15290

ARTH  102   

 Perspectives in World Art II

Susan Aberth

. T . Th .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 102

AART/DIFF

This course, the second half of the general art survey, explores the making of visual arts worldwide. Beginning in the fourteenth century and ending in the twentieth, the class will survey painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as works in newer media (such as photography, video, and performance). The class will encompass works from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, arranged chronologically in order to provide a more integrated historical context for their production. In addition to the course textbook, readings will be chosen to broaden critical perspectives. This course is designed for those students with no background in art history as well as for those who may be contemplating a major in art history or studio.  Open to all students: first and second year students are especially encouraged to enroll. (Art History requirement: ARTH 101 or 102) Class size: 25

 

15295

ARTH  113   

 History of Photography

Laurie Dahlberg

. T . Th .

8:30am-9:50am

OLIN 102

AART

Cross-listed:  Science, Technology & Society  The discovery of photography was announced in 1839, almost simultaneously by several inventors. Born of experiments in art and science, the medium combines vision and technology. It possesses a uniquely intimate relation to the real and for this reason has many applications outside the realm of fine art; nevertheless, from its inception photography has been a vehicle for artistic aspirations. This survey of the history of photography from its earliest manifestations to the 2000s considers the medium's applications - as art, science, historical record, and document. This course is open to all students and is the prerequisite for most other courses in the history of photography. (Art History requirement: Modern)Class size: 22

 

15292

ARTH  145   

 Byzantine Art & Architecture

Katherine Boivin

M . W . .

3:10pm-4:30pm

OLIN 102

AART

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies, Medieval Studies  This course serves as an introduction to the art and architecture of the Byzantine Empire.  Beginning with the reign of Constantine the Great in 324 and ending with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, the course will look at art produced in the eastern Mediterranean region under successive emperors.  In addition to architecture, the course will look at mosaics, textiles, painting, city planning, manuscripts, and a range of other media.  Course requirements include two short papers as well as quizzes and exams. (Art History requirement: Ancient/Medieval, European) Class size: 25

 

15291

ARTH  160   

 Survey of Latin american Art

Susan Aberth

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

OLIN 102

AART/DIFF

Cross-listed: LAIS (core course) Related interest:  Africana Studies, Theology    A broad overview of art and cultural production in Latin America, including South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The survey will commence with an examination of major pre-Columbian civilizations and a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum.  This is followed by an examination of the contact between Europe and the Americas during the colonial period, the Independence movements and art of the 19th century, and finally the search for national identity in the modern era. All students welcome. (Art History requirement: Americas)  Class size: 25

 

15294

ARTH  219   

Art of Northern Renaissance:

Van Eyck to Bruegel

Teju Cole

M . W . .

11:50am-1:10pm

RKC 102

AART

This course explores the visual culture of the Netherlands and Germany in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This was a period of important formal changes in art, from the invention of oil painting to the rise of vernacular art. It was also a time of great upheaval in European society, encompassing the discovery of the new world, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the birth of modern science, and the beginning of the counter-Reformation. We will study the works of Van Eyck, Dürer, Bosch, and Bruegel, among others, as they expressed the political and quotidian effects of these changes. Our approach will be chronological, but the subjects addressed will reflect the wide range of concerns present in the paintings, prints, tapestries, drawings, and sculpture of major European artists working north of the Alps during this period. Subjects touched on will include patronage, iconoclasm, distribution networks, religion, cross-currents with Italy, gender roles, and the invention and/or revival of local traditions. Course requirements: class attendance, a visit to the Met, two short response papers, mid-term and finals exams. (Art History requirement: 15th through 18th C., Europe) Class size: 22

 

15298

ARTH  236   

 16th Century Italian Art, Architecture & URBANISM

Diana DePardo-Minsky

. T . Th .

4:40pm-6:00pm

OLIN 102

AART

Cross-listed:  Environmental & Urban Studies, Italian Studies  Proceeding chronologically and emphasizing Florence, Rome, and Venice, this lecture class situates formal and iconographic innovations in painting, sculpture, architecture, and urbanism within the politics and theology of the cinquecento Renaissance and the Counter Reformation.  The course explores how a deepening knowledge of antiquity (the invention of archaeology!), an ongoing development of art/architectural theory, and the continued study of the natural world crafted a visual vocabulary able to address the existential challenge posed by the Protestant north.  Beginning with Leonardo da Vinci, the class analyzes the contributions of Michelangelo, Raphael, Correggio, Pontormo, Parmigianino, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, and Palladio.  In addition to secondary scholarship, readings incorporate primary sources by Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Palladio, and Vasari. Requirements include a mid-term, a final, a critical essay, and a research paper on a work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Open to all students; fills both the Art History 15th century to 18th century requirement and the European Art requirement. Class size: 22.  Completion of this class qualifies students for consideration for Roma in Situ, taught in Rome during January of odd-numbered years and completed at Bard in the Spring semester.  (Art History requirement: 15th through 18th C., European) Class size: 22

 

15296

ARTH  237   

 Travel & Exploration in the age of empire

Laurie Dahlberg

. T . Th .

1:30pm-2:50pm

FISHER ANNEX

AART

Cross-listed: Photography, Victorian Studies  This course surveys the far-ranging work of the peripatetic photographers of the nineteenth century. Travel and exploratory photographs of landscapes, people, and architecture were made by European and American photographers throughout the world. They reflect the photographers’ preconceptions and expectations as well as the inherent properties of their subject matter. Such Photographs were produced as government surveys, historical records, souvenirs for travelers, scientific documents, and picturesque views. Imperialist expansion of European powers, the romantic poets’ reverence for nature, and the projection of the photographers’ (and their audiences’) fantasies upon alien realms and peoples are among the forces that helped shape the travel photography of this period. The course is of interest to history and social science students as well as art history and photography students. 

(Art History requirement: Modern, European) Class size: 22

 

15304

ARTH  281   

GOVERNING THE WORLD: AN Architectural History

Olga Touloumi

. . W . .

. . . . F

1:30pm-2:50pm

1:30pm-2:50pm

RKC 103

OLIN 203

AART

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Experimental Humanities The 1990s found a wider public attentive to the processes of globalization. The term itself acquired a life of its own, making it into journals and newspapers. What appears to be a very recent phenomenon, however, constitutes only a chapter in a longer history of world organization. The course will utilize architecture both as an anchor and lens to study the history of world organization. Slave ships, plantation houses, embassies, assembly halls, banks, detention camps, corporate headquarters, seed bank vaults, as well as atlases, encyclopedias, and communication technologies, will provide us with focal points in an effort to historicize the emergence of a “global space” and decipher its architectural constructions. Readings will include historians and scholars such as Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Woodrow Wilson, Hannah Arendt, Cornelios Castoriadis, Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Ulrich Beck, Saskia Sassen, Mark Mazower; as well as architectural projects and texts by Paul Otlet, Le Corbusier, Etienne-Louis Boullée, Buckminster Fuller, among others. Course requirements include response papers and a longer final research paper. (Art History requirement: Modern) Class size: 20

 

15303

ARTH  285   

 History of Art Criticism

Alex Kitnick

. T . Th .

3:10pm-4:30pm

FISHER ANNEX

AART

This course will explore art criticism as an historical phenomenon. Beginning with the writings of Diderot and Baudelaire, we will examine the emergence of art criticism as a response to the public forum of the Salon and, subsequently, its relationship to other sites of presentation. We will also consider the position of art criticism in relation to film and cultural criticism, as well as models of the poet-critic and the artist-critic. Towards the end of the course we will look at the historical moment in which criticism became increasingly embroiled with theory. As the status of the public has changed in recent years we will ask how the role of criticism has transformed as well. Throughout the course we will ask the question, What can art criticism do?  Assignments: Students will be required to submit a weekly response paper. Students will also write two reviews: one of an exhibition at the Center for Curatorial Studies, and one of an exhibition in New York. A final research paper (8-10 pages) will be due at the end of the semester. Class size: 18

 

15301

ARTH  287   

 Experiments in Art & Technology

Alex Kitnick

. T . Th .

11:50am-1:10pm

AVERY 117

AART

This course will explore various imbrications between art and technology from the 1960s to the present day.  Students will examine a wide range of writings, artworks, performances, and videos.  The idea of the course is to show that both artists and theorists are involved in a common project of responding to new technologies.  Questions of distribution, audience, and globalization will be of key concern.  In the last weeks, we will consider how these ideas have evolved in the age of the Internet.  Open to all students. (Art History requirement: Modern)  Class size: 22

 

15479

ARTH  289   

 RIGHTS AND THE IMAGE

Susan Merriam

M . W . .

1:30pm-2:50pm

OLIN 102

AART

Cross-listed: Human Rights (core course); Experimental Humanities   This course examines the relationship between visual culture and human rights. It considers a wide range of visual media (photography, painting, sculpture), as well as aspects of visuality (surveillance, profiling). We will use case studies ranging in time from the early modern period (practices in which the body was marked to measure criminality, for example), to the present day. Within this framework, we will study how aspects of visual culture have been used to advocate for human rights, as well as how images and visual regimes have been used to suppress human rights. An important part of the course will be to consider the role played by reception in shaping a discourse around human rights, visuality, and images. Subjects to be addressed include: the nature of evidence; documentation and witness; censorship; iconoclasm; surveillance; profiling; advocacy images; signs on the body; visibility and invisibility. Class size: 22

 

15300

ARTH  292   

 Contemporary Chinese Art

Patricia Karetzky

. . W . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

OLINLC 115

AART

Cross-Listed: Asian Studies   This course begins with the emergence of a modernist aesthetic in the 19th century (at the end of China’s last dynasty) and covers the formation of a nationalist modern movement, the political art that served the government under the Communist regime, and the impact of the opening of China to the West.  The primary focus is the various ways in which artists respond to the challenges of contemporary life and culture.  (Art History requirement: Modern, Asian) Class size: 22

 

15299

ARTH  312   

 Roma in Situ

Diana DePardo-Minsky

M . . . .

3:10pm-5:30pm

FISHER ANNEX

AART

Cross-listed: Classical Studies, Environmental & Urban Studies, Italian Studies Roma in situ considers the temporal and spatial experience of art, architecture, and urbanism bycombiningtwo intensive weeks in Rome in January with seminar-style meetings in the spring semester.  In Rome, the first week focuses on the ancient city, studying the evolving role of public monuments as the republic transformed into an empire.  The second week explores post-antique (up to the present day) reconfiguration of antiquities in order to construct political and theological meaning.  The portion of the class in Rome is rigorous, consisting of over seventy hours of lectures at archaeological sites, in museums, and in churches.   During the spring semester, the class analyzes the art seen in Rome and discusses the secondary scholarship.  Requirements include two presentations (one on texts, one on art), two exams, and a research paper term paper.  The prerequisite for the class is successful completion of eitherRoman Art and Architecture (ARTH 210), Roman Urbanism (ARTH 227), or 16th-century Italian Renaissance Art,Architecture, and Urbanism (ArtH 236).  The class is limited to sixteen students; priority is based on academic relevance and intellectual maturity.  The cost of the Rome component is circa $1700 to include transportation in Rome, lodging, breakfast, museum admissions, and all but two dinners.  Airfare is not included, and financial aid does not assist with this fee.   Credit will only be awarded upon successful completion of both components of the class.  Permission of the professor required.  (Art History requirement: European) Class size: 15

 

15321

THTR  317   

 20th Century Avant Garde Performance

Miriam Felton-Dansky

M . . . .

1:30pm-3:50pm

FISHER CONFERENCE

AART

See Theater section for description.

 

15306

ARTH  348   

 Asian american Artists Seminar

Tom Wolf

. T . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

FISHER ANNEX

AART/DIFF

Cross-listed: American Studies, Asian Studies   In recent years there has been increasing interest in artists of Asian ancestry who have worked in the United States. The relationships between the artistic traditions of their native lands and those of the United States raise fascinating questions concerning biography, style, subject matter, and politics. This class will examine artists active throughout the Twentieth Century and up to the present.  One important figure will be the sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and we will visit the Isamu Noguchi Museum in Long Island, Queens, as well as looking at more recent art by Asian Americans in New York museums and studios.  Along with studying visual artists we will read several classics of Asian American literature.  Students will give short presentations about historic and recent artists.  Key figures will include Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Yun Gee, Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Ai Weiwei, Patty Chang, Nikki Lee and Mariko Mori.  (Art History requirement: Modern, Asian) Class size: 15

 

15322

ARTH / THTR  353   

 Performing Queer

Jorge Cortinas

. . W . .

1:30pm-4:30pm

FISHER  CONFERENCE

AART/DIFF

See Theater section for description.

 

15297

ARTH  359   

 Manet to Matisse

Laurie Dahlberg

. . W . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

FISHER ANNEX

AART

A social history of French painting from 1860 to 1900, beginning with the origins of modernism in the work of Manet. Topics include the rebuilding of Paris under Napoleon III, changing attitudes toward city and country in impressionist and symbolist art, the gendering of public spaces, and the prominent place of women in representations of modern life. The course addresses vanguard movements such as impressionism and postimpressionism and the styles of individual artists associated with them, as well as the work of academic painters. Open to upper college students with priority being given to those who have previously taken an art history course. (Art History requirement: Modern, European) Class size: 15

 

15305

ARTH  361   

 THE Spatial Turn & its Vicissitudes

Olga Touloumi

. . . . F

10:10am- 12:30pm

FISHER ANNEX

AART

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies Often associated with the rise of the digital humanities, the spatial turn has transformed “space” into a new powerful tool for knowledge production. Territories, landscapes, and fields, have become the keywords in our discussions on economy, politics, and culture. This course interrogates this “spatial turn” from the perspective of architecture and design theory. What is “space”? How did new technologies of seeing and hearing inform these theories? Which were the architectures that thinkers were looking at? The goal will be to conduct a media archaeology of the spatial turn in the humanities and to bring in creative dialogue architecture, media, and theoretical speculation. Through the study of spaces such as panoramas, theaters, laboratories, and media technologies such as the stereoscope, telephone, and radio, students will investigate debates on territoriality, biopolitics, and mapping. Readings will include Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Guy Debord, Roland Barthes, Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Jonathan Crary, Jürgen Habermas, Marshall McLuhan, Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag, Rosalind Krauss, Dolores Hayden, Anne Friedberg. Course requirements include response papers and a longer final research paper. Class size: 15

 

15293

ARTH  385   

 Theories & Methods of Art History

Katherine Boivin

M . . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

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.  (Art History requirement: Required) Class size: 15

 

See also:

 

15392

HR  331   

SPACES OF RESILIENCE: Social Justice in Urban Territories

Jeanne van Heeswijk

M . . . .

2:00pm-4:20pm

OLINLC 115

AART

Cross-listed: Art History, Studio Art, Environmental & Urban Studies, Theater   Global urbanization and the resulting current economic crisis, shifting geopolitical boundaries and socio-cultural demographics have generated numerous local zones of conflict. This course will look for strategies of resilience, focusing on spatial resistance and the interplay of art and activism in the public sphere. It will explore how artists and political activists use arts-based methodologies such as performative acts of civil disobedience and creative forms of protest to work for social justice in urban territories, to challenge and transform these systems’ underlying rules. It will address the complex relationship of art and activism and the forms in which artists and activists engage with human rights struggles to seek what concepts the human rights context may provide in learning from these actions, interventions and strategies. (Jeanne van Heeswijk is the Keith Haring Fellow in Art and Activism for 2014-15).  Class size: 18

 

15393

HR  344   

 Urban Curating: MODES OF ACUPUNCTURE

Jeanne van Heeswijk

. T . . .

10:10am- 12:30pm

 

CCS

AART

Cross-listed: Art History, Studio Art, Environmental & Urban Studies, Theater  In a time of accelerated globalization, over-regulation, and rapid changes in our daily environments, populist images prevail and people can feel increasingly de-invested and excluded. How might people transform their own 'territory' to an environment where they can create, produce, disseminate, distribute and have access to their own cultural expressions? This course will look at how artistic and curatorial practices can re-engage and bear witness to the veiled vectors of power that shape civic space, reorganize systems of interaction, and challenge existing political, social and economic frameworks, addressing how areas of tension in contemporary society are made visible through these interventions. Through reading, workshops, and discussion, students will explore how alliances between politics and art can be imagined and tested. (Jeanne van Heeswijk is the Keith Haring Fellow in Art and Activism for 2014-15).  Class size: 9