Art History and Visual Culture

 

Perspectives in World Art

 

Professor:

Katherine Boivin

 

Course Number:

ARTH 101

CRN Number:

90063

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Olin 102

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

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 1500 C.E.  Works from Europe, Asia, and Africa are studied chronologically to create an integrated historical context. Readings from various critical perspectives present different methodological approaches. Requirements include weekly reflections, two papers, exams, 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.

 

Romanesque & Gothic Art & Architecture

 

Professor:

Katherine Boivin

 

Course Number:

ARTH 120

CRN Number:

90569

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs   1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

 

Crosslists:

Architecture; French Studies; Medieval Studies

This course introduces students to the art and architecture created in Western Europe from around 1000 C.E. to 1500 C.E. From gem-laden book covers to the soaring stone vaults of French Gothic cathedrals, the course examines thematically the changing visual articulation of ideas about death, salvation, the body, society, patronage, and the artist. It teaches students to analyze architecture, sculpture, painting, stained glass, textiles, metalwork, and urban space within their wider cultural context. Coursework includes weekly journal posts and two short papers. Open to all students. AHVC distribution: Ancient, Europe.

 

Situating Architecture: Modernisms

 

Professor:

Ivonne Santoyo Orozco

 

Course Number:

ARTH 126

CRN Number:

90074

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

  Wed  Fri   11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 204

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

 

Crosslists:

Architecture; Environmental & Urban Studies; Environmental Studies

This course offers a survey of modern architecture through architectural and urban design practices and theories. As a survey the course covers major 20th century architectural movements, such as brutalism, functionalism, megastructures, corporate architecture, phenomenology, postmodernism, and deconstruction. At the same time, the course interrogates the social and political function of the built environment, addressing social housing, third-world development, and urbanism. Major figures discussed include Henry Van de Velde, Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Alison and Peter Smithson, Eero Saarinen, Yona Friedman, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Aldo Rossi, Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman. Assignments include visual analysis projects, a final paper, and a midterm and final exam. AHVC distribution: Modern/Europe/America

 

Ancient Art of the Mediterranean World

 

Professor:

Anne Chen

 

Course Number:

ARTH 136

CRN Number:

90065

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Olin 102

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

 

Crosslists:

Classical Studies; Middle Eastern Studies

Surveying the art of the ancient Mediterranean world from the 3rd millennium BCE to the advent of Islam in the 7th century CE, this course will reveal the dynamic interconnectivity among cultures normally studied in isolation. Visually rich, chronologically structured lectures will present important architectural monuments, artifacts, and works of art from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, the Aegean, Greece, and Rome. Students will discuss current approaches, issues, and notable recent archaeological discoveries, developing a well-rounded background in the art, visual culture, architecture, and archaeology of the region. Highlights will include monuments such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Assyrian, Persian and Roman palaces, Egyptian pyramids, Pergamon, the Parthenon, and Hagia Sophia. Coursework includes timeline posts and two papers. AHVC distribution: Ancient

 

Survey of Latin American Art

 

Professor:

Susan Aberth

 

Course Number:

ARTH 160

CRN Number:

90061

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art D+J Difference and Justice

 

Crosslists:

Latin American/Iberian Studies

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. AHVC distribution: American

 

Arts of Japan

 

Professor:

Hillary Langberg

 

Course Number:

ARTH 193

CRN Number:

91143

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM – 1:10 PM Olin 102

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art

This course surveys Japanese art and architecture (c. 600-1850). The visual culture of Japan encompasses Buddhist and Shinto temples and sculptures, Zen and Pure Land Buddhist and secular paintings, and woodblock prints (ukiyo-e). Course materials also include ceramics for tea ceremonies, forged military implements and Samurai armor, and theatrical (Noh) robes and masks. Participants will gain visual literacy through class discussions and analysis of objects and structures made with great skill and artistry. Students will also consider how art forms can simultaneously express and reinforce a society’s cultural values, including those related to class and gender. AHVC distribution: Ancient, Asia.

 

The Handmaiden's Tale: 19th Century Photography and Fine Art

 

Professor:

Laurie Dahlberg

 

Course Number:

ARTH 212

CRN Number:

90067

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

 

Distributional Area:

None   

The semester begins with the debate over realism in art that forms the backstory for the complicated reception of photography and then works forward to the pictorialist movement at the end of the 19th century. Along the way, students address such topics as "passing" (how to make photographs that look like art); photography and art pedagogy; photography's role in the "liberation" of painting; and the 20th-century repudiation of 19th-century photography's art aspirations.

 

Wild Visions: Picturing Nature in Early Modern Northern Europe

 

Professor:

Susan Merriam

 

Course Number:

ARTH 223

CRN Number:

90071

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

 

Crosslists:

Environmental & Urban Studies; Environmental Studies; Experimental Humanities; Science, Technology, Society

This class examines the extraordinary body of visual material representing the natural world created in Europe from 1500-1800. Still life paintings, study drawings, scientific illustrations, maps, and prints will serve as our focus. Questions we will address include: How did this body of visual material both reflect and produce beliefs about the natural world? What visual conventions did artists develop to depict nature, and how did these conventions inspire viewers to think about the natural world in new ways? How did colonial practices and discourses shape the visual record of nature in colonized landscapes?  How were colonized peoples engaged in discourses about the natural world, and what role did they play in creating visual material? Can we say that this visual record still resonates with contemporary views of nature? Weekly reading assignments and short papers. AHVC distribution: 1400-1800.

 

Painters of Modern Life: European Modernism 1850-1900

 

Professor:

Laurie Dahlberg

 

Course Number:

ARTH 258

CRN Number:

90068

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin 102

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

 

Crosslists:

French Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; German Studies

This course considers art of the latter half of the 19th century, a period often described as the incubator of the avant-garde. Using painting and the graphics arts as our primary materials, we will consider the economic, biographical, historical, psychological, gender-related conditions that surround art and its makers. Why have some artworks been enshrined into the canon, and others left out in the cold? Can viewers today hope to understand these works as they were understood by their original audiences—and if not, what then? How do the conditions of our contemporary lives color our reading of these artworks? This course concerns what is classically called "Modern Art," but what does 'modern' mean? Two papers and two exams aim to have students synthesize knowledge, bring together various threads of understanding (cultural, historical, aesthetic, social, etc.) and give them the opportunity to develop intelligent, well-rounded, well-reasoned, and penetrating readings of individual artworks and their contexts.  Art History distribution: European, 1500 – present.

 

To Exhibit, To Present

 

Professor:

Alex Kitnick

 

Course Number:

ARTH 270

CRN Number:

90069

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    1:30 PM - 2:50 PM Center for Curatorial Studies

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

What does it mean to curate? This course will introduce students to key ideas and theories informing the field of curatorial studies, in addition to providing an introduction to the history of exhibitions since the 1960s. Classes will be held at Bard’s Center for Curatorial Studies and students will be introduced to the different aspects of the institution, from the library to the registrar to the collections storage. We will consider the different components of exhibitions, from design to didactics to artworks themselves, as well as the audiences and publics exhibitions address. Towards the end of the semester we will think about the differences between curatorial work, academic work, and criticism, as well as the role of the curator today. In addition to weekly responses and a final research paper students will collectively research and curate an exhibition at the Center for Curatorial Studies at the end of the term.

 

Dura-Europos and the Problems of Archaeological Archives (Part 1)

 

Professor:

Anne Chen

 

Course Number:

ARTH 318

CRN Number:

90066

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin 301

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

 

Crosslists:

Classical Studies; Experimental Humanities; Human Rights; Middle Eastern Studies

What silences do archaeological archives unintentionally preserve? In what ways do power and privilege influence the creation and shape of archaeological archives, and dictate who has access to them? How might new technologies help us begin to rectify inequities of access? Once called by its excavators the “Pompeii of the East,” the ancient archaeological site of Dura-Europos (Syria) preserves evidence of what everyday life was like in an ancient Roman city. The site is home to the earliest Christian church building yet found, the most elaborately decorated ancient synagogue known to date, and testifies to the ways in which ancient religions and cultures intermingled and inspired one another. Yet since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the site has been irreparably compromised for future archaeological exploration. More than ever, our knowledge and understanding of the site's ancient phases will depend almost entirely upon archival information collected in the course of archaeological excavations that took place 100 years ago when Syria was under French colonial occupation. In this hands-on practicum course focused on the case-study of this fascinating archaeological site, students will not only learn what we know of Dura-Europos as it was in antiquity, but will also think critically about issues central to the use and development of archival resources more generally. Coursework will center around firsthand engagement with data, artifacts, and archival materials from the site, and will allow students the opportunity to develop guided research projects that ultimately contribute toward the goal of improving the site’s accessibility and intelligibility to users worldwide. The methods and critical perspectives explored in this class will be particularly relevant to students interested in exploring careers in GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museum) fields. AHVC distribution: Ancient.

 

I, etcetera

 

Professor:

Alex Kitnick

 

Course Number:

ARTH 322

CRN Number:

90070

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     9:10 AM - 11:30 AM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

What is art’s relationship to the self that makes it? Artists have long created self-portraits, but in modern times the subjectivity of the artist was privileged more than ever before; indeed, self and work became inextricable from one another. Then suddenly, in the 1960s, one began to hear reports about “the death of the author.” Perhaps the artist wasn’t so important after all; maybe it was the reader-viewer that mattered. In this course we will look at the work of artists, critics, and writers who have returned to the self since the 1960s in ways that seem distinct from the traditional genres of autobiography, memoir, and self-portrait, and we will explore how the protagonists in this field often scramble, or work between, the historically separate spaces of art and writing. Some of these figures see the self as belonging to larger social structures, as is the case with much feminist art, while others understand the self as a starting point for new narratives, as is the case with much autotheory and fiction. Or perhaps this turn to the self is a result of the current technological landscape, which focuses so relentlessly on the ‘i’. Taking the form of a reading group this course will attempt to bring recent tendencies in art and criticism to light by focusing on figures includ in Roland Barthes, Yvonne Rainer, Moyra Davey, and Claudia Rankine, amongst others.

 

Outsider Art

 

Professor:

Susan Aberth

 

Course Number:

ARTH 353

CRN Number:

90062

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

    Fri   12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Related interest: Human Rights, Psychology    The term “Outsider Art” is a problematic umbrella under which are grouped a variety of difficult to categorize artistic practices.  This class will first examine the use of terminology such as outsider, naïve, and visionary, as well as groupings such as art brut, folk art, art of the insane, and even popular culture.  We will pursue relevant questions such as: what exactly are the criteria for inclusion in such categories, do art markets drive this labeling, how does this work function within the art world, are categorical borders crossed in order to fit the needs of exhibiting institutions, and finally how has Outsider Art impacted mainstream modern and contemporary art and are the dividing lines between the two still relevant? We will look at artwork produced within certain institutional settings such as mental asylums and prisons, as well as that produced by mediums, spiritualists and other “visionaries” working within what can be best described as a “folk art” category. Class size: 15

 

Theories and Methods of Art History

 

Professor:

Susan Merriam

 

Course Number:

ARTH 385

CRN Number:

90072

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      3:10 PM - 5:30 PM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

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.  AHVC distribution: required.

 

Cross-listed Courses:

 

Exhibiting (Im)mobility

 

Professor:

Dina Ramadan

 

Course Number:

HR 330

CRN Number:

90347

Class cap:

15

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     3:30 PM - 5:50 PM Center for Curatorial Studies

 

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

 

Crosslists:

Architecture; Art History and Visual Culture; Middle Eastern Studies

 

Russian Art of the Avant-Garde

 

Professor:

Oleg Minin

 

Course Number:

RUS 225

CRN Number:

90115

Class cap:

22

Credits:

4

 

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Olin 102

 

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit  

 

Crosslists:

Art History and Visual Culture