91146 |
ARTH 101 Perspectives
in World Art |
Diana Minsky |
M . W . . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
OLIN 102 |
AART |
Perspectives in
World Art
introduces the diversity of the visual arts worldwide over the course of two
semesters. Students may take either semester
or both. The first semester examines painting, sculpture, architecture, and
other artifacts from the Paleolithic period through the 14th century. Works from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the
Americas are studied chronologically to create an integrated historical
context. Readings from various critical perspectives present different
methodological approaches. Requirements
include two papers, a mid-term, a final, and quizzes. This course fulfills one requirement for
moderating into Art History; potential majors are urged to take Perspectives prior to other Art History
classes. Open to all students. Class size: 25
91152 |
ARTH 114 History of
the Decorative Arts |
Tom
Wolf |
. . W Th . |
10:10 - 11:30 am |
OLIN 102 |
AART |
Cross-listed: STS A survey of decorative arts from the rococo
period to postmodernism. Students explore the evolution of historical styles as
they appear in furniture, interiors, fashion, ceramics, metalwork, and graphic
and industrial design. Objects are evaluated in their historical
contexts, and formal, technical, and aesthetic questions are also considered.
Two or more trips to museums to see decorative arts collections are included. Class size: 25
91145 |
ARTH 122 Survey of
African Art |
Susan
Aberth |
M . W . . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
HEG 102 |
AART/DIFF |
Cross-listed:
Africana Studies This
introductory course surveys the vast array of art forms created on the African
continent from the prehistoric era to the present, as well as arts of the diaspora in Brazil, the Americas, and Haiti. In addition to
sculpture, masks, architecture and metalwork, we will examine beadwork,
textiles, jewelry, house painting, pottery, and other decorative arts. Some of
the topics to be explored will be implements of divination, royal regalia, the
role of performance, music and dance, funerary practices, and the incorporation
of western motifs and materials. Because art and visual culture most deeply
reveal the aesthetic, spiritual and social values of a people, this course
fulfills the Rethinking Difference requirement. We will examine the ways
in which objects, performances, regalia and other forms designed for visual
consumption work together in African societies to create a cohesive sense of
identity and belonging to community members. All students welcome. Class size: 25
91148 |
ARTH 125 Modern
Architecture, 1850 - 1945 |
Noah
Chasin |
. T . Th . |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
RKC 102 |
AART |
Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies This course will address the history
of modern architecture from its emergence in Western Europe during the
eighteenth century through to its widespread presence and diversification by
the end of World War II. The course will pay particular attention to the ways
in which architects have responded to, and participated in, formal and
aesthetic developments in other arts, as well as the role of architecture in
broader technological, economic, and social-political transformations. Covering
many aspects of architecture—from buildings, drawings, models, exhibitions, and
schools, to historical and theoretical writings and manifestoes—we will
investigate a range of modernist practices, polemics, and institutions. The
readings, both primary and secondary texts, have been selected both to provide
an overview of the history of modern architecture and to offer a number of
critical and historical approaches to evaluating its legacy. Figures discussed
include Schinkel, Paxton, Sullivan, Wright, Oud, Corbusier, Mies, and Aalto.
Requirements include two short written assignments, a midterm, and a final
exam. No prerequisites. Class size: 25
91144 |
ARTH 130 Introduction
to Visual Culture |
Julia
Rosenbaum |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
FISHER ANNEX |
AART |
“Looking
isn’t as easy as it looks” Ad
Reinhardt, early 20thc. artist
“It
is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the
world is the visible, not the invisible.”
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapter 2
This
course constitutes an introduction to the discipline of art history and to
visual artifacts more broadly defined. It teaches students to look at, think
about, and analyze or interpret visual material. We will focus on different
types of visual “texts,” from monuments to media advertising, considering how
they communicate through style, medium, or genre, and how the visual can convey
meaning, whether political, personal, or social. Thinking about images goes
hand in hand with writing about them. The short writing assignments and the
essays that you will work on over the semester are designed to strengthen your
interpretative skills and help you become a persuasive and effective writer and
observer. Class size: 15
91154 |
ARTH 194 Arts of
Buddhism |
Patricia
Karetzky |
. . W . . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 205 |
AART |
Cross-listed:
Asian Studies, Religion
Buddhism began in India
around the sixth century B.C.E. with the philosophical meditations of the
historic Buddha. Self-reliance and discipline were the primary means to achieve
release from suffering. Within five hundred years the philosophy, responding to
external forces, evolved into a religion incorporating new ideologies of
eschatology of the Buddha of the Future and of paradisiacal cults. A new
pantheon of deities appeared with the powers to aid mankind in its search for
immortality. Buddhist pictorial art begins with auspicious emblems representing
key ideas of the doctrine and anthropomorphic images of the Buddha; later, the
new pantheon is formulated and employed in the art. This course analyzes the
development of Buddhist art in India from its earliest depictions and its
transmission through Southeast Asia, Central Asia, to China and Japan. Class
size: 25
91151 |
ARTH 201 Greek Art
and Architecture |
Diana
Minsky |
. T . Th . |
4:40 -6:00 pm |
OLIN 102 |
AART |
Cross-listed:
Classical Studies This class
traces the evolution of Greek sculpture, vase painting, and architecture from
the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Age. Topics include the development of
nude sculpture, the depiction of myths and daily life in painting, and the
political alliances and institutions which shaped Greek architecture. The
stylistic vocabulary and icongraphy set forth in this
class both expressed contemporary beliefs and laid the foundation for future
Western art and architecture. Requirements include two quizzes, two papers, a
mid-term, and a final. Open to all students. Class
size: 22
91158 |
ARTH 209 Art &
Nation Building |
Julia
Rosenbaum |
. T . Th . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 102 |
AART |
Cross-listed: American Studies, Human Rights Between 1650 and 1876,
a new nation came to dominate the world scene. This course explores the
contribution of the visual arts to the conceptualization of an American
national identity, from the founding of the colonies through the Federal and
Antebellum periods to the Civil War and Reconstruction. We will look at a range
of visual and textual materials to examine the development of American culture
and the efforts to portray the political experiment of democracy. Topics range
from depictions of authority and difference, to the importance portraiture and
landscape painting to national culture and politics, to the emergence of
American art institutions, to issues of aesthetics, to transatlantic connections
and traditions. The course serves as an introduction to the painting,
sculpture, photography, and material culture of America. Class
size: 25
91433 |
ARTH / FILM 230 Film Among
the Arts |
Richard
Suchenski Screenings: |
. . W . . . T . . . |
1:30 -4:30 pm 7:00 - 10:00 pm |
AVERY 110 |
AART |
See
Film section for description.
91153 |
ARTH 240 Rights and
the City |
Noah
Chasin |
. . W . F |
11:50 -1:10 pm |
OLIN 202 |
AART |
Cross-listed:
Environmental & Urban Studies, Human Rights (core course); STS The
course will explore the often-contested terrain of urban contexts, looking at
cities from architectural, sociological, historical, and political positions.
What do rights have to do with the city? Can the ancient idea of a "right
to the city" tell us something fundamental about both rights and cities?
Our notion of citizenship is based in the understanding of a city as a
community, and yet today why do millions of people live in cities without
citizenship? The course will be
organized thematically in order to discuss such issues as the consequences of
cities' developments in relation to their peripheries (beginning with the
normative idea of urban boundaries deriving from fortifying walls), debates
around the public sphere, nomadic architecture and urbanism, informal
settlements such as slums and shantytowns, surveillance and control in urban
centers, refugees and the places they live, catastrophes (natural and man-made)
and reconstruction, and sovereign areas within cities (the United Nations, War
Crimes Tribunals). Students will do two position papers and one research paper.
Admittance is at the professor’s discretion.
Class size: 22
91844 |
ARTH 264 Islam from Spain
to Russia and China: Art, Philosophy, and Politics in the Medieval World |
Ali Humayun Akhtar |
. T . Th . |
4:40 – 6:00 pm |
OLIN 205 |
AART |
This
course examines the encounter of Islam with cultures and civilizations from Spain
to Russia and China 800-1750 by exploring the history of art, architecture, and
material culture. The course examines specifically the political and
philosophical dimensions of Islamic art in the pre-modern world in order to
analyze more closely
categories like the "West," the "Middle
East," and the "Far East." To what extent does the art and
politics of the pre-modern world allow us to define these geographic categories
as distinct cultural regions with clear intellectual borders? Can we consider additional
models of historiography that extend beyond paradigms like "The West and
the Islamic World” or "Imperial Russia and the Islamic World"? How
does our understanding of these paradigms change when we think in terms of
"trans-Mediterranean"
and "trans-Caspian" artistic and political exchange?
91150 |
ARTH 273 Religious
Imagery in Latin
America |
Susan
Aberth |
. T . Th . |
3:10 -4:30 pm |
OLIN 102 |
AART |
Cross-listed:
Africana Studies, LAIS This course will explore
the varied visual manifestations of religious expression in Latin America after
the Spanish Conquest. Although Spanish missionaries originally employed art and
architecture as conversion tools, Latin America ultimately developed unique
kinds of Catholic imagery and building types. One of the topics discussed at
length will be the Virgin of Guadalupe and the use of her image as a tool for
building national identity in Mexico, as well as for other political and
cultural movements. In addition to conventional churches, statuary and
paintings, we will examine folk art traditions such as popular saints and
cults, masked performances, and shamanic beliefs tied to healing. A significant
portion of the course will deal with African diasporic
religions such as Candomble and Santería
as practiced in Brazil, the Caribbean and the United States. A significant
portion of this course will be dedicated to contemporary art and practices. In
addition to reading and viewing documentary films, students will be asked to execute
and present a number of art projects such as altars, ex-votos,
etc. Students who have taken my “Survey of Latin American Art” will be given
preference, but all are welcome to enroll. Class size: 22
91143 |
ARTH 298 History of
the Museum |
Susan
Merriam |
M . W . . |
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 102 |
AART |
Cross-listed: Science, Technology & Society; related
interest: Environmental & Urban
Studies Examines
the history of the museum from the Renaissance to the present, with focus on natural
history and art museums. Traces the transformation of early collecting and
display practices into the first modern “survey” museum, and considers the
emergence of alternatives to this model. Particular attention
given to critiques of the museum (including critiques of exclusivity and
cultural insensitivity), as well as to problems in contemporary museum practice
(such as contested provenance and the issue of restitution). Other
topics to be addressed include: the museum as memory and memorial; the role
played by the museum in the wake of New World discovery and European
colonization; collections as sites for producing knowledge; artists’
intervention in the museum; the virtual collection; the gallery and the museum;
the logic and politics of display. The class will be conducted as both lecture
and discussion. The final class
project, and most of the written work for the class, will involve creating an
on-line exhibition and print-on-demand catalog about a historically significant
local area. The project will require students to do weekly research on an area
of the exhibition, and to produce, for their final paper, an essay that will be
published as part of the on-line exhibition and a print-on-demand catalog. The
class is open to moderated students in any field. Class
size: 22
91156 |
PHOT 321 The
Employment of Photography |
Luc
Sante |
. . . Th . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
WOODS |
AART |
See
Photography section for description.
91155 |
ARTH 340 Seminar in
Contemporary Art |
Tom
Wolf |
. . . Th . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
FISHER ANNEX |
AART |
A
consideration of the history of recent art, beginning with a short survey
of the minimalism of the 1960s and then focusing on subsequent artistic
developments through the early 21st century. The class meets in New York
City every fourth week to view current exhibitions. Students give
presentations about selected artists and topics to the class. Class
size: 15
91147 |
ARTH 349 Women
Artists of the Surrealist
Movement |
Susan
Aberth |
. T . . . |
10:10 - 12:30 pm |
FISHER ANNEX |
AART |
Related interest: Gender
& Sexuality Studies, LAIS The
Surrealist Movement, launched in the 1920s by the poet André Breton in Paris,
ascribed to woman a pivotal and revolutionary role in the life and work of
man. The movement offered women unique roles as both muse and creator and
attracted a large number of active female participants. Until recent
feminist scholarship, the lives and work of these women were overshadowed by
those of the male Surrealists. This course will first examine the use of,
indeed the centrality of, female sexuality in Surrealist imagery, and then
juxtapose it to the writings and art work of such female Surrealists as
Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, Lee Miller, Meret Openheim, Leonor Fini, Nusch Eluard,
Dora Maar, Jacqueline Lamba,
Valentine Hugo, Mimi Parent, Unica Zürn, Ithel Colquhoun, Eileen
Agar, Frida Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, Kay Sage, Toyen, Claude Cahun, and
others. Issues explored will be female subjectivity, cultural identity,
occultism, mythology, dream imagery, artistic collaboration, the role of
poetry, and the various methodologies employed to interpret Surrealism in
general. Class size: 15
91142 |
ARTH 385 Art
Criticism and Methodology |
Susan
Merriam |
M . . . . |
10:10 - 12:30 pm |
FISHER ANNEX |
AART |
This seminar, designed primarily for art history majors, helps students develop the ability to think critically about a range of different approaches to the field of art history. Students read and discuss a variety of texts in order to become familiar with the discipline’s development. Methodologies such as connoisseurship, cultural history, Marxism, feminism, and post-modernism are analyzed. Class size: 15