Art History
Director of Undergraduate Studies: Thomas Cummins, CWAC 262, 702-0262
Department Secretary: Candace Stoakley, CWAC 166, 702-0278
Program of Study
Art history is a branch of humanistic learning concerned with the study of the visual arts in their historical context. Individual works are analyzed for the styles, materials, and techniques of their design and manufacture; for their meanings; and for their makers, periods, and places of creation. An informed appreciation of each work is developed, and the proper historical position of each piece is established. From the study of single works, the art historian moves to the analysis and interpretation of artistic careers, group movements and schools, currents of artistic theory, significant patrons, and cultural contexts. The study of our heritage in the visual arts thus provides a singular perspective for the study of social, cultural, and intellectual history.
Courses for Nonconcentrators. Introduction to Art (Art History 101) develops basic skills in the analysis and critical enjoyment of the visual arts. Issues and problems in the history of art are explored through classroom discussion of key works, critical reading of fundamental texts, and through writing. Art of the West (Art History 150-151-152) surveys the history of Western art from ancient Greece to the modern world. The Western survey furthers the student's appreciation both for major monuments of art and architecture, and for the place of art in the broad development of Western culture. Art of the East (Art History 161) provides an equivalent introduction to Eastern art. Art in Context (Art History 170 through 189) introduces students to a well-defined issue, topic, or period of art in depth. Any of these 100-level courses is an appropriate choice to meet the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts. None presupposes prior training in art.
Students who have taken at least one course in art history or studio art, or who have equivalent nonacademic experience, may elect to take an advanced lecture course, numbered from 201 to 289. The prerequisites for these courses are any 100-level art history or visual arts course, or the consent of the instructor. The 200-level art history courses investigate the arts of specific periods and places from a variety of perspectives. Some courses embrace large bodies of material defined by national culture; others follow developments in style, iconography, and patronage as they affect works in selected media. The role of the individual artist in the creation and development of major movements is frequently examined, as is its complement, the growth of cultural systems and their expression in the visual arts.
Program Requirements
The Bachelor of Arts concentration in art history is intended to furnish students with a broad knowledge of Western and non-Western art and to provide an opportunity for the complementary, intensive study of an area of special interest. It is recommended for students who wish to develop their abilities of visual analysis and criticism; to acquire some sense of the major developments in the arts from ancient times to the present; and to understand the visual arts as aspects of social, cultural, and intellectual history. So conceived, the study of art is an element of a general, liberal arts education; the skills of analytical thinking, logical argument, and clear verbal expression necessary to the program are basic to most fields. Although the program in art history has no explicit preprofessional orientation, it does prepare interested students for advanced study at the graduate level and, eventually, for work in academic, museum, and gallery settings.
General Requirements for All Concentrators
1. Concentrators are required to take Art History 150-151-152. They should do so as early as possible in their program, ideally by their sophomore year.
2. They must write at least two research papers of intermediate length before starting their senior year, ordinarily in conjunction with 200-level courses taken in art history. It is the student's responsibility to make the appropriate arrangements with the instructor.
3. They should develop a special field of interest (see following section).
4. Within the special field, they should write a senior paper (see following section). They should also participate in the senior seminar.
5. They must use an approved course in music, visual arts, or drama to meet the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts.
Recommendations for Concentrators
6. Concentrators are encouraged to take graduate seminars after obtaining the permission of the instructor first. (Such seminars are also open to nonconcentrators with the same proviso.)
7. They are urged to pursue upper-level language courses. If such a course is relevant to the student's special field, he or she may petition the director of undergraduate studies to have it count toward their electives for the art history program.
8. Those planning to continue their study of art history at the graduate level are advised to meet the general education language requirement in French or German, or in Italian for those with primary interest in the art of Italy. The prospective graduate student should achieve language competency equal to at least two years of college study.
Two Tracks. In structuring their programs, concentrators may choose one of two orientations (tracks): one offering a broad coverage of the history of art, the other a close study of a specific area or topic.
Track I. In addition to Art History 150-151-152 and Art History 298 (Senior Seminar), Track I students take eight further upper-level courses within the department. Students are encouraged to distribute the eight courses widely throughout Western and non-Western art and are specifically required to take at least one course in Western art before 1400, one course in Western art after 1400, and one course in non-Western art. Within the eight departmental courses, students must develop a special field consisting of three courses whose relevance to one another must be clearly established. The field may be defined by chronological period, medium, national culture, genre, methodological concerns, or a suitable combination. Because they reflect the interests of individual concentrators, such fields range widely in topic, approach, and scope. Reading courses with art history faculty may be used to pursue specific questions within a field. The topic for the senior paper normally develops from the special field and allows for further study of the area through independent research and writing.
Track II. In addition to Art History 150-151-152 and Art History 298 (Senior Seminar), Track II students take eight further courses: three courses inside and two courses outside the art history department make up the special field; three additional courses in art are taken at the student's discretion. Because the last three courses are intended to give an overall sense of the discipline, each Track II student is encouraged to select them from widely differing periods and approaches in the history of art.
The special field may take many different forms. It may be civilization defined by chronological period, nation-state, cultural institution, or a suitable combination. Extra-departmental courses in history and literature would be particularly relevant to such a program. Another special field might be conceptual in character (e.g., art and the history of science, urban history, and geography) and draw upon a variety of extra-departmental courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences Collegiate Divisions. A field could combine historical, critical, and theoretical perspectives (e.g., visual arts in the twentieth century) and involve courses in art history, music, film, drama, and popular culture. Finally, art history and studio courses (e.g., Committee on the Visual Arts) may be combined in special fields exploring their interrelations (e.g., abstraction and conceptualism in modern art). As with Track I, the senior paper normally develops within the special field.
Special Field. Whether a student is following Track I or Track II, the proposal for the special field, in the form of a written petition, must be received by the director of undergraduate studies and approved by a faculty committee no later than the end of a student's junior year. Students should consult the director for guidelines on the organization and preparation of the proposal. It is strongly recommended that students complete at least two courses in their special field by the end of their junior year.
Senior Paper. It is the student's responsibility, by the end of the junior year, to have found a member of the faculty who agrees to act as the faculty research adviser. Together, they agree on a topic for the student's senior paper, preferably before the start of the autumn quarter of the senior year. The topic must be registered no later than the fourth week of that quarter on a departmental form available from the director of undergraduate studies.
The senior paper is developed during the course of the senior seminar (Art History 298). This is offered during autumn quarter and is required of all concentrators. Most commonly, students take the seminar in the autumn quarter before graduating in spring quarter; those graduating in the autumn or winter quarters should take the course in the previous academic year. In the closing sessions of the seminar, students discuss their plans and initial research for the senior paper. They continue their research on the paper during the following quarters, meeting at intervals with their faculty research adviser. Students may elect to take Preparation for the Senior Paper (Art History 299) in autumn or winter quarter to afford additional time for research or writing. The first draft of the paper is due by the first week of the quarter of graduation; the final version is due the sixth week of that quarter. Both are to be submitted in duplicate, one copy to the research adviser, the second to the director of undergraduate studies. Because individual projects vary from student to student, no specific requirements for the senior paper have been set. Essays tend to range in length from twenty to forty pages, but there is no minimum or maximum requirement.
Summary of Requirements
General
Education
| Introductory course in music, visual arts, or drama | |
Track I
|
3 |
ArtH 150-151-152 |
|
3 |
ArtH courses in special field |
|
5 |
ArtH electives (including one course each in Western art before 1400, Western art after 1400, and non-Western art) |
|
1 |
ArtH 298 (senior seminar) |
|
- |
senior paper |
|
|
|
| 12 |
Track II
|
3 |
ArtH 150-151-152 |
|
5 |
courses in special field (three departmental and two extradepartmental) |
|
3 |
ArtH electives |
|
1 |
ArtH 298 (senior seminar) |
|
- |
senior paper |
|
|
|
| 12 |
Advising. Art history concentrators should see the director of undergraduate studies in art history no less than once a year for consultation and guidance in planning a special field, in selecting courses, in choosing a topic for the senior paper, and for any academic problems within the concentration.
Grading. Students taking art history courses to meet the general education requirement in musical, visual and dramatic arts must receive letter grades. Art history concentrators must also receive letter grades in art history courses taken for the concentration, with one exception: for Preparation for the Senior Paper (Art History 299), they may receive a Pass grade. Art history courses elected beyond concentration requirements may be taken for Pass grades with consent of the instructor. Students concentrating in other departments may take art history courses for Pass grades with the consent of course instructors. A Pass grade is given only for work of C- quality or higher.
Honors. Students who complete their course work and their senior papers with great distinction are considered for graduation with special honors. Candidates must have a grade point average of at least 3.0 overall and 3.3 in art history. Nominations for honors are made by the faculty in the concentration through the Office of the Director of Undergraduate Studies to the master of the Humanities Collegiate Division.
Faculty
HOMI BHABHA, Professor, Departments of Art History and English Language & Literature, and the College
MICHAEL CAMILLE, Professor, Department of Art History and the College
CHARLES E. COHEN, Professor, Department of Art History, Committee on the Visual Arts, and the College
THOMAS CUMMINS, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Committee on the Visual Arts, and the College
TOM GUNNING, Professor, Department of Art History, Cinema & Media Studies Program, and the College
REINHOLD HELLER, Professor, Departments of Art History and Germanic Studies, Committee on the Visual Arts, and the College
ELIZABETH HELSINGER, Professor, Departments of Art History and English Language & Literature, and the College
W. J. T. MITCHELL, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Art History, Committees on the Visual Arts and General Studies in the Humanities, and the College
ROBERT S. NELSON, Professor, Department of Art History, Committees on the Ancient Mediterranean World and the History of Culture, and the College; Chairman, Department of Art History
KIMERLY RORSCHACH, Senior Lecturer, Department of Art History and Committee on the Visual Arts; Director, Smart Museum
INGRID ROWLAND, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and the College
LINDA SEIDEL, Professor, Department of Art History, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College
JOEL M. SNYDER, Professor, Department of Art History, Committees on the Visual Arts and General Studies in the Humanities, and the College
BARBARA STAFFORD, Professor, Department of Art History and the College
KATHERINE TAYLOR, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and the College
YURI TSIVIAN, Professor, Departments of Art History, Slavic Languages & Literatures, Cinema & Media Studies, and the College
MARTHA WARD, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Committee on the Visual Arts, and the College
WU HUNG, Professor, Department of Art History and the College
Courses
101. Introduction to Art. For nonconcentrators, this course meets the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts. Students must attend the first class to confirm enrollment. This course seeks to develop skills in perception, comprehension, and appreciation when dealing with a variety of visual art forms. It encourages the close analysis of visual materials, explores the range of questions and methods appropriate to the explication of a given work of art, and examines the intellectual structures basic to the systematic study of art. Most important, the course encourages the understanding of art as a visual language and aims to foster in students the ability to translate this understanding into verbal expression, both oral and written. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
150-151-152. Art of the West. For nonconcentrators, any course in this sequence meets the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts. May be taken in sequence or individually. Students must attend the first class to confirm enrollment. The major monuments and masterpieces of painting, sculpture, and architecture are studied as examples of humankind's creative impulses in the visual arts. Individual objects are analyzed in detail and interpreted in light of society's varied needs. While changes in form, style, and function are emphasized, an attempt is also made to trace the development of a unique and continuous tradition of visual imagery throughout Western civilization.
150. The Ancient and Medieval World. This course examines the nature of artistic production from the prehistoric animal images in the caves of southern Europe to the handmade, gilded books that circulated at French and English courts some fifteen thousand years later. Particular attention is given to the transformation of the natural landscape into imposing built environments around the Mediterranean, including Africa and the Near East, and to the role art played as image-maker for political and religious institutions. At the conclusion of the class we consider the ways every age reworks its past, selecting from an available array of visual production the material that gives shape to its sense of itself. L. Seidel. Autumn.
151. Renaissance to Rococo. The major achievements of European artists in painting, sculpture, and architecture from about 1400 to 1775 are discussed chronologically. While broad style groupings such as renaissance, mannerism, baroque, and rococo are an important organizing principle, an effort is made to concentrate on fewer artists and masterpieces rather than a uniform survey. Attention is also given to the invention and development of distinctive artistic types and their association with particular moments in history. Where possible, study of the imagery is supplemented with contemporary written documents, such as contracts, letters, and theoretical texts. C. Cohen. Winter.
152. The Modern Age. This course considers selected works of painting, sculpture, and architecture from 1750 to the present, concentrating on how they can be understood in relation to development of the modern art world and changing conceptions of what the experience of art should be. Developments considered are the roles of subjectivity and nationalism in the rise of nineteenth-century landscape painting, the early twentieth-century conception of an artistic avant-garde; and the notion of functionalism in architectural design. Emphasis is placed on the close examination of works in the area. Attendance at a weekly section, often devoted to a field trip, is required. M. Ward. Spring.
161. Art of Asia: China (=ArtH 161, Chin 177, EALC 261). For nonconcentrators, this course meets the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts. This course is an introduction to the arts of China focusing on the bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Chinese appropriation of the Buddha image, and the evolution of landscape and figure painting traditions. This course considers objects in contexts, from the archaeological sites from which they were unearthed, to the material culture that surrounded them to reconstruct the functions and the meanings of objects, and to better understand Chinese culture through the objects it produced. J. Purtle. Winter.
170-189. Art in Context. For nonconcentrators, this course meets the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts. Students must attend the first class to confirm enrollment. Courses in this series investigate basic methods of art historical analysis and apply them to significant works of art studied within definite contexts. Works of art are placed in their intellectual, historical, cultural, or more purely artistic settings in an effort to indicate the origins of their specific achievements. An informed appreciation of the particular solutions offered by single works and the careers of individual artists emerges from the detailed study of classic problems within Western and non-Western art.
170. Chinese Painting in Its Context: Format, Image, and Environment (=ArtH 170, Chin 221). This course investigates different formats of Chinese painting in their cultural, religious, and political contexts. Rather than approaching painting as a self-contained artistic genre, students study different kinds of Chinese paintings (such as murals, handscrolls, hanging scrolls, screens, albums, and painted fans) as integral components of funerary paraphernalia, a scholar's studio, personal life, or a political monument. The course covers a broad chronological time span and investigates the creation and use of painting in a variety of social conditions and situations. H. Wu. Autumn.
173. Frank Lloyd Wright: Domesticity and Modernity. Frank Lloyd Wright's early twentieth-century houses in the Chicago suburbs are a rich local resource for an introduction to architecture, urbanism, and design. We look at their role in the social history and culture of modernism, as well as its reconstruction through museums and tourism. K. Taylor. Autumn.
175. The 1960s (=ArtH 175, COVA 258). This course explores aspects of the artistic production of the 1960s in the United States, France, and Germany. Movements and tendencies such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Op Art, and New Realism are critically reviewed and evaluated. Among the issues we discuss are whether art can be an appropriate response to events ranging from the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War to emergent feminism and calls for an alternative postcapitalist culture, and whether art making remains a valid concern. R. Heller. Spring.
176. The Altarpiece. The aim of this course is to introduce the problems and issues surrounding a major form of late medieval and renaissance art: the altarpiece. As well as a history of the altarpiece from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, the course focuses on some major examples in the Art Institute of Chicago. Major examples from the Ayala Altarpiece in that museum to Grunewald's famous Isenheim altar is included, as well as many Italian examples. M. Camille. Spring.
177. The Architectural Profession: Past, Present, and Future. This course provides an introduction to architecture through a look at the work-life of architects and their changing skills, institutions, and other circumstances within which they operate. Our history of architectural practice emphasizes the modern period, from the formation of a modern profession in the nineteenth century to the challenges architects face currently, including the electronic. We consider such topics as office work-life; how architects have managed their status as technical experts, artists, and businesspeople; training; groups and polemics; architectural publication; patronage; and popular views of architecture. K. Taylor. Spring.
181. Nineteenth-Century Art in the Art Institute. This course introduces students to the methods and issues of art history through detailed consideration of selected works at the Art Institute of Chicago. We concentrate on nineteenth-century French art, including painting, sculpture, prints, and drawings (areas particularly well represented in the museum's collections). M. Ward. Spring.
183. Visual Style in Still and Moving Images (=ArtH 183, COVA 260). This course surveys elements of styles and techniques common to the visual arts. We examine light and color, framing and editing, and action and narration, as well as blocking, interior design, and mise-en-scène as used by artists, photographers, and filmmakers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Y. Tsivian. Winter.
189. Film and Fantasy (=ArtH 189, COVA 262). This course investigates how an unreal realm, or an uncertainly defined world, can be created through narrative and visual means. We explore the creation of a "marvelous" realm in both science fiction and fairy tale, as well as the uncertain realm of what Todorov calls the "fantastic" where one never knows the status of events that happen around one. Readings include Freud's The Uncanny, Todorov's The Fantastic, and Carroll's The Power of Horror. Screenings include The Wizard of Oz, Powell's The Red Shoes, Dreyer's Vampyr, Cronenberg's Videodrome, Lang's Metropolis, and Hitchock's Psycho; as well as films by Melies. T. Gunning. Spring.
The following 190-level courses are upper-level undergraduate courses that do not meet the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts unless 4 or 5 has been scored on the AP art history test. There are no prerequisites.
190. Introduction to Film I (=ArtH 190, CMS 101, Eng 108, GS Hum 200). PQ: This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The first part introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles. T. Gunning. Autumn.
191. Introduction to Film II (=ArtH 191, CMS 102, Eng 109, GS Hum 201). PQ: This is the second part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. Not offered 1999-2000; will be offered 2000-2001.
194. The Naked and the Nude in Western Visual Culture (=ArtH 194, GendSt 194). This class explores representations of the unclothed human body in a variety of visual contexts (e.g., religious, scientific, mythological, artistic, cinematic, theatrical, erotic, and pornographic), as well as ways in which the unclothed body itself becomes an artistic medium in dance, theater, and performance art. We investigate theoretical problems such as: What is the difference between the nude and the naked? How do modes of representation vary between women and men, or between adults and children? At what point does the unclothed body become pornographic? A. Eaton. Spring.
196. Music, Liturgy, and Art in Sacred Spaces in the Middle Ages (=ArtH 196, GS Hum 286, Music 161). PQ: Any 100-level music course or consent of instructor. This class explores the dynamic relationship among music, liturgy, and art in the great churches of the Middle Ages. Among other topics, the course investigates how changes in style of cathedral building brought about modifications in musical style, how the liturgy takes on specific characteristics to mirror the physical details of these structures, and how all the arts act in concert to express the philosophies of theologians and other persons active in these churches. A. Robertson. Autumn.
The following 200-level courses have as a prerequisite any 100-level art history or visual arts course, or consent of instructor. These courses do not meet the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts unless 4 or 5 has been scored on the AP art history test.
201/301. Art of Ancestral Worship: Chinese Art from Prehistorical to the Third Century (=ArtH 201/301, Chin 250/251). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course, the first of a series of "thematic introductions to Chinese art," focuses on various art forms, including ritual jades and bronzes, tomb murals and sculptures, and family temples and shrines, which were created between the third millennium B.C. and the second century A.D. for ancestral worship, the main religious tradition in China before the introduction of Buddhism. Central questions include how visual forms convey religious concepts and serve religious communication, and how artistic changes reflect trends in the ancestral cult. H. Wu. Winter.
203/303. Etruscan Art (=ArtH 203/303, GS Hum 230/330). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. An introduction to Etruscan archaeology, history, art, and culture from the Iron Age to the Age of Augustus. I. Rowland. Autumn.
221/321. Medieval Paris. PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course or consent of instructor. This course explores the city of Paris in the Middle Ages, looking at its architecture and layout in terms of three powers: the church on the Île de la City, the merchants on the right bank, and the university on the left bank. Discussing the role of the Capetian Kings in the creation of Paris as a capital city, as well as Notre Dame cathedral, is a major part of the course. M. Camille. Spring.
226/326. Pious Journeys, Pilgrimage, and Devotional Practices of the Later Middle Ages. PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This class studies the shrines, strategies, art, and artifacts that structure spiritually motivated travel from approximately 800 to the end of the Middle Ages in Europe. Several sites central to the cult of relics are examined in conjunction with a variety of texts and images that recount the lives of particular saints and record miracles that occurred at especially venerated tombs. We focus on ways in which carvings, paintings, and ceremonial objects participated in a variety of religious practices at these sites. The course coincides with an exhibition at the Smart Museum of medieval and renaissance art and incorporates material on display, as well as special events programmed in connection with the show, into its classes. L. Seidel. Spring.
227/327. High Renaissance Painting in Florence and Rome. PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course concentrates on Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael: the artists who have been considered the culminating figures of the culminating moment of the renaissance in Florence and Rome. The accomplishments of these three artists and the parameters of the artistic culture of the High Renaissance is explored and contextualized by briefly discussing other major artists such as Fra Bartolommeo and Andea del Sarto, and by introducing the complex question of the critical change of style and cultural direction in Florence and Rome around 1520, which we usually call Mannerism. C. Cohen. Winter.
230/330. From Steppe to City: Arts of the Mongol Empire (=ArtH 230/330, Chin 266/366). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course is an exploration of the visual production of the Mongols, and of those they conquered, centered around the impact of Mongol rule on the visual culture of China. Issues explored include urbanization of Mongol visual culture, internationalization of the Buddha image, commercialization and export of ceramics, development of the Buddha image, commercialization and export of ceramics, development of a distinctive mode of ink painting as a Chinese response to Mongol rule, and localized confrontation of disparate visual cultures within the Mongol empire. J. Purtle. Winter.
242/342. Sites of Power: Art and Patronage in England, 1520 to 1820. PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course. This course traces the development of the visual arts in England from the renaissance through the dawn of the Victorian period, with particular emphasis on patterns of patronage and collecting in a premuseum age. Topics considered include the strongly political nature of art patronage in England, the construction of national identity in particular works of art, and the impact of the English social and economic structure on the development of English art and its audiences. The course examines not only painting and sculpture, but also garden design, architecture, and the decorative arts. K. Rorschach. Autumn.
254/354. Ideas of the City in the Early Twentieth Century. PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course. Recent critical debate in architecture has focused on contextualism, above all, the context of the city (itself a controversial entity). This course looks at the conditions for that debate as laid in pre-World War II Europe and the United States. We examine a number of varied strategies devised to tame, order, or replace the metropolis during the early twentieth century, ranging from the city beautiful movement in Chicago to LeCorbuier's Plan Voisin for Paris, Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City model at New York's Rockefeller Center, and Speer's and Hitler's plans for Berlin. K. Taylor. Autumn.
257/357. Perspectives on Imaging (=ArtH 257/357, BioSci 269). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course focuses on the evolution and history of the production and dissemination of knowledge by visual means, from the perspectives of the visual arts and imaging science, leading to the convergence of the visual and verbal modes in multimedia methods for learning. Topics include the evolution of light perception and vision; early optical instruments to extend vision; Roentgen's discovery of X-rays and the subsequent development of computer-based, nonoptical, and imaging methods; conceptual foundations of imaging science; visual knowledge, education, and multimedia learning; and the cultural impact of imaging in the twenty-first century. B. Stafford, R. Beck. Autumn.
258/358. Visual Culture (=ArtH 258/358, CMS 278, COVA 254, Eng 126/326, MAPH 343). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course explores the fundamental questions in the interdisciplinary study of visual culture: What are the cultural (and, by the same token, natural) components in the structure of visual experience? What is seeing? What is a spectator? What is the difference between visual and verbal representation? How do visual media exert power, elicit desire and pleasure, and construct the boundaries of subjective and social experience in the private and public sphere? How do questions of politics, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity inflect the construction of visual semiosis? W. J. T. Mitchell. Not offered 1999-2000; will be offered 2000-2001.
264/364. History of Photography: 1839-1969 (=ArtH 264/364, GS Hum 234/334). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course. The invention of the photographic system as a confluence of art practice and technology is studied in detail. The aesthetic history of photography is traced from 1839 through the present. Special emphasis is placed on the critical writings of P. H. Emerson, Erwin Panofsky, Alfred Stieglitz, Lewis Mumford, Susan Sontag, and Michael Fried. J. Snyder. Not offered 1999-2000; will be offered 2000-2001.
265/365. The Sites of Twentieth-Century Art. PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course examines how the modes of distribution and the destinations (both real and imaginary) of twentieth-century art have affected the production and reception of cultural objects. We examine in detail a series of examples drawn from both European and American art to address such concerns as the interdependence of modernism and the museum; the decorative painting and the domestic interior; the fears of, and hopes for, the mechanical reproduction of art; the archive as a site of radical resistance (the situationalists); public space and performance gesture; and "site-specificity" in contemporary sculpture. M. Ward. Winter.
270/370. As the Century Turns: German and Scandinavian Art and Culture around 1900 (=ArtH 270/370, German 271/369). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course. Offered in conjunction with companion courses in German and Norwegian literature. Decadence and death, anxiety and decay, sickness and neurosis, sexuality and anarchy, renewal and rebirth, vitalism and health, secession and renaissance, new life and new art: these are among the concerns that marked art and culture around 1900 in Germany and Scandinavia as one century ended and a new one came into being. This course focuses on the career, work, and milieu of Edvard Munch as a means of investigating the close artistic, literary, and musical relationships between Northern and Central Europe. Ranging from Arnold Böcklin, Christian Krohg, and Gustav Klimt to Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, Thomas Mann, and Stefan George, we trace the thematics of the turn-of-the-century. R. Heller. Winter.
272/372. Theories of the Photographic Image and Film (=ArtH 272/372, CMS 275/375, GS Hum 233/333). PQ: VisArts 101, 102, or 100-level ArtH course, or consent of instructor. This course is an introduction and survey of theories concerning photography and cinema. A variety of works by the following authors, among others, is discussed: Stanley Cavell, Erwin Panofsky, André Bazin, Christian Metz, Susan Sontag, Edward Weston, Ernst Gombrich, Nelson Goodman, and John Szarkowski. J. Snyder. Spring.
285/385. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era (=ArtH 285/385, CMS 285/485, Eng 293/487, MAPH 336). PQ: This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The aim of this course is to introduce students to what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological; we also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking. Y. Tsivian. Winter.
286/386. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960 (=ArtH 286/386, CMS 286/486, Eng 296/489, MAPH 337). PQ: ArtH 285/385 or consent of instructor. This is the second part of the international survey history for film covering the sound era up to 1960. The crystallization of the classical Hollywood film in terms of style and genre, as well as industry organization, is a key issue. But international alternatives to Hollywood are also discussed, from the unique forms of Japanese cinema to movements such as Italian Neo-Realism and the beginnings of the New Wave in France. Texts include Thompson Bordwell, Film History and Introduction, and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, Godard and other. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir. T. Gunning. Spring.
287/387. The Art of Confrontation: Chinese Visual Culture in the Twentieth Century (=ArtH 287/387, Chin 277/377). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course is a survey of Chinese visual culture of the twentieth century that is focused on the theme of confrontation. In the twentieth century, traditional modes of Chinese visual culture have confronted Western styles and techniques of visual expression, modernism, competing political ideologies, developments in China's distant and recent history, disparate regional Chinese identities (i.e., China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), and technological change. This course explores these confrontations through a variety of media and methodological approaches. J. Purtle. Spring
293/393. Styles of Performance and Expression from Stage to Screen (=ArtH 293/392, CMS 282/382, COVA 259, ComLit 227/327, Russ 280/380). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course focuses on the history of acting styles in silent film (1895 to 1930), mapping "national" styles of acting that emerged during the 1910s (American, Danish, Italian, and Russian) and various "acting schools" that proliferated during the 1920s (Expressionist acting and Kuleshov's Workshop). We discuss film acting in the context of various systems of stage acting (Delsarte, Stanislavsky, and Meyerhold) and the visual arts. Y. Tsivian. Spring.
297. Reading Course. PQ: Consent of instructor and director of undergraduate studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. Must be taken for a letter grade. This course is designed for students in art history or advanced students in other concentrations whose program requirements are best met by study under a faculty member's individual supervision. The subject, course of study, and requirements are arranged with the instructor. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
298. Senior Seminar: Problems and Methods in Art History. PQ: Required of fourth-year art history concentrators, who present aspects of their senior papers in oral reports; open to nonconcentrators with consent of instructor. This course investigates fundamental methods of art historical research, with emphasis on perspectives characteristic of the discipline in the twentieth century. Topics include connoisseurship, formal and iconographic analysis, psychoanalytic approaches, and perspectives of social history. T. Cummins. Autumn.
299. Preparation for the Senior Paper. PQ: Consent of instructor and director of undergraduate studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. May be taken for a Pass grade with consent of instructor. This course provides guided research on the topic of the senior paper. The program of study and schedule of meetings are to be arranged with the student's senior paper adviser. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
