A group of students and an instructor discuss a sculpture at the AIC
Art History, Theory, & Criticism

Undergraduate Overview

Undergraduate Overview

Art History is a central part of all students’ education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). The Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism offers courses that examine how current and future practices are informed by the histories and theories of art. 

From comprehensive surveys of modern and contemporary art at the introductory level to advanced undergraduate seminars, all courses prepare students to speak, write, and think about art and design. Classes address art of all media, design and architecture, visual and material cultures, and contemporary theories of art and culture. The international networks for contemporary art are an important part of the course offerings, and we offer a wide range of classes in Asian, African, Latin American, European, and North American Art.

Contemporary Practices Requirements

All Contemporary Practices students and transfer students must complete: ARTHI 1001, World Cultures and Civilizations: Pre-History-Nineteenth Century, and one other 1000-level Introductory Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art History course before taking more advanced courses within the department.

Bachelor of Arts in Art History

The BA in Art History draws on the depth and diversity of offerings in the scholarly study of art practices that only a major art school connected with a world-class museum can offer. Substantial coursework in Art History, supported by additional coursework in Liberal Arts and in studio departments define the course of study. In their first year, students complete the studio-intensive Contemporary Practices program and introductory Art History surveys as a foundation for beginning their advanced Art History coursework in their second year. In addition to a sequence of research, theory, and methods courses, BA in Art History students choose two (out of three possible) geographic-area pathways on which to focus (with at least three courses in each area).

The degree culminates in the fourth year with a significant research project written in the two-semester senior research methods capstone seminar. In addition to external applicants and transfer students, interested SAIC students from other degree programs may apply for admittance to the BA in Art History program, usually before the beginning of their junior year. Please refer to the BAAH Credit Worksheet.

 

  • To apply to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), you will need to fill out an application and submit your transcripts and letters of recommendation. And most importantly, we require a portfolio of your best and most recent work—work that will give us a sense of you, your interests, and your willingness to explore, experiment, and think beyond technical art, design, and writing skills.

     In order to apply, we must have the following items:

    • Online application
    • Artist’s Statement
    • Transcripts
    • Letter of Recommendation
    • Portfolio
    • Test Scores

    The BA in Art History program has a special application procedure for both external and internal candidates. All applicants must supply a writing sample (see below) to be considered.

    Incoming First-Year Students

    The application for incoming first-year students requires a five- to seven-page (1,250–1,750 words) writing sample, TOEFL scores when required (min. 96), letter of recommendation, a high school transcript (min unweighted GPA 3.0), a portfolio of five to 10 pieces of visual work, and a personal statement.

    For their first year, BA in Art History students take primarily studio courses as part of the year-long Contemporary Practices program. These courses provide students with foundations in art practice and visual thinking that grounds advanced-level coursework in Art History, which begins in the sophomore year. 

    Transfer Students

    The application for incoming transfer students requires a five- to seven-page (1,250–1,750 words) writing sample, TOEFL scores when required (min. 96), letter of recommendation, transcript of courses taken at other institutions (min. unweighted GPA 3.0), a portfolio of five to 10 pieces of visual work, and a personal statement. Transfer applicants are considered individually with regard to the acceptance of previous credit and studio requirements.

    A minimum of 66 credit hours are required in residence at SAIC, so most transfer students will apply before their junior year. On admittance, transfer students may petition for Contemporary Practices studio courses to be substituted with other coursework. Most transfer students, however, will take at minimum the core and research studio courses designed for transfers by the Contemporary Practices department. 

    SAIC Students from Other Degree Programs

    Internal applicants are also required to submit a writing sample five- to seven-page (1,250–1,750 words) writing sample, a personal statement, and a transcript of courses at SAIC in order to be considered for a degree change to the BA in Art History. In some cases, an interview may be required.

    Because the BA in Art History is substantially different in its credit makeup than other programs at SAIC, most students will have applied for an internal transfer before the end of their sophomore year. Only in exceptional cases will junior-level students be considered for internal transfer.

    Internal transfer applicants must submit a single PDF document with contact information, student ID number, personal statement, transcript of courses transferred into and taken at SAIC, and writing sample with illustrations. Unofficial transcripts from the registrar or academic advising are acceptable and should include all courses taken at SAIC as well as those transferred from other institutions. Screen shots or other lists will not be accepted. The transcript should be incorporated into your single application PDF after your cover page with identification, personal statement, and writing sample. This should be sent to the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism’s Undergraduate Coordinator (jlee241@saic.edu).

    Writing Sample

    The writing sample is one of the most important parts of the application and should demonstrate applicants' ability to express their ideas and knowledge in written form. Successful writing samples will demonstrate clarity of argument, facility with written language and grammar, and an ability to incorporate and cite research materials. Any expository essay that incorporates research will be considered, and a writing sample in art history is not required (though it is encouraged, especially for transfer applicants). Writing samples should be five to seven pages in length (1,250–1,750 words) for incoming first-year applicants and transfers at the freshman or sophomore level. Any student who wishes to apply for transfer into the BA in Art History program at the level of junior should submit a writing sample of at least seven to 10 pages (1,750–2,500 words). Relevant illustrations and bibliography should be included with the text but are not considered when calculating page limits.

    Personal Statement

    The personal statement is a short statement (around a page) explaining your curiosities, interests, and plans (in intellectual and/or career terms) and why you think the BAAH program would be a good fit for you.

    Portfolio

    External students must include a visual portfolio as part of their application. In addition to the writing sample, five to 10 pieces of your best and most recent work must be submitted as part of the portfolio. This collection should reflect your interests, skills, and willingness to explore, experiment, and express yourself.

    The BA in Art History program incorporates studio practice as essential knowledge for work in art history, and all BA in Art History students take studio classes while at SAIC. Because the first-year studio foundations experience is shared with all SAIC BFA students, incoming applicants should expect to be immersed in visual and creative practices. While the writing sample and transcript are the most important parts of a BA in Art History application, applicants should use the portfolio to demonstrate their facility with visual making. In addition to conventional studio and design work, students may also submit alternative creative practices (for instance, video blogging, website design, or online curation). Transfer applicants with little experience in studio or design practices are encouraged to consider these alternatives. Questions about what can be part of the visual portfolio should be addressed to the Admissions office.

    The Admissions office at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is dedicated to assisting you and your family through every step of the college selection process. We are interested in getting to know you—your work, your expectations for college, and your ambitions for the future. We seek students who wish to immerse themselves in an intense interdisciplinary environment, and we hope to challenge the very notion of what art means to you and to our society. SAIC provides a sophisticated education that hones your unique abilities as a contemporary thinker and maker in a global community.

  • Studio18
    • CP 1010 Core Studio Practice I (3)
    • CP 1011 Core Studio Practice II (3)
    • CP 1020 Research Studio I (3)
    • CP 1022 Research Studio II (3)
    • Studio electives (6)
    Art History, Theory, and Criticism51
    • Foundations
      • ARTHI 1001 World Cultures and Civilizations: Pre-History to 19th Century Art and Architecture (3)
      • Additional Art History course at 1000-level (e.g., ARTHI 1002) (3)
    • Research, Theory, and Methods
      • SOPHSEM 2900 Sophomore Seminar in Art History (3)
      • ARTHI 3900 Junior Proseminar Top Art History Methods * (3)
      • ARTHI 4899 Senior Thesis I (3)
      • ARTHI 4900 Senior Thesis II (3)
      • Completion of written thesis
    • Area Pathways *
      Two complete 9 credit hour (3 courses) sequences from three possible areas of focus:
                1. Asia
                2. Europe and America
                3. Southern Continents (Africa and Latin America)
      • Area Pathway I
        ARTHI 2000-level survey (3)
        ARTHI 3000-level intermediate course (3)
        ARTHI 4000-level advanced course (3)
      • Pathway II
        ARTHI 2000-level survey (3)
        ARTHI 3000-level intermediate course (3)
        ARTHI 4000-level advanced course (3)
    • Additional courses
      • Art History courses in pre-modern topics, ARTHI 2000-4000 level* (6)
      • Intermediate or Advanced Courses, ARTHI 3000-4000 level (9)

    * A list of courses that fulfill this requirement is supplied by the Department. Each semester, the Department offers two smaller seminar-style courses focused on the application of research methods. These can be in any topic, but professors focus on the practice of research and writing with students in this smaller setting.

    BA in Art History students must take at least one of these courses in their Junior year, which will be designated on the course schedule as ARTHI 3900/PROFPRAC 3900. Courses fulfilling the Junior Proseminar requirement cannot also be used to fulfill the Area Pathways requirements. Students may, however, take more than one Junior Proseminar in their time at SAIC, and any additional proseminars may be used to fulfill other degree requirements.

    Liberal Arts39
    • ENGLISH 1001 First Year Seminar I (3)
    • ENGLISH 1005 First Year Seminar II (3)
    • Humanities (6)
    • World History (6)
    • Social Science (6)
    • Natural Science (6)
    • Foreign Language (6)
    • Liberal Arts Electives (3)
    General Electives12
    • Advanced elective courses (2000–4000 level), any department

    In addition to courses in studio, Liberal Arts, of Art History, other opportunities such as internships taken through SAIC's Cooperative Education may count as electives.

    Other Requirements

    • BA in Art History students must complete at least 3 credit hours in a class designated as “off-campus study.” These credits can also fulfill any of the requirements listed above and be from any of the divisions (Art History, studio, Liberal Arts, or general electives).
    Total Credit Hours120

  • The minimum number of credits required in residence at SAIC is 66 of the total 120 credit hours. Of those 66 required residence credits, transfer students must take, at minimum, the following at SAIC.

    Art History
    • Two Area Pathways (18)
    • ARTHI Junior Proseminar (3)
    • Senior Thesis Course Sequence (ARTHI 4899 and CAPSTONE 4900) (6)
    • Intermediate or Advanced Courses, 3000-4000 level (12)
    Studio
    • Studio Electives (3)

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio with Art History Thesis

The Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism offers BFA in Studio students the option to supplement their studio degree with an Art History Thesis. This BFA in Studio with Art History Thesis (BFA AHT) is not a distinct degree, but an option within the BFA degree that students can choose to participate in enabling their immersion in the faculty and resources of the Art History Department's programs. BFA AHT students can expect to receive specialized, individual attention in intensive Art History seminars as they develop original thesis projects exploring questions and topics of their own devising. In their senior year, BFA AHT students will take the year-long, two course Art History Senior Thesis seminar that culminates in the Undergraduate Art History Thesis Symposium.

  • Students who are interested in the BFA in Studio with Art History Thesis (BFA AHT) should complete the steps outlined below, ideally by the end of the spring semester of their freshman year or in fall semester of their sophomore year.

    Step 1: Student confirms with an Academic Advisor that they have 12 CR credits available to complete the required Art History Research, Theory, and Methods sequence.

    Step 2: Student meets with the Art History, Theory, and Criticism Undergraduate Program Director by the end of their freshman year or beginning of sophomore year.

    Step 3: Student applies to the BFA AH Thesis Program by submitting to the Art History Undergraduate Program Director: 1) their SAIC transcript showing the availability of 12 credits that can be used for the required Art History Research, Theory, and Methods sequence; 2) a writing sample that shows the student’s research, writing, and citation ability; and 3) a brief description (1 page) of the student’s proposed thesis topic.

    Step 4: If the student is accepted into the program, they should complete the following Art History Research, Theory, and Methods sequence: 

    • ARTHI 2900 Sophomore Seminar in their sophomore year (3 credit hours)
    • ARTHI 3901 Junior Proseminar in their junior year (3 credit hours)
    • ARTHI Capstone 4899 Undergraduate Thesis Seminar I in fall of their senior year; as well as ARTHI Capstone 4901 Undergraduate Thesis Seminar II in spring of their senior year (6 credit hours)     

    Step 5: Completion of thesis must be approved by both the Thesis II instructor and the Art History Undergraduate Coordinator. Students are required to make a formal presentation and participate in the Undergraduate Art History Thesis Symposium in the senior year.

  • BFA AHT Total Credit Hours120

    Studio

    Required:

    • CP 1010 Core Studio Practice I (3)
    • CP 1011 Core Studio Practice II (3)
    • CP 1020 Research Studio I (3)
    • CP 1022 Research Studio II (3)
    • PROFPRAC 39XX (3)
    • CAPSTONE 49XX (3)

    Studio Electives (42)

    		60

    Liberal Arts

    • ENGLISH 1001 First Year Seminar I (3)
    • ENGLISH 1005 First Year Seminar II (3)
    • Humanities (6)
    • Social Sciences (6)
    • Natural Sciences (6)

    Liberal Arts Electives (6)
     

    		30

    Art History, Theory and Criticism 

    Foundations

    • ARTHI 1001 World Cultures/Civilizations: Pre-History to 19th Century Art and Architecture (3)
    • ARTHI 1002+ Any Introduction to Art History: Modern and Contemporary (3)

    Art History Electives (6)

    Art History Research, Theory, and Methods (12)

    • ARTHI 2900 Sophomore Seminar (3)
    • ARTHI 3901 Junior ProSeminar (3)
    • ARTHI 4899 Senior Thesis I (3)
    • ARTHI 4901 Senior Thesis II (3)
    • Completion of Written Thesis
       
    		24
    General Electives - Studio, Liberal Arts or Art History (6)6

Course Listing

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

This course is an introduction to art and design. Specific content varies by instructor and covers diverse ways of seeing and understanding the visual world. The course articulates connections between selected art of the past and contemporary practices. Students will gain first-hand knowledge from visits to and exercises in the Art Institute of Chicago and other collections.
Ultimately, the course teaches skills that enable students to understand their own practices better, orient themselves in relation to theories of art and design, and navigate our present moment where visual literacy is increasingly crucial.

This course introduces students to key aspects of the history and theory of art and design. Students will become familiar with selected art of the past and how it has been connected to contemporary practices.

Class Number

1035

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course is an introduction to art and design. Specific content varies by instructor and covers diverse ways of seeing and understanding the visual world. The course articulates connections between selected art of the past and contemporary practices. Students will gain first-hand knowledge from visits to and exercises in the Art Institute of Chicago and other collections.
Ultimately, the course teaches skills that enable students to understand their own practices better, orient themselves in relation to theories of art and design, and navigate our present moment where visual literacy is increasingly crucial.

This course introduces students to key aspects of the history and theory of art and design. Students will become familiar with selected art of the past and how it has been connected to contemporary practices.

Class Number

1036

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course is an introduction to art and design. Specific content varies by instructor and covers diverse ways of seeing and understanding the visual world. The course articulates connections between selected art of the past and contemporary practices. Students will gain first-hand knowledge from visits to and exercises in the Art Institute of Chicago and other collections.
Ultimately, the course teaches skills that enable students to understand their own practices better, orient themselves in relation to theories of art and design, and navigate our present moment where visual literacy is increasingly crucial.

This course introduces students to key aspects of the history and theory of art and design. Students will become familiar with selected art of the past and how it has been connected to contemporary practices.

Class Number

1037

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course is an introduction to art and design. Specific content varies by instructor and covers diverse ways of seeing and understanding the visual world. The course articulates connections between selected art of the past and contemporary practices. Students will gain first-hand knowledge from visits to and exercises in the Art Institute of Chicago and other collections.
Ultimately, the course teaches skills that enable students to understand their own practices better, orient themselves in relation to theories of art and design, and navigate our present moment where visual literacy is increasingly crucial.

This course introduces students to key aspects of the history and theory of art and design. Students will become familiar with selected art of the past and how it has been connected to contemporary practices.

Class Number

1083

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course builds on the lessons of ARTHI 1001 by discussing specific issues in modern and contemporary art and design. It focuses on examining objects and concepts, addressing theoretical and critical issues. It also explores the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes reflected in the works of artists and designers, highlighting their relevance to contemporary practices. Museum visits and group exercises supervised by the instructor and the teaching assistants will contribute to the important hands-on experience of works of art.

Note: ARTHI 1001 is the recommended prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1039

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course builds on the lessons of ARTHI 1001 by discussing specific issues in modern and contemporary art and design. It focuses on examining objects and concepts, addressing theoretical and critical issues. It also explores the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes reflected in the works of artists and designers, highlighting their relevance to contemporary practices. Museum visits and group exercises supervised by the instructor and the teaching assistants will contribute to the important hands-on experience of works of art.

Note: ARTHI 1001 is the recommended prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1045

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

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

1050

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course builds on the lessons of ARTHI 1001 by discussing specific issues in modern and contemporary art and design. It focuses on examining objects and concepts, addressing theoretical and critical issues. It also explores the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes reflected in the works of artists and designers, highlighting their relevance to contemporary practices. Museum visits and group exercises supervised by the instructor and the teaching assistants will contribute to the important hands-on experience of works of art.

Note: ARTHI 1001 is the recommended prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1047

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course builds on the lessons of ARTHI 1001 by discussing specific issues in modern and contemporary art and design. It focuses on examining objects and concepts, addressing theoretical and critical issues. It also explores the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes reflected in the works of artists and designers, highlighting their relevance to contemporary practices. Museum visits and group exercises supervised by the instructor and the teaching assistants will contribute to the important hands-on experience of works of art.

Note: ARTHI 1001 is the recommended prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

2114

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course builds on the lessons of ARTHI 1001 by discussing specific issues in modern and contemporary art and design. It focuses on examining objects and concepts, addressing theoretical and critical issues. It also explores the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes reflected in the works of artists and designers, highlighting their relevance to contemporary practices. Museum visits and group exercises supervised by the instructor and the teaching assistants will contribute to the important hands-on experience of works of art.

Note: ARTHI 1001 is the recommended prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

2254

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course builds on the lessons of ARTHI 1001 by discussing specific issues in modern and contemporary art and design. It focuses on examining objects and concepts, addressing theoretical and critical issues. It also explores the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes reflected in the works of artists and designers, highlighting their relevance to contemporary practices. Museum visits and group exercises supervised by the instructor and the teaching assistants will contribute to the important hands-on experience of works of art.

Note: ARTHI 1001 is the recommended prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1038

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

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

1048

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

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

2240

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 206

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

2241

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 818

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

2242

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

2243

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1427

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

2163

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Theory

Location

MacLean 920

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

2165

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

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

Location

MacLean 608

Description

What is sculpture, and what separates it from other media? How did modernity and modernism change the artists¿ understanding of sculpture and its relationship to the human body, scale, and space? This course will present an overview of modern sculpture, from Rodin¿s figurative work to Smithson¿s land art, concluding with discussions about the role of contemporary sculpture in society. We will examine how technological innovations, societal transformations, and the myths of modernism influenced the artists¿ approaches to the medium. The course will primarily focus on European and North American sculptors but will also explore their understanding of colonialism and globalization.
The course will overview various examples of artworks by Auguste Rodin, Karl Ioganson, Naum Gabo, Kurt Schwitters (Merzbau), Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, and other representatives of late 19th-20th century sculpture. Secondary readings will include Rosalind Krauss¿ ¿Passages on Modern Sculpture,¿ selections of Megan Luke's and Maria Gough's monographs on Kurt Schwitters and Constructivism, as well as relevant academic articles. We will also discuss and contextualize primary texts and manifestos by Naum Gabo, Carola Giedion-Weckler, Katarzyna Kobro, Barbara Hepworth, and Johann Winckelmann (some read in their entirety, some as selections).
Formal analysis of a selected sculpture ¿ 1000-1500 words
Presentation ¿ 5-10 minutes
Final essay comparing three sculptures and relating them to concepts from class ¿ 3000-4000 words

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2484

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

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

1058

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

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

1040

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This course studies the medieval book in Europe and the visual arts crafted in medieval Paris as well as their connections to the global medieval world through exchange and gifting. The medieval cosmos in Islamic and European cultures, humans? relationship with the natural world, and artist?s practices of making will be studied as well as manuscripts, textiles, metal work, and more. Books in the medieval world include narratives of heroes, saints, love, magic, scientific knowledge, and documentation of artistic techniques. This course is Eurocentric however includes arts of Middle East and North Africa for a broader understanding of the medieval world.

Coursework includes field trips to view Chicago's medieval manuscript and art collections at the Newberry and the Art Institute. Readings include works by Sharon Farmer, ?Surviving Poverty in Paris,? Edson and Savage-Smith, ?Medieval Views of the Cosmos,? Michael Camille, ?Nature of Gothic,? Madeline Caviness, ?Patron or Matron?,? Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, ?Islamic Penmen and Painters,? and more.

Coursework will vary but typically includes discussions, reading responses, in-class quizzes, short presentations and a research paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2370

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Books and Publishing

Location

MacLean 920

Description

Often fashion refers to history, as it will in this course. We will explore the culture of Europe within the Renaissance era and the fashions created in that time, including the various occasions when men in their uniforms and women in their gowns stepped out in velvets, satins, leather, beading, metalwork and embroideries.

Turner Wilcox, Andre Castel, David Herlihy, Colin McEvedy, William McNeill, Rublack & Hayward, Anthony McIntyre
READINGS:
Excerpts from: Trucco e Bellezza nell' Antichita Rossana ed Cesaris; Fashion as a Cultural Intertext
Michaela Malickova; Pandora in the Box
Lydia Marie Taylor; For A Contemporary Vision of the Other History and Phenomenology of Fashion
Alessia M. M. Giurdanella; Fashion in the Middle Ages
Margaret Scott; Medieval Households
David Herlihy; First Book of Fashion edited by U. Rublack and M. Hayward; Plagues and People
William H. McNeill; Memoirs of Hadrian
Marguerite Yourcenar; Arms and Armour
Visual Books; Flowering of the Italian Renaissance
Andre Chastel; Medieval Households
David Herlihy; Penguin Atlas of Ancient History
Colin McEvedy; Alla Mensa degli Antichi - the ceramics of the table - collezione Costantini

Students should expect to create around 3 presentations and 3 written essays, a combination of written and visual.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2475

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Costume Design, Art/Design and Politics, Museum Studies

Location

MacLean 707

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

1067

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This course 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, interactive digital systems, and video games) as well as genealogies of specific media technologies (i.e. still and film cameras, television, computers, software, video games, the internet, and aglorithms). These interwoven histories of shared theory/practices are investigated in relationship to independent/experimental/art media in contemporary cultures by asking: How do film, video, and new media artists develop methods to work with, against, and around these techno-social forms? Readings will include Marshall McLuhan, Tom Gunning, André Breton, Maya Deren, Laura Mulvey, Bell Hooks, Angela J. Aguayo, Rosalind Krauss, Rosa Menkman, and Legacy Russell. Established genealogies will be presented and critically examined alongside screenings and discussions about works by media artists whose practices embodied and challenged the techno-cultural media environment of their time, from the advent of photography and film to the contemporary moment of ultra-high-definition digital video, networked streaming, online algorithmic media sharing and consumption, and 3D capturing and rendering.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1074

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Theory

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

This course explores the rich and diverse landscape of African cinema from its origins to the present day. Students will examine seminal works from pioneers like Ousmane Sembène and Souleymane Cissé alongside contemporary voices such as Abderrahmane Sissako, Wanuri Kahiu, and Baloji. The course covers major film movements including Nollywood's commercial revolution, the author-driven traditions of West African cinema, and more recent experimental films from Central and Southern Africa.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2480

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

1042

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

1055

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

Lakeview - 1608

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

1073

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

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

2220

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Graphic Design

Location

Lakeview - 1608

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

1056

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

1068

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 816

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

1057

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

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

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This museum-based seminar welcomes writers of all kinds, including creative writers, critics, and scholars. We explore literary forms, including poetry, short stories, personal essays, plays, and songs, along with their connections to visual art at the Art Institute of Chicago. Each week, we analyze literary pieces inspired by a work of art and then visit the museum to discuss that art in person. We will examine how the readings enhance or challenge the artwork and debate the impact of the words and images. Additionally, we will hold weekly writing workshops to provide feedback on each other¿s work, focusing on prompt-based assignments that directly engage with the art in the collection while developing both visual acuity and writing craft skills.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2363

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

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

Location

Lakeview - 205

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

1066

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

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

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

1049

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

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

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

1070

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Illustration, Comics and Graphic Novels, Books and Publishing

Location

Online

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

1054

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

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

1060

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course examines the career of America's best known architect alongside the work of his followers. Consideration is given to the origins of the Prairie School, how it achieved broad patronage, and why its popularity declined after World War I. Also examined are the Prairie School's eclecticism, its relationship to modernism, and its principles of organic design. On-site explorations include Wright's Oak Park Home and Studio and the Wright Prairie School Historic District in Oak Park. Other architects considered for their interpretations of the style are W.B. Griffin, B. Byrne, Tallmadge and Watson, W. Drummond, and G.W. Maher.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1086

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Sustainable Design

Location

MacLean 608

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

1096

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

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

1065

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course charts the demise of the object and image in the work of modern and contemporary art. Known in various guises as concept or conceptual art, process art, information or idea art, this apparent assault on the visual nature of art was undertaken by many artists who were to become very well regarded in the sixties and seventies-and their influence is still felt today. The course will attempt to identify different strands within this general trend in terms of aesthetic, political, and historical precession; and consideration will be given to the possible reasons behind the ramifications of the dematerialization of the art object.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2121

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This class examines diverse perspectives on the production, consumption, and use of design. Reading key primary writings by designers and observers, we will consider topics such as the role of technology in design change, the uses and functions of design in relations to commerce and social reform.

Readings will include written texts by modern and post-modern designers; as well as well as critics, historians, and theorists responding to design and the designed environment.

Course work typically includes responses to readings in relation to object analysis, a modest research paper, and mid-term and final exams.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2117

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

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

1075

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

The perceived passivity and resilient silence of plants 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

1002

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

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

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course contextualizes English gardens and their design features within larger ideas of land ownership at the level of private ownership, the nation, and Empire. It examines the way the design of 18th and 19th century British landscapes served the needs of early modern industrialists in England and shaped the identity of colonizer in relation to colonized subjects.

In this course, we will study examples of private gardens, early botanic gardens, and other colonial gardens, including plantations, in order to explore at the critical way plants and gardens were used to dispossess people of land and culture in Europe and abroad. In Europe, we will look at the way land enclosure might be said to have produced a British working class. In the colonies, we will look at the role plants and gardens played in extending British authority over its colonial subjects and how the deep knowledge that indigenous and slave communities had about plants was stolen, lost or engaged in that process.

There are weekly readings for this course, and a final scaffolded research paper. Although a final research paper is submitted, students are expected to submit along the way other smaller assignments related to that final research project, such as a paragraph thesis statement, a bibliography, an outline, a full draft and then the final revision.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1052

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Economic Inequality & Class, Public Space, Site, Landscape, Art/Design and Politics

Location

Lakeview - 1608

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

1081

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

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

Location

Sharp 404

Description

The art world is a complex ecosystem. What should one know about its geographical and ecological dimensions in order to pursue a rewarding career?
The rise of identity politics, diversity, and multidisciplinarity, as well as the growing
importance of collaborative practices, calls to abolish museums, and intensifying criticism of our cultural institutions' colonialist foundations, have made it more challenging than ever to navigate this rapidly changing landscape. This course deconstructs the romantic myth of the artist to foreground alternative and sustainable eco-models and systems of interdependency. Together, through the analysis of case studies borrowed from posthumanism and specualtive philosophy, we map the contradictions and paradoxes that today shape the relationship between artists, institutions, and the art market, to help practitioners of all kinds redefine their identities and reposition themselves in the contemporary art world.
The course will involve a range of sources and study materials including selected clips from films, novels, classic academic readings on the artworld, and current interviews with artists, curators, and museum directors. The course will address current urgent themes like social justice, equity, accessibility, marginalization, racism/sexism, institutional critique, etc. The work is based on my new book titled 'I'm not an artist: reclaiming creativity in the age of free content that will be published by Bloomsbury in Spring 2025. Important scholarly and professional voices included will feature: Sampada Aranke, James Elkins, Mark Dion, Timothy Morton, Anna Tsing, Donna Haraway, Mandy-Suzanne Wuong, Vivien Sansour, Edgar Heap of Birds, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Pamela Sneed, Anicka Yi, Cecilia Vicuna, Okwui Enwezor, Eyal Weizman, Robin Wall Kimmerer and many more.
Course work will include weekly reading responses, an essay, a report, and a presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1097

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Economic Inequality & Class, Community & Social Engagement, Museum Studies

Location

MacLean 707

Description

How have or how do artists engage with the complexities of visualizing racial difference, racial experience and racial identities? These are the questions to be considered in this class. As much as `race¿ can be understood as a fiction, it also manifests its presence in the visual arts. From the hundreds of European portrait painters who have painted their white patrons in the subservient company of enslaved Black people, through to the many modern and contemporary artists whose work touches on or is grounded in ideas of racial experience and representation. The class asks, what happens when race, art, and identity collide or overlap?
The class will use a variety of texts, most frequently catalogue essays relating to artists such as Barbara Walker, Chris Ofili, Yinka Shonibare, Renee Cox, and Mickalene Thomas, and others whose work can be seen as representing a confluence of art, identity and race-related considerations.  Our readings will also include texts by art historians and curators who have worked with, or written about, such artists. The texts will demonstrate the extent to which art, identity and race-related considerations are seemingly easily applied to certain artists, but presumed to be absent from certain other artists.
Students are required to submit one short `reaction¿ paper each week, plus a longer 10-12 page research paper at the end of the semester. The main emphasis of the seminar will be on active class participation and discussion of the artists and their work.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2263

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Museum Studies, Exhibition and Curatorial Studies

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This class surveys the development of contemporary Chinese art from the late 1970s to 2010s through the lens of space. In China, contemporary art forms such as abstract painting, video, installation, and performance have long existed in the margins, outside the mainstream system. We will examine the spatial politics of production, display and consumption of this art over several decades, tracking how art in China interacts with political spaces (state run institutions and venues), the private domain (ad-hoc and independent spaces) and finally purpose-built and commercial outlets (galleries, and museums).
Studying the history and evolution of contemporary Chinese art, also referred to as `avant-garde¿ or `experimental¿ art, is to study its interactions with space, be it public or private, physical or discursive. Lectures and discussions will focus on key events such as the Stars Painting Group¿s 1979 exhibition, the ¿China/Avant-Garde¿ 1989 exhibition, and the 2000 Shanghai Biennale as well as peripheral events and select activities outside of China. Readings will include texts by Wu Hung, Peggy Wang, Rosalyn Deutsche and Miwon Kwon.
Various exercises and writing assignment during the semester, in-class presentations, one research paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2490

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Museum Studies

Location

MacLean 617

Description

This course will examine some of the ways in which the forces of late imperialism justified their campaigns of subjugation and the multi-layered ways in which those subjugated came to resist colonial rule. We will consider changes across the 19th century, including those in central Africa (Congo; especially the development of minkisi), Cameroon (particularly the distinctive architecture of Bamun), Ivory Coast (paying special attention to the sculptor Kuakudili) before moving onto Oceania (e.g., New Guinea, Australia, Tahiti), east and south-east Asia, and the Americas (among the highlights here are the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa books of ledger drawings). The arts of 19th-century Europe will not be neglected, but they will be seen through the lens of the distortions and refractions that colonialism produced.
Each study-intensive week, we will paying close attention to readings that take us from Walter Mignolo to Joaquín Barriendos Rodriguez. Frequent visits to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum with their global collections are a particular feature of this course, and we will make use of the valuable teaching resources offered by other institutions in the Chicago area, including some lesser-known destinations such as the Africa International House and Evanston¿s Mitchell Museum of the American Indian.
This course privileges the practice of writing assignments and actively supports a multi-phased approach to a final submission by offering students a series of late-semester workshops that takes the research findings of the first part of the semester and translates them into polished and lucid discussions.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2126

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality & Class, Public Space, Site, Landscape

Location

MacLean 111

Description

This seminar explores the history and culture of transgender and gender non-conforming communities and identities, with a particular focus on moving image work encompassing cinema, television, and new media. Themes and approaches include transfeminist, postgenderist, and queer/trans theories which challenge essentialized notions of gender and sexuality.

The course consists of weekly discussions based on screenings of moving image work, as well as critical and theoretical texts that investigate identity, embodiment, technology, and representation as they relate to trans issues. Some of the scholars and artists we will study include Susan Stryker, David Valentine, Zachary I. Nataf, C. Riley Snorton, Paul B. Preciado, Helen Hok-Sze Leung, Sam Feder, Lilly Wachowski, Chase Joynt, Tourmaline, Wu Tsang, Silas Howard, Angelo Madsen Minax, Jules Rosskam, Annalise Ophelian, Zackary Drucker.

Course work will include in-class discussions, reading assignments, reading/screening response essays, a midterm critical response essay, and a final research paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1044

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Theory

Location

Online

Description

This course investigates artistic expressions of national consciousness, modernism, ukrainizatsia of the 1920s and the Boychukysty, primitive and decorative folk painting, non-conformism, Socialist Realism, and contemporary art. Historical, political, and socioeconomic contexts will be addressed throughout the class, as will Ukraine's relationship with other European artistic centers, and their developments. Issues related to recovered art history, colonization and artistic training; national identity and oppressed regimes; and the role of the diaspora will be included throughout. Translations of documents will be provided.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2366

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

This course explores the rich genre of vernacular art environments' combinations of art, architecture and/or landscape architecture, including religious grottos, spiritual, devotional and mystical sites, gardens, ephemeral yard shows, architectural inventions, expressions of loneliness and survival, artist-built sites of conscience, homes fully transformed, artist's museums, and other created spaces that are site and life specific. The course examines historical and contemporary art environments and issues impacting art from beyond the academic mainstream and its evolving definitions, environments in their social, political and cultural contexts, home and landscape as studios, the viability and longevity of specific sites, and site preservation. Artists explored in this class include women, people of color, economically disadvantaged makers, farmers/rural dwellers, urban dwellers, and immigrants, among others. Artists' sites examined range from Sam Rodia's Watts Towers, Emery Blagdon's Healing Machine, Kea Tawana's Ark, to Ferdinand Cheval's Palais Ideal, and many more. Lectures are supported by video, audio, and a broad range of readings. Developing an awareness and appreciation for vernacular expressions in architecture, architectural cladding and ornament, garden ornament and yard shows, and other ordinary or beyond-ordinary visual arrangements in our shared, adorned environment is a subtext. Students complete readings and exploration and research projects.
Add: Sign up for this class requires instructor consent and is by application to Professor Nicholas Lowe. For more details please email nlowe1@saic.edu.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2216

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Museum Studies

Location

Sullivan Center 1241

Description

Class content begins with the start of the youth quake of the 1960s and continues until the current day of designers? oeuvres, expanding to such arenas as video art, performance and creation of merchandise.
On occasion, a select number of students will participate with an end of year presentation together with students of the Department of Fashion Design.

This course is a chronological inquiry into fashion and dress and the relationship to a heritage of the visual arts, politics, literature, gender, and equality. Students will gain recognition of primary sources for analysis relating to art and dress in the Ryerson and Flaxman libraries. The SAIC Fashion Resource Center is a fully comprehensive venue as resource for any project. While individually and as a class, conversations are immediate, since surrounded by publications, garments and related materials in the F R C Study room and Wardrobe.

Six assignments progress from the knowledge of history to lives and practices of global designers. Of significance is an exercise of garment examination in the F R C Wardrobe resulting in museum like documentation permitting students to learn vocabulary and accurate assessment. Emphasis is placed on students mastering the skills of writing, presenting visual arts and oral presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2118

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Costume Design, Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 707

Description

Walking is the most obvious thing in the world. We all do it. In fact it is a primary way to differentiate human beings from other sentient creatures. And yet, for the past century, artists have made revolutionary, romantic and aesthetic use of this most commonplace gesture.

In this class, we consider groups like the Surrealists, the Situationist International and Fluxus, all of whom walked in cities as a means of making vanguard art. We explore the flaneurs who came before them and contemporary artists like Francis Alys and Janet Cardiff, who came after. We look outside urban limits too, at Richard Long and the long history of Romantic walkers and traditional nomads that preceded him.

Course work includes a midterm exam and a final paper?and maybe, just maybe, we will go on a couple of walks ourselves.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1059

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This course is designed to provide an in-depth encounter with video art from its emergence in the 1960s through its divergent pathways over the past six decades as both a form of art-making and a mode of socio-political engagement. Particular attention is paid to the role that art institutions (museums, biennials, festivals) have played in reframing that history and to the continuing impact of technological change. We focus as well on the work of non-Western artists and the theoretical lenses that highlight alternative cultural genealogies.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1061

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

This is a discussion-based seminar aimed at upper-level students. The goal is to introduce students to the cinema of Alfred Hitchcock, one of the great masters of 20th century cinema, whose themes and filmic techniques influenced modern artists, as well as other film directors. The course will offer students an opportunity to do in-depth critical analysis using various methodologies, such as the auteur theory, feminism and psychoanalysis. Class time will be devoted to exploring themes such as crime, guilt, marriage, the double, voyeurism, the male gaze and meta cinema.

The course will cover many of Hitchcock¿s most important works, including Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho. Students are expected to see these works on their own and write a weekly response paper based on their viewing and the assigned readings. In place of exams, students will produce a final research paper and a class presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1094

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

Adorno is well known for his scathing critique of 'culture industry.' But what is usually missed is that Adorno's critique of 20th Century cultural forms was dialectical, concerned with their potential for both emancipation and domination, and was aimed equally at modern practices of 'hermetic' art as well as those of 'popular' culture, anticipating issues in 'post'-modernist cultural criticism.

In this course we address the Frankfurt School critical theory of experience and aesthetic subjectivity in modern social life in context, reading works by Benjamin, Kracauer and Marcuse, and then focusing on works by Adorno in considering the analytical and explanatory as well as critical power of certain enduring if problematic and contested categories such as 'commodification' and 'democratization' for a dialectic of modern forms of art and culture as forms of social subjectivity.

Course assignments include in-class team presentations on the readings, a midterm paper and a final paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1046

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics

Location

MacLean 301

Description

Incorporating daily visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, this undergraduate seminar examines the history of European and American art from the 1860s through the early twentieth century through the focused engagement with objects in the museum collections. Class time is divided between classroom lectures, discussions of daily reading assignments, and museum visits. In all of these, students are expected to take an active participatory role. Course topics are determined in relation to the collections on view, but recurring questions focus on materiality and display.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1051

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

Description

Maps feature significantly in contemporary artistic practice as both subject and method. In contemporary art, they often serve as a device that resists fixed borders, both national and personal. As contemporary artists collapse the idea that the map is the territory, so too do they make a radical break with the seemingly permanent boundaries of nationality, race and gender and their ideological institutions.

A variety of topics such as nationalism, migration, and the use of surveillance technology in art will be explored primarily through readings, art, film screenings, and conversations. Artists include, for example, Francis Alys, Libia Posada, Bouchra Khalili, Harun Farocki and more.

Students should expect weekly readings, in-class assignments, and the completion of a final essay

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1063

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics

Location

MacLean 620

Description

This class is the second component of a two-semester class that equips senior students earning a BAAH or a BFA with Art History Thesis with the skills to develop an advanced art historical research project, in this case: the senior thesis. It provides writers working on independent research projects with structure, guidance, constructive criticism, and a supportive peer community for discussion of their work in progress. Writers meet regularly with the instructor and their classmates to develop their ideas, address problems, and steer their projects to completion. The course combines individual mentoring of students as they engage in the sustained research and writing of a capstone project, with exposing students to a range of art historical professions and coaching students to prepare for careers in art history. The focus of this development from students to professionals, is both on the ethics of professional conduct in the field of art history as well as the content of various art historical careers. To this end, students will research, prepare, and submit one career-related written proposal, such as graduate school application, residency application, conference presentation proposal, publication submission or other.

Prerequisites

ARTHI 4899 & professional practice course

Class Number

1069

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 620

Description

The Postcolonial Paradigm: Biennales and Large-Scale Exhibitions in a Global Age examines the history of the art world as one that is multilayered, overlapped in order to contradict the grand narrative of Western modernity. It closely engages postcolonial theory while examining how the non-Western ¿other¿ has come to be viewed through the examination of two significant exhibitions: Magiciens de la Terre, 1989, and Documenta 11, 2002 in Kassel Germany curated by Jean Martin, and Okwui Enwezor. While unpacking these two important exhibitions, to understand the emergence of postcolonial discourse in the context of contemporary art practices we engage with postcolonial theory including the work of Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Edward Said and Dipesh Chakravarty amongst others. We will also investigate the emergence of the large-scale exhibitions and biennales particularly within the third world context, to engage outside the singular modern domain of the West, allowing for a new understanding to view the world and humanity through the realm of contemporary art.

We will examine the history of exhibtiions and biennales closely looking at the work of artist's from the Third world. We will also closely unpack the curation of these two mega space shifter exhibtions Magiciens de la Terre, 1989, and Documenta 11, 2002 in Kassel Germany curated by Jean Martin, and Okwui Enwezor, to understand the contributions that exhibtiions can bring about in changing the discourse of art. As we engage with postcolonial theory we unravel the euro-centric trope within art and curation and devlop a criticality voice in viewing art and exhibitions alike.

Two essays - midterm and finals essay are expected including active discussion in class.

Class Number

2119

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Museum Studies, Art and Science, Exhibition and Curatorial Studies

Location

Online

Description

Using the Spring 2025 Visiting Artist Program (VAP) lectures as a point of departure, this seminar addresses some of the most urgent issues and debates shaping the production and distribution of art right now. The class will attend all of the VAP lectures on Tuesday nights throughout the term, followed by exclusive discussions with the artists in question on Wednesday mornings. Seminar readings will include texts and interviews on each visiting artist, as well as broader texts that expand their concerns to larger concerns in cultural, social and political spheres. We will repeatedly ask our visitors and ourselves: what is it that art has to offer that is unique from activism, journalism, media studies, sociology, or any other field of inquiry or action?

Founded in 1868, the Visiting Artists Program is one of the oldest public programs of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It has featured over 1,000 international artists, designers, and scholars representing more than 70 countries through a diverse mix of lectures, screenings, conversations, and readings. Attending the lectures on Tuesdays and the seminar on Wednesday morning is mandatory, which means that students' schedules will need to be free both times. Class will meet both Tuesday and Wednesday on weeks when there is a VAP lecture, and only on Wednesdays when there is no lecture. Assignments will include a journal with short responses to all the lectures and a final paper or creative project related to course material.

Class Number

1957

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Sharp 706

Description

This course examines the formation and circulation of six key terms of modern architectural production and criticism: site, material, structure, detail, program, and environment. Focusing on the period between 1850 and 2000 in the English-speaking world, we will consider how these terms were shaped by the colonial encounter, French and German critical discourse, as well as enmeshed in specific media (e.g. print, radio, tv).

Readings vary but typically include core texts by 20th century critics, theorists, and historians like Nikolaus Pevsner, Sigfried Giedion, Reyner Banham, Colin Rowe, Alessandra Ponte, Beatriz Colomina, and Mark Wigley. Discussions also tend to engage projects and texts by Le Corbusier, Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, Louis Kahn, Zaha Hadid, and Bernard Tschumi.

Course work will vary but typically demands active participation in online and in-class discussions, as well as short essays on a contemporary architectural project of the student's choosing culminating in a 4000-word review essay.

Class Number

1908

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 818

Description

This course explores the influence of colonial policies on the arts of India, Singapore, Malaya, Indonesia and Indochina prior to the 20th century. Covering theories of colonialism, primitivism and orientalism from Homi Bhabha to Edward Said, it also looks at colonial art exhibitions in London and Paris and examine the concepts of empire, race and exoticism through art works on both sides of the continental divide.

Class Number

2122

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This seminar focuses on correspondence art in the twentieth century, and the historical relationships with prior and subsequent artistic uses of networks, including academic, informal, postal and virtual. Artists and networks considered will include: Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School; George Brecht and Robert Filliou's Eternal Network - a concept later taken up by John Held Jr.; institutions and resource centers such as Image Bank, Other Books and So, and periodicals such as Commonpress, etc.

Class Number

2123

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 112

Description

This graduate-level seminar proceeds from selected in-depth topics in the history of dress, cross-cultural materials markets and clothing influences, evolution of fashions, aesthetic philosophies, literature and social issues, from diverse ancient cultures to the early 20th century. A focus on historical fashion revivals will relate past styles of art and dress to contemporary fashions and research applicable to students' studio work. Global human experiences of all periods will be relevant and valuable.

Learning proceeds from readings both in and out of class, lectures, discussion, museum exhibitions and library research visits, illustrated spoken presentations and several research papers. Reading includes diverse exhibition catalogues, critical and scholarly fashion writing, and recent media articles and illustrations. A film viewing of an historical subject employing period costuming is essential. Synthesis of art and clothing movements is essential.

In-class roundtable readings & discussions, exhibition response sheets & sketches, and assigned readings will lead to several thoughtfully-written, well-cited essays and projected illustrated spoken presentations. The first 3 page essay will be autobiographical, another of 6 pages will relate to an historical revival style, film costuming or cross-cultural fashion, textile and technological influences, and the final relevant 15 page paper and presentation topic will be of the student's choosing. A mid-semester interview with each student will help guide their topic choice and research. Research can be relevant to individual or collaborative studio work.

Class Number

1903

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Costume Design

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

Recently, the art world has welcomed sound as an outsider free of the visual burdens of representation, and commodity. Yet, since the start of the twentieth century, sound has also constructed itself conceptually. Artists including Kevin Beasley, Jennie C. Jones, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and Emeka Ogboh, have introduced sound and music into their practices, while musicians including Wu Tang Clan, Brian Eno, and Johannes Kreidler have incorporated conceptual approaches. Music is not Music traces the histories of the conceptual and sonic arts in order to recompose the unsung history of sonic conceptualism.

Class Number

1906

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 620

Description

There is an interesting subterranean tradition of writing (prose, fiction, nonfiction, art history, memoir) with images embedded in the text. The common thread is that the images have no captions. We will examine the theory, history, and practice of such writing. Writers of all kinds are welcome! Readings may include W.G. Sebald, Christian Bok, Anne Carson, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Tan Lin, Raymond Roussel, Georges Rodenbach, Kobo Abe, John Berger, Susan Howe, William Vollmann, John Holten, Georges Rodenbach, and Helene Sommer. The course is being developed into a book on writingwithimages.com.

Class Number

2125

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 617

Description

The production and consumption of material and, some would argue immaterial objects, is at the heart of cultural formation. The course interrogates issues in relation to the everyday and designed objects through our understanding of design and its objects, their significance in daily life and the cultures of production, mediation and interaction. The course also examines the dilemma we face in contemporary practice in labeling objects as craft, art or design. At least one graduate-level Design History course is recommended before enrollment in this course.

Class Number

1904

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

This independent study program for Master of Arts in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism candidates is taken in the final term of coursework.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ARTHI 5999.

Class Number

1911

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

FAQs

  • Students only begin taking advanced Art History courses in their second year at SAIC. For the first year, BA in Art History students share the campus-wide, first-year student curriculum, which includes intensive foundational training in studio and in visual thinking, composition-based writing courses, and two introductory surveys in art history. The SAIC BA in Art History is unlike conventional majors at liberal arts colleges in its extensive art history requirements (at least 18 courses) and in its solid grounding in knowledge of studio practices. An understanding in how art is made is an essential part of its historical study. While BA in Art History students’ coursework is identical to BFA students in their first year, they will also be included in events organized for all BA in Art History students. All BA in Art History students are advised by a faculty member from the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism.

  • The BA in Art History program has significantly different degree requirements than SAIC’s other, studio- and design-based degrees. Because of this, there are no automatic degree transfers, and every case must be weighed individually with regard to applicable credits and research and writing skills. There are two deadlines for internal transfers every year: October 15 and March 15. Applications are only considered at these times.

  • No. SAIC does not have majors. The BA in Art History is a full-fledged degree in Art History, and it is the first nonstudio undergraduate degree at SAIC. It requires a minimum of 41 percent of credits (18 courses) to be taken in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism—far more than a conventional major within a liberal arts degree (usually around 10 courses). Beyond that, the degree is made up of a minimum of 16 percent studio courses, which we believe to be an integral part of study of histories and theories of art.

  • The BA in Art History is designed to provide students with training in research and writing skills, and at least one class per year will focus on this area of study. A Sophomore Seminar, a Junior Proseminar, and the Senior Thesis Sequence are all required of BA in Art History students.

  • Sophomore Seminars are required courses for all SAIC undergraduates. They focus on preparing students to embrace a specific direction in their scholarship or in their studio practice. The seminars offer intensive faculty mentoring sessions that help students design a curricular pathway for the final two years of study at SAIC. Most departments at the institution offer Sophomore Seminars. BA in Art History students take the Sophomore Seminar designed by the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism to provide research skills in Art History and to train students to examine the role of art’s histories in light of current practices. Students from programs other than the BA in Art History may also take the Art History Sophomore Seminar.

  • Each semester, the department offers at least two smaller seminar-style courses focused on the application of research methods. These can be in any topic, but professors focus on the practice of research and writing with students in this smaller setting. BA in Art History students must take at least one of these courses in their junior year. Courses fulfilling the Junior Proseminar requirement cannot also be used to fulfill the Area Pathways requirements.

    Students may, however, take more than one Junior Proseminar in their time at SAIC, and any additional Proseminars may be used to fulfill other degree requirements. The Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism distributes a list of Junior Proseminars each semester.

  • The Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism offers more than 200 courses a year, from introductory surveys to graduate seminars. Most of the course offerings are generally divided into three major geographic areas, which correspond to three area pathways in the curriculum: 
    •  Asia
    •  Europe and America
    •  Southern Continents (Africa and Latin America)

    BA in Art History students choose two of these areas on which to focus. In both of these two area pathways, students must complete a three-course sequence of 2000-, 3000-, and 4000-level courses. Students develop their thesis topic as the culmination of one of these two area pathways of study and pursue it during the Senior Thesis Sequence in their final year. Each pathway requires three courses (9 credit hours).

    For instance, a student who chooses a pathway in Asian art might fulfill its requirements by taking Survey of Asian Art (ARTHI 2450), Buddhist Ideas in South and Southeast Asian Art (ARTHI 3473), and Asian Art Now (ARTHI 4496). Once a pathway is completed, students may continue to take courses in that area with their art history elective credits. A list of courses in each pathway is distributed by the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism to BA in Art History students.

  • The Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism focuses on modern and contemporary art in a global framework. While the majority of its offerings focus on art of the last 150 years, it also has a significant number of courses that address the longer histories of art. BA in Art History students are required to take at least six credit hours of courses that focus on topics before the mid-19th century in addition to ARTHI 1001: Introduction to Art History: Ancient to Modern. The Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism distributes a list of premodern courses each semester.

  • In order to graduate with a BA in Art History, all students must complete a written thesis developed over the course of the fall-spring Senior Thesis Sequence. In the fall of their senior year, students take ARTHI 4011: Senior Thesis Methodology Seminar that focuses on advanced writing and research skills as well as topic development. In the spring, BA in Art History students work closely with a faculty member in ARTHI 4012: Senior Thesis Writing Seminar to complete and submit the written document. These classes cannot be taken out of sequence or substituted. They are only offered each once a year.

  • Any student who anticipates graduating mid-year should plan to take the Senior Thesis Sequence in preceding academic year. In other words, two of the three of a BA in Art History student’s last three semesters must be taken over a full academic year at SAIC.

  • Theses are generally 35 to 50 pages in length and should demonstrate the student’s deep knowledge on a topic in art history of their choosing. They should include all relevant images and be formatted according to established guidelines. All theses are due by the last day of the spring semester in order for the student to graduate.

  • Once admitted, all BA in Art History students will be advised by the Director of Undergraduate Programs in Art History or another faculty member from the department. BA in Art History students should meet each semester with their Art History adviser to determine course selections and discuss the development of their research interests. In addition, BA in Art History students are also encouraged to take advantage of SAIC’s Office of Academic Advising for any assistance with school-wide curricular requirements and credit audits. There will also be possibilities for graduate student mentors for advanced BA in Art History students.

  • Courses designated in the SAIC curriculum as “off-campus study” can be found in studio, Liberal Arts, and Art History. These credits can be taken in one of the many study abroad trips organized by SAIC each winter and summer term, in a designated class during the regular semesters that has a substantial off-campus component or be fulfilled through internships coordinated by SAIC’s Cooperative Education Program. BA in Art History students are required to take three of their credit hours in off-campus courses. These credits may come from any division and may also be used to meet other degree requirements.

  • SAIC is a non-grading institution, and students in the BA in Art History program will not receive traditional grades for coursework. Students may request written evaluations for each class, but this is the responsibility of the student to solicit and maintain these records. Any students applying for graduate school, internships, or other opportunities may request from the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism a statement of principle about its non-grading philosophy. Students who intend to make such applications are encouraged to keep copies of their research papers and exams for further information about their success at SAIC.

  • Existing students who are pursuing an exchange semester or summer courses abroad may petition Academic Advising to have foreign language courses transferred to SAIC to meet the 9-credit-hour language requirement. Final approval to take language classes off-campus is determined by the Department of Liberal Arts. During the semesters, students may also petition to take advanced foreign languages and foreign languages not offered by SAIC at nearby Roosevelt University. (Those students should contact the Study Abroad Office.)

  • No. The foreign language requirement is in place to insure that students have basic ability to engage with research materials in other languages. Consequently, only study in written languages fulfills this requirement.

Take the Next Step

For questions about applications for first-year and transfer students, visit the undergraduate admissions web page or contact SAIC's Office of Admissions at admiss@saic.edu or 800.232.7242. 

Current SAIC students should contact:

Dr. Daniel Quiles
Undergraduate Coordinator
dquile@saic.edu

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