12234

ARTH 102      Perspectives in World Art II

Susan Aberth

M  W     11:50 am-1:10 pm

RKC 103

AA D+J

AART DIFF

 This course explores the visual arts worldwide from the fourteenth century (beginning with works of what’s known as the Italian Renaissance) and ending in the 20th century. We will consider painting and sculpture alongside other media in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, arranged chronologically in order to provide a more integrated historical context for their production. The course objectives include: broad understanding of art making processes and the historical/social/artistic context of objects; knowledge of significant art historical moments and influences; concepts and vocabulary to analyze and discuss visual material. The course is designed for those students with little or no background in art history as well as for those contemplating a major in Art History and Visual Culture or in studio art. (It fulfills the 101/102 requirement for moderating into Art History and Visual Culture).

Class size: 25

 

12238

ARTH 113      History of Photography

Laurie Dahlberg

W  F    10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 102

AA

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. (AHVC distribution: 1800-Present)

Class size: 25

 

12244

ARTH 114      History of the Decorative Arts

Tom Wolf

W Th   10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 301

AA

AART

 A survey of decorative arts from the Baroque period to postmodernism. Students explore the evolution of historical styles as they appear in furniture, interiors, ceramics, graphic and industrial design, and fashion. Objects are evaluated in their historical contexts, and technical, and aesthetic questions are also considered. The class will be co-taught by a PhD student from the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Material Culture.  Two trips to museums to see decorative arts collections are included. Open to all students.   (AHVC distribution: America, Modern)

Class size: 20

 

12236

ARTH 120      Romanesque/Gothic Art & Architecture

Katherine Boivin

M  W      1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 102

AA

AART

Cross-listed: French Studies; Medieval Studies

 This survey covers the art and architecture created in Western Europe from around 1000 C.E. to 1500 C.E. Emphasis is placed on an analysis of architecture (religious and secular), sculpture, painting, stained glass, tapestry, and metalwork within a wider cultural context. Among the topics studied are the aftermath of the millennium, the medieval monastery, pilgrimage and the cult of relics, the age of the great cathedrals (Chartres, Amiens, Reims, etc.), and late medieval visual culture up to the Reformation.  The course examines thematically the changing visual articulation of ideas about death, salvation, social status, patronage, and the artist.  Open to all students.  (AHVC distribution: Ancient, Europe)

Class size: 22

 

12235

ARTH 160      Survey of Latin American Art

Susan Aberth

T  Th    11:50 am-1:10 pm

FISHER ANNEX

AA D+J

AART DIFF

Cross-listed: 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: the Americas)

Class size: 22

 

12237

ARTH 246      Medieval Art:Mediterranean World

Katherine Boivin

M  W     10:10 am-11:30 am

FISHER ANNEX

AA

AART

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; Environmental & Urban Studies; Medieval Studies; Middle Eastern Studies

 This course explores connections around and across the Mediterranean from the 4th through the 13th centuries.  It considers art and architecture within dynamic contexts of cultural conflict and exchange.  Designed to introduce students to art traditionally categorized as “Early Christian,” “Byzantine,” “Romanesque,” and “Islamic,” the course also encourages students to question critically these designations.  Looking at art created by Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and “pagan” communities, it examines the role of the Mediterranean Sea as a boundary and a crossroad in the development of urban centers around its periphery.  Topics include the relationship between centers and margins, secular and religious spheres, and majority and minority cultures.  Particular focus will be placed on areas of cultural exchange such as Spain, Tunisia, Egypt, Sicily, Constantinople (Istanbul), and Jerusalem.  Coursework includes regular quizzes, Moodle posts, and two 5-7 page papers.    (AHVC distribution: Ancient, Europe)

Class size: 22

 

12240

ARTH 263      The Sixties and the Photographic Subject

Laurie Dahlberg

T  Th    10:10 am-11:30 am

FISHER ANNEX

AA

AART

 “The Sixties” forms a passable chronological frame for the dynamic period of photography that grew out of the anxieties of the post-war 1950s, and which formed the training ground for the self-reflexive postmodern art of the 1970s. On the east coast, MoMA’s curator John Szarkowski promoted a new photographic aesthetic that located the photography of Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander at the intersection of formal complexity, wit, and edgy irony. Rescuing photography from the confines of story-telling or documentary practice, Szarkowki’s exhibitions and publications made art photography suddenly seem reasonable and viable. On the other hand, against the backdrop of anti-establishment initiatives of all stripes, many photographers invented their own creative platforms (Ed Ruscha’s self-published books, African-American photographers in Harlem’s Kamoinge Workshop, Robert Heinecken’s guerrilla art interventions). The course will pay particular attention to the sixties as the first markedly heterogeneous period of American art photography. The class format will consist of lecture and discussion. Assignments include weekly readings, two exams, two papers, and small group presentations. (AHVC distribution: 1800 to present)

Class size: 22

 

12393

ARTH 270      To Exhibit, To Present: Introduction to Curating

Alex Kitnick

T  Th     1:30 pm-2:50 pm

CCS

AA

 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.

Class size: 15

 

12394

ARTH 275      The Global Baroque

Susan Merriam

T  Th     10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 102

AA

 European art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, often referred to as “the Baroque,” is usually studied in isolation from the extraordinary imperial and colonial enterprises undertaken by Spain, The Netherlands, Portugal and England during this period. In contrast, this course examines how the Baroque came to be considered a global style, ultimately spreading throughout Europe and then to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. We will examine how Baroque art and architecture took on different meanings in geographic contexts as diverse as Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa, as well as at the role played by exploration, missionary work, colonization, and the slave trade in transmitting art and artistic ideas. Assigned readings will range from primary sources (inventories and contracts, for example) to texts by post-colonial theorists. We will also examine a wide variety of works of art and architecture including Aztec feather pieces, colonial plantations and houses of worship, Dutch still life paintings, and Italian and Spanish churches. (AHVC distribution: 1400-1800)

Class size: 22

 

12505

ARTH 279      Race and the Museum

Susan Merriam

T            1:30 pm-3:50 pm (begins March 3rd)

FISHER ANNEX

AA

(2 Credits) Cross-listed: Africana Studies; Human Rights

 In a recent public letter, Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak argues that art museums, although “founded on the fundamental belief that the sharing of world cultures would lead to greater understanding and empathy” have also “privileged Western white narratives while often diminishing the histories of others.” Pasternak notes that “this is important to understand because, for better or worse, museums contribute to narratives that shape our society, and our society is in great need of more empathy and respect.” In this eight week colloquium, we will take our inspiration from Director Pasternak’s statement, and hear from a variety of curators, critics, and academics about how museums might develop new narratives (particularly about race) as they re-visit and deconstruct the old. Each week, students will attend a weekly workshop and public lecture given by an invited speaker. Work for the colloquium will be assessed based on attendance, engagement, and a final project.

Class size: 22

 

12243

ARTH 281      Governing the World: An Architectural History

Olga Touloumi

W  F    11:50 am-1:10 pm

FISHER ANNEX

AA

AART

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Global & International Studies; Human Rights

 This course will utilize architecture both as an anchor and lens to study the history of world organization from the beginning of settler colonialism during the 16th and 17th centuries to post-World War II processes of decolonization and the emergence of a neoliberal global financial order after the collapse of the Communist bloc. Slave ships, plantation houses, embassies, assembly halls, banks, detention camps, embassies, urban development, housing, as well as maps, plans, and visual culture, 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, Hannah Arendt, Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Ulrich Beck, Mark Mazower; as well as architectural projects and texts by Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, Team X, Hannes Meyer, Paul Otlet, Buckminster Fuller, Constantinos Doxiadis among others. Course assignments include the production of a glossary, as well as a midterm exam and a final paper. (Art History Requirement: Modern)

Class size: 22

 

12241

ARTH 292      Contemporary Chinese Art

Patricia Karetzky

W         1:30 pm-3:50 pm

FISHER ANNEX

AA

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.  (AHVC distribution: Modern, Asian)

Class size: 22

 

12513

ARTH 314      Calderwood Seminar: Public Writing and the Built Environment

Olga Touloumi

Th       3:10 pm-5:30 pm

FISHER ANNEX

AA D+J

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Experimental Humanities; Human Rights

 This course introduces students to issues concerning architecture, the built environment, and spatial justice through forms of public writing. In collaboration with the instructor, each student will focus on one area or issue such as the prison- industrial complex (as found, for example, at Rikers Island), gentrification in Newburgh, housing inequality in Chicago, the water crisis in Flint, management of nuclear waste in the Hudson, shrinking cities in the Rust Belt, and oil pipeline infrastructure on tribal lands. To mobilize interested publics and address officials, students will use Twitter; design petitions; write blog entries; interview stakeholders; write protest letters; and prepare for a public hearing. The goal will be to inform the public, raise awareness, and reclaim agency over the design and planning of our environments through writing. Combining texts from the various assignments, students will produce a final thirty-minute podcast that will live online. (Fulfills two program requirements: Modern / Europe + US)

Class size: 12 

 

12239

ARTH 335      The Awful Beauty

Laurie Dahlberg

Th       1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 301

AA

AART

 The intellectual movement called Romanticism was both a manifestation of Enlightenment philosophy and a counter-Enlightenment response to the ascendant values of reason and empirical thought. Like their literary counterparts, British painters in the 1790s were pioneering a new set of subjects and techniques that offered doubt, mystery, and high emotion as alternatives to the smug certainties of modern empiricism. Across the channel, conditions were very different for French painters, who were in the grip of an intellectual and political allegiance to neoclassicism, which in many ways could be described as the antithesis of the new Romantic movement. Although the apocalyptic landscapes, stormy seascapes, moody portraits, and outright fantasies of British Romantics are strikingly different from the austere homogeneity of early French neoclassicism, the second generation of neoclassicists presented their neoclassical subjects through the impassioned, sometimes irrational lens of the new Romanticism. Our bookends in time will be the British visionary William Blake and the French academic Eugène Delacroix.  Topics will include Burke's theory of the sublime, the cult of Ossian, medievalism, nationalism and war, the self in nature, themes of horror and fantasy, slavery, and the rise of "originality." Seminar-level reading, writing, and discussion, culminating in a research paper and class presentation. Pre-requisite: any course in 19^th-century European Art, History, or Literature, or permission of the professor. (AHVC distribution 1400-1800)

Class size: 15

 

12245

ARTH 367      American Women Artists

Tom Wolf

W         1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 301

AA

AART

Cross-listed: American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies This seminar will trace the history of women artists in the United States, beginning with the Neo Classical sculptors of the 18th century, continuing with Mary Cassatt, women artists of the suffrage movement (during the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote), and Georgia O’Keeffe and her modernist contemporaries. The second half of the semester will look at the legacy of these artists as reflected and transformed by the artists of the 1960s feminist movement and recent women artists. The subjects favored by women artists, the obstacles they faced, and their relationships with contemporary male artists will be evaluated.  Students will give presentations about women artists they have selected at midterm and again at the end of the semester, and will write a midterm and a final paper. We will also take several field trips to look at works by American women artists. (AHVC distribution: America)

Class size: 15

 

12242

ARTH 385      Theories/Methods:Art History

Alex Kitnick

M            1:30 pm-3:50 pm

FISHER ANNEX

AA

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 and Visual Culture requirement: Required)

Class size: 15

Cross-listed courses:

 

12389

FILM 267      The Films of Andy Warhol

Edward Halter

Th      7:00 pm-10:00 pm   F           10:10 am-1:10 pm

AVERY 110

AA

Cross-listed: Art History; Gender and Sexuality Studies Class size: 15

 

12357

HIST 243      African/African American Arts

Drew Thompson

M  W      3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 202

HA

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; American Studies; Art History; Environmental & Urban Studies Class size: 22

 

12480

LIT 291      Birth of the Avant-Garde

Franco Baldasso

M  W     11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLINLC 210

LA

Cross-listed: Art History; Italian Studies Class size: 18

 

12038

RUS 225      Art of Russian Avant-Garde

Oleg Minin

T  Th     1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLIN 102

FL

FLLC

Cross-listed: Art History Class size: 22