Art History

Taught by numerous site visits to historic buildings alongside lectures and seminars, this course introduces students to the study of architecture by exploring buildings in the London area from the start of the 17th century to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. During the course, students witness London burn to the ground, be comprehensively rebuilt, and then expand from a small European capital into the largest city in the world. Along the way, students encounter a wide variety of buildings including cathedrals, palaces, churches, synagogues, breweries, shops, and hospitals. Students acquire skills in looking at, reading, and understanding buildings and become adept at using them as historical evidence. Students also learn how to relate architecture to its social, political, and intellectual context, and develop insights into the ways that buildings may carry and convey meaning, whether to an expert or to a more general audience. No prior knowledge of architecture or architectural history is required to undertake the module. When timetabling, allow yourself an hour's travel time either side of the class for site visits.

This course explores the development of intercultural competencies and the formation of a global vision. The course analyzes the identity of a nation through its cultural assets; observes the importance of cultural and artistic heritage in the integration of multiculturalism; implements aesthetic analysis on a cultural asset; identifies the organizations dedicated to the protection and safeguarding of heritage, and discerns the contexts and situations of risk in which the possession of heritage generates intercultural conflicts.

This class surveys premodern Japanese art, looking at painting, sculpture, architecture, and material culture--particularly those related to Buddhism, kami worship, and Buddha-kami combinatory practices.

This course explores Europe and Asia's mutual fascination with, and appropriation of, each other's visual and material cultures. From the Buddhist art of Central Asia to KL Petronas Towers through medieval textiles, chinoiseries, Orientalist paintings, colonial architecture, museums, modernist avant-gardes and postmodernism, the course surveys chronologically some fifteen centuries of East/West artistic interactions while introducing students to the disciplines (art and cultural history, post-colonial and cultural studies) concerned with visual culture. 

This course traces the history of comics and graphic novels in Western Europe and North America. Beginning with an introduction presenting the main characteristics of this medium, this course traces its development, from the beginnings of storytelling with images in Antiquity to the latest innovations. Even though they have retained their own characteristics over the last two centuries, Western European and North American comics have also developed in close proximity. Following the development of the press and book industry, as well as other media like cinema, comics and graphic novels have a rich history that can only be understood in their cultural context. This course allows students to understand how this medium has shaped and been shaped by many aspects of the history and cultures of these places.

This course examines the forms and the underlying beliefs of several specific examples of deity and Buddha statues created during the Heian period. It aims to better understand each example, while exploring the specific aspects of the relationship between humans, gods, and Buddhas in Japan. 

This course explores the art and visual culture of Asia from Neolithic times to the tenth century CE, with a focus on major developments in India, China, Korea, and Japan. Students will engage with a wide array of objects across diverse media—including sculpture, painting, pottery, crafts, and architecture—analyzing them not only as aesthetic forms but also as products of specific historical and cultural contexts. The overarching goal is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of key monuments and artifacts, while also introducing a range of critical approaches to studying visual culture. By the end of the course, students develop visual literacy skills and analytical tools applicable to the study of art traditions in Asia. 

What is queer art and who makes it? Has there always been queerness in art? This course looks at art-historical practices from a variety of historical, geographical, and social contexts, to explore how queerness, same-sex desire, or “homosexuality” have been represented, and how these representations changed over time, at intersections with their sociopolitical contexts. While the course has a predominantly contemporary focus, it begins with an examination of historical examples of same-sex desire in art before the 19th century. It looks at the modern developments brought by the Enlightenment and scientific progress which first invented and categorized “homosexuality” as a medical category and deviance, prompting 19th century artists to develop an elaborate language of coded homoeroticism. Following this historical introduction to the course, the focus shifts to a thematic approach: it covers a broad range of distinct practices and reflect on many different meanings of queerness, including: the US gay liberation history and the AIDS epidemic; thriving spaces of queer cultures such as waterfront and nightclubs; Irish, Polish, and Jewish queer artistic practices; and gender binary-defying practices of two-spirit Indigenous Americans and Indian Hijras. The course also looks at queer exhibitions and exhibiting queerness in various international contexts, and explores instances of explicit or implicit censorship of same-sex desire in art institutions. The course features a visit to an exhibition.

Designed for international students, this course explores famous classical Chinese poems across seven major themes. It aims to remove language barriers, analyzing content, artistic features, and historical context. Through guided practice in recitation, the course helps students understand, appreciate, and memorize these classics, experiencing the beauty of Chinese poetry.

Johannes Vermeer has become a pivotal figure in the Western European art tradition. This is largely due to the hushed solitude and enigmatic themes of his paintings, which seem to give a glimpse of social practices and material culture in the Dutch "Golden Age". This course interrogates some of our preconceptions of Vermeer and his work and to situate him fully within the branch of painting that became his specialty - genre art. The course traces the evolution of genre imagery in Dutch art, from its roots in 15th- and 16th-century printmaking, and the peasant caricatures of Pieter Bruegel, to its apogee in the refined interior spaces of Vermeer and contemporaries such as Gerard ter Borch, and Gabriel Metsu. Lectures focus on key practitioners, groups of related artists such as the Leiden "fine painters" and the Utrecht Caravaggisti, as well as socio-economic and contextual themes. The course also explores contemporary reception and interpretation, the role of the art market in the production of paintings, and the extent to which these engaging, quotidian images are reflective of actual domestic practices in the Dutch Republic of the 17th century. The course makes extensive use of the National Gallery of Ireland's exemplary collection of Netherlandish art.