions have a profound effect on the way people engage with art. This exposure allows students to explore ideas of limits and how the limit or horizon of what is possible can be elaborated and expanded on in art. Students engage in both group and one-on-one discussions of projects made in response to readings and assignments whose goal is to foster ideas of exploration and consistency in a creative practice.

This course focuses on the theory and practice of constructed and staged photography. The class will be structured as a semester-long investigation in which students develop projects and make commentaries on issues of personal and/or greater social significance. Students will study and experiment with several visual communication techniques and processes with the goal of developing and refining a portfolio of work.

Whether planning images, sculptures, movements, maps, or more, drawing allows for the quick transposition of ideas. It is the foundational language of the artistic mind. Foundations in 2D explores the diverse practice of drawing across media and form, from charcoal to pencil to pastel to wet media; from figure to object to abstraction. This investigation is for novices and advanced drafters alike. The first part of the course focuses on practicing traditional drawing approaches in class, while homework assignments allow for greater subjectivity in applying the technique. Midway through the course, concept development takes center stage, with students learning about artists who have expanded upon traditional notions of drawing and/or subverted them. We study postmodern principles and use them to analyze works of art and to guide original pieces. For beginners, the class will help confront expectations about what drawing entails, allowing them to develop an emboldened drawing practice free from previous conceptions. Advanced artists' practices will be challenged and interrupted in order to invite creative risks and new conceptual approaches, expanding their practice.

Beyond the mind-numbing repetitive rotations of mass corporate radio lies a wealth of fascinating histories and sub-cultures filled with artists who use transmission as material and strategy in their work which asks the question: is the medium the message? From the early radio work of Artuad and the edgy yet campy guile of Orson Wells "War of the Worlds," this course examines the histories and cultures of wireless broadcasting and communication. Beginning with the scientific discoveries that lead to the harnessing of the airwaves that Marconi rode to fame, students will also discover the underground world of modern day pirate broadcasters, who, on every continent, use the ether for their own ends both political and cultural. In addition to learning about these historical and theoretical underpinnings, students will create very low powered transmission hardware and content for live broadcast, interactivity, performance, recording, and/or installation. This course will also take advantage of NYUAD's Howler Radio as another platform for which to produce artistic content.

This intermediate level drawing class takes mark-making to be the foundation of drawing, and entertains the idea that there are many ways to make a mark: through process, experiment, cutting, folding, staining, thinking, writing, and using a variety of materials to do so. The motivation for mark-making may not be to render a likeness - and this is an ancient as well as a contemporary approach to art; so-called "non-representational" art has many historical roots - from conceptual and process-based art grounded in fairly recent art historical developments, and also from traditions of patterning, calligraphy, textile work, and durational experiments not necessarily coming out of "main stream" art.

This course is designed to give students a chance to master lighting through working on a body (or bodies) of work which use light quality to achieve a consistent interpretation of the artist's place and ideas in the world. Light, and its behavior, is literally the universal constant for all physical law and forms the experimental basis for all interpretations of physical reality. In classic physics, all measurements of time and space are defined by the speed of light. Similarly, all artists use the quality of light in depictions of the physical world to create interpretations of idiosyncratic universes, with an implied set of consistent physical laws. Photographers/cinematographers and painters don't simply "light" for description of a person, scene, or object, they create entire cosmologies through the manipulation of light. Lighting is used as a means to motivate content.

This course offers engagements with the problems and methods of Art History at an advanced level. It examines in detail works of art that reflect upon tradition, aesthetic experience and art practice in complex ways and does so by situating these examinations in rich historical and theoretical frameworks. The course is open to anyone who has completed either Foundations of Art History I or II and at least one Art History elective but it is designed especially with Art History juniors in mind because the course is, in part, a useful preparation for Capstone work in the senior year. The course is a requirement for all students pursuing the Art History track.

Projects in Painting introduces students to traditional and contemporary techniques in both acrylic and oil painting. Although previous painting experience is not a requirement, this course will build upon concepts taught in the prerequisite class, Foundations of 2D (such as image transposition, basic color theory and compositional knowledge, observational drawing techniques, perspective drawing). Students will learn classical realism and its methods, like underpainting and figure/ground relationships, alongside contemporary expressive approaches featuring various painting mediums. The class will take inspiration from diverse artists and study their practices within the greater context of art and social movements. Class critiques will empower students to examine their own impulses towards style and content and develop their ability to articulate the ideas driving their artworks.

Advanced Projects in 2D focuses on the development, execution, and presentation of an independent project, as well as the development of an art practice. One of the most challenging aspects of artmaking is seeing highly detailed, laborious works through to their completion. Students enter the class with an idea they are dedicated to spending 50 or more hours physically making. Though this artwork may span multiple canvases or media, it is conceived of as single work. The course begins with students designing art studio spaces to suit their needs. Studios might be the span of a desk, a portable art-in-a-cart, or occupy a whole room. This conscientious mindset of studio design is carried over into the ritualized formulation of an art practice. Various methods of organizing, researching, archiving, etc. are introduced. The culmination of the semester-long course is a highly evolved artwork and the empowered experience of an autonomous art practice.

The capstone experience in Art History provides seniors with the opportunity to work closely with a faculty mentor and to conduct extensive research on a topic of their choice. The program consists of a capstone seminar, taken in the first semester of the senior year, and a year-long individualized thesis tutorial. During the capstone seminar, Art History students will refine a thesis topic of their choice, develop a bibliography, read broadly in background works, and undertake research and/or creative work. In the tutorial, students will work on a one-on-one basis with a faculty mentor to hone their research and produce successive drafts of a capstone project. The capstone experience will culminate in the public presentation of the work and defense before a faculty panel.

During the spring semester, Art History students will work on a one-on-one basis with a faculty mentor to hone their research and produce successive drafts of a capstone project. The capstone experience will culminate in the public presentation of the work and defense before a faculty panel.