Art History

A survey of the visual arts and architecture from a global perspective from the Prehistoric through the Gothic eras.

A survey of the visual arts and architecture from a global perspective from the Renaissance to the Modern eras.

A study of the major artists and styles of the 19th century, with emphasis on Eurpoean art. The course will include an examination of Neo-Classicism, 19th Century Art and Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

A survey of American arts from Colonial times to the present. Painting, sculpture, and architecture will be studied in terms of the development of America as a nation.

This slide/lecture/discussion course introduces the student to the principal trends and significant artists and artworks in the visual arts since 1945.

A course that traces the development of photography, the technical aspects of photography, photography as a medium of social comment, a recorder of data, an extender of human perception and knowledge and photography as an evolutionary art form.

This course will examine avant garde art of the 1960s and 1970s  in the context of the social history of the time, including the civil rights movement, feminism, the anti-war movement, counterculture and anti-authoritarianism, the sexual revolution, and other transformative paradigms. Period styles such as Beat, Pop Art, Fluxus, and Minimalism will be covered, as well as performance, installation, conceptual, video, land art, activism, photography, vernacular architecture, and postmodernism. Readings will be interdisciplinary: poetry, history, protest, commentary, and art criticism, among others.

The rapidly expanding literature of gender studies in art has emerged from feminist, LGBTQ, sexuality and masculinity studies. This course introduces the student to scholarly and critical methods used by authors in these fields as they examine gendered roles and human sexuality in art from the 16th-21st centuries.

A study of architecture, furniture, and the decorative arts from Ancient Egypt through the Industrial Revolution. This course will require research, writing and discussion. (Equivalent to ISD 301).

A study of exterior and interior architecture and decorative arts in relation to environment, society and culture from the 18th century to the present day. This course will require research, writing and discussion.

The art of the 19th and 20th centuries will be explored in depth staring with the Romantic era. The course will emphasize the major schools as well as the major artists of the 20th century within the context of period styles, stylistic progress, social history and art critical response.

What is American? We explore this question by examining art and visual and material culture from the Powhatan nation to the postmodern within the geographic borders of the United States. Embracing a trans-Atlantic and multicultural American perspective, the course proceeds topically to study key movements in art and visual culture wherein exploring and communicating identity is axiomatic to the time. Students will learn how cultures have been suppressed by hegemony and how some have formed alternatives to dominant society. Art is presented from diverse ethnicities, socio-economic status, regions, religions, sexual orientation, gender and material and professional culture and through the literature of history, poetry, memoir, fiction and art criticism.   
 

This course is a survey of the history of graphic design.  It traces the development of the tools of communication for the inception of writing through to present times, with an emphasis on 19th through 21st century design.  The course also covers the impact of social, political and cultural changes on visual communication.

Students will study art and art criticism of the contemporary period by focusing in depth upon select artists from across the globe. These artists are chosen for their diversity of media approaches, periodization and culture. The artists will be studied with a variety of methodologies and theory reflective of postmodern culture.

This lecture and discussion course will explore significant topics in Western and non-Western art. Each semester the course is offered, students will focus on a particular culture and learn to analyze the visual systems that express characteristic ideas and values. Each student will undertake an independent research project. The final class project will result in a comprehensive Web based publication and will include both text and images. May be repeated for credit.

The department occasionally offers special courses in art history covering areas and topics not otherwise included in the curriculum. Students may enroll in this course more than once as topics change.