Program Details : University Catalogs : University of Minnesota

ARTH 8001 - Art Historiography: Theory and Methods

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Key texts, from Renaissance to present, from western/non-western fields, relating to history/criticism of both art and visual culture. Focuses on recent critical theory, its re-examination of assumptions underlying the discipline.

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 8440 - Seminar: Contemporary Art

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F or Aud
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Identity politics in contemporary art. Theories of performance/performativity. Nationalism/sexuality in art since 1980s. Discourses of death in postmodernism. Body at turn of 21st century. prereq: instr consent

ARTH 5302 - The Image Multiplied: Prints in Early Modern Europe

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

The technology of mechanically reproducing complex visual images on paper, a development of fifteenth-century Europe, transformed the early modern world no less than the emergence of digital media has transformed our own. Techniques of woodcut, engraving and etching quickly became important media for innovation within the fine arts. At the same time, they became equally important as sources for devotional imagery, for disseminating copies of other artworks, for the expansion of knowledge through scientific illustration, and for the effective broadcasting of political and religious messages during centuries of extraordinary political and religious upheaval. In this course we will investigate the cultural history of printed images in Europe from the time of their emergence in the fifteenth century through the mid-eighteenth century. Through lectures and class discussion, you will develop a familiarity with the technical aspects of printmaking and apply that understanding to the historical interpretation of specific works. The course will not be an exhaustive survey of printmakers and printmaking styles during the early modern era but will instead approach the early modern print through the changing cultural circumstances of its production and reception. While we will consider the work of many lesser-known (and anonymous) artists, we will concentrate on the work of major printmakers such as Mantegna, D�rer, Goltzius, Rembrandt, Callot, Hogarth, and Piranesi. The course will include visits to local collections.

ARTH 5313 - Spanish Baroque Masters: Tradition and Experimentation in Golden Age Spain (HIS)

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies:	ArtH 3313/ArtH 5313
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

This seminar focuses on some of the major masters of Spanish Baroque art, including Francisco de Zurbar�n, Diego Vel�zquez, Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolom� Esteban Murillo, and Juan S�nchez Cot�n. We will explore their works from a variety of perspectives in an effort to understand the unique character and contributions of the art of the Spanish Golden Age.

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.

ARTH 5336 - Transformations in 17th Century Art: Caravaggio, Velazquez, and Bernini

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

This course offers an in-depth examination of three of the most innovative masters of early modern European art, the painters Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Diego Vel�zquez, and the sculptor and architect Gianlorenzo Bernini. Through selected readings, slide presentations and discussions, we will explore the lives and works of these artists, paying particular attention to the ways they created an entirely new relationship between the work of art and the viewer and ushered in a radically new way of conceiving visual imagery.

ARTH 8320 - Seminar: Issues in Early Modern Visual Culture

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Issues in visual culture of Europe and the Americas, 1500-1750. Topics vary, may include representation of body, collectors/collecting, impact of Reformation, image/book, art/discovery, early modern vision/visuality.

ARTH 8340 - Seminar: Baroque Art

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Every Spring

Topics vary. prereq: instr consent

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 8720 - Seminar:East Asian Art

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Research focuses on closely defined topic, such as a short period of Chinese art, a restricted subject, or role of a single artist. A substantive research paper is required and participation in the seminar dialogue is expected. prereq: instr consent

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 8920 - Seminar: Film History and Criticism

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Every Fall & Spring

Selected topics in film history and theory, including specific directors, genres, movements, periods, and critical issues (e.g., violence). prereq: instr consent

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 8710 - Seminar: Islamic Art

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Focus depends on current research interests of the professor and needs and interests of graduate students in Islamic and Asian art history. prereq: instr consent

ARTH 8783 - Art, Diplomacy, and Empire

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies:	ArtH 5783/ArtH 8783
Grading Basis:	A-F only
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

This course examines the mobility and agency of objects and people in diplomatic practice. An emerging body of scholarship within Renaissance and early modern studies explores the exchange and global circulation of objects and their role in cultural encounters. The possibilities offered by this 'material turn' highlight the potential of objects to enable cultural contact, conversion, and exchange across traditional political and cultural boundaries. At the same time, recent innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to exchange highlight cultural aspects of the diplomatic encounter. As a result, the roles of diplomats, interpreters, merchants as well as various types of objects and services continue to be interpreted in new ways. This course will introduce students to canonical texts associated with gift-exchange and reciprocity, and will explore their relevance to the disciplines of history and art history particularly with regard to imperial encounters and exchanges.

ARTH 5422 - Off the Wall: History of Graphic Arts in Europe and America in the Modern Age

Credits:	3.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies:	ArtH 3422/ArtH 5422
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

History/theory of creation of lithography, social caricature (e.g., Daumier, Gavarni), revival of etching (e.g., Goya, mid-century practitioners, Whistler), and color lithography (e.g., Toulouse-Lautrec, Vuillard, Bonnard). Media changes of 20th century. Revolutionary nature of new media.

ARTH 8400 - Seminar: Issues in 19th-Century Art

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Typical seminars have included symbolism, role of the academy and the avant-garde, surrealism in art and theory, and Franco-American relationships at the turn of the 20th century. prereq: instr consent

ARTH 8520 - Seminar: American Art and Material Culture

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies:	AmSt 8520/ArtH 8520
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Topics in American art, popular art, and material culture, emphasizing methods and techniques of inquiry: creation and use of archives, oral history, sources for pictorial evidence, and current approaches to interpreting traditional and non-traditional data. prereq: instr consent

ARTH 5774 - The Body in Indian Art

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

This course explores the concept of embodiment and the nature of representation, from images of gods to human portraits, in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Muslim, and courtly contexts. We consider diverse media from ancient to modern periods, including painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, inscriptions, and literature. This course explores the concept of embodiment in the diverse artistic traditions of South Asia. We will consider how ideas of representation of an individual have been understood and expressed differently across the history of South Asian art and religions. The course will consider the embodied representation of deities and semidivine figures along with those of ?real? people; we will consider, given the ontologies of such representations in their religious and cultural contexts. Representation of an individual ? a portrait ? is a foundational subject in the canon of art history. What does the very idea of a portrait mean so far outside the canon of (Western) art history? As we survey the diverse traditions and media of images of the body, we will be attentive to questions such as, Does media make meaning for these types of images? Can a ?portrait? be textual? Is verisimilitude essential to the depiction of a person? In what ways are practices of depiction informed by other modes of image-making, such as images of religious devotion, and traditions of representation encountered through trade or gift? We will consider diverse media from Ancient India to the modern period, including painting, stone and metal sculpture, photography, architecture, inscriptions, and even a Sanskrit play.

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.

ARTH 5778 - Traditions of South Asian Painting: Past to Present

Credits:	3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies:	ArtH 3778/ArtH 5778
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

This course surveys the rich diversity of painted media in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, from 5th-century murals to contemporary canvases that travel the world. We will locate the works in their physical, ritual, and intellectual contexts. We will explore how the familiar categories with which we describe painting, such as Landscape, Portraiture, Narrative, and even Modern, might be productively reassessed in light of South Asian aesthetic traditions by locating the works in their physical, ritual, and intellectual contexts. The course culminates in the contested spaces of contemporary art, where questions of politics, identity, and intention come to the fore. Although mainly focusing on the painting traditions of India, the course will include painting from Pakistan, the Himalayas, Sri Lanka, and the South Asian diaspora. The humanities sharpen our ability to develop critical questions and to judge why and how one answer or interpretation may be stronger than another. Humanistic thinking is developed in dialogue; it emerges between individuals in conversation with each other and with their objects of study. This course asks you to boldly bring your curiosity, convictions, and blind-spots to our collective conversation, close reading, and individual writing. The course consists of two weekly meetings, and one or two trips to nearby museums or galleries.

ARTH 8770 - Seminar: Art of India

Credits:	3.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered:	Periodic Fall & Spring

Selected problems and issues in history of South Asian art. Topic varies by offering. prereq: 3 cr art history, instr consent

ARTH 8888 - Thesis Credit: Doctoral

Credits:	1.0 -24.0 [max 100.0]
Grading Basis:	No Grade
Typically offered:	Every Fall, Spring & Summer

(No description) prereq: Max 18 cr per semester or summer; 24 cr required

University Catalogs

Art History Ph.D.