Art and the History of Art

2014-15

102 Practice of Art

An introduction to two-dimensional and three-dimensional studio disciplines with related lectures and readings. Historical and contemporary references will be used throughout the course to enhance and increase the student’s understanding of the visual vocabulary of art. How the comprehension of differing visual practices directly relates to personal investigations and interpretations within the covered disciplines of drawing, sculpture, painting, photography and printmaking. This includes applying elements of composition, weight, line, value, perspective, form, spatial concerns, color theory and graphics. Work will be developed from exercises based on direct observation and memory, realism and abstraction. Formal and conceptual concerns will be an integral aspect of the development of studio work. Class time will be a balance of lectures, demonstrations, exercises, discussions and critiques. Weekly homework assignments will consist of studio work and reading assignments. Two two-hour class sessions per week. No prior studio experience is required.

Not open to students who have taken ARHA 111 or 215. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester: Five College Professor Litchfield. Spring semester: Resident Artist Gloman.

Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

111 Drawing I

An introductory course in the fundamentals of drawing. The class will be based in experience and observation, exploring various techniques and media in order to understand the basic formal vocabularies and conceptual issues in drawing; subject matter will include still life, landscape, interior, and figure. Weekly assignments, weekly critiques, final portfolio. Two three-hour sessions per week.

Limited to 20 students.  Fall semester: Five College Professor Schneider.  Spring semester: Resident Artist Gloman and Visiting Lecturer Culhane.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

133 Material Culture of American Homes

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2015

135 Art and Architecture of Europe from 1400 to 1800

(Offered as ARHA 135, ARCH 135, and EUST 135.) This course is an introduction to painting, sculpture, and architecture of the early modern period. The goal of the course is to identify artistic innovations that characterize European art from the Renaissance to the French Revolution, and to situate the works of art historically, by examining the intellectual, political, religious, and social currents that contributed to their creation. In addition to tracing stylistic change within the oeuvre of individual artists and understanding its meaning, we will investigate the varied character of art, its interpretation, and its context in different regions, including Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester.  Professor Courtright. 

Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2018, Spring 2023

137 American Art and Architecture, 1600 to Present

Through the study of form, content, and context (and the relationship among these categories) of selected works of painting, architecture, and sculpture made in colonial America and the United States from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, this course will probe changing American social and cultural values embodied in art. We will study individual artists as well as thematic issues, with particular attention to the production and reception of art in a developing nation, the transformation of European architectural styles into a new environment, the construction of race in ante- and post-bellum America, and the identification of an abstract style of art with the political ascendance of the United States after World War II.  Introductory level.

Limited to 35 students. Spring semester.  Professor Clark.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015

138 Visual Arts and Orature in Africa

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022

146 Art From the Realm of Dreams

(Offered as ARHA 146, EUST 146, and SWAG 113.)  We begin with a long-standing Spanish obsession with dreams, analyzing images and texts by Calderón, Quevedo and Goya. We next will consider a range of dream workers from a range of cultures, centuries, and disciplines--among them Apollinaire, Freud, Breton, Dalí, Carrington, and Kahlo--as well as others working around the globe in our own time.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2014-15  Professor Staller.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2023

147 Arts of China

(Offered as ARHA 147 and ASLC 143.) An introduction to the history of Chinese art from its beginnings in neolithic times until the end of the twentieth century. Topics will include the ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Chinese transformation of the Buddha image, imperial patronage of painting during the Song dynasty and the development of the literati tradition of painting and calligraphy. Particular weight will be given to understanding the cultural context of Chinese art.

Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Morse.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2013, Spring 2018, Spring 2022, Fall 2023

148 Arts of Japan

(Offered as ARHA 148 and ASLC 123.)  A survey of the history of Japanese art from neolithic times to the present. Topics will include Buddhist art and its ritual context, the aristocratic arts of the Heian court, monochromatic ink painting and the arts related to the Zen sect, the prints and paintings of the Floating World and contemporary artists and designers such as Ando Tadao and Miyake Issey. The class will focus on the ways Japan adopts and adapts foreign cultural traditions. There will be field trips to look at works in museums and private collections in the region.

Omitted 2014-15. Professor Morse.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2022

149 Survey of African Art

(Offered as ARHA 149 and BLST 123 [A].)  An introduction to the ancient and traditional arts of Africa. Special attention will be given to the archaeological importance of the rock art paintings found in such disparate areas as the Sahara and South Africa, achievements in the architectural and sculptural art in clay of the early people in the area now called Zimbabwe and the aesthetic qualities of the terracotta and bronze sculptures of the Nok, Igbo-Ukwe, Ife and Benin cultures in West Africa, which date from the second century B.C.E. to the sixteenth century C.E. The study will also pursue a general socio-cultural survey of traditional arts of the major ethnic groups of Africa.

Spring semester.  Professor Abiodun.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023

151 Twenty-four Buildings

This course is a history of western architecture from Classical Greece to Post-Modern America in the form of relatively detailed considerations of two dozen buildings. After introductory discussions of the nature of architecture and various structural materials and systems, each class will be devoted to a single building. This approach offers the scope to demonstrate that works of architecture can be historically important for different reasons: some conclude a line of stylistic or technical development, others initiate them; some are structurally daring while others are quite unadventurous; some were built to solve standard problems, others to solve new and unprecedented ones.

The lectures are intended as both introductions to particular buildings and examples of the varied ways architecture can be considered. What makes specific buildings great will be emphasized rather than how they fit into an apparently inevitable development.

Among the buildings to be studied are: the Parthenon, the Pantheon, Constantine’s church of Saint Peter, Hagia Sophia, Chartres cathedral, The Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Sant’Andrea in Mantua, Bramante’s Saint Peter’s, Saint Eustache in Paris, the Villa Rotunda, Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome, the Petit Trianon at Versailles, the Crystal Palace, the Paris Opera, the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, Villa Savoye near Paris, Fallingwater, the Seagram Building in New York and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Visiting Lecturer Lieberman.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2015

152 Visual Culture of the Islamic World

(Offered as ARHA 152 and ASLC 142.)  This introductory course explores the architecture, manuscripts, painting, textiles, decorative arts, material culture, and popular art of the Islamic world, from the late seventh century C.E., touching on the present. It follows a basic chronology, but is structured primarily through thematic issues central to the study of Islamic visual culture, including, but not limited to: orality and textuality, geometry and ornament, optics and perception, sacred and royal space, the image and aniconism, modernity and tradition, and artistic exchange with Europe, China, and beyond. The class will focus on the relationships between visual culture, history, and literature, analyzing specific sites or objects, for example the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, carved ivory boxes from Spain, luxury manuscripts from Cairo, gardens of Iran, and contemporary art from Pakistan, alongside primary and secondary texts. Films, audio recordings, and field-trips to local museum collections will supplement assigned readings and lectures. Participation in class discussion, a significant component of the course, is expected. No previous background is presumed, and all readings will be available in English.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2014-15. Visiting Professor Rice.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Fall 2023, Spring 2025

153 Convergent Histories (Art Since 1950)


This course is a survey of contemporary art since 1950. It examines the dissolution of high art as a concept and looks at how media, from ceramics and textiles to photography, video and media art, came to contest that notion even while aspiring to it. In light of the convergence of discipline-specific and other cultural histories with modernism, this course considers counter modernisms and the deconstruction and revision of Western art history. Students will also be introduced to the global contemporary art world and begin to explore how art operates aesthetically, politically, emotionally, and intellectually. Through the work of selected artists, critics, curators, historians, and theorists, students will investigate a range of processes, concepts and issues that are important in global culture today.

Limited to 50 students.  Omitted 2014-15.  Visiting Professor Falk.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2018, Spring 2020

213 Printmaking I

An introduction to intaglio and relief processes including drypoint, engraving, etching, aquatint, monoprints, woodcut and linocut. The development of imagery incorporating conceptual concerns in conjunction with specific techniques will be a crucial element in the progression of prints. Historical and contemporary references will be discussed to further enhance understanding of various techniques. Critiques will be held regularly with each assignment; critical analysis of prints utilizing correct printmaking terminology is expected. A final project of portfolio making and a portfolio exchange of an editioned print are required.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall and spring semesters. Senior Resident Artist Garand.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

214 Sculpture I

An introduction to the practice of sculpture in a contemporary and historical context. A series of directed projects will address various material and technical processes such as construction, modeling, casting and carving. Other projects will focus primarily on conceptual and critical strategies over material concerns. By the end of the course, students will have developed a strong understanding of basic principles of contemporary sculpture and have acquired basic skills and knowledge of materials and techniques. Further, students will be expected to have formed an awareness of conceptual and critical issues in current sculptural practice, establishing a foundation for continued training and self-directed work in sculpture and other artistic disciplines. Two three-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 14 students. Fall and spring semesters. Visiting Lecturer Culhane.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

215 Painting I

An introduction to the fundamentals of the pictorial organization of painting. Form, space, color and pattern, abstracted from nature, are explored through the discipline of drawing by means of paint manipulation. Slide lectures, demonstrations, individual and group critiques are regular components of the studio sessions. Two three-hour meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Professor Sweeney.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

216 Digital Constructions: Intermediate Architectural Design Studio

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2022

218 Photography I

An introduction to black-and-white still photography. The basic elements of photographic technique will be taught as a means to explore both general pictorial structure and photography’s own unique visual language. Emphasis will be centered less on technical concerns and more on investigating how images can become vessels for both ideas and deeply human emotions. Weekly assignments, weekly critiques, readings, and slide lectures about the work of artist-photographers, one short paper, and a final portfolio involving an independent project of choice. Two three-hour meetings per week.

Limited to 12 students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Kimball.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, January 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

221 Foundations in Moving Image Production

(Offered as ARHA 221 and FAMS 221) This introductory course is designed for students with no prior experience in moving image production. The aim is both technical and creative. We will begin with the literal foundation of the moving image--the frame--before moving through shot and scene construction, lighting, sound-image concepts and final edit. In addition to instruction in production equipment and facilities, the course will also explore cinematic form and structure through weekly readings, screenings and discussion. Each student will complete a series of exercises, a collaborative project and a final video assignment.  Two 3-hour classes a week (one workshop/seminar and one lecture/screening).

Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester.  Professor Levine.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2014, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

222 Drawing II

A course appropriate for students with prior experience in basic principles of visual organization, who wish to investigate further aspects of pictorial construction using the figure as a primary measure for class work. The course will specifically involve an anatomical approach to the drawing of the human figure, involving slides, some reading, and out-of-class drawing assignments. Two two-hour meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Professor Sweeney.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

223 The Artist Is Absent

In this course we will resist the art world’s current tendency to lionize the artist as a master creator/seer, who works within a veil of rarified spirits and to whom the truth is revealed. We will view the artist-student not as a genius auteur but rather a pragmatic re-discoverer of human truths lost in plain sight.  Students will become collaborators with their audience, allowing viewers to consciously discover their own paths of entry to the artworks. 

Working in a wide range of media, digital (photography, video), manual (sculpture, drawing) and performance, students will explore the breadth of expressive potential that can be found in observing and using small human gestures. Students will be asked to reach beyond traditional studio practice to engage with art-making in alternative ways that reflect our common humanity rather than specific cultural vicissitudes.  To this end it may be an advantage to be unfamiliar with a material or technique, unbound by canons of traditional art-making; therefore no prior studio experience is required for the course.

Coursework will be complemented by class visits from a variety of practitioners: painters, photographers, magicians, and others.   Additionally, students may be asked to participate in a collaborative public project, that could take a form as varied as a parade or projected-image event.

Limited to 12 students.  Spring semester.  Artist-in-Residence Lieb.

225 Image, Movement, Sound

(Offered as ARHA 225 and FAMS 225.)  This course is a hands-on, in-depth exploration of the formal elements of moving images and sound. We will begin with a study of the camera, and, through in-class projects and individual assignments, we will explore framing and composition; light, color and texture; camera movement and rhythm; editing and relationships between image and sound. We will approach set-up and documentary situations from a variety of formal and conceptual perspectives. We will consider all equipment not simply as technology, but as creative tools to be explored and manipulated. Our goal is to make the camera an extension of our eyes and minds, to learn to see and think about the world around us through moving images and sound. An individual final video project will give students the opportunity to bring the concepts explored throughout the term into a work with an expressive, cohesive cinematic language. In Scenario du Film Passion, Jean-Luc Godard expresses his desire to turn a camera movement into a prayer. It is this profound engagement with the world and intense, thoughtful consideration of the medium that we seek to achieve.

Limited to 12 students.  Omitted 2014-15. 

Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Spring 2025

227 The Film Portrait

(Offered as ARHA 227 and FAMS 227.) This introductory production workshop focuses on the history and practice of film and video portraiture. The class will begin by considering the portrait’s origins in figurative art and still photography before identifying the ways in which the film portrait uses strategies unique to the moving image to convey character and meaning. We will then  trace the development of the genre while also considering its intersections with narrative, documentary and experimental film.

The aim of the course is both analytic and creative. We will be looking at a variety of approaches and issues related to portraiture in an attempt to develop both common and  contested definitions that can be applied to our own filmmaking practice. Each student will complete in-class exercises and individual video projects that seek to reveal the nature of people, places and objects through sound and image. The class will also cover the fundamentals of cinematography, lighting, audio recording and editing and discuss how these technological considerations influence the portrayal of a subject.

Limited to 12 students.  Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Levine.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in January 2022, Spring 2022

230 Sculpture from the Human Figure: Subject, Symbol, Object, Presence

The human image was at the core of what are understood as the first steps into modern sculpture. We will look at the beginnings of the modernist approaches to the human image in sculpture and continue through its use by a wide variety of contemporary artists.  Students will build sculptures based on the head and the figure, working from life, as well as from memory and imagination.  From initial studies in clay from observation, students will move on to a variety of self-directed projects using the human image as central subject matter. Casting techniques, a range of materials, and a multiplicity of approaches to both analyzing and building form will be covered in the course. Two three-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: At least one of the following--ARHA 111, ARHA 102, or ARHA 214.  Limited to 10 students. Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Keller.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2016

244 Histories of Performance in 20th-Century Russia

Other years: Offered in Spring 2015, Spring 2023

250 The Monastic Challenge

(Offered as ARHA 250 and EUST 250.)  This course aims to be a visually and spatially attentive search for the "art" of the monastic and cathedral masterpieces of medieval France. First, by learning how to recognize, define, and respond to the artistic values embodied in several “romanesque” and “gothic” monuments including the Abbeys of Fontenay, Vézelay and Mont St. Michel and the Cathedrals of Laôn, Paris, Chartres, Amiens and Reims, we will try to engage directly (e.g., architecturally and spatially) the human aspiration these structures embody. Secondly, with the help of two literary masterpieces from the period, The Song of Roland and Tristan and Isolde, we will discover that the heart of the “monastic” challenge to our own era is not the common opposition of the medieval and modern worlds, but rather the recognition of the potential diminishment of "art" by an exclusively ratiocinated view of all reality. The tragic love affair of Eloise and Peter Abelard will dramatize a vital existential dilemma too easily forgotten that always (but especially in our time) threatens "art," human compassion and spirituality. Our goal is to reclaim the poetic potential of the word “cathedral.” Two class meetings per week.

Requisite: One course in Art and the History of Art or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Upton.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2020

253 Dutch and Flemish Painting (The Art of Beholding)

(Offered as ARHA 253 and EUST 253). This course means to ask the question: What would it be like to engage with the paintings of Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden, Hieronymous Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Jan Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn as a consciously embodied person and to reclaim in such a direct encounter the rejuvenating powers of erôs, insight and wisdom residing within ourselves and in the art of works of art with which we would behold. In addition to reaffirming the practice of artistic contemplation for its own sake, “Dutch and Flemish Painting” will offer explicit guidance in both the means and the attitude of being that underlie and enable such beholding. In learning how to 'behold', our goal will be to allow a series of exemplary masterpieces including Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Double Portrait and the Ghent Alterpiece, Roger’s Portrait of a Lady, the Prado Deposition, and the Beaune Last Judgment; Bosch’s Death of a Miser; Brueghal's Seasons; Vermeer’s Artist in his Studio and Portrait of a Girl with a Pearl Earring; Rembrandt’s Nightwatch and several intimate Self Portraits to open outward and implicate us in their human aspiration to wholeness. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Fall semester.  Professor Upton.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2019

261 Buddhist Art of Asia

(Offered as ARHA 261 and ASLC 260.)  Visual imagery plays a central role in the Buddhist faith.  As the religion developed and spread throughout Asia it took many forms.  This class will first examine the appearance of the earliest aniconic traditions in ancient India, the development of the Buddha image, and early monastic centers.  It will then trace the dissemination and transformation of Buddhist art as the religion reached South-East Asia, Central Asia, and eventually East Asia.  In each region indigenous cultural practices and artistic traditions influenced Buddhist art.  Among the topics the class will address are the nature of the Buddha image, the political uses of Buddhist art, the development of illustrated hagiographies, and the importance of pilgrimage, both in the past and the present.

Fall semester. Professor Morse.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2021, Spring 2023

262 From Edo to Tokyo: Japanese Art from 1600 to the Present

(Offered as ARHA 262 and ASLC 238 [J].)  In 1590 the Tokugawa family founded its provincial headquarters in eastern Japan. By the eighteenth century, this castle town, named Edo (now known as Tokyo), had become the world’s largest city. This class will focus on the appearance of artistic traditions in the new urban center and compare them with concurrent developments in the old capital of Kyoto. Topics of discussion will include the revival of classical imagery during the seventeenth century, the rise of an urban bourgeois culture during the eighteenth century, the conflicts brought on by the opening of Japan to the West in the nineteenth century, the reconstruction of Tokyo and its artistic practices after the Second World War, and impact of Japanese architecture, design and popular culture over the past twenty years.

Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Morse.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Spring 2011, Spring 2014

266 Sacred Images and Sacred Space: The Visual Culture of Religion in Japan

(Offered as ARHA 266 and ASLC 261.) An interdisciplinary study of the visual culture of the Buddhist and Shinto religious traditions in Japan. The class will examine in depth a number of Japan's most important sacred places, including Ise Shrine, Tôdaiji, Daitokuji and Mount Fuji, and will also look at the way contemporary architects such as Andô Tadao and Takamatsu Shin have attempted to create new sacred places in Japan today. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ways by which the Japanese have given distinctive form to their religious beliefs through architecture, painting and sculpture, and the ways these objects have been used in religious ritual.

Spring semester. Professor Morse.

Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2015, Fall 2023

267 The Arts of the Book in Iran and Islamic South Asia, 1250-1650

(Offered as ARHA 267 and ASLC 267.)  This course considers the arts of the book at the royal courts of Greater Iran (including Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia) and Islamic South Asia from the thirteenth through seventeenth centuries. It will focus in particular on illustrated histories and poetic works in Persian, including Abu'l Qasim Firdausi's Shahnama (Book of Kings), Nizami Ganjavi's Khamsa (Quintet), and Abu'l Fazl's Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), among others. All aspects of manuscript production will be considered, from the arts of “miniature painting,” calligraphy, and illumination, to the preparation of paper, brushes, inks, and pigments. The class will explore in depth the nature of the royal manuscript workshop, the formation of visual idioms, the roles of originality and imitation in artistic practice, the aesthetics of the illustrated page, and the theorization of painting and calligraphy in technical treatises, poetry, and other primary texts. Emphasis will be placed on the great movement of artists, materials, and ideas across the Islamic world, all of which contributed to the rise of an elite, cosmopolitan culture of manuscript connoisseurs. Examination of objects in the Mead Art Museum and other local collections will supplement classroom discussion and assigned readings. No previous knowledge of the topic is presumed, and all reading will be available in English.

Requisite: One course in Art History or Studio Art. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2014-15. Visiting Professor Rice.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Fall 2015, Fall 2024

270 African Art and the Diaspora

(Offered as ARHA 270 and BLST 293 [D].) The course of study will examine those African cultures and their arts that have survived and shaped the aesthetic, philosophic and religious patterns of African descendants in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and urban centers in North America. We shall explore the modes of transmission of African artistry to the West and examine the significance of the preservation and transformation of artistic forms from the period of slavery to our own day. Through the use of films, slides and objects, we shall explore the depth and diversity of this vital artistic heritage of Afro-Americans.

Fall semester.  Professor Abiodun.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022

271 Modern Architecture, Design, and the Built Environment

(Offered as ARHA 271, ARCH 271 and EUST 271.)  This course considers architecture and design of the 19th and 20th centuries in light of contemporary disciplinary themes like space, globalization, and sustainability. In doing so, it strives to highlight the social, political, intellectual, and technological forces that have influenced (and continue to motivate) modern design. Key figures to be addressed include: Gottfried Semper, William Morris, Peter Behrens, Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Daniel Libeskind, Herzog and de Meuron, and Zaha Hadid. Two class meetings per week. 

Requisite: EUST 216, EUST 364, a course in art history, studio art, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2014-15. 

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013

272 Foundations and Integrations:  Film and Media Studies

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017

273 Modernization, Modernity, and Modernism in Europe, 1848-1918

(Offered as ARHA 273 and EUST 273.)  This course considers the dynamics of European Modernism between 1848 and 1918 in relation to processes of modernization, such as technological innovation, the advent of mass culture and spectacle, and socio-political change. In tracing the history of visual culture from the introduction of photography through the rise of cinema, we will address the work of Gustave Courbet, William Henry Fox Talbot, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Georges Méliès, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Vladimir Tatlin, and others.      

Requisite: a course in art history, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2014-15.

2023-24: Not offered

274 Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice

Since the thorough renegotiation of the concept of art in the 1960s and 70s, contemporary art has continuously come to explore new media, sites, and expressions. Conceptual art, performance, video- and sound-based art are examples that often illustrate this development. However, they also act alongside an expanded understanding of traditional art forms such as painting and sculpture, both of which have taken radically new directions during the past decades. The vivid and changing field of artistic practices provides new challenges for museums and curators in terms of collecting, displaying, and communicating art to the public. This course offers theoretical and practical takes on curating and curatorial practices in relation to contemporary art and makes full use of the collection and facilities of the Mead Art Museum. The course investigates the relation between contemporary artistic and curatorial practices mainly from the perspective of the museum, but also with reference to curating outside the frame of an institution. It is designed to combine theory with practice in order to raise awareness of the effects curating can have on the individual artwork. The course aims to deepen the understanding of the individual artwork’s potential to communicate different narratives or expressions. Class is based on lectures regularly incorporating discussion. Recurring sessions at the Mead, which will include examinations of works from the collection, constitute a core in the course structure.

Seminars and lectures discuss central aspects in curating and museum practices, such as collecting and conservation; installation and display; education (including the use of new media); documentation. Named aspects are related to contemporary artistic practices in performance, photography, video- and sound-based art, conceptual art, street art and graffiti, contemporary painting, and sculpture. Furthermore, the course discusses the artist as researcher and curator, areas that have had impact on art education and the distinction between curating and art production in recent years. The course includes one field trip, e.g., Mass MoCA.

Limited to 15 students. Art history concentrators preferred; then upper-class students who have taken art history. Fall semester. STINT Fellow Holdar.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014

275 Contemporary Art: Art Since 1945

This course traces the different paths of painting, sculpture, and photography in the United States and, to a lesser extent in Western Europe, since World War II. Initially, most of these paths took shape in relation to a “crisis of modernism,” but increasingly, they have taken on a different vitality, drawing energy from a wide variety of postmodern and post-colonial subjects and debates: identity politics, transnationalism, diaspora, and more.

Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Lee.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2015

276 Border Culture: Globalization and Contemporary Art

This course will look at globalization and contemporary art through the lens of border culture, a term that refers to the "deterritorialized" experience of people when they move or are displaced from their context or place of origin. Their experience of belonging and understanding of identity are affected by borders within the realms of language, gender, ideology, race, and genres of cultural production as well as geopolitical locations. Border culture emerged in the 1980s in Tijuana/San Diego in a community of artists who had spent many years living outside their homelands or living between two cultures—an experience that in 2015 might well represent the nature of contemporary life as well as art praxis. Readings will include the voices of artists, critics, historians, theorists, anthropologists, and philosophers.

Limited to 24 students.  Spring semester.  Five College Visiting Professor Falk.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2015

281 The Arts of Exchange: Cross-Cultural Interaction in the Islamic World, 1400-1800

(Offered as ARHA 281 and ASLC 281.)  This course examines artistic exchanges and encounters in the Islamic world during the early modern period. We will focus on the movement of artists, objects, and systems of knowledge between and beyond the Mamluk, Ottoman, Timurid, Safavid, and Mughal courts, placing special emphasis upon encounters with the arts of Europe and East Asia. Among the topics to be considered are the design, circulation, and trade of textiles; the arts of diplomacy and gift exchange; the nature of curiosity and wonder; and artists’ responses to the “other.” This course aims to challenge conventional, essentialist binaries (e.g., East vs. West, Islamic vs. European), and to re-assess the standard art historical narratives from a more culturally, geographically, and economically interconnected perspective.

Limited to 25 students.  Spring semester.  Visiting Professor Rice.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2015, Fall 2017

284 Women and Art in Early Modern Europe

(Offered as ARHA 284, EUST 284, and SWAG 206.) This course will examine the ways in which prevailing ideas about women and gender-shaped visual imagery, and how these images influenced ideas concerning women from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. It will adopt a comparative perspective, both by identifying regional differences among European nations and tracing changes over time. In addition to considering patronage of art by women and works by women artists, we will look at the depiction of women heroes such as Judith; the portrayal of women rulers, including Elizabeth I and Marie de' Medici; and the imagery of rape. Topics emerging from these categories of art include biological theories about women; humanist defenses of women; the relationship between the exercise of political power and sexuality; differing attitudes toward women in Catholic and Protestant art; and feminine ideals of beauty.

Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Courtright.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2008, Spring 2012, Fall 2014, Spring 2017, Spring 2021

301 The Art of Beholding

What would it be like to “behold”? Without diminishing the value of objective observation, analysis, cultural and historical positioning of works of art, this seminar will offer a working hypothesis concerning the act of “beholding” as a deliberate and disciplined means of entering into the thrall of the art of individual works of art. Learning to behold by beholding: Each member of the seminar will have the opportunity to experience and assess the power of “beholding” by way of a semester-long encounter with one painting of their choosing, including time spent with this painting in situ. We will follow the progress of each encounter in conversation and presentation during our class meetings through a series of particular focused steps leading to the direct experience of “beholding,” both individually and as a group. Our goal will be to re-imagine the possibility that artistic contemplation realized in multiple forms (not only pictorial, architectural and sculptural, but social, political, economic, religious and spiritual) is the highest aspiration of our human being in which love will have become the animating source of compassionate action. One class meeting per week.

Attendance at first class is mandatory. Limited to 10 students. Fall semester.  Professor Upton.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2022, Spring 2025

306 Eight People, One Place and a Book

In this advanced photography course, eight students and the professor will choose a single site to travel to weekly to photograph. Participants will work individually in their chosen medium to build a body of work that represents their experience of that place. Simultaneously, the group will be collectively designing and producing a limited edition book that weaves together the varied ways these individual artists see, experience and produce work from a single place. The course will also include group and individual critiques of the students’ work, historical and topical lectures from the history of photography, and the careful examination of the book as a final vehicle for artistic work. Analog and digital technologies associated with book making will be reviewed, as well as the ideas and theory of book structure, sequence, and design.

Requisite: Introductory Photography, at least one other intermediate photography course or equivalent, and permission of the instructor.  Limited to 8 students. Enrollment is determined by interview with the professor. Fall semester.  Professor Kimball.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022

307 Eight People, One Place and a Book, II  

In this advanced photography course (a continuation of ARHA 306), eight students and the professor will choose a single site to travel to weekly to photograph. Participants will work individually in their chosen medium to build a body of work that represents their experience of that place. Simultaneously, the group will be collectively designing and producing a limited edition book that weaves together the varied ways these individual artists see, experience and produce work from a single place. The course will also include group and individual critiques of the students’ work, historical and topical lectures from the history of photography, and the careful examination of the book as a final vehicle for artistic work. Analog and digital technologies associated with book making will be reviewed, as well as the ideas and theory of book structure, sequence, and design.

Requisite: ARHA 306 or equivalent, and permission of the instructor.  Limited to 8 students. Enrollment is determined by interview with the professor. Spring semester.  Professor Kimball.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2015

310 Collaborative Art: Practice and Theory of Working with a Community

This course will examine the approaches of various contemporary artists to creating collaborative work.  Over the last two decades a growing number of artists have adopted a mode of working that is radically different from the usual modernist model.  These artists are working as collaborators with people or groups outside the world of art--with children, senior citizens, sanitation workers, or residents of a particular neighborhood.  The artists often create work with, not for a community, and share decision making with people not ordinarily given a place in the world of museums or other art world sites.  The results are artworks that express a variety of social and aesthetic positions. In general, the work is intertwined with progressive educational philosophies and radical democratic theory. 

Some of the issues examined will be: What is the special attraction for artists of working collaboratively?  What are the roles of the artist, community, and audience?  How does one attribute quality or success to collaborative projects?  What is the relationship between process and product? This course will examine the work of artists working in various media, including Ewald’s methods for working with children in photography and with communities. Human rights photographer Fazal Sheikh will be in residence and working on a project in the Pioneer Valley for periods of time during the semester.  Students will work with Fazal as well as completing companion projects with communities in the Amherst area. Weekly class discussions will provide students the opportunity to reflect upon their own experiences and observations as artists.  They will also read about and discuss collaboration, social issues as it relates to the people they will be working with. 

Requisite: One course in the practice of art. Limited to 10 students.  Omitted 2014-15. Visiting Artist Ewald.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2012, Fall 2012

315 Experiments in Narrative

(Offered as ARHA 315 and FAMS 443.)  What constitutes cinematic narrative, distinct from other forms of storytelling? How do we engage film form to tell a story?  Can the camera be a narrator?  How can we alter a traditional narrative structure, and, what are the implications of these transformations? How can we use color to construct the subjective space of a character, or use sound to manipulate the temporal order of the story, creating flashbacks, ellipses or flash-forwards?

In this advanced production workshop we will explore cinematic narrative first by closely studying how a group of classical, experimental, and contemporary filmmakers have engaged narrative through filmic form. We will then formulate our own new cinematic narratives. Cinema is no longer restricted to the theater or the gallery. Moving images surround us--online, on our phones and screens, in the streets, and in stores, taxis, and train stations.  We will consider the formal parameters of these new cinematic spaces and their possibilities. Coursework consists of film viewing, analysis and discussion, and the production of several short narrative films.

Requisite:  Prior film production experience; recommended requisite: ARHA 102 or 111.  Limited to 8 students. Omitted 2014-15.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012

323 Advanced Studio Seminar

A studio course that will emphasize compositional development by working from memory, imagination, other works of art and life. The use of a wide variety of media will be encouraged including, but not limited to, drawing, painting, printmaking and collage. Students will be required to create an independent body of work that explores an individual direction in pictorial construction. In addition to this independent project, course work will consist of slide lectures, individual and group critiques, in-class studio experiments and field trips.

Requisite: ARHA 222, 326 or 327. Limited to 8 students. Spring semester. Professor Sweeney.

Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

324 Sculpture II

A studio course that investigates more advanced techniques and concepts in sculpture leading to individual exploration and development. Projects cover figurative and abstract problems based on both traditional themes and contemporary developments in sculpture, including: clay modeling, carving, wood and steel fabrication, casting, and mixed-media construction. Weekly in-class discussion and critiques will be held. Two two-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 214 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2014-15. Professor Keller.

Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2022, Spring 2023

325 Advanced Photography

This advanced course offers the opportunity for each student to design and work on an individual project for an extended period of time. The emphasis is placed on the student's ability to express themselves clearly with the medium as it relates to their own personal vision. It is designed for those who already possess a strong conceptual and technical foundation in photography.  Concepts and theories are read, discussed, demonstrated and applied through a series of visual problems, and complemented by presentations of contemporary and historical photography. Student work will be discussed and evaluated in group and individual critiques. Students may work in analog or digital photography.

Requisite: ARHA 102 or 111 and ARHA 328 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 8 students. Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Kimball.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2020

326 Painting II

This course offers students knowledgeable in the basic principles and skills of painting and drawing an opportunity to investigate personal directions in painting. Assignments will be collectively as well as individually directed. Discussions of the course work will assume the form of group as well as individual critiques. Two three-hour class meetings per week.

Requisite: ARHA 215 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Spring semester.  Professor Sweeney.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2023, Spring 2025

327 Printmaking II

This course is an extension of intaglio and relief processes introduced in ARHA 213 with an introduction to lithography. Techniques involved will be drypoint, etching, engraving, aquatint, monoprints, monotypes, woodcut, linocut and stone lithography. Printmaking processes will include color printing, combining printmaking techniques and editioning. Combining concept with technique will be an integral element to the development of imagery. A final project of portfolio-making and a portfolio exchange of prints will be required. Individualized areas of investigation are encouraged and expected. In-class work will involve demonstration, discussion and critique.

Requisite: ARHA 213 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Fall and spring semesters.  Resident Artist Garand.

Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2023

328 Photography II

This course is a continuing investigation of the skills and questions introduced in ARHA 218.  It will include an introduction to varied camera and film formats and both analog and digital photography methods. An emphasis will be placed on defining, locating and pursuing independent work; this will be accomplished through a series of weekly demonstrations, assignments and a final independent project. Student work will be discussed and evaluated in group and individual critiques. This is complemented by slide presentations and topical readings of contemporary and historical photography.

Requisite: ARHA 218 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2014-15  Professor Kimball.

Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2021, Fall 2022

329 Ideas, Influences and Vision: Building a Body of Work

An advanced level interdisciplinary studio course focused on the development of a personal and independent body of work, and the technical and conceptual problems associated with such a project.  Students concentrating in any visual medium or across mediums are welcome and encouraged to enroll. Each student, in consultation with the professors, will design a semester-long project.  This project will result in a final body of work or series that reflects the student’s ideas, influences and personal vision.  In addition to production of this extended independent project, course work will consist of weekly group critiques, historical and topical readings, discussions, field trips and in-class studio experiments. This course is highly recommended for any ARHA major considering a senior honors project with a concentration in studio; however, it is open to any student having the necessary prerequisites.  

Requisite: Two introductory level studio courses and one intermediate level studio course. Admission with consent of the instructor.  Limited to 10 students. Omitted 2014-15.  Resident Artist Gloman and Professor Kimball.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012

332 Substance and Space: Explorations in Sculpture

This course offers an in-depth exploration of three-dimensional practice. The focus will be on extending the range of object-based art. Projects will involve combining materials, using alternative materials and processes and employing contemporary formats including installation and site-specific work.  Basic sculptural processes such as carving, casting and welding will be revaluated for new potential.  Figurative, abstract, architectural and conceptual approaches will be considered. Students will be encouraged to explore new territory while refining and developing their critical and technical skills. Contemporary critical approaches will be introduced through readings and visual presentations.

Requisite: ARHA 214 or permission of the instructor.  Limited to 14 students. Spring semester. Visiting Lecturer Culhane.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014

343 Lost and Found: Appropriated, Recycled and Reclaimed Images

(Offered as ARHA 343 and FAMS 343) From the found-footage experiments of the avant-garde to the digital remixes of the networked age, artists have used pre-existing material to question the ideologies of dominant media, explore technological possibilities and play situationist pranks. With the advent of file-sharing platforms, streaming video and cheap DVDs, we live in an era dominated by what Hito Steyerl calls “the poor image” – low resolution, second- or third-generation images whose quality has been sacrificed for accessibility. The availability of this material has allowed artists to work economically and to borrow the aesthetics of cinema and television for their own purposes, but it also foregrounds many problematic questions of authorship and ownership.

This course is a hands-on investigation into the practice of recycling, recontextualizing and remixing moving images. We will screen found-footage work, collage films and remakes in addition to discussing readings by filmmakers, artists and theorists that will provide ideas and models for our own production. The class will also review the fundamentals of editing as we create projects both entirely from found material and in combination with our own footage.  Two 2-hour classes per week (one seminar/critique and one lecture/screening). 

Limited to 12 students.  Spring semester. Professor Levine.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2013, Spring 2015

352 Proseminar: Images of Sickness and Healing

(Offered as ARHA 352, EUST 352 and SWAG 352.)  In this research seminar, we will explore how sickness and healing were understood, taking examples over centuries.  We will analyze attitudes toward bodies, sexuality, and deviance--toward physical and spiritual suffering--as we analyze dreams of cures and transcendence.  We will interrogate works by artists such as Grünewald, Goya, Géricault, Munch, Ensor, Van Gogh, Schiele, Cornell and Picasso, as well as images by artists in our own time: Kiki Smith, the AIDS quilt, Nicolas Nixon, Hannah Wilke, and others. Texts by Edgar Allen Poe, Sander Gilman, Roy Porter, Susan Sontag, Thomas Laquer and Caroline Walker Bynum will inspire us as well. Significant research projects with presentations in class. Two class meetings per week. 

Limited to 15 students.  Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Staller.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012

353 Myth, Ritual and Iconography in West Africa

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023

356 Baroque Art in Italy, France, Spain, and the Spanish Netherlands

(Offered as ARHA 356 and EUST 356.) After the canonization of the notion of artistic genius in the Italian Renaissance and the subsequent imaginative license of artists known as Mannerists, phenomena sponsored throughout Europe by the largesse of merchants, courtiers, aristocrats, princes, and Churchmen alike, a crisis occurred in European society--and art--in the second half of the sixteenth century. Overturned dogmas of faith, accompanied by scientific discoveries and brutal political changes, brought about the reconsideration of fundamental values that had undergirded many facets of life and society in Europe at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the starting point of this course. Unexpectedly, these upheavals led to a renewed proliferation of innovative art. In this century of remarkably varied artistic production, paradoxes abounded. Some artists sought the illusion of reality by imitating unimproved, even base nature through close observation of the human body, of landscape, and of ordinary, humble objects of daily use, as others continued to quest for perfection in a return to the lofty principles implicit in ancient artistic canons of ideality. More than ever before, artists explored the expression of passion through dramatic narratives and sharply revealing portraiture, but, famously, artists also imbued art meant to inspire religious devotion with unbounded eroticism or with the gory details of painful suffering and hideous death. They depicted dominating political leaders as flawed mortals--even satirized them through the new art of caricature--at the same time that they developed a potent and persuasive vocabulary for the expression of the rulers’ absolutist political power. This class, based on lectures but regularly incorporating discussion, will examine in depth selected works of painting, sculpture, and architecture produced by artists in the countries which remained Catholic after the religious discords of this period-e.g., Caravaggio, Bernini, Poussin, Velázquez, and Rubens in Italy, France, Spain, and the Spanish Netherlands--as well as engaging the cultural, social, and intellectual framework for their accomplishments. Upper level.

Requisite: One other course in art history or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Courtright.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Fall 2013, Fall 2016, Spring 2022

361 Arts of Korea

(Offered as ARHA 361 and ASLC 361.)  A study of the major artistic traditions of the Korean peninsula and the cultural context that shaped them. Starting with the prehistoric period and continuing to the beginning of the twenty-first century, this seminar will focus in particular on the Buddhist architecture and sculpture of the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods, Goguryeo celadons and Joseon Dynasty painting. It will conclude with an examination of Korean art during the Japanese colonial period and developments in contemporary art during the past three decades. Relevant artistic developments in China and Japan will also be considered to bring the distinctive traditions of the Korean peninsula into clearer focus. There will be field trips to look at collections of Korean art in the northeast.

Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Morse.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2015

374 To Sculpt a Modern Woman's Life

(Offered as ARHA 374, EUST 384, and SWAG 374.) We will revel in dramatically different works by women artists, from Magdalena Abakanowicz, Lynda Benglis and Louise Bourgeois, to Eva Hesse, Jeanne-Claude, Jenny Holzer, Rona Pondick, Doris Salcedo, Kiki Smith and Rachel Whiteread on down, as we explore how they created themselves through their work. As a foil, we will analyze the invented personas of Sarah Bernhardt and Madonna, as well as images of women by Renoir, Cézanne, Picasso, Magritte, de Kooning, Woody Allen, and Saura. While we will focus on original objects and primary texts (such as artists' letters or interviews), we will also critique essays by current feminist scholars and by practitioners of "the new cultural his-tory," in order to investigate possible models for understanding the relationship between a woman and her modern culture at large. Assignments will include a substantial research paper and at least one field trip.

Requisite: One course in modern art or consent of the instructor.  Limited to 15 students.  Fall semester. Professor Staller.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014

380 Museums and Society

This course considers how art museums reveal the social and cultural ideologies of those who build, pay for, work in, and visit them. We will study the ways in which art history is (and has been) constructed by museum acquisitions, exhibitions, and installation and the ways in which museums are constructed by art history by looking at the world-wide boom in museum architecture, and by examining curatorial practice and exhibition strategies as they affect American and Asian art. We will analyze the relationship between the cultural contexts of viewer and object, the nature of the translation of languages or aesthetic discourse, and the diverse ways in which art is understood as the materialization of modes of experience and communication. The seminar will incorporate visits to art museums and opportunities for independent research. Two meetings per week.

Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2014-15.  Professors Clark and Morse.

Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2023

381 The Art of the Talisman

(Offered as ARHA 381 and ASLC 381.)  The term “talisman,” from telesma (Greek) and tilsam (Arabic), has traditionally been defined as a magical object that is believed to repel harmful or evil forces. According to this view, a talisman is more interesting for what it does rather than what it represents or how it looks. Taking the arts of the Near East and South Asia as its primary frame, this course aims to move beyond these standard claims to examine the aesthetic dimensions of the talisman. What forms do talismans assume, and why? How—and with what materials, texts, and physical senses (smell, sight, touch)—are talismans made? And in what ways does this intersection of multiple systems of knowledge challenge basic assumptions regarding the relationship between art and reality? Among the objects we will explore are amulets, prayer scrolls, astrological materials, illustrated divination manuscripts, books of wonders, and talismanic clothing. While our case studies will be drawn mainly from the Islamic and South Asian spheres, students will have the opportunity to investigate a topic outside these realms for their final research project. Participation in class discussion, a significant component of the course, is expected. All readings will be available in English. One class meeting per week.

Requisite: One course in History of Art, History, Anthropology, or Religion. Limited to 20 students. Permission required for first-year students. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Rice.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014

383 The Tea Ceremony and Japanese Culture

(Offered as ARHA 383 and ASLC 319.) An examination of the history of chanoyu, the tea ceremony, from its origins in the fifteenth century to the practice of tea today. The class will explore the various elements that comprise the tea environment-the garden setting, the architecture of the tea room, the forms of tea utensils, and the elements of the kaiseki meal. Through a study of the careers of influential tea masters and texts that examine the historical, religious, and cultural background to tea culture, the class will also trace how the tea ceremony has become a metaphor for Japanese culture and Japanese aesthetics both in Japan and in the West. There will be field trips to visit tea ware collections, potters and tea masters. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Morse.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2022

385 Witches, Vampires and Other Monsters

(Offered as ARHA 385, EUST 385, and SWAG 310.) This course will explore the construction of the monstrous, over cultures, centuries and disciplines. With the greatest possible historical and cultural specificity, we will investigate the varied forms of monstrous creatures, their putative powers, and the explanations given for their existence-as we attempt to articulate the kindred qualities they share. Among the artists to be considered are Valdés Leal, Velázquez, Goya, Munch, Ensor, Redon, Nolde, Picasso, Dalí, Kiki Smith, and Cindy Sherman. Two class meetings per week.

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester.  Professor Staller.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023

412 The Sixties

We will investigate a series of historical events (such as the Vietnam War, the Cuban missile crisis, Stonewall, the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King) as well as the Civil Rights Movement, the rise of identity politics (Feminism, Black Power, the Brown Berets) and the counterculture. We will study the myriad art forms and their attendant ideologies invented during the decade (such as Pop, Op, Color Field, Minimalism, Land Art, Conceptual Art, Performance Art, Fluxus), as well as some crucial critics, dealers and art journals, in an effort to understand the ways in which artists rejected or appropriated, then transformed, certain themes and conceptual models of their time.

Requisite: One course in modern art or consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2014-15.  Professor Staller.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2019, Spring 2023

444 Films That Try: Essay Film Production

(Offered as ARHA 444 and FAMS 444) Essay filmmaking is a dynamic form with many commonly cited attributes—the presence of an authorial voice, an emphasis on broad themes, an eclectic approach to genre, and the tendency to digress or draw unexpected connections. Yet, true to its nature, the precise definition of the essay film is in constant flux. It can be both personal and political, individual and collective, noble and mischievous. Essay filmmakers themselves are equally diverse, ranging from established film auteurs to Third Cinema activists and contemporary video artists.

If we entertain the notion that the processes of cinema closely resemble the mechanics of human thought, then the essay film may be the medium’s purest expression. To watch or make such a film, we must give ourselves over to a compulsive, restless energy that delights in chasing a subject down any number of rabbit holes and blind alleys, often stopping to admire the scenery on the way. As with thought, there is no end product, no clear boundaries, no goal but the activity itself.

The term "essay" finds its origins in the French essayer, meaning “to attempt” or to try.” In this advanced production workshop, we will read, screen and discuss examples of the essayistic mode in literature and cinema while making several such attempts of our own. Students will complete a series of writing assignments and video projects informed by class materials and group discussion.

Requisite:  One 200-level production course or relevant experience (to be discussed with the instructor in advance of the first class). Limited to 12 students.  Fall semester. Professor Levine.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2025

445 Cinema Experiments

(Offered as ARHA 445 and FAMS 445.) This advanced production course surveys the outer limits of cinematic expression and provides an overview of creative 16mm film production. We will begin by making cameraless projects through drawing, painting and scratching directly onto the film strip before further exploring the fundamentals of 16mm technology, including camera, editing and hand-processing. While remaining aware of our creative choices, we will invite chance into our process and risk failure, as every experiment inevitably must.

Through screenings of original film prints, assigned readings and discussion, the course will consider a number of experimental filmmakers and then conclude with a review of exhibition and distribution strategies for moving image art. All students will complete one short project on film and one final project on either film or video, each of which is to be presented for class critique.  Two 2-hour classes per week (one workshop/seminar and one lecture/screening).

Requisite:  One 200-level production course or relevant experience (to be discussed with the instructor in advance of the first class).  Limited to 12 students. Spring semester. Professor Levine.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2020

456 Matisse and Picasso

We will study two of the greatest artists of all time--their complex relationships to their current worlds, toward traditions and each other.  We will interrogate their attitudes toward nature, the sacred, history and gender, as well as the ways in which they recast myths, fears and dreams from the countries and regions of their birth and later experience.  We will analyze the ways in which they responded to particular geographies and qualities of light, as we interrogate ways in which their works addressed–-and sometimes aggressively did not address-–cataclysmic events in the social sphere:  anarchist insurrections, the Guerra Civil, two world wars.  We will consider their drawings, paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, and writing, from the entire trajectory of their careers, reveling in original objects whenever possible. In addition to weekly reading assignments, there will be one substantial research paper, based at least in part on primary sources, and an oral presentation. There will be at least one required field trip, on a Friday. 

Requisite: One course in modern art or permission of the instructor. While not required, reading knowledge of French and/or Spanish would be helpful.  Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2014-15. Professor Staller.

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2013

490, 490H Special Topics

Half course.

Fall and spring semesters.  The Department.

Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

498, 498D, 499 Senior Departmental Honors

Preparation of a thesis or completion of a studio project which may be submitted to the Department for consideration for Honors.

Open to seniors with consent of the Department. Fall semester. The Department.

Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025

Departmental Courses

360 Public Art and Collective Memory in the United States

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013

Non-Language Russian Courses

245 Art and Politics in Russia, 1860 to the Present

2023-24: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014, Fall 2015