Art History

This course is an in-depth study of art production in the Classical world, providing a history of making from Graeco-Roman techniques to their reception in the Renaissance and use until the present day. Students engage with the materials, tools, and processes involved in the production of sculpture, pottery, painting, glass, textiles, and jewelry among other art forms. Students study the complex sequence of actions involved in their production, following the artist as maker as well as investigating the client behind these commissions.

This seminar-based course examines major developments in artistic practice and theory from the mid-1960s up to the present day, situating them in their social, political, and economic context. It considers art produced after the exhaustion of modernism and the failure of the (neo-)avant-garde. This period is characterized by the disappearance of conventional historical movements and the emergence of looser categories of practice such as Performance, Installation, Video and Relational art. The course compares and contrasts the earlier discourse of “the postmodern” and the more recent discourse of “the contemporary” as accounts of art after modernism. Particular attention is paid to the multifarious, increasingly globalized nature of art since the 1960s and the methodological challenges this presents to the discipline.

By introducing the basic elements of traditional Chinese opera and the influential opera types (Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera, Huangmei Opera, Sichuan Opera, etc.), international students experience the richness and diversity of Chinese culture. In the opera analysis, students learn the essence of opera culture and qualities of opera characters.