Course Catalog

Home>Academic Catalog 2019-2020>

BAROQUE & ROCOCO ART & ARCHITECTURE (AH2014)

Examines the dynamic and often militant Baroque style in Counter-Reformation Italy and its national variants in France, Spain, and Flanders. Traces the development of new and different modes of expression in the emerging Protestant Netherlands. Explores the evolution from Baroque to Rococo as well as the arts of the 18th-Century in France and England. AH 1020 is strongly recommended as a prerequisite.

19TH & 20TH CENT. ART & ARCHITECTURE (AH2016)

Introduces the principal arts and aesthetic issues of the 19th and 20th centuries from the French Revolution to World War II. Studies artists such as David, Turner, Monet, and Picasso, as well as movements such as Romanticism, Impressionism, and Surrealism, stressing continuities beneath apparent differences of approach. Regular museum sessions at the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, and the Centre Pompidou. AH 1020 is strongly recommended as a prerequisite.

ART AND THE MARKET (AH2018)

Investigates economic and financial aspects of art over several historical periods. Examines painting, sculpture, drawing, and decorative arts as marketable products, analyzing them from the perspective of patrons, collectors, investors, and speculators. Studies artists as entrepreneurs. Assesses diverse functions and forms of influence exercised by art market specialists: critics, journalists, public officials, auctioneers, museum professionals, experts, and dealers.

INTRO TO ISLAMIC ART & ARCHITECTURE (AH2024)

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the multifaceted and dynamic character of Islamic art by focusing on the highest achievements of the major dynasties. The time frame will span over one thousand years and, geographically, will cover lands from the western Mediterranean to the Indian subcontinent. Lectures will concentrate on the most representative monuments and works of art from each period. After examining the distinguishing features of the art and architecture of the principal dynasties, their salient characteristics and their greatest contributions to Islamic art as a whole, it should become evident that the field is both full of striking diversity and overall unity.

INTRO TO ISLAMIC ART & ARCHITECTURE (AH2024)

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the multifaceted and dynamic character of Islamic art by focusing on the highest achievements of the major dynasties. The time frame will span over one thousand years and, geographically, will cover lands from the western Mediterranean to the Indian subcontinent. Lectures will concentrate on the most representative monuments and works of art from each period. After examining the distinguishing features of the art and architecture of the principal dynasties, their salient characteristics and their greatest contributions to Islamic art as a whole, it should become evident that the field is both full of striking diversity and overall unity.

CURATORIAL STUDIES (AH2030)

This course is designed to introduce students to the history and practice of curating artworks. “Museums, like asylum and jails, have wards and cells — in other words, neutral rooms called ‘galleries.’” Writing these words in the 1970s, the artist Robert Smithson expressed sharply the struggle of many 20th century artists with curatorial settings. From the private cabinet of curiosities to the Academic Salons, from experimental art galleries to large museums and the use of exhibitions themselves as an artistic medium, curatorial practices never ceased to shape our “understanding” and appreciation of artworks. Relying on historical and theoretical texts, on-site visits (museums and art galleries) and a dialogue with museum professionals, the class is focused on the creation of a virtual exhibition by the students, taking into account all aspects of the project from its conception to its realization. This course has a course fee included.

This is a parallel course offered at the 2000-level and 3000-level. While the assignments are similar at both levels, the written component of the final project goes up from 25 000 to 35 000 characters (space included) and an upper-level degree of precision in the critical apparatus of the final project (research; bibliography, theoretical and methodological pertinence) is expected. Faculty approval is required for AH3030.

IMPRESSIONISM - POST-IMPRESSIONISM (AH3000)

Discusses the stylistic and thematic concerns of Manet, Monet, Degas, Pissarro, and Renoir, in the context of artistic theory and practice in mid-19th-century France. Analyzes the art of Gauguin, Van Gogh, CÈzanne, and Seurat as responses to impressionism. Classes at the Musee d'Orsay are scheduled regularly. AH 1020 is strongly recommended as a prerequisite.

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY (AH3017)

Introduces students to the evolution of photography, which is both closely related to modern painting and clearly distinct from it. Focuses on K60major figures such as Atget, Weston, Stieglitz, Steichen, Hine, Brassao, and Man Ray, in an effort to develop the visual skills necessary to understand photographs as specific forms of artistic vision and creation. AH 1020 is strongly recommended as a prerequisite. Please note this course carries a fee

UTILITY & SUBVERSION: THE OBJECT IN 20TH CENT. ART (AH3020)

From cubist assemblage to multimedia contemporary art installations, from Duchamp’s ready-made to the design departments in prominent art museums, the presence of objects –in the sense of things, everyday utensils–is pervasive in 20th century Art History. Mixing up high and low culture, aestheticizing the common and desacralizing the unique, the object in art has cast into question the traditional definition of art in Western Culture. This course will highlight the different implications of the object as the subject of art, as the material for art, as design product, as a trigger of spatial experience. We will explore how, in the context of a fast developing consumerism, the art revolving around the object, whether conciliating or critical, expresses and clarifies our relation to a complex and sometimes contradictory modern world. Major examples in art and design history from the end of the 19th to end of the 20th century will be discussed in class or during museum/workshop visits, in order to reach an understanding of our object-invested cultural and material environment.