Course:

ARTH 102  Perspectives in World Art II

Professor:

Julia Rosenbaum  

CRN:

15504

Schedule/Location:

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

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art D+J Difference and Justice

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

This course explores the visual arts worldwide from the fourteenth century into 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).

 

Course:

ARTH 107  Arts of Korea

Professor:

Heeryoon Shin  

CRN:

15568

Schedule/Location:

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

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: Asian Studies; Experimental Humanities

This interdisciplinary course explores the history of Korea from ancient times to the present through the lens of art and culture. We will examine intersections of art, religion, and politics in Korea, as well as Korea’s interactions with the larger region of East Asia and beyond. The first half of the course is dedicated to canonical artworks from premodern Korea, designated as national “treasures” by the South Korean government; the second half will shift the focus to the modern and contemporary period to critically examine how such a “canon” and dominant narratives of Korean art history were formulated. Topics include Buddhist art and ritual; landscape and travel; material culture and collecting; female artists and representations of women; visual culture and politics under the Japanese colonial rule; monuments and anti-monuments; art as political activism; and contemporary Korean art within the global art world. Coursework includes exams, weekly responses on Brightspace, a 3-4 page paper, and a digital group project.

 

Course:

ARTH 109  Ancient Arts of China

Professor:

Patricia Karetzky  

CRN:

15563

Schedule/Location:

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

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: Asian Studies

Late in the 20th century, massive building projects throughout China accidentally revealed thousands of ancient tombs. Studying their contents has reshaped our picture of its ancient world. This course will view the development of Chinese culture, from the earliest material record to the 13th century. The visual material, largely tomb art, includes ritual jades and bronzes, ceramics, decorative art and murals, as well as both the Daoist and Buddhist art of the medieval period. The course ends with consideration of the Song dynasty (960-1127), which was the apex of artistic expression in literature, painting (especially landscapes), and porcelain production. In sum, this course will examine the advances in the various arts, literature, philosophy, and technology of early China through the Song dynasty. Requirements include class discussion, three short papers, and a longer research paper.

 

Course:

ARTH 113  History of Photography

Professor:

Laurie Dahlberg  

CRN:

15500

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Campus Center WEIS

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: 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.

 

Course:

ARTH 114  History of the Decorative Arts

Professor:

Tom Wolf  

CRN:

15507

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Olin 301

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

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

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. The course will be co-taught by a PhD student from the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the History of Decorative Arts, Design and Material Culture, in New York City, and a group visit to that institution will be part of the class. Two or more trips to museums to see decorative arts collections are included. Open to all students.  Art History distribution: Modern

 

Course:

ARTH 126  Situating Architecture

Professor:

Olga Touloumi  

CRN:

15505

Schedule/Location:

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

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: Architecture; Environmental & Urban 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 distributions: 1800 to present/European/American.

 

Course:

ARTH 140  Survey of Islamic Art

Professor:

Katherine Boivin  

CRN:

15498

Schedule/Location:

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

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art D+J Difference and Justice

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: Africana Studies; Medieval Studies; Middle Eastern Studies

This course offers an introduction to the widespread visual production defined as "Islamic Art".  In addition to architecture and architectural ornamentation, the course will also look at pottery, metalwork, textile and carpet weaving, glass, jewelry, calligraphy, book illumination, and painting.  Beginning with the death of Muhammad in 632 C.E. and continuing through the present, the course will cover works from Iran, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Turkey, Spain, India and other areas.  In particular, the course will explore how cultural identity can be articulated through visual means.  Students will also present on contemporary works of "Islamic Art" from around the world.  AHVC distribution: Medieval/ Africa/Asia/Middle East.

 

Course:

ARTH 202  Blackness and Abstraction

Professor:

Kobena Mercer  

CRN:

15564

Schedule/Location:

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

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 12

Crosslists: Africana Studies

This course investigates abstract artists in African American, Caribbean, Black British and African contexts in the post-1945 period, from Norman Lewis and Roy DeCarava, Howardena Pindell and Mel Edwards, to Senga Nengudi and El Anatsui. As we give close attention to the artwork’s materiality, across mediums of painting, sculpture, photography and film, we also investigate the contested meanings attributed to black color in Western modernism, from Malevich to Ad Reinhardt. Weekly readings will include texts by such scholars and curators as Kellie Jones, Darby English, and Okwui Enwezor, as well as writings by the artists themselves. Assessment will be based on participation, engagement with weekly readings, and writing assignments, including one 15-page research paper.

 

Course:

ARTH 204  Art and Experiment in Early Modern Europe

Professor:

Susan Merriam  

CRN:

15565

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     11:50 AM - 1:10 PM New Annandale House

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: Experimental Humanities

This course is a meditation on the meaning and histories of artistic experimentation in early modern Europe (1500-1800). At this time, art and science were often intricately connected, and artists took for granted the notion that they could manipulate and experiment with materials (oil paint for example), techniques (such as printmaking), and conceptual approaches to art making. Some of the areas we will examine include anatomical studies, optical experiments, and the use of materials and techniques. Questions we will pursue: What is meant by “visual experiment”?  How might artistic failure be generative? How did artistic experiments shape practices we would now consider to be located solely in the realm of science, such as anatomical study? What is the relationship between experiment and risk?  How might we compare artistic experiments in the early modern period to those undertaken in our own? As we study artistic experiment, we will create our own visual experiments using both old and new technologies. A highlight will be working with a life-sized camera obscura. This course satisfies the Experimental Humanities core course requirement for “History of the Experiment.”

 

Course:

ARTH 213  Power, Piety, and Pleasure: The Art of the Mughal Empire

Professor:

Heeryoon Shin  

CRN:

15569

Schedule/Location:

 Tue  Thurs    10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Olin 205

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: Asian Studies; Experimental Humanities; Middle Eastern Studies

This course explores the art and architecture of the Mughal Empire (1526–1858), one of the most powerful and opulent empires in the early modern world. As prolific patrons and collectors of art, the Mughals drew upon Persian, Indian, and European sources to create new and distinctive forms of art and architecture. The rich artistic production of the Mughals and the regional courts of India include imperial palaces and tombs such as the Taj Mahal, pleasure gardens, temples and shrines at pilgrimage centers, illuminated manuscripts, lavish albums of painting and calligraphy, and embroidered, painted, and printed textiles. Together we will explore their political, social, and cultural contexts. A special emphasis will be placed on the cross-cultural interactions at the Mughal court initiated by diplomacy, trade, and religion, and how the Mughals positioned themselves globally through art and architecture. Coursework includes exams, midterm paper, and a group digital project.

 

Course:

ARTH 234  Of Utopias

Professor:

Olga Touloumi  

CRN:

15506

Schedule/Location:

  Wed  Fri   3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Olin 204

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: Architecture; Environmental & Urban Studies; Experimental Humanities

This class explores the theory and practice of utopia from an architectural perspective. Utopias have always been imagined through a variety of mediums like the manifesto, the blueprint, and visual and performing arts. The course investigates the manifold scales of utopian articulation and realization, from compound communities to projects designing the entire globe, and from unrealized proposals to intentional communes of co-liberation. The class will use the concept of utopia to map out the ways that men and women have sought to transform the spatial, psychic, and social landscapes they inhabited. What can we learn from the utopian imperative? What is the shape of utopia? How should we understand the relationship between thought and practice, hope and disappointment, idealism and realism? Projects presented range from early industrial colonies, socialist utopias, Christian communities, and anarchist utopias to shopping malls, factories, and afrofuturism. The projects will be discussed in conjunction with major texts by Sir Thomas More, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Karl Marx, Robert Owen, Louis Marin, to name a few. Course requirements involve short assignments, class presentations and a final paper. AHVC Requirements: Modern, Americas

 

Course:

ARTH 2491  Women of the Surrealist Movement

Professor:

Susan Aberth  

CRN:

15872

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Reem Kayden Center 103

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art D+J Difference and Justice

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin American/Iberian Studies

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. AHVC distribution:  1800-present

 

Course:

ARTH 258  European Painting 1850-1900

Professor:

Laurie Dahlberg  

CRN:

15501

Schedule/Location:

  Wed  Fri   11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin 102

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: French Studies; Gender and Sexuality 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, 1800 – present.

 

Course:

ARTH 270  To Exhibit to Present

Professor:

Alex Kitnick  

CRN:

15502

Schedule/Location:

   Tue  Thurs    3:30 PM - 4:50 PM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 15

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.

 

Course:

ARTH 273  Religious Art of Latin America

Professor:

Susan Aberth  

CRN:

15873

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Reem Kayden Center 103

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 22

Crosslists: Africana Studies; Latin American/Iberian Studies; Theology

This course explores the varied visual manifestations of religious expression in Latin America after the Spanish conquest. In addition to churches, statuary, and paintings, the class examines folk art traditions, African diasporic religions, and contemporary art and practices. We will use a variety of art assignments to explore the techniques and devotional practices involved with certain types of creations, i.e. altar construction. In addition there will be a 10 page research paper, a midterm and a final. AHVC distribution: the Americas.

 

Course:

ARTH 315  Material Worlds and Social Identities

Professor:

Julia Rosenbaum  

CRN:

15566

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    3:10 PM - 5:30 PM Olin 301

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 15

Crosslists: American Studies; Experimental Humanities

How does the world of interior spaces, their furnishings and decorative objects, tell us stories, assert values, project identities? Through an engaged-learning experience with three early twentieth-century National Park sites in the Hudson Valley—the Vanderbilt Mansion, the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt’s Home at Val-Kill—this seminar explores both the relationship between objects and identities and issues of consumption and appearance. The course will focus on American decorative arts from the late nineteenth into the twentieth century addressing theories about the purpose, meaning, and value of design and decoration as well as key movements, designers, and artists. Visiting the sites and collections regularly, we will combine the scholarly study of aesthetic ideals and social practices with hands-on examination of specific objects in the museum collections.  Key themes to be addressed include gender and the body; consumer capitalism and labor; political/class/queer identities; ethics and aesthetics.

 

Course:

ARTH 328  Visual Culture of Medieval Death

Professor:

Katherine Boivin  

CRN:

15499

Schedule/Location:

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

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

Crosslists: Medieval Studies

 

Class cap: 15

In many ways, commemoration of the dead was central to medieval culture. Cemeteries were situated in the centers of towns, tomb effigies and plaques filled churches, and the bodies of saints provided a link between the earthy and heavenly realms. This seminar looks at visual materials related to the theme of death, including among others architecture, tomb sculpture, manuscript illumination, and reliquaries. It concentrates on art and architecture produced in Western Europe between 1100 and 1500. The course will be discussion-based and include a final 15-page research paper. AH Distribution requirement: Ancient/Europe.

 

Course:

ARTH 367  American Women Artists

Professor:

Tom Wolf  

CRN:

15567

Schedule/Location:

  Wed     3:30 PM - 5:50 PM Fisher Studio Arts ANNEX

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap: 15

Crosslists: American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies

This seminar will study the intertwined relationship between women¿s liberation and art in the United States during the Twentieth century.  We will look at the role of women in the Arts and Crafts movement and the art and artists associated with the Suffragist movement around 1900.  In the second half of the course we will study “Second Wave” feminism of the 1970s as manifested in the art world, and examine how it relates to its predecessors.  Students will present reports to the class about selected women artists, or about issues concerning the interplay between art and women’s political issues.  We will read classic documents of feminist art history and theory including texts by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Linda Nochlin.  The class is open to Upper College students and others with the permission of the instructor.

 

Cross-listed courses:

Course:

CLAS 317  Touching the Gods: Sacred Images in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Professor:

Ranjani Atur  

CRN:

15543

Schedule/Location:

   Thurs    12:30 PM - 2:50 PM Olin Languages Center 208

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap 15

Crosslists: Art History; Study of Religions

 

Course:

HR 379  Exhibiting (Im)mobility: Art, Museums, Migration

Professor:

Dina Ramadan  

CRN:

15669

Schedule/Location:

 Tue      3:10 PM - 5:30 PM Olin 301

Distributional Area:

AA Analysis of Art  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap 15

Crosslists: Art History; Middle Eastern Studies

 

Course:

LIT 241  Sex, Lies and the Renaissance

Professor:

Joseph Luzzi  

CRN:

15713

Schedule/Location:

Mon  Wed     10:10 AM - 11:30 AM Olin 204

Distributional Area:

FL Foreign Languages and Lit  

Credits: 4

 

Class cap 22

Crosslists: Art History; Historical Studies; Italian Studies