Graduate Dual Degree

SAIC's graduate dual degree option in Modern and Contemporary Art History, Theory, and Criticism and Arts Administration and Policy provides students with a means to earn two synergistic degrees as efficiently as possible while maintaining the integrity and high standards of each degree.

Application and Admissions Information

  • Priority Deadline: December 1 - $45 Application Fee
    Application Deadline: January 10 - $90 Application Fee
    Apply online via SlideRoom

    If you are also interested in applying to the Arts Administration program, please ONLY submit a single application to the Dual Degree: Modern & Contemporary Art History AND Arts Administration & Policy.

    SAIC requires applicants to apply online. Filing an online application requires a valid credit card and a current email address. You may apply to up to three programs with one application and fee. If you are applying to either the MFA in Studio or the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio you may select up to three departments of entry.

    Applications must be submitted prior to 11:00 p.m. (CST) on the appropriate deadline. When you click the "submit" button on the Graduate Application form, you will be prompted to enter credit card information to pay the application fee. Your application form is not fully submitted until you have entered your credit card information.

    Under no circumstances will an application fee be waived or refunded. After you submit the application form you will be directed to a dashboard where you can begin working on your ePortfolio(s).

  • A conferred four-year baccalaureate degree or its equivalent is required for admission to all graduate programs at SAIC. Transcripts are records of your studies that list the courses you completed, the grades received, and provide evidence of degree conferral. They may include grade sheets, exam results, final diplomas, degrees, or graduation certificates. Official copies are issued in the original language directly by your university. Copies must bear the official stamp or seal of the institution, as well as the signature of the appropriate official such as the dean, rector, registrar, controller of examinations, or office of teaching affairs. Photos, notarized copies, facsimiles, or email transmissions are not acceptable.

    Official translations are expected for all educational documents issued in a language other than English. A translation agency or university language department should issue official translations typed on official stationary and the translator must attest proficiency in the original language and indicate their translations are accurate word-for-word.

    During the application process an unofficial transcript is acceptable for review pending an Admissions decision. Official transcripts are required upon admission. Include transcripts both official and unofficial from all universities/colleges from which a degree was obtained or prerequisites were fulfilled. You can attach unofficial transcripts as .pdf or .jpg files in the Educational History section of the application form. If you are in the process of completing a bachelor's degree when you apply, a transcript showing your first three years of study is acceptable.

    Transcripts are considered official if sent directly from the degree- or credit-granting institution to the SAIC Graduate Admissions Office. Hard copy transcripts are considered official if the documents remain in the registrar's original signed and sealed envelopes. Official transcripts can be sent both in digital and hard-copy format. Digital transcripts can be sent from the degree- or credit-granting institution to gradmiss@saic.edu. Hard copy transcripts can be mailed to:

    SAIC Graduate
    36 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 1201
    Chicago, IL 60603

    Students admitted to a graduate program who have not received a high school diploma, GED or equivalent are not eligible for federal Title IV financial aid funds. 

  • Please submit two responses in your statement of purpose document:

    • Write a 500- to 700-word statement of purpose that describes the history of your interests and experiences in Arts Administration, your personal and professional motivations and goals, and your reasons for pursuing graduate study at SAIC, and thoughts on potential future directions.
    • Write a 500 to 700 word statement that describes your Art History work or research. Discuss how you came to focus on the medium, body of work, or academic area you wish to pursue at the graduate level. Also discuss future directions or goals for your work, and describe how this area of study is particularly suited to your professional goals.

    A statement of intent is required for all graduate programs though the content varies by department. You will upload your statement of purpose to the Attachments section of your E-Portfolio.

  • 3 letters of reference are required.

    You are responsible for securing letters of recommendation from persons who are qualified to write about your potential for success at SAIC. If you are currently a student or are a recent graduate, we recommend you request letters of recommendation from current or former instructors.

    Letters of recommendation should be submitted electronically via the References section of the application form. In this section you will be asked to provide an email address for each of your references. Once you click "send request," an email will be sent from SlideRoom to your references with instructions on how to submit their recommendations online.

    If your references cannot provide an online recommendation please contact the Graduate Admissions office at gradmiss@saic.edu

  • A current résumé is required.

    A resume is required for all graduate programs. Upload your résumé to the Attachments section in your E-Portfolio.

  • For the Master of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy program, submit a sample of your critical writing, up to 2,000 words in length. This can be either an essay assignment from a previous course of study, an excerpt from a longer research paper, or a recently published article.

    For the Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Art History program, submit a 15 to 25 page critical writing sample that demonstrates knowledge of the field, ability in research, and clarity of argumentation. Submissions should be written on a topic in modern or contemporary art history from the 19th century to the present, but papers dealing with earlier historical eras will be accepted if they are in dialogue with current debates and methods. Additionally, topics dealing with relevant theories and philosophies, visual studies, and film studies will be considered.

    Applicants are required to submit an E-Portfolio, though the content varies by department. Please visit your individual program of interest to find details. You must submit a separate E-Portfolio for each program or studio department to which you apply. After you pay the application fee and submit the application form, an E-Portfolio for each of the programs you selected in the application form will automatically appear in your SlideRoom dashboard.

    Submission Specifications

    • Images: .jpg, .gif, .pdf (up to 5 MB each)
    • Videos: .flv, .wv, .mov (up to 60 MB each)
    • Audio: .mp3 (up to 10 MB each)
    • Text documents: MUST be in .pdf format (up to 10 MB each)

  • TOEFL: 100 
    IELTS:
    DUOLINGO: 120

    International applicants are required to submit evidence of English language proficiency. You are waived from this requirement if you meet any of the following conditions:

    • Your native language is English
    • You have an undergraduate degree conferred by a U.S. accredited university
    • You have an undergraduate degree conferred by a university whose primary language of instruction is English

    If you do not meet one of these conditions, you must submit official English language proficiency test scores. You are strongly encouraged to schedule a language proficiency test appointment as early as possible in order to receive official test scores prior to the application deadline.

    SAIC accepts official scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), and Duolingo. The TOEFL Institution Code for SAIC is 1713. Please upload an unofficial copy of your test score results to the International Requirements section of the application form.

  • The department conducts interviews by invitation only. Applicants who pass the preliminary review will be invited to schedule an interview in Mid-February. Notification will be sent by late January. For students at a distance or unable to travel, interviews may be conducted remotely.

  • Dual Degree students writing their thesis in Art History and electing to follow the Design History pathway are expected to take ARTHI 5007 as their methods seminar followed by at least four seminars in the Design History curriculum. Thesis topics should address the history and theory of design or architecture.

    Specialization in Design History within the Master of Arts (MA) in Modern and Contemporary Art History 

    Graduate students in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism's graduate degree programs may elect to follow a specialized pathway in Design History. Coursework in this specialization focuses on the production of knowledge, discourses, practices, and domains of objects that have been understood to fall under the broad category of design. As with the MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History degree as a whole, seminars and research topics focus on the modern and contemporary periods.

    Students following the Design History pathway will study the theories and practices of design and examine the conception, production, interpretation, and consumption of design.

    MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History students electing to follow the Design History pathway are expected to take ARTHI 5007 as their methods seminar, followed by at least four seminars in the Design History curriculum. Thesis topics should address the history and theory of design or architecture.

    Recent graduate seminars and courses in Design History include:

    • ARTHI 5101: Theories of Things: Art/Design/Object
    • ARTHI 5111: Urbanization and Its Discontents
    • ARTHI 5122: Critical Terms in Modern Architecture
    • ARTHI 5547: Typographic Modernity & Print
    • ARTHI 5571: Design and the Body
    • ARTHI 5575: Extraordinary Bodies: Disability/Art/Design
    • ARTHI 4547: Biopolitics and Data Visualization
    • ARTHI 5480: Vernacular, Colonial, Global: Modern Architecture at the End of Empire
    Curricular Requirements for the Design History Pathway36 credit hours total
    ARTHI 5007: History of Art History3 credit hours

    4 graduate seminars (5000-level) in Design History

     

    12 credit hours

    Global Issues seminar (5000 level) that focuses on art worlds outside of Europe and North America or focuses on Global Art Theory.

    A list of courses that satisfies this requirement is available from the department every semester.

    3 credit hours
    2 additional seminars in Art History6 credit hours
    2 interdisciplinary electives (4000-6000 level) or additional Art/Design History seminars6 credit hours
    ARTHI 5999 and ARTHI 6999 Thesis sequence in second year6 credit hours
    Completion of thesis 

    Degree Requirements and Specifications

    1. Completion schedule: Students have a maximum of four years from entry into the program to complete coursework and submit a final, approved thesis. This includes time off for leaves of absence. Credit for Thesis Research and Writing (ARTHI 5999 and 6999) is granted only after the thesis is approved and final copies are submitted to the Department.
    2. Thesis in Progress: Students who have not submitted a finished thesis for review and approval by the end of the final semester of enrollment are given a Thesis in Progress grade (IP). All students with a Thesis in Progress grade (IP) will be charged the Thesis in Progress Fee in each subsequent full semester until the thesis is completed and approved and the grade is changed to Credit (CR). If the statute of limitations is reached without an approved thesis, the grade will be changed to No Credit (NCR).
    3. Transfer credits: A minimum of 30 credit hours must be completed in residence at SAIC. Up to six transfer credits may be requested at the time of application for admission and are subject to approval at that time. No transfer credit will be permitted after a student is admitted.
    4. Curriculum: The program requires 36 credit hours, and each individual course is generally three credit hours. Courses are subject to approval by the Art History Graduate Program Director.
    5. Art History requirement: From the Graduate Seminars and additional courses in Art History, at least one course (3 credit hours) must be taken from the list of courses designated 19th-century art history and at least one course (3 credit hours) designated early-20th-century art history. A list of courses that satisfies this requirement is available from the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism every semester.
    6. Global Issues Seminar: If the Global Issues seminar is also designated as Design History, students may use it to also fulfill one of the four graduate seminars in Design History. In this case, students would then be expected to take 3 Additional seminars in Art History rather than 2.
    7. Electives: Electives can be taken from the following departments and programs without additional approval from the Graduate Program Director: Art History, Theory, and Criticism; Visual and Critical Studies; Arts Administration and Policy; Art Education; and Writing. Graduate seminars and upper-level courses in departments other than those listed above may be allowed as electives, contingent upon prior approval from both the Art History Graduate Program Director and the course instructor.
    8. Internship/Co-op Option: Students have the option of taking up to three hours of credit through the co-op internship program. These credit hours can be taken as part of additional courses or electives, but internship credits never count toward the required number of seminar credit hours.
    9. Full-time Status Minimum Requirement: 9 credit hours

    Core Design History Faculty

    • Shiben Banerji, Design History Coordinator and Assistant Professor, Dept. of Art History, Theory, and Criticism
    • Michael Golec, Associate Professor, Dept. of Art History, Theory, and Criticism
    • Bess Williamson, Associate Professor, Dept. of Art History, Theory, and Criticism

World-Class Resources

SAIC students have special access to incomparable resources including the Art Institute of Chicago and its Modern Wing, SAIC’s John M. Flaxman Library and Special Collections, numerous on- and off-campus collections, and public programs.

Students also have at their disposal a diverse array of arts, cultural and community organizations in Chicago, and have the opportunity to work in partnership with them on a variety of projects sponsored and led by the department’s Management Studio. 

On-Campus Opportunities

Students engage directly with current trends in the fields of art history through numerous events and lectures hosted by the Art History department. The Visiting Artists Program has brought in such distinguished artists as Graham Pullin, Arlene Shechet, Anab Jain, Lewis Hyde, Irene Hofmann, Xaviera Simmons, Kendell Geers, Ron Athey, Beatriz Milhazes, and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle.

Each year, as part of the Lifton Lecture, a prominent scholar presents a public lecture on a topic related to modern and contemporary art history. A theme over the years has been an emphasis on women art historians and their contributions to the field. Students in their final year present their thesis before the department’s faculty and students.

Dual degree students participate in the production of E-merge: journal of arts administration and policy. E-merge is an online journal produced by graduate students in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Master of Arts Administration and Policy and Dual degree programs, featuring collaborations with guest editors from the SAIC Community. The journal is dedicated to fostering creative discussions amongst leading professionals, academics, and students, and provides dual degree candidates with valuable publication and journal-management experience.

Course Listing

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work. The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history. There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1016

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work. The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history. There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1017

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work. The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history. There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1018

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1019

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1020

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1029

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1034

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1042

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

2206

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

2534

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This is an advanced course that surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. It is intended for BAAH students and Scholars Program students. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. ARTHI 1201: Discussion Section for Advanced Survey of Modern to Contemporary Art & Architecture is required.

Class Number

1031

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This lecture course grounds students in basic critical themes in the history of design and design objects. Through lectures, demonstrations, and readings students study the material and discursive conditions of the history of design. Through lecture, readings, discussions, and museum visits, the class highlights a broad range of objects and formats in graphic design, object design, fashion design, and architectural design. Course works includes object analysis assignments, short research paper, and mid-term and final exams.

Class Number

1021

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This class reveals the fine art, photography and art theories of late 19th century to the present day. The first half of the semester focusing on the period 1851 to the economic crash of 1929; which had been a time of rapid social, economic and political change impacted by revolutions in communication systems, technology and easy availability of reproductions. Students will gain a comprehensive and chronological picture of the major art movements and their engagement with or reaction against previous art and artists. The major artists of the major movements of Impressionism, Cubism, Purism, Expressionism, Futurism, Surrealism and Abstraction will be addressed in regards to their aims and achievements.These include - to name the most prominent - Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Picasso, Braque, Leger, Kirchner, Severini, Magritte, Dali and Kandinsky and Mondrian.The class ending with major 20th century artists from Pollock and De Kooning of Abstract Expressionism to Pop artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein to current times and how they relate to this legacy and the concept of an art museum in terms of urban capitalism, Colonialism, Nationalism and Internationalism. This class has weekly reading assignments from two major texts ; one written by art historian Richard Brettell and one written by artist Alex Katz. Written questions about these readings will be assigned as well. The class also often has sketching and student discussions in the museum. There is also one final paper on the artist covered most admired by each student.

Class Number

1038

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Students will review the materials from the previous week?s lecture, both the class's main thematic and conceptual points, and also the names, practices, and places that may be required for quizzes. The TA will also lead workshops in which students exchange ideas about their notebooks, maps, papers, curated projects, or installations.

Prerequisites

Corequisite: ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1071

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

Students will review the materials from the previous week?s lecture, both the class's main thematic and conceptual points, and also the names, practices, and places that may be required for quizzes. The TA will also lead workshops in which students exchange ideas about their notebooks, maps, papers, curated projects, or installations.

Prerequisites

Corequisite: ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1072

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 919

Description

Students will review the materials from the previous week?s lecture, both the class's main thematic and conceptual points, and also the names, practices, and places that may be required for quizzes. The TA will also lead workshops in which students exchange ideas about their notebooks, maps, papers, curated projects, or installations.

Prerequisites

Corequisite: ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

2484

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

Students will review the materials from the previous week?s lecture, both the class's main thematic and conceptual points, and also the names, practices, and places that may be required for quizzes. The TA will also lead workshops in which students exchange ideas about their notebooks, maps, papers, curated projects, or installations.

Prerequisites

Corequisite: ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

2485

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This course plunges students into content and ideas that universities often leave until graduate school, as we consider the role played by the 'critical' in 'visual and critical studies.' For the past ten years, it has been referred to as 'a primer for the art world.' It will still, mostly, provide you with a working vocabulary and crash course as to bodies of knowledge integral to the study of visual culture. At the same time, to productively engage in a reflective critique of society and culture, it will consider 'texts' from as diverse and contemporaneous a group of scholars, theorists, critics, and cultural producers as possible, from both inside and outside the academic institution.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2502

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Theory

Location

MacLean 919

Description

If a society?s order of reasons disempowers its citizens, why not weaponize the irrational? This was the premise of various, systemic reactions against the ?ego? in the midlate 20th century. In Europe, the United States, and former colonies, some of this activity can be read as an extension of the historical avant garde?s investigation of altered states of consciousness and ?madness.? The neo-avant garde sometimes used the tools of rational science to deconstruct its premises, reconstruct the real, and promote a more demotic culture. This course takes an international approach and samples practices and discourses of Dadaism, Surrealism, free jazz, performance and conceptual art, dance, film, ?relational aesthetics,? and experimental poetics. We will place a special emphasis on the way indeterminacy claims to ameliorate conflicts between political commitment and aesthetic quality. Expect to encounter works by Francis Alys, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Aime Cesaire, Fischli & Weiss, Helio Oiticica, Huang Yong Ping, Jorge Macchi, Jackson MacLow, Gerhard Richter, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Hannah Weiner, and others. Course work will vary but typically includes weekly written responses, moderate reading assignments, listening and viewing, avid participation in class discussions, one creative/curatorial project, one research presentation, and a final essay.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2101

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Community & Social Engagement, Economic Inequality & Class

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

Ancient art and architecture often provides the backdrop for National politics and in many countries is the art which one first encounters outside of a museum. This course will introduce students to ancient art and architecture in a way that highlights its modern importance in terms of cultural heritage and the art making practices of modern artists. Readings will address the contemporary relevance of ancient art, the particularities of that artwork, and the way that ancient artwork and the modern art it inspires are a manifestation of cultural values both past and present. Students will be required to present readings to other students on a biweekly basis, take exams based on the artwork presented in lectures, and complete a research project. The research project involves the study of one repatriated artwork's provenience and provenance and the presentation of that research to the class

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1063

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

Description

The course examines the history of designed objects and their place in a variety of material contexts. Even within our increasingly digitalized existences today, physical objects continue to play a key role in determining our experiences as humans. Our objects are designed by us and at the same time design us by extending the possibilities of what it means to be human and exist in a world. The designed object will be considered under the conditions of global exchange, in relation to questions of health, disease, and the body, as well as urbanism. We will also reflect on the designed object through the lenses of craftsmanship, technology, materials, activism, identity, and cultural heritage. Course participants will read texts relevant to the theoretical and historical aspects of the designed object and its representations, contribute to weekly discussions, conduct object-based analyses, and engage in a series of team and individually written critical writing assignments.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1022

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

If you could only be seen in one outfit for the rest of your life ? what would it be? How would you represent who you are through your choice of silhouette, color, pattern, and texture? In this course we will take a look at art?s ability to freeze moments, and garments, in time. What did the sitter (or the artist) chose to clothe the body? How did fashion and its power of communication function within the time the art work was made? What choices did the artist make to idealize or change their representation of the garments? In statues from Ancient Greece fabrics flow around bodies like liquids, 18th century subjects were often painted in swathes of fabric meant to suggest ancient ideals through similar (impossible) textiles, and today Kara Walker uses those same floating fabrics on bodies to critique less than ideal idealists. To 19th century Impressionists the urgency of Modernity could only be represented by using contemporary garments, today Kehinde Wiley dresses a man on a horse in a hoodie. What clues tell us a figure is a warrior or a captive in work of the Nazca from ancient Peru? How can we read hairstyles in Ukiyo-e paintings from 17th century Japan? What do Jeffery Gibson and Nick Cave want us to see when they create coverings for bodies? And what was Amy Sherald trying to tell us about Michelle Obama? We will utilize the collections of the Art Institute, The Field Museum, and others around the city to look closely, sketch, and research. Students will read, lead discussions, write daily reflections, explore through making, and develop skills in critical looking leading to two short research papers examining works of their choice. In statues from Ancient Greece fabrics flow around bodies like liquids, 18th century subjects were often painted in swathes of fabric meant to suggest ancient ideals through similar (impossible) textiles, and today Kara Walker uses those same floating fabrics on bodies to critique less than ideal idealists. To 19th century Impressionists the urgency of Modernity could only be represented by using contemporary garments, today Kehinde Wiley dresses a man on a horse in a hoodie. What clues tell us a figure is a king in Incan pottery? How can we read hairstyles in Ukiyo-e paintings from Japan? What do Jeffery Gibson and Nick Cave want us to see when they create coverings for bodies? And what was Amy Sherald trying to tell us about Michelle Obama? We will visit the collections of the Art Institute, The Field Museum, and other collections around the city to look closely, sketch, and research. Students will read, lead discussions, write daily reflections, and develop skills in critical looking leading to two short research papers examining works of their choice.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2314

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Costume Design, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Museum Studies

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This course surveys the history of architecture and design, including furnishings, decorative arts and interiors, from Napoleonic Europe until the onset of Globalism in the early Twenty-First Century. Special attention is given to the developments that have remained most influential within the architecture and design of today, with particular emphasis on: nineteenth-century revivalism and industrial architecture; Chicago School, early skyscrapers and the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright; the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements; early twentieth-century Modernism in Europe; Art Deco, the Bauhaus and the International Style; Late Modernism and New Brutalism; Postmodernism; and contemporary twenty-first century Global movements. Through extensive lectures and primary source readings, special focus in this class is devoted to the pioneering and influential architects from the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including Friedrich Schinkel, Joseph Paxton, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Greene and Greene, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Adolph Loos, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Eero Saarinen, Philip Johnson, Louis Khan, Adrian Smith and S.O.M., Robert Venturi, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid. Students will complete a combination of in-class and take-home exams along with a final research paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1023

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This introductory course surveys the arts of Africa from prehistoric times to today. Focusing on the region south of the Saharan desert, the course will cover a range of media and practices, including painting, architecture, textile, ceramics, metalwork, and body art from across various cultures on the continent. We will consider major movements in the development of African civilizations, the spread of Islam, colonialism and westernization from the perspective of African artistic initiatives and responses. The course will consider ancient African kingdoms and empires, early contacts with Europeans in the fifteenth century, and problems related to African contemporary art and African artistic identities within a globalized art world.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1024

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course introduces 20th and 21st century Korean through major themes, including the introduction of Western art, the unique formation of Korean Modernism, the Avant-garde art movement, people?s art, feminist art, and the globalization of the Korean art scene. We also address Korean artists working internationally and major thematic Korean art exhibitions held in America.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1925

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

An introduction presents an overview of the academic field known as Media Art Histories as well as the specific genealogies of relevant academic disciplines (i.e. of Film Art, Video Art, New Media Art & both filmic and digital Experimental Animation) as well as genealogies of specific media technologies (i.e. cameras, computers and software; electric lights, radio and sound; chemical, magnetic, and digital forms of storage and the industrial and capitalized structures that they require). These interwoven histories of shared theory/practices are investigated in relationship to independent/experimental/art media in contemporary cultures by asking: How do artists develop methods to work with, against, and around these techno-social forms? Readings will include Kittler, Zelenski, Grau, Gunning, Gaudreault, Musser, Schivelbusch, Auge, Adorno, Kluge, and Krackauer.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2236

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Theory

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

This course is a comprehensive survey of the history of furniture, including relevant information on residential architecture, the decorative arts and interior design, from the Neolithic Era until the Twenty-First Century. Special attention is given to the developments that have remained most influential within furniture design today, with particular emphasis on the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical eras, revivalism in the Nineteenth Century, early Modernism in the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, Art Deco, the Bauhaus and the International Style, Mid-Century Modernism, Late Modernism and Postmodernism. Through extensive lectures and readings, special focus in this class is devoted to the relationships between furniture and societal customs throughout history, the rise of furniture?s status as a fine art during the Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical periods, the influence of industrialization, mass production and new technologies and materials on furniture manufacturing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, furniture?s role in helping to create and define architectural space within interiors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and the role of individual narratives in developing unique identities and meanings for furniture throughout history. Students will complete a series of in-class exams along with a final research assignment analyzing a single object chosen from the Art Institute?s furniture collection.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1025

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

Science fiction films imagine futures that often comment on the failures of the present. In recent years, “clif-fi,” or science fiction about climate change, has become an increasingly popular sub-genre, and some historical films have been newly understood within this framework. This class will study a wide range of historical and contemporary cli-fi films, including international films, experimental films, and blockbusters, in order to understand how they encourage us to see the escalating crisis of climate change. Each week a film will be screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller, Australia); Snowpiercer (2013, Bong Joon-ho, South Korea); Neptun Frost (2021, Saul Williams, Rwanda); Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki, Japan) or The Day After Tomorrow (2004, Roland Emmerich, USA), to name a few. Students will be expected to read essays before class, attend film screenings, participate in conversations and other tasks.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2300

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Theory

Location

Gene Siskel Film Center 203

Description

Science fiction films imagine futures that often comment on the failures of the present. In recent years, “clif-fi,” or science fiction about climate change, has become an increasingly popular sub-genre, and some historical films have been newly understood within this framework. This class will study a wide range of historical and contemporary cli-fi films, including international films, experimental films, and blockbusters, in order to understand how they encourage us to see the escalating crisis of climate change. Each week a film will be screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller, Australia); Snowpiercer (2013, Bong Joon-ho, South Korea); Neptun Frost (2021, Saul Williams, Rwanda); Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki, Japan) or The Day After Tomorrow (2004, Roland Emmerich, USA), to name a few. Students will be expected to read essays before class, attend film screenings, participate in conversations and other tasks.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2300

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Theory

Location

Gene Siskel Film Center 203

Description

This course covers the history of animated film, from its pre-cinematic beginnings to the beginning of the television era (ca. 1960). It traces the development of the Hollywood studio cartoon, along with parallel developments in European and Japanese animation and experimental and abstract works. Special emphasis is given to the evolution of formal animation techniques and their role in the shaping of the animation aesthetic. Much attention is given to the groundbreaking work of Disney, the Fleischer studio, and the cartoons of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. European animators are represented by Lotte Reiniger, Oskar Fischinger, and other experimenters. All films are screened chronologically, with a mix of short works and a handful of features. There are weekly readings on the history of animation; a ten-page paper; and a final multiple-choice exam.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1026

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

This course surveys performance as art throughout the Modern and Postmodern periods?including contemporary and non-Western incarnations?and covers roughly the last one hundred fifty years. Areas of historical and theoretical focus include the philosophy of performance, ethnography, feminism, and the interface of performance with film, video, dance, sculpture, theater, technology, and popular culture. Movements like Futurism, Dada, and Fluxus are explored alongside themes like endurance, performance in everyday life, the culture wars and censorship, performance and AIDS, and postcolonial uses of performance. Key figures such as Carolee Schneemann and Marina Abramovic are analyzed through comparison of documentaries about their work. Any number of seminal performance pieces are screened, including ones by Yoko Ono, Linda Montano, Diamanda Galas, Guillermo Gomez-Pe?a & Coco Fusco, and Anna Deavere Smith. Further historical context comes from essays and movies about AIDS activism and Punk & New Wave. Readings include primary sources, artist interviews, C. Carr's reviews, and noted works in Performance Studies from Richard Schechner, Peggy Phelan, Amelia Jones, and others. Students will attend two performances and write reviews, an annotated bibliography assignment provides opportunity to explore historical and non-western performance topics, and there will be much discussion.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1058

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 707

Description

In 1839 a new means of visual representation was announced to a startled world: photography. Although the medium was immediately and enthusiastically embraced by the public at large, photographers spent decades experimenting with techniques and debating the representational nature of this new invention. This course focuses on the more recent history of this revolutionary medium. From the technological advancements that characterized the rise of photography in the commercial world during the 20th century, and the acknowledgement of photography as an artistic medium in its own right, to the digital revolution and its social media applications, we will consider the technological, economic, political, and artistic histories of photography through selected works of art and seminal critical texts. This course considers photography in a global context. We focus on seminal texts and images in order to explore ethical, commercial, artistic, and political issues that make photography essentially important to our contemporary visual culture. The course explores broad range of photographic practices, techniques, and approaches including the work of Hannah Hoch, Martha Rosler, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Dawoud Bey, Gordon Parks, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, William Eggleston, Shirin Neshat, Wolfgang Tillmans and many more. We regularly visit the collections of AIC and MCoP to enrich our class discussions with private print viewings and exhibition critiques. Students are expected to share an image of their choice in response to the assigned weekly reading. These images are used in class discussion. There also is a final paper, a final presentation, and an in-class test.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2113

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the history of video art from its emergence in the late 1960s through our present moment. Students will examine key works and the major historical, cultural, and aesthetic influences on the form.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2102

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Digital Communication

Location

Online

Description

This general survey of graphic design between the 19th and 20th centuries maps the relationships between graphic design and various commercial and cultural institutions under the broad category of the modern. Students study the issues and problems that faced designers, their clients, and their audiences, in the negotiation of commercial and social changes. Through lectures, readings, discussions, and museum visits, the course examines the cultural, social, economic, political, industrial, and technological forces that have influenced the history of graphic design. Course work includes object analysis assignments, research paper, and mid-term and final exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1738

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Graphic Design

Location

MacLean 707

Description

Using the works of established critics and writers as models and using the museum and Chicago galleries as subject matter, students learn to write concise reviews and essays. Class time is spent discussing art, assigned readings, and students? writing. Students are required to turn in one short written work at the beginning of each class. The goal of the course is to develop students? powers of observation, clarity of language and ability to form and defend opinions about works of art. Readings include Kimmelman, Berger, Schjeldahl, Hickey, Lippard, Barnet, Fried, Wolfe.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1060

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

The main aim of this intensive course is to learn how to write art history by doing it. Each student will write an original research paper investigating a single, particularly compelling object of her choosing in scaffolded stages over the course of the entire semester, while drawing on a range of library and museum resources and responding to constructive criticism from the teacher and from peers. The course guides students to pose generative questions of their objects, to find and analyze sources, and to make persuasive arguments. We will also at times study the study of art, examining the history of the museum as a framework for such study, and reflecting on as well as using some key analytical moves often used by art historians. We will not only study statements by scholars reflecting on their own methods, but also exemplars of analysis, which we will in turn take apart to figure out how to do such analysis ourselves. While this course is required for the BA in Art History and BFA with Art History Thesis, any undergraduate who wants to write art history is warmly welcome.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Must be a sophomore to enroll.

Class Number

1934

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

Where is the Black Atlantic? What does it look, smell, taste, and feel like? How does it color our world? This class explores the visual and cultural history of the Black Atlantic?a phrase used to define the relationship between dissonant geographical locations that were forged into relationship with each other through the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We will forge an understanding of how vision, texture, touch, sound, and color owe their meanings through the Middle Passage and its production of arts of the Black Atlantic. Crucial to this class is the artwork of practitioners like Jacob Lawrence, Soly Cisse, AfriCOBRA, Aubrey Williams, Faustin Linyekula, Yinka Shonibare, and Renee Green. We will focus primarily on the visual history and cultural impact of the Middle Passage as discussed through the writings of Afro-Caribbean, West African, Black American, and Black British scholars. We will work with concepts like ?native? visual forms, the coloniality of painting, Negritude, and the anticolonial imagination.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2277

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Politics and Activisms

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

Starting from a historical survey of socialist, feminist, and black radical critiques, this course explores the intensification of work in the 21st century. Course texts trace continuity and change in working conditions through (1) empirical studies and testimonials; (2) theoretical analysis and interpretation; and (3) depictions in art, writing, and film. Topics include waged and unwaged labor, automation and deskilling, and the growing precariousness of employment contracts. The course closes with a consideration of recent debates on creative work, care work, universal basic income, and “fully automated luxury communism.” Assignments include brief but regular written responses and a final paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1070

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Digital Communication, Economic Inequality & Class

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course examines the dynamism and complexities of Latinx artistic and cultural production in the United States from the mid-twentieth century to the present. An imperfect yet ultimately generative identifier, Latinx is a gender-neutral term for people of Latin American and/or Caribbean birth or descent living in the United States. In addition to studying the formation of Latinx identities among artistic and creative practitioners, the course will study the context-specific histories that have shaped the aesthetics, ideological frameworks, and socially engaged practices of Latinx art and visual culture. We will read a variety of texts and publications that debate, conceptualize, and critique Latinx art and visual culture, including academic essays and book chapters, interviews and dialogues, exhibition catalogues, primary documents and manifestos, artists’ books, and zines. Throughout the class, we will investigate issues concerning race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, intersectionality, migration and diaspora, social and political activism, family and kinship, religion and spirituality, art markets, and cultural reclamation. Students can expect to complete weekly reading responses, a midterm exam, a 3-5-page essay on an exhibition or artwork, a final research paper, and a class presentation about their final paper topic.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1062

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Community & Social Engagement

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This undergraduate seminar is for all types of writers (critics, creative writers, and scholars) who want to analyze the dimensions of literary and scholarly forms of description, interpretation, and explanation. Poetry, short stories, personal essays, passages from novels, and art-history articles will form the ground for weekly encounters with works of art in the Art Institute of Chicago, as we compare what we read to what we encounter in person. Each class meeting has a tripartite structure, as we compare a literary engagement with a work of art, evaluate a scholarly argument about the same piece or its creator, and personally engage the same or similar work in the Art Institute of Chicago. We will respond to the works of art currently on display, and, as warranted, pair the appropriate scholarship with creative works by writers such as Ada Limón, Victoria Chang, Hilton Als, Diane Seuss, Mark Doty, Hanif Abdurraqib, Wayne Koestenbaum, Vivek Shraya, Cris Kraus, Ben Lerner, Teju Cole, Eileen Myles, Gwendolyn Brooks, Paisley Rekdal, Zadie Smith, Jeffrey Yang, and John Ashbery, among others. Students will write concise analyses of every reading assignment plus a weekly follow-up reflection as preparation for a final hybrid research paper that situates their personal moment of encounter with a work of art in the Art Institute of Chicago within art-historical scholarship. The goal is for students to probe their personal experiences with art for wider cultural implications.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2328

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Museum Studies

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

What is artistic decolonization? How can art be used as a tool for decolonizing culture? In this course, students will explore ways of approaching these questions through specific case studies that look at artistic practices of Africa and West Asia (Middle East), particularly from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Together we will examine how colonialism affected fine arts pedagogy and the response of visual artists, both modern and contemporary, to this violent encounter. We will analyze how artists engaged with multidisciplinary networks working across “non-Western”contexts to reclaim their identity from colonizers and to envision alternative futures. Students will explore how art is intertwined with socio-political issues and how it can amplify Indigenous, feminine, and queer perspectives. Each week will typically focus on an artistic group or a country-specific case study from Africa and West Asia (Middle East). There will be several guest lectures by curators, academics, and artists. Course work will include written weekly responses to assigned readings, presentations, and a final essay or exhibition project proposal.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1748

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Museum Studies

Location

Online

Description

Ideas of nature that formed globally between 1400 and 1800 intersect with the emergence of the Baroque, and represent a profound field of force configuring human-environmental relations into the present. In many ways, we’re haunted by the shocks and aftershocks of this period: colonization, enslavement, extraction, genocide, pandemic, and mass death reshaped the world. This course provides students with an interdisciplinary point of departure for considering these histories through visual art, literature, and music. Readings and object engagements will vary, but will begin with critical theory oriented towards contemporary concerns but that parallel the historical arc of the course, namely Mark Payne's Hontology: Depressive Anthropology and the Shame of Life (Zer0 Books, 2018). Artists and works studied and that we will study together will focus on those represented in the Art Institute collection, and include Salvator Rosa, Peter Paul Rubens, and Caravaggio, alongside the music of Jacopo Peri and dramatic works of Shakespeare. Yet the course expands the focus of Baroque inquiry, as less a movement than way of thinking at the threshold of creativity, emotion, and awe, to work with diverse contemporaneous modes of indigenous expression in the Hemispheric Americas, including Nahua art produced in the lands now known as Mexico and Pueblo and Diné (Navajo) art created or that otherwise indexes the period under consideration. Course work will include a journal of visual analysis; four one-page essays; an annotated research bibliography; and final seminar paper of eight to ten pages.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1069

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

Online

Description

A marginal cinema and history; a course designed for an undergraduate level art history. This course looks at Asian American Cinema experience and historical development as Asian American ethnic cultural diaspora and visionally representations. From political to imaginary, this course will look at works of Asian American representation through cinema and examine the Asian American & pacific Islander American experience as told though cinematic expression such as documentary, short films, feature length narratives, experimental films and mainstream Hollywood releases. Along with weekly viewings of films and excerpts, the course will also discuss Asian American collective identity and social issues, historical background, economy of film production, racism, negative stereotyping, Hollywood whitewashing, cultural appropriation, and media activism. Historically significant artists, filmmakers and producers will be presented for weekly discussion. Some of the artists introduced in the class are: the matinee idol Sessue Hayakawa (1889?1973), to Anna May Wong (1905?1961), Winifred Eaton Reeve, Renee Tajima, Steven Okazak, Wayne Wang, Kelly Saeteurn, Quentin Lee, Justin Lin and others. Weekly viewings of films and journals, One Midterm assignment and one final Paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1039

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Community & Social Engagement, Playwriting/Screenwriting

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

This course offers a survey of the history of manga (Japanese comics) from its premodern predecessors to the present. Beginning with narrative picture scrolls in the medieval period, it will touch on forms of humor and political cartooning in the 19th and early 20th centuries, before moving onto multi-page stories, serials, and standalone books within the serially paneled comics medium. Related developments in non-Japanese comics and media like film, animation, illustration, and painting will also be considered. Among the major artists to be considered in this course are: Hokusai, Tagawa Suiho, Tezuka Osamu, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, Shirato Sanpei, Tsuge Yoshiharu, Hagio Moto, Otomo Katsuhiro, Takahashi Rumiko, and Tagame Gengoro. Students will be required to complete weekly readings, including translated manga and historical/interpretive essays, in addition to occasional reading responses, a research paper, and a final exam.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1952

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Books and Publishing, Comics and Graphic Novels, Illustration

Location

Online

Description

In assessing currents and concepts in contemporary art, this course examines the various elements in all media that have come to define postmodernism. The course places special emphasis on women artists during the 1980s, the European contribution to contemporary art, and the exploration of recent art in Chicago.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2104

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 620

Description

In this course, we will explore the ways in which the idea of persistence might be said to characterize modern and contemporary Native American and Indigenous arts practices--including performance, film, video, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography, among others. The artists we will examine employ a range of tactics to engage social, cultural, economic, and political relationships as they occupy and articulate Indigenous worldviews and systems of knowledge that are often incommensurable with Settler structures and ideologies.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2358

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality & Class

Location

MacLean 112

Description

What counts as ?avant-garde?? Can a work of art be radically new and traditional at the same time? Can it incorporate Western art forms and techniques and still be considered Chinese art? These were questions that Chinese artists coming out of the Cultural Revolution grappled with as they sought to reconcile Chinese artistic traditions and historical realities with Western modern and contemporary art practices. This course takes its name from the seminal 1989 exhibition China/Avant-Garde, which sought to survey the most advanced practices of the day and stake a claim for Chinese avant-garde art in relation to the shifting categories of ?modern,? ?postmodern,? ?contemporary,? ?Eastern,? and ?Western? art. Considering this exhibition and other developments from the late 1970s to the present, we will chronologically study roughly four decades of art and exhibition practices during a period of unprecedented socio-economic, political, and spatial change. We will look at a wide variety of art forms (painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, performance, conceptual art, socially engaged practices); key exhibitions; and diverse artists including Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Lu Yang, Song Dong, Xu Bing, Zhang Dali, Zhang Huan, and Yin Xiuzhen, among others. Through weekly lectures, discussions, select readings, and museum visits, students will develop the vocabulary and visual reasoning necessary to analyze a wide variety of challenging artworks, situate them within a historic and theoretical context, and construct informed arguments about them.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2208

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course is a survey covering the major works of architecture and art from the Islamic world. It discusses the architecture of this civilization in greater depth than many surveys of Islamic art, over a period ranging from the beginnings of Islam in the 7th century up to and including the 20th century. Emphasis will be on the major stylistic differences between the building traditions of the Medieval Spain, the Maghreb region, Egypt and Syria, the Seljuq and Ottoman empires in Turkey, Persian and Central Asian architecture, the Mughal empire and lastly Islamic architecture as it has developed in the Far East, in countries such as China, and Malaysia. In addition, the course will also cover the applied arts in Islam, such as ceramics, carving, Oriental carpets, calligraphy and miniature painting. Required work consists of three quizzes and three short research papers of 5-6pages in length each. Two assignments will involve analyzing Arab architecture and non-Arab monuments. The third will cover an area in the decorative arts/painting.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1055

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course surveys the development of commercial, institutional and residential architecture and interiors in Europe from 1890 to 1965. It examines significant movements and individuals that shaped modern architecture's history through an analysis of the theoretical literature that accompanied the built forms now understood as 'modern.' Seminal texts analyzed include those by Morris, van de Velde, Loos, Gropius, van Doesburg, Le Corbusier, Aalto, Rowe, Stirling and Rossi, among others.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1073

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 620

Description

Dress and Society examines, questions, researches and discusses many interconnections of clothing, cultures and fashions. We will focus upon syntheses occurring from the meeting of dress as individual self-presentation with diverse global, cultural, historic and contemporary contexts. Controversies, ethics, fashion biographies and recently-emerged expressions of human dress and adornment will be explored. Educated opinions will be furthered through museum exhibition visits, visiting artists' talks, critical readings on fashion/social concerns, and weekly viewing of current media articles and images. A Fashion film screening and assigned books on fashion artists' lives will be included. Assignments will include self-introductory illustrated presentation and 2 page museum response essay, fashion book and article readings, concise 'Fashion Now' Media Reports presented weekly, collaborative spoken and illustrated Fashion Book Panel presentations and a final 10 page 'Educated Opinion' Research Paper expanding upon course readings and further research. In-class discussions will occur every week and are integral to this course.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1027

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

Online

Description

Taxidermy became the most important tool of knowledge of natural history museums during the Victorian period when it fascinated audiences with its hyperrealist aura. Yet, it was never considered a form of fine art. Today taxidermy has entered the gallery space, but not on the merit of its accurate realism. The opposite is true: unrealistic taxidermy is the symptom of a difficult relationship with nature and alterity that marks today's ecological and capitalist global crises.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1931

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

In the mid-1960s, artists and musicians ran away from home, thumbing their collective nose at the structure and security provided by their modernist parents. On the road and in the streets, in dive bars and coffeehouses, on records and off the record, artists and musicians re-wrote not just the rules of art, but the rules that structured values, ideas, and lives. Rock and roll wasn?t just the soundtrack for these changes, but an active participant.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1745

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

As one of the world's greatest film directors, Alfred Hitchcock is much more than ''the master of suspense. The semester will be devoted to analyzing Hitchcock's' masterworks as well as his major themes, including sin, the transfer of guilt, voyeurism, unconscious impulses, and gay sexuality. In addition, the class will focus on his visual style, film techniques and contributions to the art of cinema, using various critical approaches, such as psychoanalysis and feminist theory. Finally, the class will look at ways Hitchcock's films have influenced other directors, as well as artists across a wide variety of media. Through weekly screenings, lectures and discussions, students will learn how to critique individual works of art. They will be expected to finish two scholarly articles each week and to come to class prepared to discuss both film and readings in small discussion groups. Titles are sure include Vertigo, Rear Window and Psycho, among others. Students should expect to produce three major writing assignments during the semester: a midterm exam, a final exam and a final research paper, plus periodic quizzes and response papers. Through weekly screenings, lectures and discussions, students will learn how to critique individual works of art. They will be expected to finish two scholarly articles each week and to come to class prepared to discuss both film and readings in small discussion groups. Titles are sure include Vertigo, Rear Window and Psycho, among others. Students should expect to produce three major writing assignments during the semester: a midterm exam, a final exam and a final research paper, plus periodic quizzes and response papers.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2317

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

Through screenings, lectures, and readings, this course will provide students with an introduction to key filmmakers and films of contemporary international art house cinema. In particular, this class will explore feature-length fiction films that revolve --thematically or structurally--around the idea of the psychological fugue state (a form of amnesia), and/or the fugal musical structure of theme-repetition-variation. Films will be screened and discussed in their relation to national cinemas, cultural histories, genre, and primarily, film form. Through their critical writing, students will explore the ways those films and filmmakers utilize formal elements of cinema, narrative, characterization, thematic elements, and ideological perspectives, and demonstrate how those elements are used both for aesthetic purposes and to create meaning within a film

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2237

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

This course examines the relationship between art and the market, by exploring the economic, cultural and institutional processes that shape the meaning and value of art. Using examples drawn from the art trade in ancient Rome, collections formed during theRenaissance, art acquired by young aristocrats during their ?Grand Tour?, the market for modern art in the first half of the twentieth century, and the billion dollar contemporary art business with a specific focus on China, this course explores the relationship between artists and patrons, patterns of shifting taste, the role of dealers and the impact of auction houses on art collecting. We will also test the boundaries of the meaning of ?market? by looking at artwork acquired as a consequence of wartime looting, ethnic cleansing, or through forced exchanges. Students willread historical texts and scholarship connecting the process of artistic creation and the trade industry, and engage in the sustained analysis of individual artworks, as well as the market structures in which such artworks were produced and bought. Primary sources will include excerpts from the work of Cicero, Giorgio Vasari, Denis Diderot. Readings will among others include chapters from Georgina Adam, 'The dark side of the BOOM'; Michael Findlay, 'The Value of Art'; Isabella Graw 'High Price'; Olav Velhuis 'Talking Prices'; and, Clare McAndrew, 'The Art Economy'. I will share recorded interviews with arts professionals and collectors - but we will also meet a number of them in person. In-class film screening: the Price of Everything. In-class participation including weekly response comments to the readings (30%); an in-class case study presentation (10%); and a 15 page paper on a selected artwork (60%).

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1048

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Economic Inequality & Class

Location

MacLean 608

Description

Plant?s perceived passivity and resilient silence have relegated the vegetal world to the cultural background of human civilization. However, the recent emergence of plants in the gallery space is an invitation to reappraise this relationship at a time of deep ecological and social crisis. This course focuses on plants to unravel histories of colonialism, address gender biases, racial discrimination, and social injustice. We explore how artists and scholars working at the intersection of art, science, philosophy, and indigenous knowledge are rethinking our relationships with plants in order to envision more sustainable and fairer futures. This course proposes a rich, diverse, and multicultural perspective on the many roles plants play in our lives. It inlcudes lectures, close readings, screenings, museum visits, discussions, collaborative coursework, and contributions by Chicago-based organizations working with local communities and plants. The work of scholars and artist Yota Batsaki, Elain Gan, Vivien Sansour, Vandana Shiva, Mogaje Guihu, Anna Tsing, Monica Gagliano, Eduardo Kac, Jamaica Kinkaid, Derek Jarman, Wangari Maathai, Zayaan Khan, Kapwani Kiwanga, Maria Thereza Alves, Shela Sheikh, Michael Marder, Monica Galliano, Rashid Johnson, Uriel Orlow and many more will provide students with a comprehenisve and global and very contemporary perspective on the subject. Coursework includes weekly reading responses, a formal/final research paper, a test, and a presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1065

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality & Class, Art and Science

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course adopts the form of Raymond Williams?s Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society to build a vocabulary for abolition. Each week, students will be presented with a pair of related terms that occupy different positions on an ideological spectrum or historical continuum. These keywords include: abolition and reform, punishment and restoration, justice and ethics (and aesthetics); chattle slavery and prison slavery; mass incarceration and prison-industrial complex; human and animal; fugitivity and freedom, and more, all the while learning from artists who use their work as an opportunity for intervening into the criminal justice system and reading texts that relate the history of our current justice system and present practical and theoretical alternative to it. We will also consider the difference between assessment and grading in our collective imagining of an abolitionist pedagogy and artistic / art historical practice. The aim of the course is to help students articulate their positions and investments in relation to their own work and social structures. The artists that we will consider in this course include: Josh Begley, Zach Blas, Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun, Jamal Cyrus, Chris Burden, Martin Wong, Tirtza Even, Andrea Fraser, Maria Gaspar, Danny Giles, Coco Fusco and Guerillermo Gomez Pena, Suzanne Lacy, Ashley Hunt, Richard Kamler, Titus Kaphar, Kapwani Kiwanga, Autumn Knight, Deana Lawson, Shaun Leonardo, Prison and Neighborhood Art Project, Trevor Paglen, Jenny Polak, Carl Pope, Jr., Laurie Jo Reynolds, Sherrill Roland, Cameron Rowland,Gregory Sale, Dread Scott, Sable Elyse Smith, Tamms Year Ten, and more. The thinkers we will read include: Frank Wilderson, Angela Davis, Sadiya Hartman, Jared Sexton, Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, Denis Childs, Kelly Michelle Lyte, Michelle Alexander, Sylvia Wynters, Shawn Michelle Smith, Elizabeth Alexander, Rashaad Shabazz, Simone Brown, Michel Foucault, Tony Bennett, Douglas Crimp, and more. Assignments center around the ?intervention? as a concept that links academic writing to direct action campaigns. Weekly assignments include identifying the intervention in the week?s reading and generating discussion questions in advance of class. Throughout the semester, students will also write their own definitions of their choice of keywords. Culminating assignments include a presentation and a final paper (12-15 pages).

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2472

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Community & Social Engagement

Location

MacLean 111

Description

What the heck is postmodernism? Why does it matter? This course will provide detailed answers to these questions while also reviewing crucial interventions in related 'posts' such as poststructuralism and posthumanism. We will examine the systems of thought that predate these posts – modernism, structuralism, humanism – in order to identify how and why thinkers and artists felt the need to push past these systems, inventing new ones. We will trace these legacies into our own moment of contested values and malleable truth in order to seek insights into how to live, make, and think in the twenty-first century. This course is reading-heavy and the readings are heavy readings. We will explore the most influential theorizations of the postmodern from writers including Jean-François Lyotard and Frederic Jameson. We will also read the heavy-hitters of poststructuralism and posthumanism. Folks like: Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Donna Harraway, Gilles Deleuze, Katherine Hayles, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, and Julia Kristeva. Course work will include weekly reading responses, intensive class discussion, and a final paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2324

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality & Class

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

Throughout human history, a pervasive belief in spirits, gods, and divine forces has profoundly influenced cultures, leaving an indelible mark on their customs and artistic expressions. This course adopts a broad approach, anchored in the selection of artifacts and artworks from the AIC collection. These pieces will serve as portals into a spectrum of theistic and nontheistic spiritual traditions. We will place particular emphasis on sections of the AIC dedicated to the Arts of Africa, Arts of the Americas, and Arts of Asia. Additionally, we will delve into the evolving concept of spirituality in art from the 20th century onwards, with particular attention given to the early 20th century (1900-1950). The culminating project for this course entails the creation of a 10-15 page research paper. Throughout the semester, students will also engage in concise object-based written exercises and participate in museum group presentations.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2473

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Community & Social Engagement, Exhibition and Curatorial Studies, Museum Studies

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course offers an introduction to the thought of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). Deleuze was one of the 20th century?s most influential critical theorists: almost single-handedly revising the reputation of Nietzsche in France; critiquing psychoanalysis in its postmodern heyday; and devising new approaches to ontology, leftist political theory, and aesthetic theory. To this day, his concepts are frequently deployed in critical theory of all kinds, especially those concepts he developed in collaboration with activist and psychoanalyst Felix Guattari. This course provides an introduction to the reading of Deleuze?s work. The goal of the course is to familiarize you with the contours of his career and acquaint you with his peculiar style of writing. It also acquaints you with a few subsequent elaborations on and critiques of Deleuzian thought. We read Deleuze's book on Francis Bacon's paintings, his book on Henri Bergson, and also excerpts from A Thousand Plateaus, Logic of Sense, and What is Philosophy? We also read critical responses and elaborations of Deleuzian thought. Expect a steady, dense, and provocative reading schedule. Students complete a reading journal, a major term paper, and a collaborative presentation on intersections between contemporary art practice and Deleuze's philosophy.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1054

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Take the Next Step

Visit the graduate admissions website or contact the graduate admissions office at 312.629.6100, 800.232.7242 or gradmiss@saic.edu

 

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MA Dual Degree Graduate Brochure