ARTHIST 1A: Introduction to the Visual Arts: Prehistoric through Medieval (CLASSICS 56)
A survey of the art and architecture from the cave paintings of Lascaux to the Gothic Cathedrals of France; the material is organized both chronologically and thematically and covers a multiplicity of religions: pagan, Christian, and Islamic.
Last offered: Winter 2017
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ARTHIST 1B: Introduction to the Visual Arts: History of Western Art from the Renaissance to the Present
This course surveys the history of Western painting from the start of the 14th century to the late 20th century and our own moment. Lectures introduce important artists (Giotto, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Goya, Manet, Matisse, Pollock, and others), and major themes associated with the art of particular periods and cultures. The course emphasizes training students to look closely at - and to write about - works of art.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Davies, J. (PI)
;
Filreis, K. (PI)
;
Nemerov, A. (PI)
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more instructors for ARTHIST 1B »
Instructors:
Davies, J. (PI)
;
Filreis, K. (PI)
;
Nemerov, A. (PI)
;
Smigas, B. (PI)
;
Terss, M. (PI)
;
Vartikar, J. (PI)
;
Yingling, E. (PI)
ARTHIST 2: Asian Arts and Cultures (JAPAN 60)
An introduction to major monuments, themes, styles, and media of East and South Asian visual arts, in their social, literary, religious, and political contexts. Through close study of primary monuments of architectural, pictorial, and sculptural arts and related texts, this course will explore ritual and mortuary arts; Buddhist arts across Asia; narrative and landscape images; and courtly, urban, monastic, and studio environments for art from Bronze Age to modern eras.
Last offered: Winter 2018
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 3: Introduction to World Architecture (CLASSICS 54)
This course offers an expansive introduction to architecture and urban design from the earliest human constructions to the mid-20th century. The examples range from the Americas to Europe and the Middle East and Asia. The business of architecture, its structure and materials, are addressed in each case, because designs have to leave the paper to achieve a presence in the world, and an overriding concern is to understand architecture as a sensible manifestation of particular cultures, whether societies or individuals. To the same ends, student writing assignments will involve the analysis of local space, whether a room or a building, and then the built environment at large.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 36: Dangerous Ideas (COMPLIT 36A, EALC 36, ENGLISH 71, ETHICSOC 36X, FRENCH 36, HISTORY 3D, MUSIC 36H, PHIL 36, POLISCI 70, SLAVIC 36)
Ideas matter. Concepts such as race, progress, and equality have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like gender identity, universal basic income, and historical memory play an important role in contemporary debates in the United States. All of these ideas are contested, and they have a real power to change lives, for better and for worse. In this one-unit class we will examine these dangerous ideas. Each week, a faculty member from a different department in the humanities and arts will explore a concept that has shaped human experience across time and space. Some weeks will have short reading assignments, but you are not required to purchase any materials.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
Instructors:
Anderson, R. (PI)
ARTHIST 57Q: 10 American Photographs (AMSTUD 57Q)
Preference to sophomores. "The humor, the sadness, the EVERYTHING-ness and American-ness of these pictures!" wrote Jack Kerouac of photographer Robert Frank's iconic collection, The Americans. This seminar takes Kerouac's enthusiasm and applies it to ten American photographs, a new one each week. Examples span the medium's history and were taken as art, science, commerce, journalism, or personal mementos. Close study of the photo of the week will address how it looks and why; its history, from initial responses to later reception; and its relationship to the larger American visual and cultural context. Also under discussion: What story does this set of pictures tell about Americanness? What might another set of photos convey?
Last offered: Autumn 2017
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 100N: The Artist in Ancient Greek Society (CLASSICS 18N)
Given the importance of art to all aspects of their lives, the Greeks had reason to respect their artists. Yet potters, painters and even sculptors possessed little social standing. n nWhy did the Greeks value the work of craftsmen but not the men themselves? Why did Herodotus dismiss those who worked with their hands as "mechanics?" What prompted Homer to claim that "there is no greater glory for a man¿ than what he achieves with his own hands," provided that he was throwing a discus and not a vase on a wheel?n nPainted pottery was essential to the religious and secular lives of the Greeks. Libations to the gods and to the dead required vases from which to pour them. Economic prosperity depended on the export of wine and oil in durable clay containers. At home, depictions of gods and heroes on vases reinforced Greek values and helped parents to educate their children. Ceramic sets with scenes of Dionysian excess were reserved for elite symposia from which those who potted and painted them were excluded.n nSculptors were less lowly but even those who carved the Parthenon were still regarded as "mechanics," with soft bodies and soft minds (Xenophon) "indifferent to higher things" (Plutarch).n nThe seminar addresses these issues. Students will read and discuss texts, write response papers and present slide lectures and gallery talks on aspects of the artist's profession.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Maxmin, J. (PI)
ARTHIST 101: Introduction to Greek Art I: The Archaic Period (CLASSICS 161)
This lecture course explores Greek art and culture from 1000-480. In the beginning archaic art forms are more abstract than life-like, closer to Calder than Michelangelo. While Homer describes the rippling muscles (and egos) of his heroes, vase-painters and sculptors prefer abstraction. This changes in the 7th C. as a result of commerce with the Near East and Egypt. Imported Near Eastern bronzes and ivories awaken the Greeks to a wider range of subjects, techniques and ambitions. Later in the century, Greeks in Egypt learn to carve hard stone from Egyptian masters. Throughout the 6th C. Greek artists assimilate what they had borrowed, compete with one another, defy their teachers, test the tolerance of the gods and eventually produce works of art that speak with a Greek accent. When the Persians invade the Acropolis in 480, they find artifacts with little trace of alien influence or imprint - omens of the defiant Greek military that would prevail at Salamis and Plataea.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Maxmin, J. (PI)
ARTHIST 102: Introduction to Greek Art II: The Classical Period (CLASSICS 162)
The class begins with the art, architecture and political ideals of Periclean Athens, from the emergence of the city as the political and cultural center of Greece in 450 to its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404. It then considers how Athens and the rest of Greece proceed in the fourth century to rebuild their lives and the monuments that define them. Earlier artistic traditions endure, with subtle changes, in the work of sculptors such as Kephisodotos. Less subtle are the outlook and output of his son Praxiteles. In collaboration with Phryne, his muse and mistress, Praxiteles challenged the canons and constraints of the past with the first female nude in the history of Greek sculpture. His gender-bending depictions of gods and men were equally audacious, their shiny surfaces reflecting Plato¿s discussion of Eros and androgyny. Scopas was also a man of his time but pursued different interests. Drawn to the inner lives of men and woman, his tormented Trojan War heroes and victims are still scarred by memories of the Peloponnesian War, and a world away from the serene faces of the Parthenon. His famous Maenad, a devotee of Dionysos who has left this world for another, belongs to the same years as Euripides' Bacchae and, at the same time, anticipates the torsion and turbulence of Bernini and the Italian Baroque. In the work of these and other fourth century personalities, the stage is set for Alexander the Great and his conquest of a kingdom extending from Greece to the Indus River. (Formerly
CLASSART 102)
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Maxmin, J. (PI)
ARTHIST 103S: Introduction to American Art (AMSTUD 103S)
How do images tell stories about the people who made them and the places they depict? How can we encounter the histories of America in works of art and why should we care about encountering them? This course will explore such questions by surveying some of the most compelling paintings, sculptures, films, photographs, prints, and decorative arts produced in the United States from the Colonial period to our present moment. In class lectures and discussions, our goal will be to articulate how pictures from the past shape and construct our sense of American history. Works by important artists such as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Jacob Lawrence, among others, will help students to understand and express how Images have power, and how art continues to matter today.
Last offered: Summer 2018
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