A first-year foundation experience, this course introduces students to the interpretation of art, architecture, and design. The course is not a survey class. Rather, it focuses on teaching students how historians, curators, and critics approach the study of art, architecture, and design in context – the types of questions they ask and the methods they use to answer those questions. Different sections of this course will focus on specific themes that will guide the content of each section. Students in all sections will complete a common series of art-historical writing assignments and will receive instruction in library use and research.

Surveys European art from the 14th through the mid-19th centuries. It explores Renaissance art in Italy and Northern Europe, its origins in medieval art, and examines shifts in artistic concepts and forms from the 16th through the mid-18th centuries that led to the emergence of Mannerist, Baroque, and Rococo art. This course concludes with an examination of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism.

Explores key moments in the history of modern art, spanning a roughly hundred-year period from the 1860s to the 1960s. Modernisms interrogates the canon of western modernism and its historic construction, while also introducing students to global voices that are often excluded from the canon. Rather than privileging individual movements and artists, the course situates modern cultural production within the context of new technologies of representation and communication, global artistic dialogues, cultural exchanges, major political and social shifts, as well as the expansion of international economic markets.

Introduces world architecture from prehistory to the mid-nineteenth century. Students will analyze buildings, sites, and cities from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, alongside architectural concepts, artistic movements, and social phenomena. In this way, this course is a focused examination of key architectural developments in time and space. Students will gain not only a broad repertoire of architectural references, but—more importantly—a critical perspective on architecture in its cultural and historical context.

Surveys European art from the 14th through the mid-19th centuries. It explores Renaissance art in Italy and Northern Europe, its origins in medieval art, and examines shifts in artistic concepts and forms from the 16th through the mid-18th centuries that led to the emergence of Mannerist, Baroque, and Rococo art. This course concludes with an examination of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism.

Previously titled Modernisms & After. Explores key moments in the history of modern art, spanning a roughly hundred-year period from the 1860s to the 1960s. Modernisms interrogates the canon of western modernism and its historic construction, while also introducing students to global voices that are often excluded from the canon. Rather than privileging individual movements and artists, the course situates modern cultural production within the context of new technologies of representation and communication, global artistic dialogues, cultural exchanges, major political and social shifts, as well as the expansion of international economic markets.

In this course, material culture produced in the region now known as “China” from approximately 1200 BCE to the late 19th century will be examined. Students will begin by examining the early growth of what came to be called Chinese culture by studying developments in philosophy, technology and the design of material goods (such as bronze vessels). How this culture was expressed in a variety of art forms, focusing primarily on sculpture, painting, calligraphy, printmaking, and ceramics. In studying Chinese art, changes in China’s political system, religions, and economy, paying special attention to how those developments caused changes in China’s visual arts are also studied.

Surveys art and architecture of the Mediterranean world and Europe from Prehistory to the late Middle Ages. It examines forms of visual expression from the earliest representational images to the "Age of Cathedrals" in relation to changing cultural, political, and economic systems. Periods and regions discussed include the prehistoric Near East and Europe, Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome, Byzantium, and medieval Europe, with attention to the significance of interactions between them.

Overviews Japanese art from the prehistoric period to modern times. Religious art, including that of Shinto and various schools of Buddhism will be discussed. Students will also examine Japan’s secular art such as paintings commissioned by the shoguns, Edo-period woodblock prints produced for a wide audience, and modern and contemporary works that circulate in today’s international art market.

A second-year requirement, this course introduces students to the interpretation of art, architecture, and design. The course is not a survey class. Rather, it focuses on teaching students how historians, curators, and critics approach the study of art, architecture, and design in context of the types of questions they ask and the methods they use to answer those questions. Different sections of this course will focus on specific themes that will guide the content of each section. Students in all sections will complete a common series of art-historical writing assignments and will receive instruction in library use and research.

Considers materials and materiality as themes in the histories of art and design. How do artistic media matter, exactly? Historical and contemporary case studies from around the globe reveal how materials are variously linked to symbolisms and ideologies, shaped by economic forces, and associated with agency. All sections of this required seminar will introduce students to visual analysis and interpretive models for object-oriented research with attention to historical and social context. Through critical reading, class discussion, research, and writing, this class will prepare students for upper-level courses in Art History and other disciplines. A second-year requirement, this course introduces students to the interpretation of art, architecture, and design. The course is not a survey class. Rather, it focuses on teaching students how historians, curators, and critics approach the study of art, architecture, and design in context of the types of questions they ask and the methods they use to answer those questions. Different sections of this course will focus on specific themes that will guide the content of each section. Students in all sections will complete a common series of art-historical writing assignments and will receive instruction in library use and research.

Explores aspects of the visual culture related to food in America from the nineteenth century to today. We examine the political and social implications of food imagery in popular and fine art, product design, and advertising. The course also investigates modern and contemporary artists who invoke food as a performance strategy to explore gender roles, feminist activism, and social engagement. All sections of this required seminar will introduce students to visual analysis and interpretive models for object-oriented research with attention to historical and social context. Through critical reading, class discussion, research, and writing, this class will prepare students for upper-level courses in Art History and other disciplines. A second-year requirement, this course introduces students to the interpretation of art, architecture, and design. The course is not a survey class. Rather, it focuses on teaching students how historians, curators, and critics approach the study of art, architecture, and design in context of the types of questions they ask and the methods they use to answer those questions. Different sections of this course will focus on specific themes that will guide the content of each section. Students in all sections will complete a common series of art-historical writing assignments and will receive instruction in library use and research.

Explores utopias, dystopias, future cities, and imaginary worlds created in the modern era. We will discuss the power of visual imagery, the social and political projects behind visual world building, and our reactions as audiences, focusing on drawings and illustrations, film and television, video games, and graphic novels, as well as fanworks that extend existing imaginary universes. All sections of this required seminar will introduce students to visual analysis and interpretive models for object-oriented research with attention to historical and social context. Through critical reading, class discussion, research, and writing, this class will prepare students for upper-level courses in Art History and other disciplines. A second-year requirement, this course introduces students to the interpretation of art, architecture, and design. The course is not a survey class. Rather, it focuses on teaching students how historians, curators, and critics approach the study of art, architecture, and design in context of the types of questions they ask and the methods they use to answer those questions. Different sections of this course will focus on specific themes that will guide the content of each section. Students in all sections will complete a common series of art-historical writing assignments and will receive instruction in library use and research.

Focuses on the relationship between art and politics, emphasizing the historical case studies of art, architecture, and ideology in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Stalinist Russia. At the same time, we will consider ways in which politics and art both influence and reflect one another. Although this course has a historical focus on the 1920s, 30s and 40s, we will also explore how we can identify similar patterns and phenomena in different, contemporary contexts across the globe today. All sections of this required seminar will introduce students to visual analysis and interpretive models for object-oriented research with attention to historical and social context. Through critical reading, class discussion, research, and writing, this class will prepare students for upper-level courses in Art History and other disciplines. A second-year requirement, this course introduces students to the interpretation of art, architecture, and design. The course is not a survey class. Rather, it focuses on teaching students how historians, curators, and critics approach the study of art, architecture, and design in context of the types of questions they ask and the methods they use to answer those questions. Different sections of this course will focus on specific themes that will guide the content of each section. Students in all sections will complete a common series of art-historical writing assignments and will receive instruction in library use and research.

Introduces modern visual culture through key terms that have defined the debates around modern and contemporary art and design: modernism, modernity, avant-garde, postmodernism, contemporaneity, globalization, planetarity. Rather than moving along a central narrative, every week we will study an object or image (drawn from art, design, architecture and visual culture contexts), as well as consider the way in which our analysis of these has changed over time. All sections of this required seminar will introduce students to visual analysis and interpretive models for object-oriented research with attention to historical and social context. Through critical reading, class discussion, research, and writing, this class will prepare students for upper-level courses in Art History and other disciplines. A second-year requirement, this course introduces students to the interpretation of art, architecture, and design. The course is not a survey class. Rather, it focuses on teaching students how historians, curators, and critics approach the study of art, architecture, and design in context of the types of questions they ask and the methods they use to answer those questions. Different sections of this course will focus on specific themes that will guide the content of each section. Students in all sections will complete a common series of art-historical writing assignments and will receive instruction in library use and research.

Explores the changing relationship between bodies and new media technologies that have rapidly altered our lived, embodied experiences across the material and virtual realms and their relationships to the social, cultural, and ecological or material world. It will examine the images of human and non-human bodies and a new aesthetics of embodiment in different media of arts and visual culture—not limited to painting, sculpture, cinema, photography, performance, media arts, games, internet culture, VR and AR, which are intersected by issues of gender, class, race, and disability, and thus raising the questions of body, identity and technology. All sections of this required seminar will introduce students to visual analysis and interpretive models for object-oriented research with attention to historical and social context. Through critical reading, class discussion, research, and writing, this class will prepare students for upper-level courses in Art History and other disciplines. A second-year requirement, this course introduces students to the interpretation of art, architecture, and design. The course is not a survey class. Rather, it focuses on teaching students how historians, curators, and critics approach the study of art, architecture, and design in context of the types of questions they ask and the methods they use to answer those questions. Different sections of this course will focus on specific themes that will guide the content of each section. Students in all sections will complete a common series of art-historical writing assignments and will receive instruction in library use and research.

This course investigates the impact of images in making social life, culture, and visual experience. Students gain familiarity with skills of visual analysis and key terms and debates in art and visual culture. They will also encounter interpretive strategies for a range of art, media, and visual images impacted by dynamics of racialism and racism and practice openly discussing issues of race, racism, settler colonialism, and structural inequality.

Examines the art and architectural traditions of one of the most influential of the world’s civilizations: ancient Egypt. Beginning with the village culture of the pre-dynastic period, students study the rise of the pharaonic power and the Egyptian state in the early dynastic period, the great achievements of the old, middle, and new kingdoms, the increased impact of foreign ideas in the late dynastic period, and the new culture formed by the arrival of Greeks and Romans in the Ptolemaic and Romano-Egyptian periods. Other civilizations of northeast Africa, especially those of Sudan are investigated.

An in-depth treatment of the art and architecture of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period, focusing on important topics currently or traditionally discussed in the discipline, including problems of interpretation in Bronze Age art, attributions in Archaic and Classical art, perceptions concerning Hellenistic art, the influence of Greek tradition on later art styles, and the continuation of Greek art as a living tradition within the modern Western consciousness.

Provides students with a general overview of the development of textile forms and practices in various geographies and cultures, including Africa, Asia, the early Americas, India, Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and Islamic cultures.

Examines the evolution of modern printmaking from the Renaissance through the 19th and 20th centuries using the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, particularly those from the Lucas and Cone collections. The first part of the course will focus on the technical innovations of earlier printmakers including the invention of lithography and seriography. With these innovations and a growing recognition of the print’s artistic significance, the stage was set for the rapid growth of the print in the 20th century.

Examines cultures from each of the major geographic regions of the Pacific: Melanesia, Indonesia, Australia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, in terms of the form and content of artistic expression and the roles of art forms in their respective societies. Specific areas are used to illustrate the importance of art forms to trade, religion, social reproduction, and social authority. This course enables students to visually differentiate between artistic forms from various parts of Oceania, to broaden their factual knowledge about the region, and to enable them to understand the variety of ways in which people express history, cosmology, and identity.

Involves an extended consideration of several patterns of thought in the Italian Renaissance, and of the relationship between the history of ideas and the history of art. Generally, each session involves a close analysis of an artist or groups of artists, of related primary documents, and the broader implications of both. By the end of the semester, students should be comfortable discussing the Italian Renaissance as an artistic and intellectual movement, as well as the work of many of its primary artists and thinkers.

Explores the uses, technologies and artistic applications of photography from its origins in 19th century France and England to its global digital revolution as manifested in the internet. The range of themes explored include the medium’s documentary impetus, its early role in European colonization, abstraction and portraiture, forms of (re)production and circulation, the politics of representation and the instability of images.

Surveys Islamic art and architecture, from the seventh century c.e. to the present. Through lectures, discussions, and a variety of assignments, students learn about major historic phenomena such as mosque architecture, calligraphy, and manuscript illumination in regions as diverse as Umayyad Syria and Mughal India. The course also explores key theoretical questions, such as: Who is the "artist" in Islamic art? What is the role of figuration in Islamic art? How do modern and contemporary artists in the Islamic world deploy new formats, from painting to photography?

Explores the long and rich history of human communication with visual symbols. Posters, books, advertisements, typefaces, and useful objects have served the interests of commerce, political ideologies, religious beliefs, and artistic revolutions. This course examines both the dominant cultural ideas embodied by Graphic Design, as well as the counter-narratives it generates to express diverse cultural identities. Students in this course will question the meaning and form of graphic artifacts.

Explores art traditions from various regions of the world and critically examines their treatment within the field of art history. This course analyzes the impact of colonialism and globalization on the development of the structures of the art world, including the modern art museum and the academic discipline of art history itself. It focuses on case studies of “art” and artifacts involved in transcultural exchange, studying both the stylistic impacts of the movement of these objects as well as the economic and political systems that enabled the flow of objects and ideas. It focuses primarily on artistic traditions and interregional exchanges outside of North America and Western Europe, asking if we can decenter the “West” in the field of art history and exploring the implications of doing so.

Surveys European art from the era of Constantine to the Black Death, with a consideration of contemporary developments in Byzantium and the Islamic sphere. From the shimmering mosaics of Constantinople to the dense swirls of insular manuscripts, medieval art constituted an evolving response to shifting political conditions, complex religious practices, and various artistic precedents. This course considers the forms and functions of medieval visual culture, through diverse examples, primary documents, secondary readings, and visits to The Walters Art Museum.

Traces the concept of illustration as narrative art beginning with Lascaux cave paintings to contemporary times. Students look at visual storytelling and the cultural, social, political, and technological issues that shaped—and were shaped by—this terribly vital art form. Examples such as Egyptian papyri, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance painting, moveable type and the development of printmaking (Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya), Art Nouveau and the rise of the poster, the Golden Age of American Illustration and the rise of magazine ephemera, and graphic novels and contemporary approaches to storytelling and mass production are studied.

Examines Native American art, which has been admired and collected for over 200 years as ethnographic specimen, Non-western Art and, most recently, a dimension of Contemporary Art. In the practice of Art History and Anthropology, Native American art is both "Non-western" and "ours" as Americans. This course examines both the standard overview of Native American art: media, regions, and cultural groups, and time periods, as well as the role of art in navigating and negotiating Native American positions as Americans, as conquered peoples, and as ethnic groups with increasing power and presence in American society.

Explores the cultures of pre-Columbian Mexico and Mesoamerica, hosts to the earliest complex art-producing sites in the Americas. Unified by regional traditions but distinct in cultural identity, these cultures are represented, archaeologically, by some of the most world-renowned and aesthetically sophisticated art and architecture. This course focuses on the cultures of the Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Maya and Aztec, as well as some peripheral polities. Students are asked to consider examples of art and architecture as participants in relationships between indigenous artists, their intended audiences, and today’s unintended audiences when objects are analyzed in museum settings, or in slides in the classroom. In projects, students examine how their work may be related to the art they study and how they can best acknowledge the contributions of anonymous indigenous artists to their work.

Provides an overview of film history. Among the topics covered are the prehistory of cinema in the 19th century; the early emergence of narrative and documentary forms; the growth of silent film as a popular art form; the influence of Soviet montage and German Expressionism; the conversion to sound cinema; the rise of such movements as the French New Wave, the American avant-garde, and revitalized Asian cinema; and such contemporary trends as “indie” cinema, digital filmmaking, and computer animation. Weekly film screenings are required in addition to regular class sessions.

In this course, material culture produced in the region now known as “China” from approximately 1200 BCE to the late 19th century will be examined. Students will begin by examining the early growth of what came to be called Chinese culture by studying developments in philosophy, technology and the design of material goods (such as bronze vessels). How this culture was expressed in a variety of art forms, focusing primarily on sculpture, painting, calligraphy, printmaking, and ceramics. In studying Chinese art, changes in China’s political system, religions, and economy, paying special attention to how those developments caused changes in China’s visual arts are also studied.

Overviews Japanese art from the prehistoric period to modern times. Religious art, including that of Shinto and various schools of Buddhism will be discussed. Students will also examine Japan’s secular art such as paintings commissioned by the shoguns, Edo-period woodblock prints produced for a wide audience, and modern and contemporary works that circulate in today’s international art market.

Explores the emergence of the Latin American aesthetic in the art of the 19th and 20th centuries within the context of cultural nationalism. Examines the pre-Hispanic and African heritage, the colonial past, as well as political and religious themes in Latin American art and their relationship to European and North American cultures.

Explores the history, present, and possible futures of art criticism, through a close analysis of the work of a diverse range of influential early and contemporary art critics, and assignments that allow students to experiment with tone and develop critical stances in relation to work in a variety of media and/or ongoing shows. Typically, the course also involves a consideration of the alleged crisis in criticism, the consequences of web-based criticism and social media, and a visit from a practicing local critic.

Explores artistic episodes, canonical and marginal, in the period that is known as the Long Sixties (roughly 1955-1973). It investigates the relationship between art and culture at large, art and critical theory, art and politics, and how these relationships influenced the reconceptualization of the art object, as well as the institution of art. Aside from focusing on the collapse of the traditions and norms of painting and sculpture, triggered by the new political and technological conditions of that decade, the course considers influential texts, exhibitions, and interdisciplinary encounters, for example between the fine arts and crafts. Far from a comprehensive account of the period, the course instead highlights the artistic production and dialogues between selected cities across the globe.

Introduces a selection of significant Korean artistic and cultural elements and practices during the 20th and 21st century aiming to identify a unique pattern of cultural and artistic construction throughout the modern and contemporary periods of Korea. Introducing the fundamentals of Korean art and culture in interdisciplinary and comparative approaches, this course will contrast Korean cultural aspects and expectations with that of other Asian nations. Korean artists with similar patterns have renewed, appropriated, and transformed traditional Korean values: language, themes, philosophies, religions, and styles, as they have tried to better define themselves and the culture they represent in the context of the hegemony of western modernism. Topics span the appropriation of traditional media and genre, the redefinition of old themes or symbols, the engagement with politics, society, and the states, the exploration of consumerism and popular culture, and Korean's urbanization. The intersection of western and Korean artistic styles found in Asia and in the Korean Diasporas will also be explored.

Delivers an introduction to histories and theories of the digital, focusing on the intersection of art, media, technology, and society from 1945 to the present. The course surveys the historical linkage and aesthetic genealogy of digital art and considers relationships between old and new media. It also examines art, design, and media activism that creatively and critically engage with current and emerging issues within media culture, and focuses not only on the digital’s technical orientation but also on its cultural, socio-political, and ecological impact. Using interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches, students will become acquainted with the foundational literature of digital media: cybernetics, the history of computational media, software studies, media archeology and aesthetics, feminist theories, and postcolonial/decolonial studies. Students experience and engage with current arts and media practices across the globe.

Examines the art and architectural traditions of one of the most influential of the world’s civilizations: ancient Egypt. Beginning with the village culture of the pre-dynastic period, students study the rise of the pharaonic power and the Egyptian state in the early dynastic period, the great achievements of the old, middle, and new kingdoms, the increased impact of foreign ideas in the late dynastic period, and the new culture formed by the arrival of Greeks and Romans in the Ptolemaic and Romano-Egyptian periods. Other civilizations of northeast Africa, especially those of Sudan are investigated.

An in-depth treatment of the art and architecture of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period, focusing on important topics currently or traditionally discussed in the discipline, including problems of interpretation in Bronze Age art, attributions in Archaic and Classical art, perceptions concerning Hellenistic art, the influence of Greek tradition on later art styles, and the continuation of Greek art as a living tradition within the modern Western consciousness.

Through a series of introductory lectures and training in field research methods, students design and conduct research projects that address the three main pivots of folk cultural studies—community, genre, and interpretation.

Examines the evolution of the artist’s studio from the 15th century to contemporary times to better understand art and design production in cultural contexts. Through studio visits, readings, and class discussions, this course explores the commonalities and differences between traditional art production and that of today, including examples from contemporary art and design studios. Among the topics covered are the changing role of the artist in society, the evolution of the studio space itself, how art theory, science, and design innovation influence art production, art education, materials, and labor.

Provides students with a general overview of the development of textile forms and practices in various geographies and cultures, including Africa, Asia, the early Americas, India, Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and Islamic cultures.

Examines the evolution of modern printmaking from the Renaissance through the 19th and 20th centuries using the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, particularly those from the Lucas and Cone collections. The first part of the course will focus on the technical innovations of earlier printmakers including the invention of lithography and seriography. With these innovations and a growing recognition of the print’s artistic significance, the stage was set for the rapid growth of the print in the 20th century.

Examines cultures from each of the major geographic regions of the Pacific: Melanesia, Indonesia, Australia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, in terms of the form and content of artistic expression and the roles of art forms in their respective societies. Specific areas are used to illustrate the importance of art forms to trade, religion, social reproduction, and social authority. This course enables students to visually differentiate between artistic forms from various parts of Oceania, to broaden their factual knowledge about the region, and to enable them to understand the variety of ways in which people express history, cosmology, and identity.

Explores fashion as a form of visual culture and a means of identity construction. This course will focus on case studies of fashion in Europe and North America related to a wide range of themes including: the use of fashion to construct gender, racial, and sexual identity; fashion’s role in maintaining but also in resisting racism and sexism; utopianism in dress; and the use of dress and fashion by artists, political activists, and subcultural groups.

Surveys European manuscript production from the early medieval period through the late Gothic era, and touches on the early history of printed books. Throughout the Middle Ages, illuminated manuscripts were one of the most important vehicles for the development and transmission of visual ideas. Students learn about the lavish miniatures found in deluxe manuscripts and examine the ornamental treatment of the text, including display script, illuminated initials, colored parchment, and marginalia. Manuscript illumination is discussed in the context of the owners, users, and purchasers of these objects. The technologies and materials used to make manuscripts and the binding of medieval books are also covered.

Surveys the art and visual culture from 1960 to 1989, posing a series of questions concerning the production of artistic knowledge during the postwar period. The legacies of the avant-garde (the readymade, the constructivist work, the performative, etc.) as well as the politics and a critique of the institution are addressed. The assimilation of these legacies in different locations, and the increasing difficulty in speaking of traditional artistic categories such as movement, and style, as well as globalization sets are explored. The relationship between art and culture at large (mass media, late capitalism, technology, civil rights, center/periphery hierarchies), and how these relationships influenced the reconceptualization of the art object, intermedeol practices and environments, and a radicalization of modes of circulation and display are also investigated.

Examines the visual culture of Italy from 1580 to 1700 and includes the work of major figures such as the Carracci, Caravaggio, Bernini, Borromini, Artemisia Gentileschi, Pietro da Cortona and many others. Attention is given to influential images, monuments, styles and genres, as well as their influence on contemporary artists and visual culture. This course also explores the Counter Reformation and the visual propaganda associated with this movement.

An examination of the art and architecture of ancient Rome, this course explores topics relating the arts of Etruscan and early Roman Italy, the role of Greek and other influences in the Central Mediterranean, the developments of a distinctly “Roman” art under the Republic, the influence of Augustus on art and architecture, the development of Roman imperial art, and late Roman art down to the time of Constantine the Great. Organized around distinct art historical topics and student discussions, the course is designed for those with a specific interest in ancient art.

Surveys Islamic art and architecture, from the seventh century c.e. to the present. Through lectures, discussions, and a variety of assignments, students learn about major historic phenomena such as mosque architecture, calligraphy, and manuscript illumination in regions as diverse as Umayyad Syria and Mughal India. The course also explores key theoretical questions, such as: Who is the "artist" in Islamic art? What is the role of figuration in Islamic art? How do modern and contemporary artists in the Islamic world deploy new formats, from painting to photography?

Explores the long and rich history of human communication with visual symbols. Posters, books, advertisements, typefaces, and useful objects have served the interests of commerce, political ideologies, religious beliefs, and artistic revolutions. This course examines both the dominant cultural ideas embodied by Graphic Design, as well as the counter-narratives it generates to express diverse cultural identities. Students in this course will question the meaning and form of graphic artifacts.

The practice of art history has never been monolithic; its methods, its goals, and its underlying assumptions are inevitably diverse. This course is designed for students with some art historical experience, and traces the development of art history as a discipline, closely examining some of the field’s more influential methods, including formalism, iconography analysis, reception theory, feminism, and structuralism.

Surveys European art from the era of Constantine to the Black Death, with a consideration of contemporary developments in Byzantium and the Islamic sphere. From the shimmering mosaics of Constantinople to the dense swirls of insular manuscripts, medieval art constituted an evolving response to shifting political conditions, complex religious practices, and various artistic precedents. This course considers the forms and functions of medieval visual culture, through diverse examples, primary documents, secondary readings, and visits to The Walters Art Museum.

Traces the concept of illustration as narrative art beginning with Lascaux cave paintings to contemporary times. Students look at visual storytelling and the cultural, social, political, and technological issues that shaped—and were shaped by—this terribly vital art form. Examples such as Egyptian papyri, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance painting, moveable type and the development of printmaking (Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya), Art Nouveau and the rise of the poster, the Golden Age of American Illustration and the rise of magazine ephemera, and graphic novels and contemporary approaches to storytelling and mass production are studied.

Examines design as a form of cultural production that takes place within a web of producers, consumers/users, and intermediaries. The course focuses on design in the US and Europe between 1851 and the 1980s. We will use a wide variety of critical approaches to consider how the history of design is connected to art, architecture, and popular culture; overlapping histories of technology, industrialization, political and social change; and colonization and globalization.

Surveys the work of African artists from diverse situations, locations and generations. This course offers an introduction to major issues in art, art history and visual culture by engaging the aesthetic, social, cultural and geopolitical complexities of African heritage. Topics include the emergence of African knowledge systems, dynamics of trade, colonization and slavery. Artworks are viewed as dynamic and necessary elements for making and maintaining individuals, communities and societies. Specific reference is made to contemporary artists in global contexts, and the course draws on a wide range of examples to see various issues and ideas in Africana visual history.

This course will focus on the historic relationship between comics and fine art, and how those tensions play out in different global contexts. Comics have long been derided as an art form by the Academy; this course will interrogate the institutional and cultural reasons for this exclusion while highlighting the unique properties that distinguish comics from other forms of popular art. From the satirical prints and political caricatures to superhero comics, manga and graphic novels, we will examine the formal development of the medium and its complex relationship to the culture at large. Students will read critical essays, historical overviews, and comics themselves, as they investigate the intersection of text and image in sequential narratives.

Examines the history and theory of modern craft through a study of ceramic artists and movements. This course explores the radical changes that ceramics has experienced since the late-19th century, from the Arts and Crafts movement and Adelaide Robineau to today’s expanded formats. Lectures and readings provide students with a chronological overview of more than a century of ceramics occurring within art, design, and architecture, as well as the field’s links to other crafts. The consequences of socioeconomic, political, philosophical, and industrial influences as drivers of change within the field of ceramics are also examined.

This course focuses on art and discourses from the Seventies to the present with particular attention to the artistic practices, institutions, modes of display and circulation shaped by the post 1989 geopolitical landscape and a concomitant proliferation of postcolonial centers. Accordingly, this period is characterized by a radical expansion of the notion of art and a salutary interdisciplinarity that privileged criticality and an engagement with the social, collaboration, and the internet.

Explores the role women have played in the visual arts as artists, patrons, critics, and historians. This course is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Provides a global history of the built environment since the 1850s. Students will look at key buildings and sites, exploring new buildings technologies and new types of spaces, the role of architects and planners, emerging publics and counter publics for design, and the ongoing process of modernization and urbanization. This course assesses the ways in which modern architecture has been integral to the formation of the modern nation state and the development of racial capitalism as well the ways in which it has sought to mitigate the inequalities they produce.

Explores the cultures of pre-Columbian Mexico and Mesoamerica, hosts to the earliest complex art-producing sites in the Americas. Unified by regional traditions but distinct in cultural identity, these cultures are represented, archaeologically, by some of the most world-renowned and aesthetically sophisticated art and architecture. This course focuses on the cultures of the Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Maya and Aztec, as well as some peripheral polities. Students are asked to consider examples of art and architecture as participants in relationships between indigenous artists, their intended audiences, and today’s unintended audiences when objects are analyzed in museum settings, or in slides in the classroom. In projects, students examine how their work may be related to the art they study and how they can best acknowledge the contributions of anonymous indigenous artists to their work.

Explore, through specific case studies, how the Indigenous cultures of the ancient Americas, mostly of modern-day Mexico, served as an inspiration for modern craftspeople, designers, and architects, from Tiffany & Co., to Frank Lloyd Wright, to Chicano poster makers.

Introduces students to the consideration of curatorial qualifications, responsibilities and practice, including broad spectrum of collecting and exhibition presentation. The course will position the curator, their responsibilities, and practice within the larger art world context and will introduce students to the essentials of exhibition development and the practical knowledge associated with and necessary for exhibition execution. The course includes a practicum component and students will make a full-fledged exhibition proposal.

Provides an overview of film history. Among the topics covered are the prehistory of cinema in the 19th century; the early emergence of narrative and documentary forms; the growth of silent film as a popular art form; the influence of Soviet montage and German Expressionism; the conversion to sound cinema; the rise of such movements as the French New Wave, the American avant-garde, and revitalized Asian cinema; and such contemporary trends as “indie” cinema, digital filmmaking, and computer animation. Weekly film screenings are required in addition to regular class sessions.

Synchronizes its content and assignments to correspond with a developing exhibition and/or curatorial project. Students will investigate and consider curatorial theory while navigating curating practicalities. Contingent on corresponding exhibitions or projects, students may have the opportunity to engage directly with research, ancillary programming, exhibition design, and/or artwork. This course allows students and instructors to take advantage of local exhibitions, curatorial projects or thematic investigations relative to curatorial practices.

Exposes students to the fields of art criticism, archiving, museum studies and hybrid practices where artistic work intersects with areas such as gallery management and the curatorial. Students are familiarized with those professions in which art history and theory, and concomitant methods of analysis and research, are valuable tools. Through field trips, class discussions, lectures, readings, and guest speakers, students are introduced to the work of local and international professionals in academic, museum, non for profits and gallery settings.

Students examine a series of case studies in recent artistic production, generally organized around a common theme; the central theme varies from year to year and instructor to instructor.

Explores the emergence of the Latin American aesthetic in the art of the 19th and 20th centuries within the context of cultural nationalism. Examines the pre-Hispanic and African heritage, the colonial past, as well as political and religious themes in Latin American art and their relationship to European and North American cultures.

Exhibition Development Seminar (EDS) is the capstone course for MICA's undergraduate Curatorial Studies Minor. The course examines the curatorial process through the research, planning and production of a major exhibition. Students serve as curators, designers, and educators as they develop and implement proposals for the exhibit’s graphic and exhibit designs, interpretive texts, public programs, community outreach, website, publications, and public relations strategy. Fall semester is devoted to the conceptualization and development of the artistic, design and educational components for the exhibition in the spring semester. Registration for both semesters is required.

Explores the relationship between art and environmental knowledge from the early modern period through the rise of scientific ecology. The discussion will center on six main topics: space (cartography, engineering), time (geology, alchemy, archeology), nature (magic, monsters, wilderness, foodways), the body (anatomy, medicine, gender), representation (optics, landscape, collecting, materiality), and climate (climate zones, race, climate control), framed by such key notions and contexts as artisanal epistemology, the rise of extractive attitudes to nature, and the impact of colonialism and industrialization as the driving forces of the Anthropocene. While the focus is on Europe, its interactions with other, especially Indigenous, knowledge traditions and parallel case studies from Asia, Africa, and the Americas will be closely examined.

Explores the ways that fashion has been used by LGBTQ+ people throughout history as a means of expressing their identity and communicating with one another. This course will take an intersectional approach to case studies primarily in Europe, North America. Topics will include: legal restrictions around dress, fashion as a form of resistance, drag culture, queer coding in dress, the role of queer fashion designers, as well as camp aesthetics. Students will be introduced to queer theory and use it as a lens to understand fashion history.

Examines a variety of visual cultural forms that address events surrounding the Holocaust and its aftermath. Central questions explored revolve around notions of history, memory, and the ethics of representation. This course examines diverse media ranging from painting, sculpture, film, and television to graphic novels/autobiographies, monuments/memorials, museums, individual curatorial projects/exhibitions, and performance. Works by artists and architects, including Christian Boltanski, Rachel Whiteread, Art Spiegelman, Shimon Attie, David Levinthal, Renata Stih & Frieder Schnock, Daniel Liebeskind, Peter Esenman, Charlotte Salomon, Anselm Kiefer, and Gerhard Richter, as well as writings by Primo Levi, Sigmund Freud, Theodor Adorno, and Alexander and Margarete Mischerlich are considered.

Examines the evolution of the artist’s studio from the 15th century to contemporary times to better understand art and design production in cultural contexts. Through studio visits, readings, and class discussions, this course explores the commonalities and differences between traditional art production and that of today, including examples from contemporary art and design studios. Among the topics covered are the changing role of the artist in society, the evolution of the studio space itself, how art theory, science, and design innovation influence art production, art education, materials, and labor.

Explores artistic development in China from the mid-twentieth century to the present. This was a period during which the art world in China underwent substantial change, first adjusting to a state-organized system for the production of art after the Communist Party took control of the country and then acclimated to the international art scene after China opened up to the global economy in the 1980s. Students will examine the political beliefs that shaped art in China from the founding of the PRC in 1949 to the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. Then will study the various ways Chinese artists have responded to (or resisted) the global art world since the 1980s.

Surveys European manuscript production from the early medieval period through the late Gothic era, and touches on the early history of printed books. Throughout the Middle Ages, illuminated manuscripts were one of the most important vehicles for the development and transmission of visual ideas. Students learn about the lavish miniatures found in deluxe manuscripts and examine the ornamental treatment of the text, including display script, illuminated initials, colored parchment, and marginalia. Manuscript illumination is discussed in the context of the owners, users, and purchasers of these objects. The technologies and materials used to make manuscripts and the binding of medieval books are also covered.

Examines several examples of literary adaptation, reading closely both the literary texts and their cinematic counterparts. Investigates the politics of adaptation, as well as the criteria by which we can evaluate films based on texts as works of art in their own right. Analyzes both the films and the texts that the course covers, focusing on individual authors’ works, as well as how they generate a dialogue between one another.

Examines artistic and critical interventions into artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data visualization in art, design, and digital culture. It pays special attention to the possibilities, meanings, and limits of data visualization, data art, and AI for creativity and design. Taking a significant historical inquiry at the intersection of art, science, and technology and positing creative use of AI within the history of generative art, we will undertake a critical consideration of creativity, intelligence, and emergence and a novel relation in human-machine collaboration. The course also ventures into the as yet unexplored sociopolitical and ethical dimension of AI and its cultural ramifications in our networked culture and datafied society. We will examine specific projects that investigate technological biases that categorize individuals and communities based on markers such as race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship in specific social, institutional, and cultural settings, envisioning equitable futures.

Independent Study in conjunction with London Summer Travel Intensive.

Explore the 17th Venice Biennale, the premier international exposition of contemporary art founded in 1895. In this interdisciplinary program, you will visit historical national pavilions in the Biennale Gardens and the nearby Arsenale as you witness first-hand the magical transformation of these spaces, including the work of Martin Puryear in the 2019 U.S. pavilion. In addition to exploring the historical sites of the biennale, we will seek out projects and installations located throughout the seductive architecture of this labyrinthine city. You will tour the centuries-old Accademia museum, Peggy Guggenheim’s jewel-like collection of modern art, the creatively curated Mario Fortuny Museum, the François Pinault Collection, and the Prada Foundation to gain insights into the international art scene embedded in Venice. As you absorb the sights and sounds of contemporary Venice, the Murano glass industry, the dramatic mosaic of the Last Judgment in the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta on Torcello, and Giotto’s Arena Chapel in Padua, you will practice the craft of art criticism on site. We will also make day trips to nearby towns such as Ferrara, Trieste, and Rovereto. Classes are held both in the classroom and on location throughout the program. Local experts, curators, art historians, and participating artists in this year’s Biennale will provide special lectures. As you experience the sights and sounds of Venice, you will live on the beautiful breezy island of San Servolo, just ten minutes away from the historic Piazza San Marco. Fully equipped with wireless connections, an affordable cafeteria, luxurious grounds, and access to the nearby Lido beaches, San Servolo provides a wonderful balance to the academic side of this program.

Explores twentieth-century American architecture and urban spaces through the critical lens of “race.” This course investigates the hidden and explicit ways in which race has structured the US built environment, and discuss how to use the built environment to understand racial formations, identities, and experiences. Drawing on recent scholarship in architecture, urban studies, geography, history, and race and ethnic studies, students will focus on specific buildings and sites that help them understand the intersections of race, space, and place. The course engages in important questions: How does race shape the built environment? How is race represented in the built environment we live in, and what does this tell us about the experience of identity and difference?

Examines artistic developments since 1989, a symbolic milestone that launched the term globalization as a key framework to understand art and institutions in the context of social, political, economic, and technological world transformations. The course explores a number of concerns, from local American debates around the culture wars to international discussions concerning the displacement of post modernism with the term expansive contemporary. This class analyzes the rise of international biennials, the reticular domination of everyday life by the digital, neoliberal art markets and the rise of theory. Using specific events, artists, art works and institutions, concepts such as socially engaged art, post production, research-based and laboratory practices, collaboration and cosmopolitanism are studied.

Focuses on post-colonialism and cultural theory as the theoretical framework for understanding contemporary culture and art of Asia. The readings of Asia extend beyond the scope of traditional, Eastern, and Oriental perspectives of study. Students look at the difference between the Asian experience, as embodied by personal politics, to the disembodied/dislocated Internet advertisement of Asia-exotica in order to gain a broader understanding of what determines “Asian-ness” and its difference within a cultural situation, and how Asian cultural objects are manifested in a global context.

This interdisciplinary seminar examines portraiture through case studies that combine the work of specific artists with art criticism and theory. In addition to providing a historiograph overview of the genre, the course examines the motivation behind and function of portraiture in varied settings. Authors to be read include philosophers and psychoanalysts such as Montaigne, Barthes, Foucault, Freud, Lacan, and Derrida, as well as critics Louis Marin, Georges Didi-Huberman, and Richard Brilliant. Artists featured are Bruce Nauman, Glenn Ligon, Dawoud Bey, Cindy Sherman, Nikki Lee, Ken Lum, Fiona Tan, William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, Lorna Simpson, Gillian Wearing, Ben Gest, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Christian Boltanski, Jenny Saville, Yasumasa Morimura, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Adrian Piper, Isaac Julien, Diane Arbus, Chris Ofili, Sophie Calle, Tracy Emin, and more.

Did different artistic mediums offer fundamentally different responses to the attacks of September 11, 2001? Were aspects of American visual culture transformed by this event? This course approaches these questions through a range of visual culture, including monuments and memorials, television and film, contemporary art and the museum. It also includes substantial theoretical readings about how to categorize 9/11—whether it should be understood as a staged “media event,” an instance of the contemporary sublime, or an occurrence after which traditional definitions of media are no longer relevant at all.

Examines the intersection of archaeology--the reconstruction of past cultures using art and other forms of material culture--and Social Justice--a framework for correcting social inequities. Archaeologists reflect on this intersection knowing that archaeology has given marginalized communities legitimate places in larger national societies around the world. Archeologists also know that their work has been used as a tool to justify oppression. Dominant cultures addressed include: the U.S. & Canada, Scandinavian Nations, Nazi Germany, slave holding Nations. Marginalized cultures include diasporic enslaved Africans, European Jews, Indigenous Americans, Scandinavian Sami. We also explore the ways in which archaeologists today use archaeology to inform about, and correct, wrongs, such as the ongoing consideration of the antiquity and residence patterns of indigenous Native Americans during, and following, Pleistocene glaciation.

Examines what defines an exhibition, and maps some of the sites and institutions that serve as loci for the display and circulation of objects, artworks, bodies, and ideas. Exhibitions may articulate alternative public spheres, and as such, are appealing to artists interested in claiming agency and criticality; consideration of the structure and history of the exhibition has led artists to reflect on the ontological instability of their mediums and practices. This seminar explores the work of artists who utilize curatorial strategies or exhibition formats in order to take control of the display and circulation of their work and that of others, often radically altering the rules of engagement between art and audiences. Models that shed light on the conditions of culture, such as migrations, globalization, and the crisis of the subject are explored. Historic and contemporary examples are studied, including projects by Gustave Courbet, Marcel Duchamp, Martha Rosler, Fred Wilson, Claire Tancons, and Philippe Parreno.

Explores the role women have played in the visual arts as artists, patrons, critics, and historians. This course is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Examines the world’s fair phenomenon from 1851, when the first major exposition was held in London, to those that still occur around the world each year. These encyclopedic expositions were traditionally devised to demonstrate innovations in the fields of design, industry, arts, science, and culture. Through the fairs this course explores a number of themes, including modes of display, international cultural exchange, theories around race and Western hegemony, as well as developments in fashion, graphic, architectural, and product design.

Explores the use of the supernatural in a variety of media – including painting, illustration, film, animation, and video games – produced in various East Asian cultural contexts, both ancient and contemporary. The course examines how belief systems such as Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism, and Daoism help explain the role of ghosts, monsters, shape-shifters and other figures from beyond the natural world in visual art. There is a focus on how the use of these supernatural elements is tied to concerns about the human world such as social relationships, physical danger and desire, environmental and technological change, and political upheaval.

Critically investigates the visual culture of childhood, through a close examination of objects ranging from toys, board games, and dolls, to video games and animation. This course tackles the larger issues embedded in the design of so-called “kids’ stuff.” Child’s play and media is rarely given serious attention from an art historical perspective, despite it being fertile ground for exploring complex ideas relating to topics such as fantasy, the miniature and the uncanny. Seminar participants will also study the historical construction of childhood, and the formative role that toys and games have traditionally played in shaping cultural norms and biases regarding race, class, and gender.

Explores how contemporary buildings and spaces reflect and respond to globalization, late capitalism, the climate crisis, and calls for social and racial justice. Key examples of the architecture of the past thirty years are examined, focusing on the politics of design and the theoretical concepts and debates driving the production and interpretation of specific buildings, spaces, and sites.

Designed to guide students in writing a senior thesis research paper of 20-25 pages. Senior Thesis I focuses on conducting research for and writing an annotated bibliography and a complete first draft of the thesis essay. The goal of the essay is to provide an original argument based on primary- and secondary-source materials. The course will instruct students in library- and archival-research methods, and will help focus their research and writing through in-class workshops and individual meetings with the course instructor and an outside reader.

Designed for art history majors to take in the second semester of their senior year, following the Senior Thesis I, AH 498. The course will focus on further revising individual senior theses and preparation for the senior thesis symposium in the spring. Through a series of workshops, class discussions and lectures, students will revise and finalize their thesis papers, write abstracts of their papers, develop a 20-minute symposium presentation based on their thesis, practice public speaking, and organize the art history commencement show.