Art History

This course explores the visual arts in Central Europe, with strong emphasis on German art in particular, from the rise of modernism circa 1900 to postmodernism and up to the present day. The course studies individual works, critiquing and analyzing their formal structure, style, technique, and iconography. Students consider the intentions of the artists who created the works, and place the works within their wider historical, political, economic, social, and cultural backgrounds. Additionally, the course brings awareness to the international development of visual arts in western Europe, including development in the United States during the second half of the 20th century. The course also introduces students to major philosophical ideas of the period and the methods which art historians have found appropriate in studying the objects and ideas which constitute their discipline. Berlin houses some of the most splendid art collections in the world, such as the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Hamburger Bahnhof (with the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection), the Kupferstichkabinett (Graphic Arts), the Brücke-Museum, and the Bauhaus-Archiv, not to mention the collections of ancient art. In addition, a vibrant scene of art galleries provides new perspectives on contemporary art that has not yet been established in the museums. An essential approach of the course is to work not only with slides and text sources in class but also with the originals during excursions to different museums.

This course surveys the history of Western art from ancient Greece and Rome to the 21st century. Focusing on painting and sculpture, it explains how art has developed in relation to changes in historical context, including politics, religion, science, economics, and society. The course teaches basic techniques of western art, major artistic styles and movements, and how to interpret visual culture both visually and historically.

The course provides a toolkit of concepts or discursive operations for contemporary students of art history. These concepts might include mimesis, iconography, space, biography/autobiography, the author, beauty/taste, the sublime, dialectic, the fetish, animism, the uncanny, aura, the sign, coloniality, race, gender, sexuality, globalization, neoliberalism, and ecology. 

This course examines the history of cool from its roots to its continuing influence through the lens of one of its most visible products – fashion. Through study of the icons of cool in mainstream Western consciousness, you will examine the history of what we have found cool, the fashions that retain the aura of cool today, and how these elements in turn reflect what we have found desirable.