Art History

This course focuses on contemporary art and architecture. Students examine the historical and cultural background of the contemporary art movement in the United States in the 1960s and discuss artworks and artists from this period as well. The course examines the relationships between visual arts, historicity, and issues both at the aesthetic as well as the socio-political level in order to revisit a history of contemporary art of the 20th century structured according to a succession of movements. It observes the distinctions that exist between West Coast art and East Coast art in the United States.

This course begins with a radical group of artists named the "Fauves," meaning wild beasts, for their unconventional and daring use of color. The 20th century was a time of great change which artists responded to in different ways. It saw the explosion of the "isms": cubism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, etc. The course explores and discusses the vision and techniques of these movements.

This course chronologically examines art in its historical context from the 15th century to the present. Emphasis is placed on the main styles of Western art, specifically from the Renaissance, baroque, and neoclassical periods in addition to modernism and the avant-garde.

This workshop provides a firm grounding in cultural, social, historical, and practical aspects of art in contemporary Japan. The course provides engagement in diverse activities both in and outside of class – workshops, field trips and research - within the multicultural student body.