111 - 120 of 188 results for: ARTHIST

This course explores the relationship between art and politics in twentieth century Africa. Artistic production and consumption is considered in the context of various major political shifts, from the experience of colonialism to the struggle against Apartheid. Each week we will look closely at different works of art and examine how artists and designers responded to such challenges as independence, modernization and globalization. We will look at painting, sculpture, religious art, public and performance art, photography and film. How western perceptions and understanding of African art have shifted, and how museums have framed African art throughout the twentieth century will remain important points of discussion throughout the course.

This course examines the ways in which fashion has figured in the construction of modern experience and how it has been represented in the visual arts, primarily in Europe and the United States between about 1850 and 1965. Alongside the emergence of haute couture, the rise of the ready-to-wear industry during this period coincided with the consolidation of the department store; these institutions contributed to the development of a culture of consumption and display that continues to shape our lives today. Manet, Degas and other Impressionist painters were sensitive the nuances of fashion, which they, like Baudelaire, saw as an aspect of modernity indispensable to their art. Clothing was no less significant in the context of the Russian revolution, when Alexander Rodchenko, for example, outfitted himself in a home-made version of workers' overalls in order to reinforce his identification with factory laborers and thereby to suggest the breaking down of class distinctions. The course also explores the significance of fashion for an abstract painter like Piet Mondrian, but, more to the point, we look at how Mondrian's work was appropriated to the world of fashion by Yves Saint-Laurent, who assured that Mondrian's signature geometric style would become instantly recognizable and eventually function as a hugely popular brand. The circuits through which we can trace the historical trajectory of fashion will illuminate its importance for understanding many facets of modern culture.

This course will take place in Washington D.C.

Examines the pivotal figures, movements, themes and practices of art in the United States and Europe, from the conclusion of World War 2 to the end of the 1960s. Emphasis is on the changed nature of the avant-garde after the catastrophic events of midcentury. Topics include: modern art, ideology and the Cold War; the rise of consumer society and the "Society of the Spectacle"; concepts of medium specificity; the impact of new media and technologies on postwar art making; the role of the artist as worker and activist. Movements include: Abstract Expressionism, Art Informel, Pop, minimalism, process, performance conceptual art. An introductory art history course is recommended.

Many iconic works in the history of art draw their power and significance from the place in which they are sited or installed. The cave paintings of Altamira, Spain; Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and the monumental "earthworks" made in the deserts of the American Southwest during the 1960s are just a few examples showcasing the important relationship between art and place. In this seminar we will explore how works of art throughout history create a sense of place; and how place, in turn, changes the interpretation of works of art. We will learn how to analyze works of art in terms of their immediate contexts and surroundings, whether temples, museums, spaces of the city or unexpected environments, charting the historical meanings of place in the process. We will look at a range of examples throughout time, from prehistory to the present day. A critical feature of the seminar will be to consider works of art outside the classroom, on both the Stanford campus and beyond. Possible field trips include visits to Alcatraz Prison (where the famous Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, will install a new work in the fall of 2014)

This course investigates multiple histories of photography. It begins in early nineteenth-century Europe with the origins of the medium and ends in the United States on September 11, 2001, a day that demonstrated the limits of photographic seeing. Rather than stabilizing any single trajectory of technological iterations, the course is more interested in considering the ¿work¿ performed by photography. Through historical case studies, it considers how `to photograph¿ is to order and to construct the world; to incite action and to persuade; to describe and to document; to record and to censor; to wound; to heal.

This course focuses on issues of race, gender, and sexuality in American art and criticism from 1972 to the present. How have the terms of racial identity and sexual difference shaped the production and reception of contemporary art across the last four decades? What status has the body--and more specifically, the body of the artist--been accorded within recent work on identity and difference? Throughout the course of the semester, we will be particularly attentive to issues of racial and sexual stereotype. What critical or subversive uses have contemporary artists found for pictorial stereotype? How have stereotypes of race, gender, and sexuality been recycled in order to be mocked or deconstructed?

Major figures, themes, and movements of contemporary art from the 80s to the present. Readings on the neo-avant garde; postmodernism; art and identity politics; new media and technology; globalization and participatory aesthetics. Prerequisite: ARTHIST 155, or equivalent with consent of instructor.

Changes marking the transition from medieval to early modern Japanese society that generated a revolution in visual culture, as exemplified in subjects deemed fit for representation; how commoners joined elites in pictorializing their world, catalyzed by interactions with the Dutch.