ARTH - Art History
An introductory survey of artistic creations and their relationship to historical developments from the cave paintings through the Middle Ages.
Every other Fall, odd years
An introductory survey of painting, sculpture, and architecture and their relationship to modern history from the Italian Renaissance through the twentieth century in the United States.
Every other Spring, even years
This seminar will introduce students to a history of African-American art and culture from the nineteenth century to the present. The course will be organized around themes and case studies and will examine in context how American artists and intellectuals of African and Black diasporan descent have created works that reflect and respond to their eras, geographies, and lived experiences. Together, we will explore questions of identity, representation, self-representation, stereotypes, activism, resilience in the face of structures of oppression, and the positive outcomes of artists creating new responses and new horizons for their world.
Every other Spring, odd years
This course examines developments in art and visual culture from the middle of the twentieth century to the present through selected discrete topical units. Students will engage critically both visual examples and seminal texts produced by significant art historians, philosophers, art critics and artists. We will read key primary works and also a selection of interpretive studies that address issues of modernism and post-modernism in the United States. Class discussions will be devoted to consideration of this reading and to questions of visual and cultural interpretation.
HIST 313
Every other Fall, even years
This course will explore photography’s shifting identity from the end of modernism to the present. Students will develop a critical framework for discussing and writing about photographs by gaining an understanding of this complex visual medium which consistently crosses the boundary separating high art and popular culture. This class will relate the history of photography to our personal experiences with this omnipresent form of visual information.