Art History

This course explores the dynamic discourse at the intersection of contemporary art and digital technologies, equipping students with a practical and contextual knowledge of how these technologies are reimaging the landscape of contemporary art practice. The course explores what it is to have "an art without objects" and the impact this is having, in turn, on the international art market and the curatorial field. Topics include artificial intelligence, augmented theory, virtual reality, NFT's, digital conservatism, and the history of digital art.

This course introduces the art of Thai painting and drawing through an analysis of both scholarly texts and hands‐on sessions. The course provides visual journey through all the major periods of Thai classical art. Emphasis is also be placed on regional and folk styles of painting as well as with new forms of traditional art. The course focuses primarily on the Rama 3 style of Thai painting as developed in nineteenth century Bangkok and which has become the most common form of Thai classical art seen in the country today. Students enrolled in the class will be taught not only how to appreciate traditional Thai painting but also how to draw, create compositions, and critique art works.

Culture is very much a combination of lifestyle and art. This course explores the development and transition of Japanese aesthetic in lifestyle from the prehistoric Jomon Period all the way to today, with special emphasis on the crafts and arts of Edo, Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras. In Japan, there are fine arts, fine crafts, Mingei (the people’s arts and crafts), and design. The course examines the trends in art and lifestyle from ancient times; how traditional crafts and arts appeared in art history, and how Japanese arts and lifestyle transformed with the industrial revolution during the Meiji Era with a newly applied idea of “fine arts,” followed by the emergence of the philosophy of Mingei. The course finishes by discussing how art and crafts influence our everyday lifestyle; what it means to us today, and what you think will happen in the future.

Based on the analysis of philosophical texts, artists' writings, and works of art, this course studies the first major themes of aesthetics and philosophy of art (imitation, judgment). The course provides the basics of a general culture in the aesthetic field and promotes mastery of the techniques of dissertation and commentary from a methodological point of view.
 

This is a single-semester course taught in semester two: Art History in Action. It examines some long lasting issues in the history of art between Antiquity and the present day, including the relationship between the depiction of the natural world and a culture of idealism during the Renaissance and more recently. It also looks at dialogues between past and present, classical order and romanticism and between art as personal expression and as collective experience.

This course examines the relationship between Northern European and Italian Renaissance pictorial cultures with particular reference to Dürer's exposure to and adaptation of Italian art and ideas. A comprehensive survey of Dürer's prints, drawings and paintings will form the main visual material, together with the work of selected earlier German artists and of Dürer's German and Italian contemporaries. The course poses the question of what the Renaissance means in the North, of what is involved in the importation of one culture into another, and it examines the validity of the terms Late Gothic and Renaissance and of notions of artistic progress based on the use of such terms.

This course deals with masterpieces of Japanese visual art from ancient times to the contemporary period. It aims to explain their meaning, expression, material, and technique, guiding students to obtain basic knowledge and skill to appreciate and understand essential works of Japanese art.

This course explores the relationship between the natural world and United States culture, considering specifically the visual expression of that relationship: How have Americans imagined “nature” and represented it? How have concepts of land and landscape shaped perceptions about social order, identity, and sustainability? The course provides both a historical framework for thinking about these questions as well as a contemporary perspective, particularly in the context of a potential new era known as the “Anthropocene.” 

From the study of monuments to the archeology of buildings, this course provides an up-to-date view of the specific investigative methods applied to ancient monuments that have developed over the past few decades. These will be the subject of a broad historical perspective, methodological initiation, and practical approaches. The course builds skills that any art historian required to study architectural works must have today: knowing and understanding the history of monumental studies and the evolution of their methods, up to the implementation of building archeology in its various facets, and creating an aptitude to go beyond disciplinary limits to consider collaborations with neighboring disciplines (Archaeology, Archaeometry, History). 

This course introduces and examines London's internationally-significant museum and gallery collections from a critical and global perspective. Exploring the politics of collecting and display, it engages with contemporary art historical and curatorial debates via the realities of institutions and their collections - and the inherent tensions therein. Major cultural institutions and their collections are examined, including the national gallery, Tate, and the British Museum, where issues of the representation of gender, the depictions of people of color, decolonization and repatriation are discussed and debated. Current debates surrounding museum and gallery ethics (for example ongoing debates regarding the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles and Benin Bronzes) are explored and contextualized in relation to contemporary social justice movements.