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Twin Cities Campus

Art History Minor

Art History
College of Liberal Arts
  • Program Type: Undergraduate minor related to major
  • Requirements for this program are current for Spring 2017
  • Required credits in this minor: 14 to 20
Art history is the study of the visual world, both past and present. It looks closely at a wide array of images, objects, buildings, and sites in order to better understand human societies. Art history operates with the understanding that visual/material artifacts may speak more directly and deeply about a culture than its written record. Put another way, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then Art History equips students to read it. This is called "visual literacy" and it is an invaluable skill in our increasingly visual world. Students in art history learn to analyze a wide variety of artifacts from all geographic regions and historical eras, including our own. Not limited strictly to the so-called "fine arts," art history seeks to understand visual and material culture more broadly: from paintings and sculpture, to architecture and urban design; from films and photographs, to ceramics and textiles; from scientific illustration and political posters, to performance art and street graffiti. Through engaging closely with these and other forms of visual expression, students of art history become adept practitioners of the following skills: visual analysis and interpretation, original research and careful argumentation, image-based thinking and communication, and clear and persuasive writing in a variety of modes (e.g., analytical, creative, and journalistic). Engaging visual approaches to learning and thinking, art history prepares a diverse student body for a variety of professional tracks, including the visual arts (e.g., art criticism, art appraisal and sales, art therapy, fashion, interior design, museums, and conservation), the humanities (e.g., grant writing, historic preservation, and philanthropy), media and marketing (e.g., advertising, film, journalism, radio, and television), K-12 and post-secondary education (e.g., teaching and administration), information science and collections management (e.g., libraries and archives in public, non-profit, and corporate contexts), and medicine and law, two fields that have long prized art history alumni for their analytical precision, skills at information mastery, and "right-brain/left-brain" balance. For these and other reasons, students of art history go on to enjoy higher job satisfaction and lower unemployment rates over the course of their working lives than peers in vocational tracks.
Program Delivery
This program is available:
  • via classroom (the majority of instruction is face-to-face)
Minor Requirements
Students may earn a BA or a minor in art history, but not both.
Minor Courses
Students must take courses from at least 2 different eras and at least 2 different areas. At least one course must be taken at the 5xxx-level.
Take 5 or more course(s) totaling 14 or more credit(s) from the following:
Era I: Ancient to ca. 1300
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
Area: North America and Europe
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· ARTH 5112 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3009 - Intersectional Medieval Art [AH] (3.0 cr)
or MEST 3009 -  Intersectional Medieval Art [AH] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3152 - Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece [HIS] (3.0 cr)
or CNRC 3152 - Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece [HIS] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3162 - Roman Art and Archaeology [HIS] (3.0 cr)
or CNRC 3162 - Roman Art and Archaeology [HIS] (3.0 cr)
· Area: Middle East and/or Islamic World
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· ARTH 3182 - Egypt and Western Asia: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
or CNRC 3182 - Egypt and Western Asia: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
or RELS 3182 - Egypt and Western Asia: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5115 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
or CNES 5185 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5192 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
or CNES 5192 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· Area: South and/or East Asia
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· ARTH 5765 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· Era II: ca. 1300 to 1800
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
Area: North America and Europe
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· ARTH 3309 - Renaissance Art in Europe [AH] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3311 - Baroque Art in Seventeenth Century Europe [AH] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3312 - European Art of the Eighteenth Century: Rococo to Revolution [HIS] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5323 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5324 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3315 - The Age of Curiosity: Art, Science & Technology in Europe, 1400-1800 [AH, TS] (3.0 cr)
or HIST 3708 -  The Age of Curiosity: Art, Science & Technology in Europe, 1400-1800 [AH, TS] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3600 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
or FRIT 3600 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3335 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital [HIS] (3.0 cr)
or ARTH 5335 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital (3.0 cr)
or HIST 3706 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital [HIS] (3.0 cr)
· Era III: 1800 to Present
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
Area: North America and Europe
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· ARTH 3005 - Identity and American Art [AH] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3012 - 19th and 20th Century Art (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3484 {Inactive} (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 3577 - Photo Nation: Photography in America [AH] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3929 - Cinema Now [AH] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5411 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5417 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5575 - Boom to Bust: American Art from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5577 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3627 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
or AFRO 3627 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3655 - African-American Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or ARTH 5655 - African-American Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or AFRO 3655 {Inactive} [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3926 - The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock [AH] (3.0 cr)
or ARTH 5926 - The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock (3.0 cr)
· Courses Spanning Across Eras and Areas
Consult the departmental adviser to determine which requirements these courses fulfill.
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· ARTH 1001 - Introduction to Western Art [AH] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 1002W - Why Art Matters [AH, GP, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 1004W - Introduction to Asian Art [HIS, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 3013 {Inactive} [GP] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3401W - Art on Trial [AH, CIV, WI] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3434 - Art and the Environment [AH, ENV] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3464 - Art Since 1945 [HIS] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 3940 {Inactive} (1.0-4.0 cr)
· ARTH 5301 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5413 - Alternative Media: Video, Performance, Digital Art (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5466 - Contemporary Art (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5766 - Chinese Painting (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5781 - Age of Empire: The Mughals, Safavids, and Ottomans (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5785 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5950 - Topics: Art History (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3014V {Inactive} [GP, AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or ARTH 3014W - Art of India [AH, GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
or AMES 3014W {Inactive} [AH, GP, WI] (4.0 cr)
or RELS 3415W - Art of India [AH, GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3015W - Art of Islam [AH, GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
or RELS 3706W - Art of Islam [AH, GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 3205 {Inactive} [AH] (3.0 cr)
or ANTH 3205 {Inactive} [AH] (3.0 cr)
or RELS 3322 {Inactive} [AH] (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5930 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
or ARTH 3930H {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· ARTH 5802 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
or AMIN 5802 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
or RELS 5326 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· Take 0 - 1 course(s) from the following:
· ARTH 3896 - Directed Professional Experience (1.0-2.0 cr)
· ARTH 3993 - Directed Study (1.0-4.0 cr)
· ARTH 5993 - Directed Study (1.0-4.0 cr)
· ARTH 5994 - Directed Research (1.0-4.0 cr)
· ARTH 5777 - The Diversity of Traditions: Indian Empires after 1200 (3.0 cr)
or RELS 5777 - The Diversity of Traditions: Indian Empires after 1200 (3.0 cr)
 
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· College of Liberal Arts

View future requirement(s):
· Fall 2022
· Fall 2020
· Fall 2018


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· Art History Minor
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ARTH 3009 - Intersectional Medieval Art (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3009/MeSt 3009/RelS 3609
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Grounded in critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory, this class draws on primary texts and a range of visual and material sources to trace the histories, experiences, and representations of marginalized identities in the medieval world. We will consider gender, sexuality, and race in the context of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures during the Middle Ages. This class will examine topics including transgender saints, miraculous transformations, demonic possession, female artists and patrons, the "monstrous races" of travel accounts, and gender-affirming surgeries. In contrast to misconceptions of a homogenous white European past, the reality of medieval Europe was diverse and complex, and its boundaries - geographical, cultural, bodily, and otherwise - were in flux, as reflected in its visual and material culture.
MEST 3009 - Intersectional Medieval Art (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3009/MeSt 3009/RelS 3609
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Grounded in critical race theory, intersectionality, and queer theory, this class draws on primary texts and a range of visual and material sources to trace the histories, experiences, and representations of marginalized identities in the medieval world. We will consider gender, sexuality, and race in the context of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures during the Middle Ages. This class will examine topics including transgender saints, miraculous transformations, demonic possession, female artists and patrons, the "monstrous races" of travel accounts, and gender-affirming surgeries. In contrast to misconceptions of a homogenous white European past, the reality of medieval Europe was diverse and complex, and its boundaries - geographical, cultural, bodily, and otherwise - were in flux, as reflected in its visual and material culture.
ARTH 3152 - Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece (HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3152/CNES 3152
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course will provide an introduction to the history of Greek art, architecture and archaeology from the formation of the Greek city states in the ninth century BCE, through the expansion of Greek culture across the Mediterranean and Asia in the Hellenistic period, to the coming of Rome in the first century BCE. While this survey concentrates on the main developments of Greek art, an important sub-theme of this course this is the changes Classical visual culture underwent as it served non-Greek peoples, including the role it played for Alexander and his successors in forging multiethnic, globally minded empires in Western, Central and South Asia. No background in the time period or discipline is expected and therefore this class will also serve as an introduction to interdisciplinary study of art history and the classical world. A number of art historical methodologies will be introduced in order to not only give students a useful background in art history but to give them the tools to think as art historians and incorporate related visual and textual evidence meaningfully into their writing.
CNRC 3152 - Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece (HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3152/CNES 3152
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course will provide an introduction to the history of Greek art, architecture and archaeology from the formation of the Greek city states in the ninth century BCE, through the expansion of Greek culture across the Mediterranean and Asia in the Hellenistic period, to the coming of Rome in the first century BCE. While this survey concentrates on the main developments of Greek art, an important sub-theme of this course this is the changes Classical visual culture underwent as it served non-Greek peoples, including the role it played for Alexander and his successors in forging multiethnic, globally minded empires in Western, Central and South Asia. No background in the time period or discipline is expected and therefore this class will also serve as an introduction to interdisciplinary study of art history and the classical world. A number of art historical methodologies will be introduced in order to not only give students a useful background in art history but to give them the tools to think as art historians and incorporate related visual and textual evidence meaningfully into their writing.
ARTH 3162 - Roman Art and Archaeology (HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3162/CNES 3162
Typically offered: Fall Odd, Spring Even Year
Introduction to history of Roman art, from formation of city-state of Rome under Etruscan domination, to transformation of visual culture in late antiquity under peoples influenced by the Romans.
CNRC 3162 - Roman Art and Archaeology (HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3162/CNES 3162
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
Introduction to art and material culture of Roman world: origin, change, continuity. Progress/decay in later empire, its legacy to modern world.
ARTH 3182 - Egypt and Western Asia: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3182/CNES 3182/RelS 3182
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course will provide students with foundational knowledge in the art, architecture, and archaeology of Egypt, East Africa, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Iran and Central Asia from the Neolithic through Late Antiquity (ca. 7,000 B.C.E. - 650 C.E.). Students will gain an understanding of the relationship between the visual material and the social, intellectual, political, and religious contexts in which it developed and functioned. In this regard, students will also gain an understanding of the evolution of, and exchanges and differences among, the visual cultures of these time periods and regions. It will also expose them to the preconditions for contemporary geopolitics in the region.
CNRC 3182 - Egypt and Western Asia: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3182/CNES 3182/RelS 3182
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course will provide students with foundational knowledge in the art, architecture, and archaeology of Egypt, East Africa, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Iran and Central Asia from the Neolithic through Late Antiquity (ca. 7,000 B.C.E. - 650 C.E.). Students will gain an understanding of the relationship between the visual material and the social, intellectual, political, and religious contexts in which it developed and functioned. In this regard, students will also gain an understanding of the evolution of, and exchanges and differences among, the visual cultures of these time periods and regions. It will also expose them to the preconditions for contemporary geopolitics in the region.
RELS 3182 - Egypt and Western Asia: Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3182/CNES 3182/RelS 3182
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course will provide students with foundational knowledge in the art, architecture and archaeology of Egypt, East Africa, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Iran and Central Asia from the Neolithic through Late Antiquity (ca. 7,000 B.C.E. - 650 C.E.). Students will gain an understanding of the relationship between the visual material and the social, intellectual, political and religious contexts in which it developed and functioned. In this regard, students will also gain an understanding of the evolution of, and exchanges and differences among, the visual cultures of these time periods and regions. It will also expose them to the preconditions for contemporary geopolitics in the region.
ARTH 3309 - Renaissance Art in Europe (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Major monuments of painting/sculpture in Western Europe, 1400-1600. Close reading of individual works in historical context. Influence of patrons. Major social/political changes such as Renaissance humanism, Protestant Reformation, market economy.
ARTH 3311 - Baroque Art in Seventeenth Century Europe (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Dominant trends/figures of Italian, French, Flemish, and Dutch Baroque period. Works of major masters, including Caravaggio, Bernini, Poussin, Velazquez, Rembrandt, and Rubens. Development of illusionistic ceiling decoration. Theoretical basis of Baroque art. Art's subservience to Church and royal court.
ARTH 3312 - European Art of the Eighteenth Century: Rococo to Revolution (HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Major developments in 18-century painting, sculpture, and interior decoration, from emergence of Rococo to dawn of Neoclassicism. Response of art to new forms of patronage. Erotics of 18-century art. Ways art functioned as social/political commentary.
ARTH 3315 - The Age of Curiosity: Art, Science & Technology in Europe, 1400-1800 (AH, TS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ARTH 3315/HIST 3708/ARTH 5315/
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Diverse ways in which making of art and scientific knowledge intersected in early modern Europe. Connections between scientific curiosity and visual arts in major artists (e.g., da Vinci, Durer, Vermeer, Rembrandt). Artfulness of scientific imagery/diagrams, geographical maps, cabinets of curiosities, and new visual technologies, such as the telescope and microscope.
HIST 3708 - The Age of Curiosity: Art, Science & Technology in Europe, 1400-1800 (AH, TS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ARTH 3315/HIST 3708/ARTH 5315/
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Diverse ways in which making of art and scientific knowledge intersected in early modern Europe. Connections between scientific curiosity and visual arts in major artists (e.g., da Vinci, Durer, Vermeer, Rembrandt). Artfulness of scientific imagery/diagrams, geographical maps, cabinets of curiosities, and new visual technologies, such as the telescope and microscope.
ARTH 3335 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital (HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3335/Rels 3162/Hist 3706/
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
This course explores the center of Baroque culture?Rome?as a city of spectacle and pageantry. The urban development of the city, as well as major works in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are considered within their political and religious context, with special emphasis on the ecclesiastical and private patrons who transformed the Eternal City into one of the world?s great capitals.
ARTH 5335 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3335/Rels 3162/Hist 3706/
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
This course explores the center of Baroque culture --Rome-- as a city of spectacle and pageantry. The urban development of the city, as well as major works in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are considered within their political and religious context, with special emphasis on the ecclesiastical and private patrons who transformed the Eternal City into one of the world's great capitals.
HIST 3706 - Baroque Rome: Art and Politics in the Papal Capital (HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3335/Rels 3162/Hist 3706/
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
This course explores the center of Baroque culture, Rome, as a city of spectacle and pageantry. The urban development of the city, as well as major works in painting, sculpture, and architecture, are considered within their political and religious context, with special emphasis on the ecclesiastical and private patrons who transformed the Eternal City into one of the world's great capitals.
ARTH 3005 - Identity and American Art (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course is designed to help you think about American history, experiences, and identities by looking closely at the visual record of painting, sculpture, decorative/applied arts, and other sites and artifacts made in the United States, from the colonial period to the rise of the Cold War in the 1950s-60s. Our particular interest will be to understand how "America" is an idea that has been continually shaped, expressed, represented, and even contested through the visual and material world.
ARTH 3012 - 19th and 20th Century Art
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Major monuments/issues of modern period. Sculpture, architecture, painting, prints. Neo-classicism, romanticism, realism, impressionism, evolution of modernism, symbolism, fauvism, cubism, dadaism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, pop art, conceptualism, postmodernism.
ARTH 3577 - Photo Nation: Photography in America (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Development of photography, from 19th century to present. Photography as legitimate art form. Portraits/photo albums in culture. Birth of criminal justice system. Technological/market aspects. Politics of aesthetics. Women in photography. Ways in which idea of America has been shaped by photographs.
ARTH 3929 - Cinema Now (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Fall Odd Year
Course examines contemporary cinema, including fiction films, documentaries, animation, and avant-garde experiments. Focuses on feature-length theatrical films, but will also consider other aspects of the contemporary media world: graphic novels, video games, television series and the Internet (e.g., Youtube). Examines media production, distribution, marketing, exhibition, and reception. Course will also present a survey of developments in contemporary cinema studies, since the choice of films will support a variety of critical approaches including economic, aesthetic (generic, auteurist, formalist), ideological (race, class, gender), and reception studies.
ARTH 5575 - Boom to Bust: American Art from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
American art/culture from 1917 to 1940. Boom of post-WWI affluence, bust of stock market crash, Midwestern Dust Bowl. How tumultuous times influenced painting, sculpture, photography, and industrial design.
ARTH 3655 - African-American Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Afro 3655/ArtH 3655/ArtH 5655
Typically offered: Spring Even Year
African American cinematic achievements from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
ARTH 5655 - African-American Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Afro 3655/ArtH 3655/ArtH 5655
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
African American cinematic achievements, from silent films of Oscar Micheaux through contemporary Hollywood and independent films. Class screenings, critical readings.
ARTH 3926 - The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock (AH)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3926W/ArtH 5926W
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course examines the achievement and significance of Alfred Hitchcock. It will consider his entire career, including both the British and American periods, his major films and his television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The course will address his characteristic themes and concerns (the double, the relationship between criminality and legality, the play of suspense and surprise); the traditions that shaped him (the Gothic in literature and theater; Victorian melodrama) and the influence he had on other films and filmmakers (the horror film, the political thriller); his significance in relation to the history of film criticism and scholarship (auteurist, feminist, queer). Students will gain a thorough knowledge of Hitchcock and the biographical, historical, technological, industrial, aesthetic issues surrounding his achievement. They will gain practical experience in analyzing films and addressing the critical issues raised by the media in contemporary society.
ARTH 5926 - The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3926W/ArtH 5926W
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course examines the achievement and significance of Alfred Hitchcock. It will consider his entire career, including both the British and American periods, his major films and his television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The course will address his characteristic themes and concerns (the double, the relationship between criminality and legality, the play of suspense and surprise); the traditions that shaped him (the Gothic in literature and theater; Victorian melodrama) and the influence he had on other films and filmmakers (the horror film, the political thriller); his significance in relation to the history of film criticism and scholarship (auteurist, feminist, queer). Students will gain a thorough knowledge of Hitchcock and the biographical, historical, technological, industrial, aesthetic issues surrounding his achievement. They will gain practical experience in analyzing films and addressing the critical issues raised by the media in contemporary society.
ARTH 1001 - Introduction to Western Art (AH)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
This course serves as a general introduction to key questions about the nature and history of art in the West from the prehistoric to contemporary eras: Who creates art and why? What unique insights does it provide into the past? And, finally, what good does art do? Organized around these three central questions, lectures, readings, and assignments will address several themes, central to understanding the history of Western art in a wider global context: (1) the forms, functions, and symbolism of images, objects, and spaces; (2) materials, techniques, and skills deployed by artists, architects, artisans, and laborers to make aesthetic objects; (3) the historical and cultural construction of visual experiences; and (4) customs, beliefs, and values associated with art production, collection, and exhibition in various cultures, including patronage, fame, trade, cross-cultural influence, authenticity, and reproduction.
ARTH 1002W - Why Art Matters (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Introduction to history of topics that investigate power/importance of art both globablly and in its diverse forms, from architecture and painting to video and prints. Sacred space, propaganda, the museum, art/gender, art/authority, tourism.
ARTH 1004W - Introduction to Asian Art (HIS, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1004W/1004V/1016W/1016V
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This one-semester course is an introduction to painting, sculpture, and architecture from South, Southeast, and East Asia. It will cover works from ancient cultures to those of contemporary Asian diasporas. Resisting the impossible task of covering everything, we will instead home in on specific objects in order to understand them in their broader cultural, religious, and social contexts. We will trace the ways in which common themes and problems appear in different art forms and in different places, and we will discover the ways in which seemingly disparate styles and objects may be productively understood in conversation with each other. We will work together to create an interpretive model that is synthetic, critical, and appreciative of the enormously diverse field that is Asian Art. Lectures will move from explanatory descriptions of objects and histories that are covered in the textbook to critical interpretations of the historiographies that shape the contemporary reception of Asian art.
ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall
Fundamentals of film analysis and an introduction to the major theories of the cinema, presented through detailed interpretations of representative films from the international history of the cinema.
ARTH 3401W - Art on Trial (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Why does art so often elicit anger, debate, protest, and vandalism? Arts controversies raise many difficult questions that this class examines: should artists be allowed to use taxpayer funds to create works of art critical of the government or that some find offensive? Should public sculptures commemorate Confederates, slave owners, or colonialists? How do we know when something is obscene? Is censorship ethical? Do artists have the right to control the fate of their work after it is sold? Who should decide what artists are chosen for public commissions, what artworks are selected for public buildings, or how works of art should be interpreted? Does public opinion make bad art? This course trains students in the history of arts controversies in the United States from the 19th century to the present and in the changing social conditions through which art has become a flashpoint for public debate. Assignments focus on discipline-specific research and writing techniques that build toward a group project in which students research, take up positions, and debate the merits of important case studies. The class is primarily designed for students to learn about the arts and arts policy today, i.e., the art world of which they are and will be citizens. They are asked to inspect the sources of dominant cultural beliefs and to gain a deeper understanding of and take responsibility for their own cultural, political, and artistic values.
ARTH 3434 - Art and the Environment (AH, ENV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Western art has a long tradition of depicting and directly engaging with the environment?from ancient earthworks such as Stonehenge and Avebury Stone Circle, to 18th and 19th century landscape paintings and 20th century photographs, to land and earth art of the 1960s and ?70s, and what is now called environmental or eco art. Such art has had a prominent place in art?s history, but do we really need art to save the environment? Studies repeatedly show that the arts are crucial to understanding and forestalling environmental disaster because, it turns out, human attitudes are shaped by the stories we tell, by our ability to imagine the unimaginable, to accept the inanimate as potentially coming to life, to picture things on a vast scale. In this course students learn the historical development of artistic movements from 1968, when the first exhibition of such art, called ?Earthworks,? took place at the Dwan Gallery in New York, up to the present day. The course tracks the changing aesthetic, political, and climatic forces that influenced such art, from the anti-institutionalism and participatory approaches of the 1960s to the more activist artistic engagement with environmentalism today. The class takes up two primary concerns: understanding the historical and scientific conditions that have given rise to such art and learning the ways in which artists have sought to intervene in and affect a changing environment. Students put historical knowledge, environmental research, and visual analysis skills to work in a culminating group project creating art that responds to a contemporary environmental problem.
ARTH 3464 - Art Since 1945 (HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Spring
The end of the Second World War is commonly understood as a watershed moment in art history when the center of western art shifted from Paris to New York and the old tradition of art academies and annual salons disappeared once and for all. It is a moment that sees dramatic changes in who artists are, how they are trained, what kind of art they make, and the audiences to whom they appeal. This course surveys U.S. and European art history from 1945 to the present so that students gain a thorough understanding of the social, political, and economic forces that contributed to the development of significant art movements including abstract expressionism, pop art, and minimalism, as well as key modes of artmaking including painting and sculpture, happenings, installations, video, earthworks, and participatory art. The course also trains students in philosophies of art and tracks the dramatic changes in aesthetics over the period. Primarily a lecture course, students? historical knowledge is assessed through two in-class examinations in which they identify, compare, contrast, and think critically about works of art. In addition, students practice discipline-specific research skills by compiling an annotated bibliography and writing short papers that rigorously examine primary sources.
ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
This course will engage with the history of film as an art form through a selection of significant movements, styles, filmmakers, institutions, and, of course, individual films from around the world. While this will not be a comprehensive study, it will address both mainstream, commercial films as well as oppositional, experimental, underground, and otherwise challenging works. Some of the wide-ranging selection of films we will watch and discuss: Germaine Dulac?s La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman) (1922), Gillo Pontecorvo?s The Battle of Algiers (1966), Julie Dash?s Daughters of the Dust (1991), and Alfonso Cuarón?s Roma (2018).
ARTH 5413 - Alternative Media: Video, Performance, Digital Art
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
One rather old and rigid concept in the history of art and aesthetics is that artistic media, each with its distinct qualities, are most successful when they remain separate. The best painting, according to this view, is one that explores its own properties of flatness, abstraction, and color. What became known in the first half of the 20th century as the philosophy of ?medium specific purity? was radically challenged in the 1960s when the differences between painting and sculpture were intentionally blurred and when new media (performance, body art, happenings, video art, installations and digital art) were introduced. This course seeks to understand how alternative media were developed not through the invention of new technologies nor in isolation, but through revolutionary modes of thinking about time and space, human and non-human life, machines, archives, cyborgs, and interactivity (some of which date back to the 18th and 19th centuries). Through assigned readings and discussions as well as structured essay assignments, the class provides students with extensive practice in the critical analysis of theoretical texts and ample experience synthesizing diverse intellectual ideas and arguments in written form. More broadly, through a creative ?timeline? assignment, the course seeks to teach students to think inventively about new media and their histories, to learn strategies for looking at, evaluating, and thinking about works of new media art. It also provides instruction in research techniques and resources in contemporary art, as well as on writing in art history.
ARTH 5466 - Contemporary Art
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Spring
The art of today as it is practiced around the globe takes a bewildering variety of forms?from traditional painting and sculpture to AI, interactive digital media, film projections, bio art (involving human, plant, and animal blood, tissue and DNA), participatory and community engaged projects, and environmental interventions. It addresses urgent social and political themes including globalization, institutionalized racism, climate crisis, big data, and mechanized vision. Just as today?s citizens should inform themselves about contemporary politics and current events, so is it crucial that we understand the art of our own time. In this course students gain an understanding of art?s development since the late 20th century and key ideas that are central to interpreting the art of this period. The course begins with a review of important movements, significant artists, and influential theories and issues. It then takes up and studies specific themes through the reading and analysis of theoretical texts. Students are asked to read, participate in class discussions, complete guided or independent research papers, prepare an in-class presentation on one of the course themes, and complete a book review for a textbook on contemporary art history. Each of these assignments is designed to impart specific historical knowledge about the period of the contemporary, to provide students with opportunities to practice critical reading and synthetic writing, and to offer them a chance to inspect their own positions regarding key debates.
ARTH 5766 - Chinese Painting
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Major works from the late bronze age to the modern era that illustrate the development of Chinese landscape painting and associated literary traditions.
ARTH 5781 - Age of Empire: The Mughals, Safavids, and Ottomans
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 5781/RelS 5781
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Artistic developments under the three most powerful Islamic empires of the 16th through 19th centuries: Ottomans of Turkey; Safavids of Iran; Mughals of India. Roles of religion and state will be considered to understand their artistic production.
ARTH 5950 - Topics: Art History
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
ARTH 3014W - Art of India (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3014W/ RelS 3415
Typically offered: Every Spring
Indian sculpture, architecture, and painting from the prehistoric Indus Valley civilization to the present day.
RELS 3415W - Art of India (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3014W/ RelS 3415
Typically offered: Every Spring
Indian sculpture, architecture, and paintings from the prehistoric Indus Valley civilization to the present day.
ARTH 3015W - Art of Islam (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3015W/ClCv 3015W/RelS 370
Typically offered: Every Fall
Architecture, painting, and other arts from Islam's origins to the 20th century. Cultural and political settings as well as themes that unify the diverse artistic styles of Islamic art will be considered.
RELS 3706W - Art of Islam (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3015W/ClCv 3015W/RelS 370
Typically offered: Every Fall
Architecture, painting, and other arts from Islam's origins to the 20th century. Cultural and political settings as well as themes that unify the diverse artistic styles of Islamic art will be considered.
ARTH 3896 - Directed Professional Experience
Credits: 1.0 -2.0 [max 2.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Internship or research assistantship in approved program, art institution, business or museum. prereq: instr consent
ARTH 3993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -4.0 [max 12.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
TBD prereq: instr consent
ARTH 5993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -4.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
This course provides a mechanism for advanced undergraduate and graduate students to work closely with a faculty member to plan their own course of study around a topic or topics of mutual interest that are not otherwise covered (or are not covered with the same level of depth) in the regular curriculum. In addition, the very task of designing the course?working with the faculty adviser to research the topic, decide on goals, outcomes, and assessments, and determine a sequence of readings, meetings, and tasks?is an invaluable exercise for the student. In general, the course may be designed as an intensive period of reading in key scholarly literatures in which the instructor has expertise or as an independent research project on a topic and with an outcome (such as an annotated bibliography, capstone paper draft, a qualifying paper, dissertation prospectus, exhibition proposal, or archive) that will serve the student?s future academic career. The course schedule, required readings, assignments, and assessments are worked out in advance and agreed upon by both parties in the ?Student/Faculty Contract for Independent/Directed Study,? to which is often appended a bibliography or plan of work. The contract is signed by the participants and approved by the appropriate departmental authority (e.g., the Director of Graduate Studies or Chair). prereq: instr consent
ARTH 5994 - Directed Research
Credits: 1.0 -4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
tbd prereq: instr consent
ARTH 5777 - The Diversity of Traditions: Indian Empires after 1200
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3777/ArtH5777/RelS 5777
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This class considers the development of Indian and Pakistani art and architecture from the introduction of Islam as a major political power at the end of the 12th century to the colonial empires of the 18th century. We will study how South Asia?s diverse ethnic and religious communities interacted, observing how visual and material cultures reflect differences, adaptations, and shared aesthetic practices within this diversity of traditions. Students in this class will have mastered a body of knowledge about Indian art and probed multiple modes of inquiry. We will explore how Muslim rulers brought new traditions yet maintained many older ones making, for example, the first mosque in India that combines Muslim and Indic visual idioms. We will study the developments leading to magnificent structures, such as the Taj Mahal, asking why such a structure could be built when Islam discourages monumental mausolea. In what ways the schools of painting that are the products of both Muslim and Hindu rulers different and similar? The course will also consider artistic production in the important Hindu kingdoms that ruled India concurrently with the great Muslim powers. In the 18th century, colonialist forces enter the subcontinent, resulting in significant innovative artistic trends. Among questions we will ask is how did these kingdoms influence one another? Throughout we will probe which forms and ideas seem to be inherently Indian, asking which ones transcend dynastic, geographic and religious differences and which forms and ideas are consistent throughout these periods of political and ideological change. To do all this we must constantly consider how South Asia?s diverse ethnic and religious communities interact.
RELS 5777 - The Diversity of Traditions: Indian Empires after 1200
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 3777/ArtH5777/RelS 5777
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This class considers the development of Indian and Pakistani art and architecture from the introduction of Islam as a major political power at the end of the 12th century to the colonial empires of the 18th century. We will study how South Asia?s diverse ethnic and religious communities interacted, observing how visual and material cultures reflect differences, adaptations, and shared aesthetic practices within this diversity of traditions. Students in this class will have mastered a body of knowledge about Indian art and probed multiple modes of inquiry. We will explore how Muslim rulers brought new traditions yet maintained many older ones making, for example, the first mosque in India that combines Muslim and Indic visual idioms. We will study the developments leading to magnificent structures, such as the Taj Mahal, asking why such a structure could be built when Islam discourages monumental mausolea. In what ways the schools of painting that are the products of both Muslim and Hindu rulers different and similar? The course will also consider artistic production in the important Hindu kingdoms that ruled India concurrently with the great Muslim powers. In the 18th century, colonialist forces enter the subcontinent, resulting in significant innovative artistic trends. Among questions we will ask is how did these kingdoms influence one another? Throughout we will probe which forms and ideas seem to be inherently Indian, asking which ones transcend dynastic, geographic and religious differences and which forms and ideas are consistent throughout these periods of political and ideological change. To do all this we must constantly consider how South Asia's diverse ethnic and religious communities interact.