Art History

Paris has long been recognized as a center for both revolutionary activism and innovative artistic production. This course explores the coming together of these two domains through diverse visual manifestations of social justice and advocacy produced and/or displayed in Paris from the Revolution to the present, including painting, sculpture, architecture, performance, installations, photography, video, posters, graffiti, and street art. Students explore the ways in which the urban landscape bears the scars of revolutionary destruction and serves as a showcase for politically engaged production, housed in its museums or visible to all on the streets. The instructional format consists of both lectures and group site visits throughout the city, to venues including public and private museums, which are studied both for their content, architecture, and their politics of display; galleries, artist collectives, and Parisian neighborhoods with outdoor art displays.

This course provides an understanding of Southeast Asian cultures and peoples, by explaining the general historical change from the 19th century to the 1990s by focusing on cultural change. This course is not meant to be a memorization of detailed names and times, but a creation of soft thinking for cultural change in this complicated wide area. The course looks the following important historical waves: Early Colonization (the period of mercantilism: before 18th century); Imperialism (19th century); birth of Nationalism (first half of the 20th century); Decolonization (the 1940s and 50s); Cold War (the 1960s); and New Change Period (the 1970s and 80s). This course focuses on material cultural elements or pictorial data in each period.

The course has 2 parts A and B. Students must take both parts. No partial credit is possible. Students who complete a paper on a pre-approved topic are awarder1 extra quarter unit per part. Maxim units for this course are 12, 6 for each part. The course focuses on the history of photography from its origins to the present with particular attention to technical and aesthetic developments. Special attention is placed on the role of photography in 20th century art and the application of photography in cultural industries such as fashion, publicity, and media. A section of the course is dedicated to contemporary artistic research and its applications in the field of communication. Part A of the course focuses on photography and art and the topics include the relationship between photography and art, definition/s of artistry in the 20th century, the role of the author and the production of the work of art, the contribution of technology in contemporary art, and contaminations between visual arts and other disciplines. Part B of the course focuses on photography and reality and discusses topics including the role of photography in 19th and 20th century art, the relationship with reality, the role of technology, painting and “ready-made” art, and the work of art and behavior.

Under the collective title, Art and Belief in Europe (c. 500 - 1700), the lectures in semester 1 address developments in European art from the rise of Christianity, through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, concluding with the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Geographies studied include Britain, Italy, France, and Germany. The course looks at the work of both early anonymous and later celebrated artists, such as Giotto, Jan van Eyck, Durer, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, all within a broad range of social contexts. Students consider issues surrounding art and identity, including gender, sexuality, nationality, religious and political belief, as well as issues surrounding the art objects themselves, such as patronage, materiality, display, and reception. Whenever appropriate the weekly tutorials are conducted in the museums, galleries and public spaces of Edinburgh, which has world-renowned art collections.

This course examines art from a cultural point of view. It is divided into two parts. The first part discusses art as a whole with a focus on particular aspects of art as historical, social, and cultural practice. The second part focuses on the main types of analysis of art and the work of art.

The course serves as an introduction to the city of Prague as a specific cultural and social milieu, seen through the lens of its artists, architects, and their works. It is also intended – particularly through the reading list – to inspire an interest in the unique blend of storytelling and legend that underpins much of the city’s character and history. The scope of the course includes the major periods of European architectural development: from medieval to modern, as well as aspects specifically reflecting the history and heritage of the Czech nation. In structuring the course according to artistic styles and movements, the course recognizes the ways in which artists of widely varying origins and temperaments responded to, influenced, or disrupted the artistic conventions of the day, and how their work continues to reflect the social and political dynamics of the city.

This course introduces visual and material culture and built environments from the Ancient Near East through 1650. It traces developments in cultural and visual production at the center and periphery of the great empires of the pre-modern world with a focus on Asia, Europe, Africa, the Near East, and the Americas, with a consideration of political and religious institutions that regulated the production and use of images, objects, buildings and space. Focus is also on the impact of technological innovation and cultural exchange on art and architecture, including changes brought about by commercial expansion, cross-cultural contact, religious conversion, and pilgrimage.