Department Website
Program Description
Once described by New York Times art critic John Russell as the best undergraduate department of art history in the country, the art history program at NYU was established to provide a rigorous and wide-ranging education in the many facets of the history and theory of art, a mission that its faculty continues to enthusiastically embrace. Students become familiar with global art from antiquity to the present. The department offers courses in ancient, medieval, Renaissance, baroque, modern, contemporary, East Asian, South Asian, Islamic, Latin American, African, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian, and Native American art, treating not only painting, sculpture, architecture, and photography but also graphic media, manuscript illumination, the decorative arts, and aspects of urban design. The department is one of the few undergraduate programs in the country with extensive offerings in conservation and museology. A myriad of museums, galleries, and local architectural sites make New York City the ideal place in which to study the visual arts on site and in the flesh. Beyond New York, art history courses are offered at NYU's study away sites, such as Berlin, Buenos Aires, Florence, London, Madrid, Paris, and Prague.
The department offers majors and minors in art history and in urban design and architecture studies. Since an education in the history of art can be enhanced by a firsthand understanding of its making, our majors are encouraged to minor in studio art through the Steinhardt School. The department publishes its own student journal (Ink & Image), and has an honors program which culminates in the writing and oral defense of a senior honors thesis.
Art history graduates have proven exceptionally successful in securing positions in museums, commercial galleries, auction houses, and nonprofit organizations. Those who go on to undertake graduate study typically pursue careers as curators, conservators, and academic art historians at the university and college level. Students majoring in urban design and architecture are well prepared for graduate study in architecture, urban planning, and historic preservation.
Graduation with Departmental Honors
Students may graduate with departmental honors in art history or in urban design and architecture studies by successfully researching and writing a senior thesis. This represents the culmination of the work for the major and provides excellent preparation for graduate school. To be eligible for the honors program, students must have a GPA of 3.65 or higher at the conclusion of the junior year, both overall and in art history or in urban design and architecture studies. A student wishing to write an honors thesis must apply for admission to the program via the department’s NYU Classes site in early March of the junior year. For a complete description of all the honors thesis requirements, please visit our departmental NYU Classes site for honors-track students.
Work toward the senior thesis consists of two 4-credit honors courses (ARTH-UA 801 Senior Honors Thesis I and ARTH-UA 804 Independent Studies) focusing on research methods and writing, accompanied by regular meetings with the supervising professor. The completed thesis, at least 30 to 40 pages in length, is read by a committee of three faculty members, including the supervising professor. The committee meets with the student for a thesis defense at the end of the academic year. Satisfactory completion of the thesis, in the committee’s judgment, earns an honors degree. These two honors courses may replace the two electives required for the major.
Admissions
New York University's Office of Undergraduate Admissions supports the application process for all undergraduate programs at NYU. For additional information about undergraduate admissions, including application requirements, see How to Apply.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of program requirements, students are expected to have acquired:
- Foundational knowledge of the history and theory of art across different time periods and cultures, as well as specialized and advanced knowledge in areas of particular interest.
- The ability to think critically about how art operates within social and political contexts, both historically and today.
- An understanding of how art history has developed as a discipline, its range of analytical strategies, and the field's critical and interpretive approaches.
- Visual literacy and the ability to describe and interpret a wide range of images and objects from different cultures and media.
- Effective writing skills, including the ability to develop arguments and support them with evidence, and also presentation and speaking skills (as developed in seminar courses).
- The ability to conduct primary and secondary research in libraries, museums, and other repositories.
Policies
Policies Applying to the Major
Credit toward the art history and urban design major or minor is granted only for courses completed with a grade of C or higher. Courses graded Pass/Fail do not count.
In the art history major, students may use one course to satisfy both a chronological requirement and a cultural traditions requirement (for example, one course might fulfill the early modern art requirement as well as one of the two required courses in cultural traditions). Students who double-count courses toward major requirements in this fashion will need to take one or more additional electives to reach the major’s statutory minimum of nine 4-point courses.
The following courses satisfy either the early modern or modern art and architecture requirement in the art history major, not both: ARTH-UA 5 Renaissance Art, ARTH-UA 316 , ARTH-UA 317 European and American Decorative Arts: Renaissance to Modern, ARTH-UA 511 East Asian Art II:China, Korea, Japan, 1000Ce-Pr, ARTH-UA 520 , ARTH-UA 531 South Asian Art II: 1200 to The Present, ARTH-UA 541 Art in The Islamic World II: Mongols to Modernism.
In addition, the following courses may be used to satisfy only one of the ancient, early modern, or modern art and architecture requirements in the art history major: ARTH-UA 506 , ARTH-UA 507 , ARTH-UA 512 .
Students cannot receive credit for both: ARTH-UA 1 History of Western Art I) and ARTH-UA 3 Ancient Art or ARTH-UA 4 Medieval Art; or for both ARTH-UA 2 History of Western Art II and ARTH-UA 5 Renaissance Art or ARTH-UA 6 Modern Art, as their contents overlap.
Art history courses taken in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development may not be double-counted for credit toward an art history minor. However, for Steinhardt students taking a minor in art history, the two-semester Steinhardt survey Art and Contemporary Culture is the prerequisite for advanced Renaissance, baroque, and modern courses. Art and Contemporary Culture II may only serve as the prerequisite for advanced modern courses.
Advanced Standing Credit
A score of 5 on the Advanced Placement Art History examination, or a score of A on the Advanced Level History of Art examination, exempts students from ARTH-UA 10 Foundations of Art History and counts as one course toward the major (i.e., the major can be completed with eight courses). Note that the Advanced Level exam awards 8 points; 4 are equivalent to ARTH-UA 10 Foundations of Art History, and the other 4 are ARTH-UA elective points that count toward the baccalaureate degree but not the major.
Lower scores on AP and A Levels do not count toward the major or exempt students from ARTH-UA 10 Foundations of Art History, although scores of 4 and B respectively do count as elective credit toward the baccalaureate degree.
Advanced standing credits cannot count toward the minor.
Courses in the College Core Curriculum
Students majoring or minoring in art history or urban design and architecture studies are exempt from the College Core Curriculum's Expressive Culture requirement. Students who wish to have a Core Expressive Culture course (CORE-UA 720 Expressive Cult: Images, CORE-UA 721 , or CORE-UA 722 Expressive Culture: Architecture in New York Field) count for credit toward either major must secure the permission of the director of undergraduate studies for art history or the director of the urban design and architecture studies program.
Internship Policy
Under exceptional circumstances, the Department of Art History awards academic credit (2 points) for an internship accompanied by an independent study. Students must find a professor willing to supervise this study. Course work may include a written diary recording the student's work experience and will include a term paper relevant to the internship, to be approved by the supervising professor. The independent study must also be approved by the director of undergraduate studies.
NYU Policies
University-wide policies can be found on the New York University Policy pages.
College of Arts and Science Policies
A full list of relevant academic policies can be found on the CAS Academic Policies page.