| Introduction to African American Art |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
2065 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
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Description
This class will begin with considerations of African Diaspora identity formations and how such formations and histories relate to the broad subject of the class ¿ African Diaspora art history. We will consider the work of a number of leading artists of the African Diaspora, located throughout the world in geographic regions such as the Americas, Europe and artists emerging out of the continent of Africa itself. With African Diaspora art history being such a relatively recent addition to the canon of art history, pretty much all of the artists we look at in this class will be reflective of the modern and contemporary art history periods.
Artists include Keith Piper, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien and others whose work can be seen as emerging from a confluence of factors including migration, diaspora, history and identity. The class will use a variety of texts, most frequently catalogue essays relating to artists of the African Diaspora, many of whom are now established figures in exhibitions and biennales. 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 African Diaspora identity formations are often central to nuanced readings of these artists¿ practices.
Students are required to submit one short `reaction¿ paper each week, plus a short 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.
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Class Number
1088
Credits
3
|
| Introduction to African American Art |
Visual and Critical Studies |
2065 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
|
Description
This class will begin with considerations of African Diaspora identity formations and how such formations and histories relate to the broad subject of the class ¿ African Diaspora art history. We will consider the work of a number of leading artists of the African Diaspora, located throughout the world in geographic regions such as the Americas, Europe and artists emerging out of the continent of Africa itself. With African Diaspora art history being such a relatively recent addition to the canon of art history, pretty much all of the artists we look at in this class will be reflective of the modern and contemporary art history periods.
Artists include Keith Piper, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Sonia Boyce, Isaac Julien and others whose work can be seen as emerging from a confluence of factors including migration, diaspora, history and identity. The class will use a variety of texts, most frequently catalogue essays relating to artists of the African Diaspora, many of whom are now established figures in exhibitions and biennales. 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 African Diaspora identity formations are often central to nuanced readings of these artists¿ practices.
Students are required to submit one short `reaction¿ paper each week, plus a short 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.
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Class Number
2413
Credits
3
|
| Art, Identity, Race |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
4046 (001) |
Spring 2026 |
|
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.
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Class Number
2263
Credits
3
|
| Art Now: Contemporary Debates, Visiting Artists |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
5026 (001) |
Spring 2026 |
|
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.
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Class Number
1957
Credits
3
|
| Art Now: Contemporary Debates, Visiting Artists |
Graduate Studies |
5026 (001) |
Spring 2026 |
|
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.
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Class Number
1965
Credits
3
|
| Visualizing Slavery |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
5031 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
|
Description
Beginning in the late 18th century and continuing into the 21st century, artists have attempted to create images that represent enslavement and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This seminar begins with a consideration of the infamous 'plan of a slave ship' by an uncredited British artist and continues through a history of frequently compelling, troubling and engaging images, right up to the present-day. The seminar considers engravings, paintings, sculptures made in different parts of the world and also references images in popular culture, and representations of enslavement in postage stamps, on book covers and so on, with a focus on the work of modern and contemporary artists.
The seminar will use a variety of texts, most frequently catalogue essays relating to artists such as Kara Walker, Godfried Donkor, Keith Piper and others who have taken various aspects of enslavement as subject matter for their work. We will watch extracts of representations of enslavement on television, and film works such as Steve McQueen's '12 Years a Slave' and Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained'. Our readings will also include texts by art historians such as Marcus Wood and academics such as Catherine Hall. The texts will demonstrate the extent to which enslavement has always been, and remains, a gripping though uncomfortable subject.
Students are required to submit one short 'reaction' paper each week, plus a longer 12-15 page research paper at the end of the semester. The main emphasis of the seminar will be on active class participation.
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Class Number
2296
Credits
3
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