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Art History (ARTH) Courses

Academic Unit: Art History

ARTH 1001 - Introduction to Western Art [AH]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
This course serves as a general introduction to key questions about the nature and history of art in the West from the prehistoric to contemporary eras: Who creates art and why? What unique insights does it provide into the past? And, finally, what good does art do? Organized around these three central questions, lectures, readings, and assignments will address several themes, central to understanding the history of Western art in a wider global context: (1) the forms, functions, and symbolism of images, objects, and spaces; (2) materials, techniques, and skills deployed by artists, architects, artisans, and laborers to make aesthetic objects; (3) the historical and cultural construction of visual experiences; and (4) customs, beliefs, and values associated with art production, collection, and exhibition in various cultures, including patronage, fame, trade, cross-cultural influence, authenticity, and reproduction.
ARTH 1002W - Why Art Matters [AH WI GP]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Introduction to history of topics that investigate power/importance of art both globablly and in its diverse forms, from architecture and painting to video and prints. Sacred space, propaganda, the museum, art/gender, art/authority, tourism.
ARTH 1004W - Introduction to Asian Art [WI HIS]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 1016W until 04-SEP-01, was ARTH 1016 until 05-SEP-00, ALL 1004W (inactive, ending 02-SEP-08), ARTH 1004V (inactive, starting 05-SEP-00, was ARTH 1016V until 04-SEP-01, was ARTH 1026 until 05-SEP-00)
This one-semester course is an introduction to painting, sculpture, and architecture from South, Southeast, and East Asia. It will cover works from ancient cultures to those of contemporary Asian diasporas. Resisting the impossible task of covering everything, we will instead home in on specific objects in order to understand them in their broader cultural, religious, and social contexts. We will trace the ways in which common themes and problems appear in different art forms and in different places, and we will discover the ways in which seemingly disparate styles and objects may be productively understood in conversation with each other. We will work together to create an interpretive model that is synthetic, critical, and appreciative of the enormously diverse field that is Asian Art. Lectures will move from explanatory descriptions of objects and histories that are covered in the textbook to critical interpretations of the historiographies that shape the contemporary reception of Asian art.
ARTH 1043 - Classical Archaeology: Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Greece and Rome [HP]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 1043 until 02-SEP-14, was CLAS 1043 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 1043 until 07-SEP-99
Role that material culture, including art and architecture, plays in forming our picture of the Classical past. Relationship between archaeology and other disciplines dealing with the past. Study of selected sites considers the motives and methods of research and how the results are used by archaeologists and the general public.
ARTH 1917 - Scratched and Smashed: History of Destroying Images and Iconoclasm
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Have you ever seen a defaced statue? Ever heard of an image of a holy figure attacked or destroyed? Sculptures smashed and monuments taken down have filled our news feed and generated much heated public debate recently. What prompts such anger and violence? What makes some objects appear offensive and inappropriate? What kind of a threat do they pose? Objects, images, and buildings have been attacked, mutilated, and destroyed throughout history, for their specific visual contents or their very existence have been seen as going against religious bans, or upsetting common cultural values and political sensitivities. In this course, we will explore iconoclastic responses to art through cases studies from the ancient near east and the Mediterranean world, south and east Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Taking a historical view towards violent responses to a wide variety of visual material--from the ancient past to the present day--this seminar asks whether iconoclasm is simply a means of violence and repression, or whether it could be seen as a form of political resistance and protest, creative expression, and cultural transformation. Through a study of motivated destructive attitudes towards art, we will delve into the function and power of images and try to tackle larger issues about artistic and cultural heritage.
ARTH 1918 - Witches, Ghosts, and Evil Clowns: Figures of Fear in Art, Folklore, and Popular Culture
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
From some of the earliest expressive evidence of humans through contemporary popular culture and social media, our art, stories, and belief systems have been filled with figures of fear. The returning dead, living people with strange powers, spirits, demons, monsters, and mad killers haunt our dreams, but sometimes seem to show up during our waking hours. Worried communities and obsessed individuals have committed grave injustices and acts of violence based on fears about such beings, often fueled by deep-seated prejudices. Yet we are also attracted to these characters, playing with them, depicting them, and taking on their guises for fun. Many of us derive real enjoyment from scaring ourselves. This semester, we will investigate these figures of fear, drawing on academic approaches from art history, folklore, anthropology, history, and cultural studies. We will read a variety of academic works, and we will also encounter and think about primary works, including folktales, visual works of art, movies, literature, games, costumes, decorations, haunted houses, and objects used for magic and protection. This course will give you the opportunity to build skills of close observation and visual analysis, learn surprising things about your own surroundings, think critically about culture and history, and deepen your appreciation for the individual artistry, cultural knowledge, and the play of communication that make folklife, art, and popular culture so rich and remarkable.
ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study [AH WI]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 1921 until 05-SEP-00, CSCL 1921W (inactive, starting 21-MAY-01, was CSCL 1921 until 21-MAY-12, was CSCL 1921 until 05-SEP-00), SCMC 1201V, SCMC 1201W, CSCL 1201W (starting 08-SEP-15, was CSCL 1201 until 08-SEP-15, was CSCL 1201 until 05-SEP-00), CSCL 1201V
Fundamentals of film analysis and an introduction to the major theories of the cinema, presented through detailed interpretations of representative films from the international history of the cinema.
ARTH 3005 - Identity and American Art [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Where do we see American identity? How was it invented? What difference do different identities make in a nation of over 330 million people? This class explores the history of visual culture and the fine arts in the United States, from the 1600s to the present. Our goal is to understand how images and objects define what being "American" means?for individuals and for the public?and to see how art is a place where identity can be challenged, expanded, and transformed. Through interactive, art-based lectures, you will learn the skills of visual analysis, historical research, and art appreciation. Whether looking at a tea set designed by Paul Revere, poppies painted by Georgia O'Keeffe, or a Midwestern landscape fashioned out of wood by George Morrison: we'll use art to ask big questions about American experience.
ARTH 3008 - History of Ancient Art [OH IP]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 3008 until 02-SEP-14, was CNES 3008 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 3008 until 21-JAN-03, was CLAS 3008 until 21-MAY-01, was CLAS 3008 until 16-JAN-01, was CLAS 3008 until 07-SEP-99
Architecture, sculpture, and painting of selected early cultures; emphasis on influences on the development of Western art.
ARTH 3009 - Intersectional Medieval Art [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3609, MEST 3009
Grounded in critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory, this class draws on primary texts and a range of visual and material sources to trace the histories, experiences, and representations of marginalized identities in the medieval world. We will consider gender, sexuality, and race in the context of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures during the Middle Ages. This class will examine topics including transgender saints, miraculous transformations, demonic possession, female artists and patrons, the "monstrous races" of travel accounts, and gender-affirming surgeries. In contrast to misconceptions of a homogenous white European past, the reality of medieval Europe was diverse and complex, and its boundaries - geographical, cultural, bodily, and otherwise - were in flux, as reflected in its visual and material culture.
ARTH 3012 - 19th and 20th-Century Art: Identity & Representation
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Learn about the contributions and legacies of some of the best-known and most revered figures of art history?Delacroix, Picasso, Warhol, etc.?as well as select mediums, genres, and artists often overlooked in traditional survey-type courses, such as photojournalism, protest art, and the architecture of Las Vegas casinos. Focusing, more specifically, on the themes of representation and identity, case studies, lectures, readings and class discussions illuminate how visual and material culture actively shaped?and reshaped?the boundaries and character of the modern world from the French Revolution to the Aids Crisis of the 80s and 90s. By contextualizing artists? responses to the radically new ideas, technologies, social dynamics, economic, and ecological realities of the 19th and 20th centuries, we will work toward developing a more comprehensive understanding of modern art and of our own positions in history.
ARTH 3014W - Art of India [AH WI GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 3014 until 05-SEP-00, AMES 3014W (inactive, was ALL 3014W until 21-JAN-20), ARTH 3014V (inactive), RELS 3415W
Indian sculpture, architecture, and painting from the prehistoric Indus Valley civilization to the present day.
ARTH 3015W - Art of Islam [AH WI GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 3015 until 05-SEP-00, CLCV 3015W (inactive), RELS 3706W
Architecture, painting, and other arts from Islam's origins to the 20th century. Cultural and political settings as well as themes that unify the diverse artistic styles of Islamic art will be considered.
ARTH 3018 - Art of the Ottoman Empire
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course offers a wide-ranging introduction to visual culture under the Ottoman Empire. Initially formed as a small principality at the beginning of the fourteenth century in Anatolia, the Ottoman polity established itself as a major political and military power through the early modern period and beyond. With emphasis placed upon key monuments and objects, we will examine an array of artistic media, ranging from manuscript illumination and calligraphy to ceramics, textiles, metalwork, glasswork and jewelry. Major themes include the urban transformation of the Byzantine capital; the formation of imperial ideology and its visual articulation, the formation of a distinctive imperial style across media; the operation of court ateliers and societies of artists and artisans; contacts and interactions with the European and Islamic contemporaries; and cultural and artistic "decline."
ARTH 3019 - Buddhist Art and Architecture
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3019
This class provides an introduction to Buddhist art and architecture, from the sixth-century BCE to the present. Beginning with the life of the historical Buddha (563-483), it will follow the development of Buddhist art in India before tracing it across the Silk Road to China, Korea, and Japan. The class will consider how art and architecture evolved to serve the needs of Buddhism as its doctrine and practice evolved. At the same, we will consider how Buddhist cosmology and metaphysics were translated into culturally specific modes that served the multifarious cultural and artistic traditions of Asia.
ARTH 3021 - Art and Revolution, 1789-1889
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
The visual arts both reflected and shaped the large-scale transformations?from imperialism to the rise of the `new? woman?that defined the modern world as we know it. Focusing on European artworks produced between 1789 and 1889, we?ll investigate how paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs both illustrated and fashioned the revolutionary character of the period and the enduring legacies of the nineteenth century today.
ARTH 3022 - Impressionism: 1874 to Today [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist Exhibition in Paris, this study abroad course concerns the origins, evolution, and legacies of one of the most well-researched and revered movements in modern art history. Beginning with the landmark 1874 exhibition, which gave the ragtag group of avant-garde artists its name, it will follow the development of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art through the late nineteenth century before exploring twentieth- and twenty-first century counterpoints to the now-canonical artworks of Manet, Degas, Monet, Morisot, Caillebotte, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and others. Through a mixture of lectures, readings, class discussion, walking tours, and the close, careful study of original artworks at the Louvre, Musee d?Orsay, Musee Marmottan, and elsewhere, students will learn about the connection between Impressionism and the city where it first emerged; art-market, collecting and curatorial practices; the reception of Impressionism abroad; and, finally, how scholarly interpretations of Impressionist artworks have changed over time. From formal analysis to more recent art historical approaches, informed by gender and sexuality studies and postcolonial theory, the course will bring students to consider the merits and limitations of studying the ``canon?? and what, if anything, remains to be said about Impressionism today.
ARTH 3035 - Classical Myth in Western Art [OH]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 3035 until 02-SEP-14, was CNES 3035 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 3035 until 07-SEP-99
Role of myth in visual arts. Major figures/stories that became popular in ancient world and have fascinated artists/audiences ever since.
ARTH 3142 - Art of Egypt [HP]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 3142 until 02-SEP-14, was CNES 3142 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 3142 until 24-MAY-04, was CLAS 3142 until 07-SEP-99
Arts and architecture of Egypt, from prehistoric times to emergence of modern Egypt. Emphasizes elements of continuity and of change that have shaped Egyptian culture.
ARTH 3152 - Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3152 (starting 07-SEP-04, was CNES 3152 until 18-JAN-22, was ARTH 3152 until 06-SEP-05, was CNES 3152 until 07-SEP-04, was ARTH 3152 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 3152 until 07-SEP-99)
This course will provide an introduction to the history of Greek art, architecture and archaeology from the formation of the Greek city states in the ninth century BCE, through the expansion of Greek culture across the Mediterranean and Asia in the Hellenistic period, to the coming of Rome in the first century BCE. While this survey concentrates on the main developments of Greek art, an important sub-theme of this course this is the changes Classical visual culture underwent as it served non-Greek peoples, including the role it played for Alexander and his successors in forging multiethnic, globally minded empires in Western, Central and South Asia. No background in the time period or discipline is expected and therefore this class will also serve as an introduction to interdisciplinary study of art history and the classical world. A number of art historical methodologies will be introduced in order to not only give students a useful background in art history but to give them the tools to think as art historians and incorporate related visual and textual evidence meaningfully into their writing.
ARTH 3162 - Roman Art and Archaeology [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd, Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3162 (starting 07-SEP-04, was CNES 3162 until 18-JAN-22, was ARTH 3162 until 06-SEP-05, was CNES 3162 until 07-SEP-04, was ARTH 3162 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 3162 until 07-SEP-99)
Introduction to history of Roman art, from formation of city-state of Rome under Etruscan domination, to transformation of visual culture in late antiquity under peoples influenced by the Romans.
ARTH 3182 - Egypt and Western Asia: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3182, CNRC 3182
This course will provide students with foundational knowledge in the art, architecture, and archaeology of Egypt, East Africa, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Iran and Central Asia from the Neolithic through Late Antiquity (ca. 7,000 B.C.E. - 650 C.E.). Students will gain an understanding of the relationship between the visual material and the social, intellectual, political, and religious contexts in which it developed and functioned. In this regard, students will also gain an understanding of the evolution of, and exchanges and differences among, the visual cultures of these time periods and regions. It will also expose them to the preconditions for contemporary geopolitics in the region.
ARTH 3216W - The Power of Chicana/o/x Art: 1960s to the present [AH CIV WI]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: CHIC 5216W, CHIC 3216W (starting 21-JAN-20, ending 05-SEP-17)
What is Chicana/o/x art? Does Ruben Salazar?s bluntly stated notion of a ?Chicano? suggest an answer? ?A Chicano [Chicana or Chicanx] is a Mexican-American with a non-Anglo image of himself [herself or themselves]? (Los Angeles Times, 1970). Chicano, Chicana, and Chicanx identities crystalized during the Chicano Movement (1965-1980), which witnessed the rise of collective mobilizations to improve the labor conditions, education, housing, health, and civil rights for Mexican Americans. From its inception, the Chicano Movement attracted artists who created a new aesthetic and framework for producing art, but they did not merely illustrate the social and civil rights movement by creating posters and flyers. Artists theorized, negotiated, proposed, and initiated new ethics, aesthetics, and ways of thinking that supported self-determination, hope, social critique, solidarity, and justice. Increasingly since the 1980s, Chicanas and Chicanx artists renegotiated this social justice contract. Chicana/o/x art continues to inform Mexican American cultural production and the nation?s cultural heritage. Social intervention, empowerment, and institutional critique remain some of the most important innovations of American artists, Chicana/o/x artists among them.
ARTH 3309 - Renaissance Art in Europe [AH]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Major monuments of painting/sculpture in Western Europe, 1400-1600. Close reading of individual works in historical context. Influence of patrons. Major social/political changes such as Renaissance humanism, Protestant Reformation, market economy.
ARTH 3311 - Baroque Art in Seventeenth Century Europe [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Dominant trends/figures of Italian, French, Flemish, and Dutch Baroque period. Works of major masters, including Caravaggio, Bernini, Poussin, Velazquez, Rembrandt, and Rubens. Development of illusionistic ceiling decoration. Theoretical basis of Baroque art. Art's subservience to Church and royal court.
ARTH 3312 - The Age of Enlightenment: European Art and Culture in the 18th Century [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3713
The Age of Enlightenment is a 3-credit course intended to satisfy the Liberal Education Core requirement for the "Historical Perspectives" Core. Focusing on the transformations of the visual and plastic arts over the long 18th century (1680-1815), this course will introduce students to the seminal cultural shifts characteristic of the so-called European Enlightenment. Topics will include European travel and the Grand Tour; overseas colonial expansion, connectivity, and the globalization of Europe; secularization, materialism, libertinism, and the new morality; the Scientific Revolution and the creation of the modern scientific disciplines; the new public sphere and its mass, democratizing impulses; modern commercialism, capitalism, and industrialization; and the percolation of new revolutionary political impulses.
ARTH 3313 - Spanish Baroque Masters: Tradition and Experimentation in Golden Age Spain [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 5313
This seminar focuses on some of the major masters of Spanish Baroque art, including Francisco de Zurbaran, Diego Velazquez, Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, and Juan Sanchez Cotan. We will explore their works from a variety of perspectives in an effort to understand the unique character and contributions of the art of the Spanish Golden Age.
ARTH 3315 - The Age of Curiosity: Art, Science & Technology in Europe, 1400-1800 [AH TS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3708, HIST 5708, ARTH 5315
Diverse ways in which making of art and scientific knowledge intersected in early modern Europe. Connections between scientific curiosity and visual arts in major artists (e.g., da Vinci, Durer, Vermeer, Rembrandt). Artfulness of scientific imagery/diagrams, geographical maps, cabinets of curiosities, and new visual technologies, such as the telescope and microscope.
ARTH 3335 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: RELS 5612, HIST 3706, ARTH 5335 (starting 02-SEP-08), RELS 3612
This course explores the center of Baroque culture?Rome?as a city of spectacle and pageantry. The urban development of the city, as well as major works in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are considered within their political and religious context, with special emphasis on the ecclesiastical and private patrons who transformed the Eternal City into one of the world?s great capitals.
ARTH 3345 - Imagining the North Country [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
All around us, carefully crafted landscapes of the North Country are presented to us in images. We encounter them every day on this campus whether we are at the Bell Museum of Natural History pondering Charles Corwin?s diorama of beavers at Lake Itasca, in the James Ford Bell Library examining Jean Baptiste Nolin?s seventeenth-century map of the Pays d?en Haut (?Upper Country?), or looking from the steps of Northrop Auditorium across the green spaces and architecture of the state?s land-grant university. These images exert a powerful influence on us, making our world cohere and forming the basis of strong communal identities. At the same time, without knowledge of their histories and conventions, they can stand as barriers to a more complex sense of the ground we stand on. This course will examine broadly the landscapes of the ?North Country,? the area roughly corresponding to present-day Minnesota that has for thousands of years been home to the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples and their ancestors, and more recently to peoples of European descent who in the seventeenth century began to refashion the landscape of the North Country in their own image. The aim of the class is to explore but also to unsettle our received habits of imagining the landscape, in the process opening up possibilities we may not have considered before.
ARTH 3401W - Art on Trial [WI AH CIV]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 3401 until 06-SEP-22
Why does art so often elicit anger, debate, protest, and vandalism? Arts controversies raise many difficult questions that this class examines: should artists be allowed to use taxpayer funds to create works of art critical of the government or that some find offensive? Should public sculptures commemorate Confederates, slave owners, or colonialists? How do we know when something is obscene? Is censorship ethical? Do artists have the right to control the fate of their work after it is sold? Who should decide what artists are chosen for public commissions, what artworks are selected for public buildings, or how works of art should be interpreted? Does public opinion make bad art? This course trains students in the history of arts controversies in the United States from the 19th century to the present and in the changing social conditions through which art has become a flashpoint for public debate. Assignments focus on discipline-specific research and writing techniques that build toward a group project in which students research, take up positions, and debate the merits of important case studies. The class is primarily designed for students to learn about the arts and arts policy today, i.e., the art world of which they are and will be citizens. They are asked to inspect the sources of dominant cultural beliefs and to gain a deeper understanding of and take responsibility for their own cultural, political, and artistic values.
ARTH 3434 - Art and the Environment [ENV AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Western art has a long tradition of depicting and directly engaging with the environment?from ancient earthworks such as Stonehenge and Avebury Stone Circle, to 18th and 19th century landscape paintings and 20th century photographs, to land and earth art of the 1960s and `70s, and what is now called environmental or eco art. Such art has had a prominent place in art?s history, but do we really need art to save the environment? Studies repeatedly show that the arts are crucial to understanding and forestalling environmental disaster because, it turns out, human attitudes are shaped by the stories we tell, by our ability to imagine the unimaginable, to accept the inanimate as potentially coming to life, to picture things on a vast scale. In this course students learn the historical development of artistic movements from 1968, when the first exhibition of such art, called ?Earthworks,? took place at the Dwan Gallery in New York, up to the present day. The course tracks the changing aesthetic, political, and climatic forces that influenced such art, from the anti-institutionalism and participatory approaches of the 1960s to the more activist artistic engagement with environmentalism today. The class takes up two primary concerns: understanding the historical and scientific conditions that have given rise to such art and learning the ways in which artists have sought to intervene in and affect a changing environment. Students put historical knowledge, environmental research, and visual analysis skills to work in a culminating group project creating art that responds to a contemporary environmental problem.
ARTH 3464 - Art Since 1945 [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
The end of the Second World War is commonly understood as a watershed moment in art history when the center of western art shifted from Paris to New York and the old tradition of art academies and annual salons disappeared once and for all. It is a moment that sees dramatic changes in who artists are, how they are trained, what kind of art they make, and the audiences to whom they appeal. This course surveys U.S. and European art history from 1945 to the present so that students gain a thorough understanding of the social, political, and economic forces that contributed to the development of significant art movements including abstract expressionism, pop art, and minimalism, as well as key modes of artmaking including painting and sculpture, happenings, installations, video, earthworks, and participatory art. The course also trains students in philosophies of art and tracks the dramatic changes in aesthetics over the period. Primarily a lecture course, students? historical knowledge is assessed through two in-class examinations in which they identify, compare, contrast, and think critically about works of art. In addition, students practice discipline-specific research skills by compiling an annotated bibliography and writing short papers that rigorously examine primary sources.
ARTH 3481 - Curatorial Practice Field Experience
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTS 3481 (starting 03-SEP-19)
This course looks at current critical questions of curating and exhibition making. We explore the process of developing an exhibition, building working relationships with artists, and understanding how to effectively communicate ideas to turn a concept into a project. The course assumes that curating has also evolved from a practice associated with a museum art expert to something that is increasingly framed as a creative marketable skill related to cultural production. Discussions, readings, and coursework include consideration of gallery and public space and audience experience. Curatorial trends will be explored via site visits to established and alternative exhibit spaces. Students are introduced to a wide variety of artists and how their work is contextualized by the exhibition format. Site visits to exhibition spaces and conversations with professional curators reinforce the course material. Through practice and application, students examine the evolving definitions and responsibilities of a curator, and a variety of issues related to the development of a coherent and relevant exhibition. Students participate in hands-on, curatorial workshops, and curate a professional, public presentation using a nontraditional space, gallery space, digital space, or other local venue.
ARTH 3577 - Photo Nation: Photography in America [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Development of photography, from 19th century to present. Photography as legitimate art form. Portraits/photo albums in culture. Birth of criminal justice system. Technological/market aspects. Politics of aesthetics. Women in photography. Ways in which idea of America has been shaped by photographs.
ARTH 3655 - African-American Cinema [AH DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 4655 (inactive, starting 07-SEP-99, was AFRO 5655 until 05-SEP-06), ARTH 5655, AFRO 3655
African American cinematic achievements from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
ARTH 3765 - Chinese Art and Architecture
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This class provides an introduction to Chinese art and architecture, from prehistory to the present. Proceeding chronologically and thematically, the class will consider a broad range of artistic media including jade, stone, bronze, paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, printing, photography, and architecture. Through a close connoisseurial engagement and visual analysis these materials, the class will examine how Chinese art developed in relation to broader themes of Chinese political, religious, and cultural history. At the same time, it will consider how the art of China engaged in cultural and artistic dialogue with other traditions and cultures of East Asia.
ARTH 3777 - The Diversity of Traditions: Indian Empires after 1200
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 5777 (starting 17-JAN-17), RELS 3777, RELS 5777 (starting 17-JAN-17)
This class considers the development of Indian and Pakistani art and architecture from the introduction of Islam as a major political power at the end of the 12th century to the colonial empires of the 18th century. We will study how South Asia?s diverse ethnic and religious communities interacted, observing how visual and material cultures reflect differences, adaptations, and shared aesthetic practices within this diversity of traditions. Students in this class will have mastered a body of knowledge about Indian art and probed multiple modes of inquiry. We will explore how Muslim rulers brought new traditions yet maintained many older ones making, for example, the first mosque in India that combines Muslim and Indic visual idioms. We will study the developments leading to magnificent structures, such as the Taj Mahal, asking why such a structure could be built when Islam discourages monumental mausolea. In what ways the schools of painting that are the products of both Muslim and Hindu rulers different and similar? The course will also consider artistic production in the important Hindu kingdoms that ruled India concurrently with the great Muslim powers. In the 18th century, colonialist forces enter the subcontinent, resulting in significant innovative artistic trends. Among questions we will ask is how did these kingdoms influence one another? Throughout we will probe which forms and ideas seem to be inherently Indian, asking which ones transcend dynastic, geographic and religious differences and which forms and ideas are consistent throughout these periods of political and ideological change. To do all this we must constantly consider how South Asia's diverse ethnic and religious communities interact. There are no prerequisites for this course.
ARTH 3778 - Traditions of South Asian Painting: Past to Present
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 5778
This course surveys the rich diversity of painted media in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, from 5th-century murals to contemporary canvases that travel the world. We will locate the works in their physical, ritual, and intellectual contexts. We will explore how the familiar categories with which we describe painting, such as Landscape, Portraiture, Narrative, and even Modern, might be productively reassessed in light of South Asian aesthetic traditions by locating the works in their physical, ritual, and intellectual contexts. The course culminates in the contested spaces of contemporary art, where questions of politics, identity, and intention come to the fore. Although mainly focusing on the painting traditions of India, the course will include painting from Pakistan, the Himalayas, Sri Lanka, and the South Asian diaspora. The humanities sharpen our ability to develop critical questions and to judge why and how one answer or interpretation may be stronger than another. Humanistic thinking is developed in dialogue; it emerges between individuals in conversation with each other and with their objects of study. This course asks you to boldly bring your curiosity, convictions, and blind-spots to our collective conversation, close reading, and individual writing. The course consists of two weekly meetings, and one or two trips to nearby museums or galleries.
ARTH 3779 - Visions of Paradise: The Indian Temple
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3779
This course traces the development and diversity of the Indian temple, focusing the ways in which people interact with sacred space and how religious art addresses its viewers. We primarily focus on Hinduism, but also include Buddhism and Jainism. We will discuss the role of sculpture, painting, textiles, dance, and food within the temple. We will also examine how the legacy of colonial and orientalist scholarship inflects our study of these traditions and monuments. Although the architecture of both structural and rock-cut temples will be our main object of study, we will also discuss the role of sculpture, painting, textiles, and food within the temple. Our consideration of the structures will be attentive to the ways in which people interact with the space and how objects of sacred art address their viewers. In classroom discussions we will work together to create an interpretive model that is synthetic, critical, and appreciative of the enormously diverse field that is South Asian Art. Lectures will move from explanatory descriptions of objects and histories that are covered in the textbook to critical interpretations of the historiographies that shape their contemporary reception. Class discussions and assignments are intended to encourage students to bring their own ways of looking at this art, to read critically in light of what they see, and to consider new approaches to the material. No prior experience in the history of art or religions of South Asia is required for this course.
ARTH 3896 - Directed Professional Experience
(1 cr [max 2]; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 2 credits)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 3975 until 22-JAN-19
Internship or research assistantship in approved program, art institution, business or museum.
ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film [AH WI]
(4 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 3921 until 05-SEP-00
This course provides an introduction to the history and aesthetics of film. We will examine major directors, genres, and styles; the relationship between film and other arts and media; film production, distribution, and exhibition in the U. S. and other countries; film and politics, including sexual politics; theories about film and film history; issues of judgment and critical values. Films include Metropolis, Citizen Kane, Rashomon, Pulp Fiction, and Get Out.
ARTH 3926W - The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock [AH WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 3926 until 03-SEP-24, ARTH 5926W
This course examines the achievement and significance of Alfred Hitchcock. It will consider his entire career, including both the British and American periods, his major films and his television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The course will address his characteristic themes and concerns (the double, the relationship between criminality and legality, the play of suspense and surprise); the traditions that shaped him (the Gothic in literature and theater; Victorian melodrama) and the influence he had on other films and filmmakers (the horror film, the political thriller); his significance in relation to the history of film criticism and scholarship (auteurist, feminist, queer). Students will gain a thorough knowledge of Hitchcock and the biographical, historical, technological, industrial, aesthetic issues surrounding his achievement. They will gain practical experience in analyzing films and addressing the critical issues raised by the media in contemporary society.
ARTH 3929 - Cinema Now [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Course examines contemporary cinema, including fiction films, documentaries, animation, and avant-garde experiments. Focuses on feature-length theatrical films, but will also consider other aspects of the contemporary media world: graphic novels, video games, television series and the Internet (e.g., Youtube). Examines media production, distribution, marketing, exhibition, and reception. Course will also present a survey of developments in contemporary cinema studies, since the choice of films will support a variety of critical approaches including economic, aesthetic (generic, auteurist, formalist), ideological (race, class, gender), and reception studies.
ARTH 3933 - What Art Historians Do: Undergraduate Theory and Methods
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall)
Why do people study the history of art and what do they do with that knowledge? Designed for undergraduate art history majors but open to any students interested in the field, ?What Art Historians Do? serves as an introduction to the history of the discipline as well as to its research, writing, and interpretative methods. The course is designed as a seminar in which students are trained in historical, philosophical, and practical knowledge. They study the European origins of the academic discipline and its development and global expansion over time. They debate such questions as the purpose of art, the changing definition?across time, geographical regions, and cultures?of the artist, the limitations and implications of history, and the place of museums in both preserving and destroying cultural heritage. And they learn and practice research techniques in material and digital archives and in primary and secondary sources, as well as different writing methods including museum didactics, scholarly papers, journalism, and social media. This course is a new requirement for any student who declares their art history major in Fall 2023 or later.
ARTH 3940 - Topics in Art History (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
ARTH 3971V - Honors: Art History Capstone [WI]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 3973 until 05-SEP-00, ARTH 3971W (starting 28-MAY-13, was ARTH 3971 until 05-SEP-00)
Capstone course for art history majors, which teaches writing skills and strategies, and aids students in the completion of senior paper projects through the study of art historical methods. Students work with both the class instructor and individual faculty advisers on independent research and writing.
ARTH 3971W - Art History Capstone [WI]
(3 cr; Prereq-ArtH major, instr consent; A-F only; offered Every Fall & Summer)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 3971 until 05-SEP-00, ARTH 3971V (starting 28-MAY-13, was ARTH 3973 until 05-SEP-00)
Capstone course for art history majors, which teaches writing skills and strategies, and aids students in the completion of senior paper projects through the study of art historical methods. Students work with both the class instructor and individual faculty advisers on independent research and writing.
ARTH 3993 - Directed Study
(1 cr [max 4]; Prereq-instr consent; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
TBD
ARTH 3994 - Directed Research
(1 cr [max 4]; Prereq-instr consent; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
TBD
ARTH 5103 - Hellenistic and Early Roman Art and Archaeology
(3 cr; Student Option)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 5103 until 04-SEP-12, was CNES 5103 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5103 until 07-SEP-99
Sculpture, architecture, painting, and topography in developing centers of Hellenistic culture in eastern Mediterranean and in Etruscan and Roman towns, from 400 B.C. to the beginnings of the Roman Empire.
ARTH 5108 - Greek Architecture
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 5108 until 02-SEP-14, was CNES 5108 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5108 until 07-SEP-99
Geometric through classical examples of religious and secular architecture and their setting at archaeological sites in Greece, Asia Minor and Italy.
ARTH 5111 - Prehistoric Art and Archaeology of Greece
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 5111 until 04-SEP-12, was CNES 5111 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5111 until 07-SEP-99
Artistic and architectural forms of Neolithic period in Aegean area and Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean cultures. Aims and methods of modern field archaeology; the record of human habitation in the Aegean area. Archaeological evidence as a basis for historical reconstruction.
ARTH 5112 - Archaic and Classical Greek Art
(3 cr; Student Option)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 5112 until 04-SEP-12, was CLAS 5112 until 07-SEP-99
Sculpture, painting, architecture and minor arts in Greek lands from the 9th through 5th centuries B.C. Examination of material remains of Greek culture; archaeological problems such as identifying and dating buildings; analysis of methods and techniques. Emphasis on Periklean Athens.
ARTH 5120 - Field Research in Archaeology
(3 cr [max 6]; Student Option; offered Every Summer; may be repeated for 6 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 5120 until 04-SEP-12, was CNES 5120 until 18-JAN-05, was CNES 5120 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5120 until 12-JUN-00, was CLAS 5120 until 07-SEP-99, CNES 5120 (inactive, starting 07-SEP-99, was ARTH 5120 until 06-SEP-05, was ARTH 5120 until 18-JAN-05, was ARTH 5120 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5120 until 12-JUN-00, was ARTH 5120 until 12-JUN-00, was CLAS 5120 until 07-SEP-99), CLCV 5120 (inactive)
Field excavation, survey, and research at archaeological sites in the Mediterranean area. Techniques of excavation and exploration; interpretation of archaeological materials.
ARTH 5172 - House, Villa, Tomb: Roman Art in the Private Sphere
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 5172 until 02-SEP-14, was CNES 5172 until 18-JAN-05, was CNES 5172 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5172 until 07-SEP-99
Architecture, painting, and sculpture of urban houses, country estates, and tombs in Roman world. Relationships between public/private spheres and literary/physical evidence. Usefulness of physical evidence in illuminating gender roles.
ARTH 5182 - Art and the State: Public Art in the Roman Empire
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: was CNES 5182 until 04-SEP-12, was CNES 5182 until 18-JAN-05, was CNES 5182 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5182 until 07-SEP-99
eOrigins of Roman public art. Use in maintaining community. Exploitation by first emperor, Augustus. Development/diffusion through later empire. Varying capabilities to adjust to demands of a Christian Empire.
ARTH 5252 - History of Early Christian Art in Context
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring; may be repeated for 4 credits)
Equivalent courses: CNES 5252 (inactive, starting 23-MAY-05, was ARTH 5252 until 06-SEP-05, was ARTH 5252 until 23-MAY-05, was ARTH 5252 until 18-JAN-05, was ARTH 5252 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 5252 until 07-SEP-99)
This course will introduce graduate and advanced undergraduate students to Christian visual art from its evident beginnings (ca. 200) to the dawn of the early Middle Ages, attending to its transformation under imperial patronage. Working with both objects and texts, core themes include the continuity between Christian and pagan art of Late Antiquity, the influence of imperial ceremonies and style, the emergence of sacred icons, the development of Passion iconography, the influence of Islam, and the divergent styles, motifs, and theological perspectives on the validity and role of images from the Byzantine East to the early Medieval West.
ARTH 5302 - The Image Multiplied: Prints in Early Modern Europe
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
The technology of mechanically reproducing complex visual images on paper, a development of fifteenth-century Europe, transformed the early modern world no less than the emergence of digital media has transformed our own. Techniques of woodcut, engraving and etching quickly became important media for innovation within the fine arts. At the same time, they became equally important as sources for devotional imagery, for disseminating copies of other artworks, for the expansion of knowledge through scientific illustration, and for the effective broadcasting of political and religious messages during centuries of extraordinary political and religious upheaval. In this course we will investigate the cultural history of printed images in Europe from the time of their emergence in the fifteenth century through the mid-eighteenth century. Through lectures and class discussion, you will develop a familiarity with the technical aspects of printmaking and apply that understanding to the historical interpretation of specific works. The course will not be an exhaustive survey of printmakers and printmaking styles during the early modern era but will instead approach the early modern print through the changing cultural circumstances of its production and reception. While we will consider the work of many lesser-known (and anonymous) artists, we will concentrate on the work of major printmakers such as Mantegna, Durer, Goltzius, Rembrandt, Callot, Hogarth, and Piranesi. The course will include visits to local collections.
ARTH 5313 - Spanish Baroque Masters: Tradition and Experimentation in Golden Age Spain [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3313
This seminar focuses on some of the major masters of Spanish Baroque art, including Francisco de Zurbaran, Diego Velazquez, Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, and Juan Sanchez Cotan. We will explore their works from a variety of perspectives in an effort to understand the unique character and contributions of the art of the Spanish Golden Age.
ARTH 5315 - The Age of Curiosity: Art, Science & Technology in Europe, 1400-1800 [AH TS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3708, HIST 5708, ARTH 3315 (starting 06-SEP-11)
Diverse ways in which making of art and scientific knowledge intersected in early modern Europe. Connections between scientific curiosity and visual arts in major artists (e.g., da Vinci, Durer, Vermeer, Rembrandt). Artfulness of scientific imagery/diagrams, geographical maps, cabinets of curiosities, and new visual technologies, such as the telescope and microscope.
ARTH 5335 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: RELS 5612, ARTH 3335, HIST 3706, RELS 3612
This course explores the center of Baroque culture --Rome-- as a city of spectacle and pageantry. The urban development of the city, as well as major works in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are considered within their political and religious context, with special emphasis on the ecclesiastical and private patrons who transformed the Eternal City into one of the world's great capitals.
ARTH 5336 - Transformations in 17th Century Art: Caravaggio, Velazquez, and Bernini
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course offers an in-depth examination of three of the most innovative masters of early modern European art, the painters Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Diego Velazquez, and the sculptor and architect Gianlorenzo Bernini. Through selected readings, slide presentations and discussions, we will explore the lives and works of these artists, paying particular attention to the ways they created an entirely new relationship between the work of art and the viewer and ushered in a radically new way of conceiving visual imagery.
ARTH 5413 - Alternative Media: Video, Performance, Digital Art
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall)
One rather old and rigid concept in the history of art and aesthetics is that artistic media, each with its distinct qualities, are most successful when they remain separate. The best painting, according to this view, is one that explores its own properties of flatness, abstraction, and color. What became known in the first half of the 20th century as the philosophy of ?medium specific purity? was radically challenged in the 1960s when the differences between painting and sculpture were intentionally blurred and when new media (performance, body art, happenings, video art, installations and digital art) were introduced. This course seeks to understand how alternative media were developed not through the invention of new technologies nor in isolation, but through revolutionary modes of thinking about time and space, human and non-human life, machines, archives, cyborgs, and interactivity (some of which date back to the 18th and 19th centuries). Through assigned readings and discussions as well as structured essay assignments, the class provides students with extensive practice in the critical analysis of theoretical texts and ample experience synthesizing diverse intellectual ideas and arguments in written form. More broadly, through a creative ?timeline? assignment, the course seeks to teach students to think inventively about new media and their histories, to learn strategies for looking at, evaluating, and thinking about works of new media art. It also provides instruction in research techniques and resources in contemporary art, as well as on writing in art history.
ARTH 5422 - The Power of Print: History of the Graphic Arts in the Modern Age
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 4 credits)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3422 (inactive, starting 02-SEP-08)
Metropolitan Museum of Art curator of prints William M. Ivins estimated that ?the number of printed pictures between 1801 and 1900 was probably considerably larger than the total number of printed pictures before 1801.? Looking at the history and theory of visual print media from the early nineteenth century to today, this course investigates the causes and long-term, enduring consequences of this historic transformation in the production and consumption of printed pictures. Case studies include the development of political caricature in early nineteenth-century France; the advent of illustrated newsweeklies; the production of large-scale, eye-catching advertisements; the market for fine arts prints; photojournalism and magazine design; political propaganda and protest art; and, finally, the relationship between printed and digital imagery in art galleries, museums, and everyday life.
ARTH 5466 - Contemporary Art
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
The art of today as it is practiced around the globe takes a bewildering variety of forms?from traditional painting and sculpture to AI, interactive digital media, film projections, bio art (involving human, plant, and animal blood, tissue and DNA), participatory and community engaged projects, and environmental interventions. It addresses urgent social and political themes including globalization, institutionalized racism, climate crisis, big data, and mechanized vision. Just as today?s citizens should inform themselves about contemporary politics and current events, so is it crucial that we understand the art of our own time. In this course students gain an understanding of art?s development since the late 20th century and key ideas that are central to interpreting the art of this period. The course begins with a review of important movements, significant artists, and influential theories and issues. It then takes up and studies specific themes through the reading and analysis of theoretical texts. Students are asked to read, participate in class discussions, complete guided or independent research papers, prepare an in-class presentation on one of the course themes, and complete a book review for a textbook on contemporary art history. Each of these assignments is designed to impart specific historical knowledge about the period of the contemporary, to provide students with opportunities to practice critical reading and synthetic writing, and to offer them a chance to inspect their own positions regarding key debates.
ARTH 5565 - American Art in the Gilded Age
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
In 1873, Mark Twain coined the phrase ?Gilded Age? to describe an era in which public displays of national prosperity and optimism barely covered over the deeper realities of racial violence, labor inequities, and strident political divisions in the barely reunited republic, still recovering from a bloody Civil War. This class will examine the social and cultural history of the United States from 1865-1910, by following the visual record of paintings, sculpture, photographs, architecture, and landscape and furniture design. We will look closely at works by artists including Winslow Homer, Abbott Thayer, Cecilia Beaux, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Jacob Riis, Gertrude Kasebier, Thomas Nast, Bernhard Gillam, Frederick Law Olmsted, McKim, Mead & White, and Candace Wheeler. We will consider the role of creatively made images and objects as both a tool of the elite and the weapon of the critic. And we will actively investigate the kinds of questions art historians ask about this era, so as to ask new questions and produce new scholarship that might productively address the concerns of our own. Open to interested students from all majors, this course culminates in an independent research project suitable for development as a senior capstone project.
ARTH 5575 - Boom to Bust: American Art from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
American art/culture from 1917 to 1940. Boom of post-WWI affluence, bust of stock market crash, Midwestern Dust Bowl. How tumultuous times influenced painting, sculpture, photography, and industrial design.
ARTH 5576 - Folk, Self-Taught, Visionary, Naive: Outsiders in American Art
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Get to know the ?outsiders? -- people who spent their lives making art without an interest in the mainstream art world. Study visionaries like Henry Darger, Bill Traylor, Vivian Maier, Daniel Johnston, Clementine Hunter, and Martin Ramirez. Dive into environments like Dr. Evermore?s Forevertron in Wisconsin and The Orange Show in Texas. Our goal in this class is to look at non-traditional art made between 1900 and today, in all regions of the U.S., and to ask questions about the various factors that lead to its marginalized status in the art world. In learning about so-called outsider art, we will use methods drawn from art history, cultural geography, religious studies, folklore, ethnomusicology, race and disability studies, and museum studies. Throughout the semester, you will learn the skills of visual analysis, archive- and object-based research, and writing for public audiences. The final project involves conducting original research on an artist or artwork of your choosing, and communicating your findings in a final project that will take the form of your choice (e.g., podcast, online exhibition, visual artwork, traditional academic paper, etc.).
ARTH 5655 - African-American Cinema [AH DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: AFRO 4655 (inactive, starting 07-SEP-99, was AFRO 5655 until 05-SEP-06), ARTH 3655, AFRO 3655
African American cinematic achievements, from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
ARTH 5766 - Chinese Painting
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Major works from the late bronze age to the modern era that illustrate the development of Chinese landscape painting and associated literary traditions.
ARTH 5774 - The Body in Indian Art
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: MEST 5774, EMS 5774
This course explores the concept of embodiment and the nature of representation, from images of gods to human portraits, in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Muslim, and courtly contexts. We consider diverse media from ancient to modern periods, including painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, inscriptions, and literature. This course explores the concept of embodiment in the diverse artistic traditions of South Asia. We will consider how ideas of representation of an individual have been understood and expressed differently across the history of South Asian art and religions. The course will consider the embodied representation of deities and semi-divine figures along with those of "real" people; we will consider, given the ontologies of such representations in their religious and cultural contexts. Representation of an individual?a portrait?is a foundational subject in the canon of art history. What does the very idea of a portrait mean so far outside the canon of (Western) art history? As we survey the diverse traditions and media of images of the body, we will be attentive to questions such as, Does media make meaning for these types of images? Can a 'portrait' be textual? Is verisimilitude essential to the depiction of a person? In what ways are practices of depiction informed by other modes of image-making, such as images of religious devotion, and traditions of representation encountered through trade or gift? We will consider diverse media from Ancient India to the modern period, including painting, stone and metal sculpture, photography, architecture, inscriptions, and even a Sanskrit play.
ARTH 5777 - The Diversity of Traditions: Indian Empires after 1200
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3777, RELS 3777, RELS 5777 (starting 17-JAN-17)
This class considers the development of Indian and Pakistani art and architecture from the introduction of Islam as a major political power at the end of the 12th century to the colonial empires of the 18th century. We will study how South Asia?s diverse ethnic and religious communities interacted, observing how visual and material cultures reflect differences, adaptations, and shared aesthetic practices within this diversity of traditions. Students in this class will have mastered a body of knowledge about Indian art and probed multiple modes of inquiry. We will explore how Muslim rulers brought new traditions yet maintained many older ones making, for example, the first mosque in India that combines Muslim and Indic visual idioms. We will study the developments leading to magnificent structures, such as the Taj Mahal, asking why such a structure could be built when Islam discourages monumental mausolea. In what ways the schools of painting that are the products of both Muslim and Hindu rulers different and similar? The course will also consider artistic production in the important Hindu kingdoms that ruled India concurrently with the great Muslim powers. In the 18th century, colonialist forces enter the subcontinent, resulting in significant innovative artistic trends. Among questions we will ask is how did these kingdoms influence one another? Throughout we will probe which forms and ideas seem to be inherently Indian, asking which ones transcend dynastic, geographic and religious differences and which forms and ideas are consistent throughout these periods of political and ideological change. To do all this we must constantly consider how South Asia?s diverse ethnic and religious communities interact.
ARTH 5778 - Traditions of South Asian Painting: Past to Present
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 3778
This course surveys the rich diversity of painted media in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, from 5th-century murals to contemporary canvases that travel the world. We will locate the works in their physical, ritual, and intellectual contexts. We will explore how the familiar categories with which we describe painting, such as Landscape, Portraiture, Narrative, and even Modern, might be productively reassessed in light of South Asian aesthetic traditions by locating the works in their physical, ritual, and intellectual contexts. The course culminates in the contested spaces of contemporary art, where questions of politics, identity, and intention come to the fore. Although mainly focusing on the painting traditions of India, the course will include painting from Pakistan, the Himalayas, Sri Lanka, and the South Asian diaspora. The humanities sharpen our ability to develop critical questions and to judge why and how one answer or interpretation may be stronger than another. Humanistic thinking is developed in dialogue; it emerges between individuals in conversation with each other and with their objects of study. This course asks you to boldly bring your curiosity, convictions, and blind-spots to our collective conversation, close reading, and individual writing. The course consists of two weekly meetings, and one or two trips to nearby museums or galleries.
ARTH 5781 - Age of Empire: The Mughals, Safavids, and Ottomans
(3 cr; Student Option)
Equivalent courses: RELS 5781
Artistic developments under the three most powerful Islamic empires of the 16th through 19th centuries: Ottomans of Turkey; Safavids of Iran; Mughals of India. Roles of religion and state will be considered to understand their artistic production.
ARTH 5787 - Visual Cultures in Contact: Cross-Cultural Interaction in the Ancient World
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 5787, CNRC 3787
What happens when two cultures meet? How do different cultures shape and influence each other? In this course we'll examine how the diverse cultures of the Ancient Eurasian world became entangled with one another through the material remains they left behind. We'll use a variety of tools and techniques to analyze and interpret material objects, spaces and art?from the Egyptians and Sassanians, to the Romans and Qin and Han dynasties. Uncover a more nuanced and inclusive understanding of how these ancient cultures changed their ideologies, iconographies, and modes of representation through trade networks, political alliances, and colonial enterprise.
ARTH 5926W - The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock [AH WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ARTH 5926 until 03-SEP-24, ARTH 3926W
This course examines the achievement and significance of Alfred Hitchcock. It will consider his entire career, including both the British and American periods, his major films and his television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The course will address his characteristic themes and concerns (the double, the relationship between criminality and legality, the play of suspense and surprise); the traditions that shaped him (the Gothic in literature and theater; Victorian melodrama) and the influence he had on other films and filmmakers (the horror film, the political thriller); his significance in relation to the history of film criticism and scholarship (auteurist, feminist, queer). Students will gain a thorough knowledge of Hitchcock and the biographical, historical, technological, industrial, aesthetic issues surrounding his achievement. They will gain practical experience in analyzing films and addressing the critical issues raised by the media in contemporary society.
ARTH 5950 - Topics: Art History (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
ARTH 5993 - Directed Study
(1 cr [max 4]; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
This course provides a mechanism for advanced undergraduate and graduate students to work closely with a faculty member to plan their own course of study around a topic or topics of mutual interest that are not otherwise covered (or are not covered with the same level of depth) in the regular curriculum. In addition, the very task of designing the course?working with the faculty adviser to research the topic, decide on goals, outcomes, and assessments, and determine a sequence of readings, meetings, and tasks?is an invaluable exercise for the student. In general, the course may be designed as an intensive period of reading in key scholarly literatures in which the instructor has expertise or as an independent research project on a topic and with an outcome (such as an annotated bibliography, capstone paper draft, a qualifying paper, dissertation prospectus, exhibition proposal, or archive) that will serve the student?s future academic career. The course schedule, required readings, assignments, and assessments are worked out in advance and agreed upon by both parties in the ?Student/Faculty Contract for Independent/Directed Study,? to which is often appended a bibliography or plan of work. The contract is signed by the participants and approved by the appropriate departmental authority (e.g., the Director of Graduate Studies or Chair).
ARTH 5994 - Directed Research
(1 cr [max 4]; Prereq-instr consent; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 4 credits)
tbd
ARTH 8001 - Art Historiography: Theory and Methods
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Key texts, from Renaissance to present, from western/non-western fields, relating to history/criticism of both art and visual culture. Focuses on recent critical theory, its re-examination of assumptions underlying the discipline.
ARTH 8120 - Computer Applications in Art History and Archaeology
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Seminar. Potential of digital technology as applied to art history/archaeology. Computer technologies as affecting methodologies of art history/archaeology. Way in which art history/archaeology can contribute to emerging computer applications.
ARTH 8190 - Seminar: Issues in Ancient Art and Archaeology (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Equivalent courses: was CLAS 8190 until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 8190 until 24-MAY-04, was CLAS 8190 until 20-JAN-04, was CLAS 8190 until 02-SEP-03, was CLAS 8190 until 21-JAN-03, was CLAS 8190 until 03-SEP-02, was CLAS 8190 until 22-JAN-02, was CLAS 8190 until 04-SEP-01, was CLAS 8190 until 16-JAN-01, was CLAS 8190 until 05-SEP-00, was CLAS 8190 until 07-SEP-99, CNRC 8190
Selected topics, with special attention to current scholarly disputes. Topics specified in Class Schedule.
ARTH 8200 - Seminar: Medieval Art
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Focus on a major art historical theme, artist, period, or genre.
ARTH 8320 - Seminar: Issues in Early Modern Visual Culture (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Issues in visual culture of Europe and the Americas, 1500-1750. Topics vary, may include representation of body, collectors/collecting, impact of Reformation, image/book, art/discovery, early modern vision/visuality.
ARTH 8333 - FTE: Master's
(1 cr; Prereq-Master's student, adviser and DGS consent; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; 6 academic progress units; 6 financial aid progress units)
(No description)
ARTH 8340 - Seminar: Baroque Art (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Topics vary.
ARTH 8400 - Seminar: Issues in 19th-Century Art (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Typical seminars have included symbolism, role of the academy and the avant-garde, surrealism in art and theory, and Franco-American relationships at the turn of the 20th century.
ARTH 8440 - Seminar: Contemporary Art (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Identity politics in contemporary art. Theories of performance/performativity. Nationalism/sexuality in art since 1980s. Discourses of death in postmodernism. Body at turn of 21st century.
ARTH 8444 - FTE: Doctoral
(1 cr; Prereq-Doctoral student, adviser and DGS consent; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; 6 academic progress units; 6 financial aid progress units)
(No description)
ARTH 8500 - Issues in Latin American Art (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Topics vary.
ARTH 8520 - Seminar: American Art and Material Culture (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Equivalent courses: was AMST 8520 until 06-SEP-05, was AMST 8520 until 20-JAN-04, was AMST 8520 until 02-SEP-03, was AMST 8520 until 28-MAY-02, was AMST 8520 until 22-JAN-02, AMST 8520 (inactive)
Topics in American art, popular art, and material culture, emphasizing methods and techniques of inquiry: creation and use of archives, oral history, sources for pictorial evidence, and current approaches to interpreting traditional and non-traditional data.
ARTH 8666 - Doctoral Pre-Thesis Credits
(1 cr [max 6]; Prereq-Doctoral student who has not passed prelim oral; no required consent for 1st/2nd registrations, up to 12 combined cr; dept consent for 3rd/4th registrations, up to 24 combined cr; doctoral student admitted before summer 2007 may register up to four times, up to 60 combined cr; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
tbd
ARTH 8710 - Seminar: Islamic Art
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Focus depends on current research interests of the professor and needs and interests of graduate students in Islamic and Asian art history.
ARTH 8720 - Seminar:East Asian Art (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Research focuses on closely defined topic, such as a short period of Chinese art, a restricted subject, or role of a single artist. A substantive research paper is required and participation in the seminar dialogue is expected.
ARTH 8770 - Seminar: Art of India
(3 cr; Prereq-3 cr art history, instr consent; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Selected problems and issues in history of South Asian art. Topic varies by offering.
ARTH 8783 - Art, Diplomacy, and Empire
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: ARTH 5783 (inactive)
This course examines the mobility and agency of objects and people in diplomatic practice. An emerging body of scholarship within Renaissance and early modern studies explores the exchange and global circulation of objects and their role in cultural encounters. The possibilities offered by this 'material turn' highlight the potential of objects to enable cultural contact, conversion, and exchange across traditional political and cultural boundaries. At the same time, recent innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to exchange highlight cultural aspects of the diplomatic encounter. As a result, the roles of diplomats, interpreters, merchants as well as various types of objects and services continue to be interpreted in new ways. This course will introduce students to canonical texts associated with gift-exchange and reciprocity, and will explore their relevance to the disciplines of history and art history particularly with regard to imperial encounters and exchanges.
ARTH 8888 - Thesis Credit: Doctoral
(1 cr [max 24]; Prereq-Max 18 cr per semester or summer; 24 cr required; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 100 credits; may be repeated 10 times)
(No description)
ARTH 8920 - Seminar: Film History and Criticism (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Selected topics in film history and theory, including specific directors, genres, movements, periods, and critical issues (e.g., violence).
ARTH 8950 - Seminar: Issues in the History of Art (Topics course)
(3 cr; Prereq-3 cr art history, instr consent; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Theoretical or topical issues. Topics vary.
ARTH 8970 - Directed Studies
(1 cr [max 3]; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 12 times)
tbd

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