Art History

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.

This course studies several periods of French architecture. The first part of the course covers Antiquity: classic architecture, origins in Greek civilization, Roman technique, and religious and utility buildings. The second part covers the Middle Ages: feudal society, Christianity, Roman & Gothic architecture, churches and cathedrals, and fortified castles. The third part examines modern times: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, the invention of printing, the discovery of America, Protestant reform, the Renaissance, and Baroque architecture. Finally, the course covers contemporary times: neoclassicism, aesthetics, eclecticism, the Industrial Revolution, mass production, functionalism, post-war urban expansion, social housing, and Brutalism.

This course introduces the spread of Buddhist art and culture throughout South, Central, and Southeast Asia, including Tibet, by examining related architectures, sculptures and paintings. Each art history period from each region is closely examined throughout the duration of the course. Lecture topics include South Asia: the Early Period, Gandhara, Gupta period, Amaravati, Pala Period, Anuradhapura; and Polonnaruwa; Central Asia topics include areas include Afghanistan and West Turkistan; Southeast Asia topics include the Early Period, Sumatera and Java, Bagan, Angkor and Champa, and Thailand. The course concludes with discussion on Nepal and Tibet.