The Committee on the Visual Arts (COVA) is concerned with art making, both as an individual expression and as a vehicle for exploring creativity, perception, and the constructed world. Whether students take COVA courses to meet a general education requirement or as part of a concentration in Visual Arts, the goal is that they will develop communicative, analytical, and expressive skills through the making of objects. COVA 100-level courses are intended for students with no studio background and are appropriate for meeting the general education musical, visual, and dramatic arts requirement. More advanced courses presume that students have taken at least one of these, usually Visual Arts 101. (Consult individual course descriptions for specific prerequisites.)

Range of Course Offerings. Visual Arts 101, 102, and 103 serve as introductory courses to the elements of visual communication and the critical investigation of art. Visual Arts 101 and 102 introduce elementary visual communication through the manipulation of various materials in the studio and also include readings and visits to local museums and galleries. These courses engage principles of visual language stressing the relationship of form and meaning. Visual Arts 103 is a theory course centering on definitions of art and creation. Visual Arts 200 to 249 are media specific courses that begin to teach technical skills and provide a conceptual framework for working in these media (for example, painting, photography and sculpture). Visual Arts 250 to 269 are nonstudio courses in the theory and criticism of art. Visual Arts 270 to 282 are more advanced studio courses.

The Bachelor of Arts program in the Committee on the Visual Arts is intended for students interested in the practice and study of art. The Committee's faculty consists of a core of artists and other humanists interested in making and thinking about art. Those who concentrate in Visual Arts take an individually arranged program of studio, lecture, and seminar courses that may include some courses outside the Humanities Collegiate Division. The program seeks to foster understanding of art from several perspectives: the practice and intention of the creator, the visual conventions employed, and the perception and critical reception of the audience. In addition to work in the studio, these aims might require study of art history and intellectual history, as well as psychology, criticism, and aesthetics. Because of the diversity of student interests and the Committee's interdisciplinary orientation, requirements for the concentration are flexible. All students must take a core of Visual Arts 101, 102, and 103 as early in their studies as possible. After taking the core courses, but no later than the end of the third year, concentrators meet with the director of undergraduate studies to plan the rest of their program. This program must be presented in written form for the approval of the Committee. At least two of the courses beyond the core must be drawn from the second level of predominantly studio-oriented offerings (Visual Arts 200 to 249). The remaining five courses may be any intellectually consistent combination of Visual Arts studio courses, Visual Arts critical and theory courses (Visual Arts 250 to 269), and any other relevant offerings in the College. (For more information, consult the sample programs of study that follow.) As preparation for the senior project, students must take Visual Arts 296. This studio seminar examines approaches to independent studio projects. The culminating experience of the COVA concentration is a senior project consisting of a studio project and/or an extended paper that represents a coherent line of inquiry. This work, for which students may receive credit in Visual Arts 299, is done under the supervision of a primary adviser and must also be approved by the director of undergraduate studies.

Summary of Requirements

Sample Programs. The Committee encourages its students either to focus their concentration in the studio or to construct interdisciplinary concentration programs combining studio and nonstudio courses that focus on a particular theme. The following examples should be taken as suggestions only:

1. A program that explores relationships of image and text in the construction of narratives, combining courses in drawing and graphics with courses in creative writing, literature, and art history.

2. A program that explores issues of identity construction through image making, and combines courses in painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography with courses in art history, gender studies, and anthropology.

3. A program in the practice of painting that explores aesthetic form as a vehicle for individual expression, including courses in art history and philosophy.

4. A studio-based program in photography that concentrates on black-and-white silver-gelatin processes, and includes a thorough investigation of the history and conceptual framework of the medium.

5. A program that investigates issues surrounding representations of the body, including an engagement with contemporary and historic practices in visual art and film, as well as feminist, gender, race, and class theory, and concludes in an installation of a series of photographs.

6. A studio-based program in sculpture that examines how our sensory or kinesthetic knowledge of our bodies differs greatly from how we are seen as objects in space by others (possibly including additional courses in the history of art and in anatomy).

Grading. COVA students must receive letter grades for the twelve courses that constitute the concentration, but may receive P/N grades for free electives. Students must also receive letter grades if they are taking COVA courses in fulfillment of the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts. Students concentrating in other departments may take Visual Arts courses for P/N grades with the consent of their adviser and instructor.

Honors. COVA students who have a 3.0 or better overall grade point average for all undergraduate work and a 3.5 or better average for all COVA course work may be awarded honors. The work submitted will be reviewed for honors by the COVA faculty.

101. Visual Language I. This course fulfills the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts. The goal of this studio course is to investigate the basic ingredients common to the visual art experience. The course attempts to isolate principles and conventions common to visual images. For example, studio problems analyze the components of color, the relationship between surface organization and spatial illusion, the communicative properties of objects and materials, the recognition of accident and chance as artistic resources, and so on. Toward the end of the quarter, problems reunite isolated principles and provide opportunity for personal discovery and expression through the execution of individual works. Visits to local collections required. Lab fee $35. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

102. Visual Language II. This course fulfills the general education requirement in the musical, visual, and dramatic arts. A complement to COVA 101, COVA 102 examines the elements of three-dimensional form. Studio problems analyze and explore the expressive possibilities of these elements and how these elements direct the meaning of objects. Attention is given to specific ideas and their origins; they provide the formal basis for critical appraisal of classroom work and of historical and contemporary sculptural works. Studio work and visits to galleries and museums required. Lab Fee $10. H. George, R. Peters. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

103. Theories of Art and Creation. This course considers the following problems: What kinds of definitions have been offered of the visual arts? What are the relations of visual arts to culture? Do questions concerning the way a work of visual art comes into being relate to the criticism or evaluation of the work of art? Emphasis is placed on readings that throw light on the relations among art, convention and nature, as well as on the relations among artist, work and audience. The course searches for a distinction between art and design and investigates the often-cited connections between art and religion and between art and play. We compare those properties considered essential to the visual arts with properties that suggest other areas of endeavor such as mathematics, manufacture, or magic. Staff. Spring.

212. Figure Drawing. PQ: COVA 101 or 102, or consent of instructor. The live model provides the basic reference for this course. Problems develop comprehension of traditional approaches to the human figure in art and explore the means by which the figure may embody contemporary ideas. Class sessions include studio work, criticism, and visits to local collections. Lab fee $40. Staff. Winter, Spring.

215. Graphics: Woodcut/Planographic. PQ: COVA 101 or 102, or consent of instructor. We investigate the woodcut as a unique printing medium that can be done by hand. Discussion considers the black/white relationship as a potentially powerful means of expression, as well as a vehicle for formal analysis. Instruction is given in technical matters, and prints are made in class. Final projects are made with multiple blocks in color. Lab fee $50. Staff. Autumn.

220-221. Beginning Painting. PQ: COVA 101 or 102, or consent of instructor. This course provides a basic introduction to painting: materials, techniques, mixing color, making marks, densities, light, and space. Students learn to compose a two-dimensional surface from observed phenomena. Lab fee $40. Staff. Autumn, Winter.

222. Beginning Sculpture. PQ: COVA 101 or 102, or consent of instructor. As an introduction to the language of sculptural form, this studio class explores expressive content in its most basic aspects, first through modeling a form in clay, then through a free interpretation of the formal insights gained through the previous confrontation with the form. Emphasis is placed on understanding sculpture as a thought-infused and thought-directed process that possesses its own language. The primary goal is to learn about sculpture through making it, looking at it, and discussing both what has been made and what has been seen. Visits to galleries or museums required. Lab fee $35. H. George. Autumn.

223. Intermediate Sculpture. PQ: COVA 101 or 102, or consent of instructor. This studio class is a continuation of COVA 222 and also an extension of COVA 224. Work is directed toward the figure and its expressive possibilities in sculpture. Half of the quarter is devoted to modeling the figure in a single pose that is decidedly out of balance. The second half is spent constructing a sculpture based on a more kinesthetic interpretation of that same pose. The difference between seeing form from the outside surface only and understanding form from the inside out is explored. Visits to galleries and museums required. Lab fee $35. H. George. Winter.

224. Modeling the Figure. PQ: COVA 101 or 102, or consent of instructor. A live model provides the basic reference for this course, which is divided into two parts: the full figure and the portrait. Both are worked in clay and cast into plaster. A basic objective is to see and understand the figure relative to its expressive content. Visits to galleries and museums and creation of a larger figure outside of class required. Lab fee $40. H. George. Autumn.

261. Contemporary Issues in Photography. PQ: COVA 101 and ArtH 101. From fashion shots to X-rays, and from family snapshots to fine-art prints, photographic media are our modern culture's dominant means of visual representation. Photography is embraced for capturing objective reality in images, yet equally it must be understood as projecting its own, specifically photographic, truth. Students examine theoretical, philosophical, and artistic debates central to recent photographic discourse: does a picture capture the familiar or expose the unfamiliar; what are the cultural paradigms for what gets seen and who gets to look; what defines a documentary photograph and an art object? Materials include contemporary theory and criticism, as well as a survey of photographic work. L. Letinsky. Winter.

240. Beginning Photography (=CMS 276/376, COVA 240). PQ: COVA 101 and 102, or consent of instructor. A camera and light meter are required. Photography affords a relatively simple and accessible means for making pictures. Through demonstration, students are introduced to technical procedures and basic skills, and begin to establish criteria for artistic expression. Possibilities and limitations inherent in the medium are topics of classroom discussion. Class sessions and field trips to local exhibitions investigate the contemporary photograph in relation to its historical and social context. Course work culminates in a portfolio of works exemplary of the student’s understanding of the medium. Lab fee $40. L. Letinsky. Autumn, Winter.

242. Art and Experience. PQ: COVA 101, 102, 103, or consent of instructor. This course deals with art forms that deemphasize the importance of the object. These contemporary, nontraditional art forms (concept, process, performance, body, and so forth) are examined through readings that provide a theoretical and historical framework for discussion and studio investigation. R. Peters. Winter.

251. Aesthetics and Theory of Criticism (=COVA 251, GS Hum 305, Philos 313). This course is an introduction to problems in the philosophy of art with both traditional and contemporary texts. Topics include the definition of art, representation, expression, metaphor, and taste. T. Cohen. Spring.

255. Theories of the Photographic Image and Films. PQ: COVA 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.

256. Performance Art (=COVA 256, GS Hum 268). PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience or acting training not required. This course offers students a chance to explore some of the aesthetic strategies used by artists/performers working in the genre of performance art. As scholars, we work toward an understanding of how changing notions of what constitutes the "avant-garde" influences the conceptualization, creation, and dissemination of art and performance. As performance artists, we employ various "avant-garde" techniques as we create original performances based on a theme, such as "memory." S. Totland. Spring.

258. Art in Context: 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.

259. 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.

260. 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.

261. Scenic Design (=COVA 261, GS Hum 265). PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience not required. This course considers the process of stage design from both aesthetic and practical points of view. It surveys the historical development of scenography in relation to technology and theatrical style. The influence of tradition on modern stage design is investigated through a comparison of period designs and contemporary solutions established by scenographers. M. Lohman. Winter.

262. 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.

274. Advanced Painting. PQ: COVA 270, 271, or 272; or consent of instructor. This course presumes familiarity with the basic technical and formal consideration of painting. Students learn to construct images that are compositionally effective and convey a strong sense of personal purpose. Lab fee $40. Staff. Spring.

278. Advanced Photography (=CMS 277/377, COVA 278). PQ: COVA 101 or 102, and 240 or 241; or consent of instructor. Throughout the quarter, students concentrate on a set of issues and ideas that expand upon their experience and knowledge, and that have particular relevance to them. All course work is directed towards the production of a cohesive body of either color or black-and-white photographs. An investigation of contemporary and historic photographic issues informs the students' photographic practice and includes visits to local exhibitions, critical readings, darkroom techniques, and class and individual critiques. Lab fee $40. L. Letinsky. Spring.

282. Advanced Sculpture. PQ: COVA 101, 102, 201, 211, or 212, and 221; or consent of instructor. The first one-half of this studio class is devoted to formalist/nonrepresentational sculpture, both its beginning in the Soviet Union and its later rebirth as minimalist art in the 1970s. One large nonrepresentational work is constructed in the first half of the quarter while the second half is devoted to a more "open problem" that is carved from stone in the outdoors. The primary goal is to learn about sculpture through making it, looking at it, and discussing what has been made and seen. Visits to galleries or museums required. Lab fee $35. H. George. Spring.

296. Independent Research in the Studio: Junior Seminar. PQ: Consent of director of undergraduate studies. This seminar is required of all junior concentrators. Students identify artists to whom they have affinities and carry out research in the ways those artists constructed their images. This experience is intended as preparation for successful completion of the senior project. Class includes discussion of methodologies, individual presentations, and examination of actual work. R. Peters. Spring.

297. Independent Study in Visual Arts. PQ: COVA 101 or 102, and consent of instructor. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Independent study in visual arts is similar to a reading course in an academic area. We presume that the student has done fundamental course work and is ready to explore a particular area of interest much more closely. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

299. Senior Project. PQ: Consent of director of undergraduate studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. In the Committee on the Visual Arts, this required course provides an opportunity for a "summing up." It is a chance to work in a sustained way on a group of paintings or photographs, for example. This work is then presented as a graduation show. As an alternative, one might do a paper that examines issues that may have emerged from the studio and academic experience. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.