Graduate Overview
Art History Graduate Overview
SAIC has long been distinguished by its innovative and extensive curriculum in modern and contemporary topics. Our Art History MA programs draw on the institution's setting in Chicago with its wealth of historic architecture, public sculpture, museums, libraries, cultural facilities, and lively gallery scene.
Art History Master's Degree Programs
Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Art History (MAAH)
Students in SAIC’s Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Art History program pursue research in a prestigious fine art school connected with a major American art museum. Art History students work with a large department of full-time faculty specializing in modern and contemporary art and design with a global focus, and challenge, debate and interpret the field.
Dual Degree: Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Art History and Arts Administration and Policy (MAAAP)
The 3-year, 63 credit Dual Degree is a unique program designed to immerse students in both the history of art and arts administration, competitively positioning graduates for work in the areas they choose, from academia to curatorial positions and work in nonprofit organizations.
The programs' curricula incorporates historical, theoretical, and critical perspectives on art, design, and contemporary visual cultures. Fifteen full-time faculty teach modern and contemporary art history from diverse scholarly perspectives in a global context. Graduate students in our Art History master's degree programs join a vibrant art/design school community engaged with contemporary visual practices. Our graduate students have gone on to be curators, professors, writers, critics, publishers, gallerists, arts administrators, and activists.
Visiting Scholars
The department supports an active research culture with frequent lectures by visiting scholars, critics, and curators. Most important of these is the annual Lifton Memorial Lecture and seminar that brings a significant figure engaged with modern and contemporary art to campus. Recent speakers have included Ming Tiampo, Adrienne Brown and Rashad Shabazz, Saloni Mathur, Hannah B Higgins and Deborah Willis. In addition, graduate students annually select an Art History End-of-Year Lecturer to speak every spring and have recently invited Amanda Boetzkes, Jessica L. Horton and Luis Castañeda, among many others. Across SAIC, contemporary artists give talks every week through studio departments and the Visiting Artists Program.
Thesis Abstracts
Each year, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago celebrates the culmination and closure of students' studies at the masters level. In studio areas, the celebration takes place in the form of the thesis exhibitions. The academic areas complement this with the publication of students' theses. The SAIC Thesis Repository contains theses for the MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History and the Dual Degree submitted since November 2013.
Course Listing
| Title | Catalog | Instructor | Schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Cultures and Civilizations: Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century | 1001 (002) | Artie Foster | Wed
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| World Cultures and Civilizations: Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century | 1001 (003) | Mon
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
|
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| World Cultures and Civilizations: Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century | 1001 (004) | Tamar Kharatishvili | Fri
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| World Cultures and Civilizations: Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century | 1001 (005) | Joana Konova | Tues
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| World Cultures and Civilizations: Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century | 1001 (006) | Daniel Merkle | Thurs
6:45 PM - 9:30 PM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| World Cultures and Civilizations: Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century | 1001 (007) | Rhoda Rosen | Tues
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| World Cultures and Civilizations: Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century | 1001 (008) | Rhoda Rosen | Tues
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| World Cultures and Civilizations: Prehistory to the Nineteenth Century | 1001 (009) | Rhoda Rosen | Tues
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Adv Hist World Art:Prehst-1850 | 1001 (01S) | James Elkins | Tues
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
Description
This is an advanced section of the survey of world art and culture, prehistory to 1850. It is intended for BAAH students, Scholars Program students, and students interested in the history of writing about art (and teaching the survey). We will begin at 500,000 BC, and cover approximately 50 cultures; the list is at ow.ly/Y902K. In each case we will also question the ways historians describe the culture; we will study the ways art history textbooks promote certain senses of art and national identity; and we will consider how other institutions have tried to teach the global survey. The class is difficult, and requires a lot of memorization. Concurrent Registration in one ARTHI 1101: Discussion Section for Advanced Survey of World Art Prehistory to 1850 is required.
|
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Survey of Modern to Contemporary Art and Architecture | 1002 (001) | Marissa Baker | Thurs
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Survey of Modern to Contemporary Art and Architecture | 1002 (002) | Mik Czerwinski | Mon
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Survey of Modern to Contemporary Art and Architecture | 1002 (003) | Fri
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
|
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Survey of Modern to Contemporary Art and Architecture | 1002 (004) | Tues
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
|
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Survey of Design History: Between Object and Ephemera | 1015 (001) | Lara Allison | Thurs
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
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 |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Modern and Contemporary Moving Image | 1016 (001) | Wed
6:45 PM - 9:30 PM In Person |
|
Description
In this course, students will learn the basics of film language, cover the evolution of various stylistic and ideological trends throughout the medium, and gain a core understanding of how to critically analyze film and other media forms from formal, historical, and cultural theoretical perspectives. While the specific films screened may vary, course screenings and readings generally cover the development of Hollywood and studio-based filmmaking practices, diasporic and exilic models of filmmaking, European New Waves, televisual practices of media making, and topics in new media. Students will complete quizzes and a comprehensive final exam to demonstrate their understanding of course terminology, concepts, and themes, as well as a number of short written analyses to exhibit their competency and skill in constructing original scholarly argumentation.
|
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Discussion Section for Advanced Survey of World Art Prehistory to 1850 | 1101 (01S) | Tues
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM In Person |
|
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. Concurrent Registration with 1353: ARTHI 1001 005: Advanced Survey of World Art From Prehistory to 1850 section required.
PrerequisitesConcurrent enrollment in ARTHI 1001 Scholars Section required. |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Discussion Section for Advanced Survey of World Art Prehistory to 1850 | 1101 (02S) | Thurs
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM In Person |
|
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. Concurrent Registration with 1353: ARTHI 1001 005: Advanced Survey of World Art From Prehistory to 1850 section required.
PrerequisitesConcurrent enrollment in ARTHI 1001 Scholars Section required. |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Discussion Section for Advanced Survey of World Art Prehistory to 1850 | 1101 (03S) | Fri
9:45 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
|
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. Concurrent Registration with 1353: ARTHI 1001 005: Advanced Survey of World Art From Prehistory to 1850 section required.
PrerequisitesConcurrent enrollment in ARTHI 1001 Scholars Section required. |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Discussion Section for Advanced Survey of World Art Prehistory to 1850 | 1101 (04S) | Wed
9:45 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
|
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. Concurrent Registration with 1353: ARTHI 1001 005: Advanced Survey of World Art From Prehistory to 1850 section required.
PrerequisitesConcurrent enrollment in ARTHI 1001 Scholars Section required. |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Issues in Visual Critical Studies | 2001 (001) | Joshua Rios | Tues
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
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.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| Issues in Visual Critical Studies | 2001 (002) | Patrick Durgin | Mon
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
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.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| Surveying the Shadows | 2014 (001) | Simon Anderson | Thurs
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
Description
Since the Exposition des arts incoherents in 1882, the orthodox story of art has been pre-figured, parodied, or echoed by ideas and activities which are less well-known but nevertheless informative about the state of the arts through modernism to today. Including Hydropaths, `pataphysicians and members of groups called Lettrisme or Neoism, propagating ideas ranging from transmental to pandrogenic, this course identifies and contextualizes some of the salient adventures of those who ignore convention to create and play before the vanguard and behind the canon.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| 20,000 Years of Clay | 2022 (001) | Emily Schroeder Willis | Wed
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
Description
This course surveys the history and production of clay and ceramics, from one of the earliest ceramic objects known, dating back some 20,000 years, to the present use of clay in contemporary art, design and craft. The course will take us through every continent and be looking at the use of ceramic in different cultures at different times though history. Attention will be given to the role clay and ceramic plays in our human development both as ritualistic, artistic and functional handmade and mass-produced objects. From ceramic in an ancient caves to NASA and the use of ceramic in space and everything in between.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Introduction to African American Art | 2065 (001) | Melanie Herzog | Fri
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
Description
Is it possible to have, or should we even want, an African American Art Historical canon?This class argues that the history of African American Art offers us, in practice and theory, resistant histories of 'high' and 'low' art, everyday objects, and ways of seeing. By conducting a chronological approach to African American Art, we will trace moments of historical continuity as well as emerging practices in order to better understand how the methods, materials, and meanings bracketed under the category of African American Art have been a site of innovation, experimentation, and avant-garde practice. We will spend this semester juxtaposing conventional approaches to art (painting, sculpting, line drawing, installation) with innovative approaches to visual culture (found objects, everyday materials, contemporary performance). Artists of inquiry include Augusta Savage, Aaron Douglass, Hale Woodruff, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Faith Ringgold, Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas, David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, Marlon Riggs, Arthur Jafa, Rashid Johnson, Sadie Barnette. We will also discuss author-less works, collectives, and collaborate projects. Students are required to complete an annotated bibliography, weekly in-class assignments, and a 3 hour final examination.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| Beautiful Books: Architectural Prints, Drawings, and Paintings | 2146 (001) | Shiben Banerji | Thurs
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
Description
This seminar examines inter-related practices of bookmaking, drawing, painting, and printmaking from Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Renaissance Venice, Safavid Isfahan, Mughal Delhi, Ottoman Jerusalem, colonial Ireland, Baroque Rome, Qing Wutaishan, and Tokugawa Edo. We scrutinize octavos, folios, codices, and albums. We look at how graphite, ink, watercolor, and engraving tools were used to embellish images, and alter the boundaries separating prints, drawings, and paintings. Writing assignments emphasize close looking, close reading, and careful revision. Class discussions focus on representations of architecture, paying particular attention to innovations in visual form and their cultural and political meanings. Students are expected to write and revise short essays responding to texts and images produced by architects.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| History Of Architecture & Design I | 2191 (001) | Joseph Socki | Tues
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
Description
This course surveys the history of architecture and design, including furnishings, decorative arts and interiors, from the earliest settlements of the Neolithic Era until the onset of Neoclassicism in the late Eighteenth Century. Special attention is given to the developments that have remained most influential within the architecture and design of today, with particular emphasis on ancient Greece and Rome, Early Christian, Byzantine and early Islam, the European Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo cultures. Through extensive lectures and readings, special focus in this class is devoted to the art of the Greek temple, Roman civil engineering, the rise of monasticism in the early Middle Ages, early Byzantine and early Islamic religious design, pilgrimage and Romanesque church building, Gothic Europe and the age of cathedrals, Italian Renaissance architecture and the rise of Humanism, Baroque churches and papal patronage, French chateaux and absolute monarchy, and the origins of Modernism during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. 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.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Modern and Contemporary Latin American Art | 2206 (001) | Mon
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
|
Description
This is an undergraduate survey of modernism and postmodernism in Latin America from the 1920s through the present. Topics will include national identity and 'anthropophagy' in the first wave of modernism in the region, debates over Surrealism and realism in the 1930s, the transition from 'concrete to 'neo-concrete' form and the link between architecture and developmentalism in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, conceptual art and politics in the 1960s and 1970s, and more recent sculptural, photographic, performance, and relational practices. Specific topics include the cosmopolitan avant-garde that appeared in Mexico at the start of the 1920s, the theorization of anthropofagia in Brazil and indigenismo in Peru, Cuba?s Grupo Minorista, Mexican muralism and surrealism, Joaquin Torres-Garcia?s introduction of abstraction to Uruguay and Argentina, links between art and architecture in Venezuelan and Brazilian developmentalism, the rise of kinetic and participatory approaches in the 1950s and 1960s, conceptual art as a response to the dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s, Latinx and Chicanx actions and performance in the United States, the politics of memory in post-dictatorship/violence art in Chile and Colombia, persistent questions of borders and internationalism in contemporary approaches to ?relational aesthetics? in Central America and the Caribbean, and many other examples. This course requires weekly reading responses, two papers, and a final exam.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Beyond Oriental: 20th Century Asian American Art | 2385 (001) | Larry Lee | Thurs
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
Description
This course examines the emergence, growth and evolution of art by Asian Pacific Islander Americans throughout the twentieth century especially in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement that also spawned a genesis of Asian American identity, culture and activism to the late 1980?s during the apex of multiculturalism and the politics of representation to the transnationalism of the new millennium and beyond. Through readings, field trips, and film screenings, our class will consider the ongoing debate of what constitutes Asian American art by looking at artists including Isamu Noguchi, Roger Shimomura, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Maya Lin, Tseng Kwong Chi and others within these historical, cultural and political contexts to discuss how questions related to stereotype, cultural difference, gender politics, and identity construction affected and shaped its development and meaning. Course work will include in-class presentation, two research papers as well as a mid-term and final exam.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| History of Korean Art | 2460 (001) | Yeonsoo Chee | Fri
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
Description
This course introduces Korean visual culture by examining images and objects in their historical, social, religious, and philosophical contexts. It covers key examples of paintings, ceramics and Buddhist art from the Three Kingdoms period to the Choson dynasty, through Modern Korean art, This course helps students gain a comprehensive understanding of traditional Korean visual culture and its modern legacy.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Origins of Modern Architecture | 2500 (001) | Timothy Wittman | Tues
6:45 PM - 9:30 PM In Person |
Description
This course examines significant developments in European architecture, with regard to structure, function, and style, from the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century through the outbreak of World War I. Major architects and their works are dealt with in the context of pertinent practical, theoretical, and social issues, to assess the overall prominence of architecture in the period of emergent modernism in Europe.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| History of Dress | 2566 (001) | Sandra Adams | Thurs
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
Description
This course is a chronological history of human dress from pre-history to the 20th century, and from archaeological remains of ancient cultures, through diverse global material technologies and markets influencing dress, through European monarchical and social class attire, to global exploration and colonialist effects upon worldwide human dress and ways of life. Portraiture, artistic dress and reform dress will be seen to evolve and transform long-standing gender binaries in human dress. Historic styles will be seen to continue to influence contemporary dress and fashions. The sartorial contributions of diverse historical and global human cultures also be appreciated for their innovations and ongoing influences. All students may become conversant with the anatomy, language and literature of dress. Learning experiences include lectures, readings, library and museum visits, observational sketching and noting from documents of dress, film viewing and spoken illustrated presentations in class. Focus on primary, secondary and tertiary sources of clothing information will be essential. Historical accuracy, creative anachronisms and research of period clothing will be expressed in film viewing and Ryerson Library antique costume books. Visits to Art Institute curatorial departments to view period armor, textiles and garments will provide essential experiences of historic dress. Assignments will include: self-introductory observations on a museum exhibition visit, a spoken presentation from a group of diverse Documents of Dress sketched and noted by each student on visits to about 6 libraries, museum installations and curatorial departments, and a final presentation/research paper of 10 pages on a Personification of Style, an individual whose attire and accomplishments made important cultural contribution in their time. Citations and bibliography are essential for credit. Knowing your sources is essential.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| Film Analysis | 2583 (001) | Wed
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
|
Description
This course is designed to serve as an introduction to film analysis, in which students learn the basic concepts and vocabulary of film aesthetics and criticism. We examine different trajectories of film, studying mainstream film practices next to alternative ones. By studying the basics of film form and film style, through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres, students learn to analyze and write about films as both formal and cultural constructs. Along with questions of film technique and style, we study cinema's relationship to popular culture and fine art. The films discussed include works by Griffith, Eisenstein, Welles, Hitchcock, and Godard. This course does not assume any prior exposure to film studies.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Propaganda&Counterculture-Cinema from Eur to Asia | 2588 (001) | Mechtild Widrich, Jennifer Dorothy Lee | Tues
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM In Person |
Description
This seminar is part of the 'Global Cinema Histories' film series at the Gene Siskel Film Centre, where we will meet to watch films and discuss them. The term propaganda, originally used for religious purposes to “propagate” faith, has historically been seen as a neutral or even positive tool to disseminate information, and is characterized by forceful messages and aesthetics. For both politicians and activists, propaganda has practical uses. More often than not, today the term elicits strong responses of wariness and dubious denial. The focus of this course is on the filmic output related to propaganda in the 20th and 21st centuries, when new technologies and the use of reproductive media met mass movements and big political shifts. We will cover Italian Fascism and German National Socialism’s “aestheticization of politics”, as Walter Benjamin described it. We will address Eastern European Socialist Aesthetics, revolutionary cinema in China and Hong Kong, the White Terror years in Taiwan, the pop culture of a divided Korea, and the revolutions in South America. We will explore the relationship of propaganda to colonialism, imperialism, and globalization. We will consider official politics, grassroots movements, and the blurred lines distinguishing these realms. Writing short reflections and reviews, some reading, and lots of time for discussion will structure the course.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| Propaganda&Counterculture-Cinema from Eur to Asia | 2588 (001) | Mechtild Widrich, Jennifer Dorothy Lee | Tues
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM In Person |
Description
This seminar is part of the 'Global Cinema Histories' film series at the Gene Siskel Film Centre, where we will meet to watch films and discuss them. The term propaganda, originally used for religious purposes to “propagate” faith, has historically been seen as a neutral or even positive tool to disseminate information, and is characterized by forceful messages and aesthetics. For both politicians and activists, propaganda has practical uses. More often than not, today the term elicits strong responses of wariness and dubious denial. The focus of this course is on the filmic output related to propaganda in the 20th and 21st centuries, when new technologies and the use of reproductive media met mass movements and big political shifts. We will cover Italian Fascism and German National Socialism’s “aestheticization of politics”, as Walter Benjamin described it. We will address Eastern European Socialist Aesthetics, revolutionary cinema in China and Hong Kong, the White Terror years in Taiwan, the pop culture of a divided Korea, and the revolutions in South America. We will explore the relationship of propaganda to colonialism, imperialism, and globalization. We will consider official politics, grassroots movements, and the blurred lines distinguishing these realms. Writing short reflections and reviews, some reading, and lots of time for discussion will structure the course.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| 19th Century Photography | 2621 (001) | Alice Maggie Hazard | Tues
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
Description
This course discusses the development of photography as both an art and a tool, including its invention, the initial social reaction to the photograph, the careers of major photographers, movements, and commercial publishers. The interrelationships between photography, art, science, and society are emphasized.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| 20th Century Photography | 2622 (001) | Giovanni Aloi | Tues
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
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.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| History Of Sonic Art | 2660 (001) | Seth Kim-Cohen | Wed
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
Description
This course offers an historical survey of music as a sonic art form from the Futurists to the present day. Emphasis is placed on works that tune the performance environment, explore sound as sculpture, interact with the listener/viewer, and employ intermedia. Class discussions include topics such as basic psycho-acoustics, sound manipulation, conceptual art, installation techniques, and constructivist aesthetics.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
| Introduction to Video Art | 2670 (001) | Mon
12:15 PM - 3:00 PM In Person |
|
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.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| History of Modern Graphic Design | 2730 (002) | Michael Golec | Wed
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM In Person |
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.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentArea of StudyLocation |
| Interwar Art: Notions of Beauty | 2865 (001) | Mark Krisco | Thurs
3:30 PM - 6:15 PM In Person |
Description
Exploring the art, fashion, music of the 'Jazz Age'this class reveals the enduring impact 1920's aesthetics has had on contemporary fashion, art and social customs. Starting with an exploration of the differing mind sets of Europeans versus Americans, this class then takes an in-depth look of the artists and lifestyles 1920's Paris that had been greatly impacted by the influx of Americans after the First World War. The class ends with the lasting legacy of the Jazz Age, which was seen particularly in the 1960's, but currently has resurfaced in contemporary issues of gender identity. More specifically, this class examines using film and texts the two key Jazz Age couples; F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Gerald and Sara Murphy. The former couple establishing the persona of 'the flapper' and the latter couple establishing a major link between American in France and the Famous School of Paris artists particularly Picasso. Other key figures are examined such as the first major Chinese American actress Anna May Wong and the black performer Josephine Baker as well as fashion designer Coco Chanel and film star Clara Bow. Course work revolves around two key texts as well as a reading the Great Gatsby. Reading questions accompany the 1st text and essay is required to explore the other text in relation to the Great Gatsby. There is also one final paper on one Jazz age artists of the student's choice.
PrerequisitesPrerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement |
Class Number |
Credits |
DepartmentLocation |
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