Course list for History of Art and Visual Culture
Academic Year 2007-2008
Fall Quarter:
10D – Presence and Power in the Visual Cultures of Asia
Art and architecture of East Asia, including China, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. In order to achieve a fuller understanding of the arts of these countries a historical, cultural, and religious context is provided. (IH, A) Kirtana Thangavelu
80A – Introduction to Architecture
Introduction to elements, technology, concepts, and semiotics of architecture in its buildings, functions, environments, societies, and history.(T5, A) Jeffrey Lieber
80T – The Art of the Body in the Pacific Islands
This course examines reversible and irreversible, permanent and ephemeral, forms of body art practiced in Oceania. Forms of body art include : tattoo, scarification, body constructions, textiles, and ornamentation. We will explore why and how people adorn themselves and/or alter their bodies. Social meanings, religious functions, and world views will be examined. (T5, A, E) Stacy Kamehiro
110A – Pre-Hispanic Mexico
The art and architecture of selected pre-Hispanic cultures from the gulf coast, central, western, and southern Mexico including the Olmec, Zapotec, Toltec, Mixtec, Mexica (Aztec), and others. (A) Carolyn Dean
114 – Buddhist Visual Worlds
Introduction to the study of Buddhist visual traditions, from their beginnings to the present day. Case studies examined with careful attention to historical, social and cultural contexts; particular emphasis on the relation of visual traditions to Buddhist practices. Enrollment restricted to sophomore, junior and senior students. (A) Nick Morrissey
131 - Media History and Theory
An introductory examination of the writing about the issue of "medium" and media theory in visual culture. Technologies, discourses and practices from all periods that use the comparison of media as a major approach to understanding the problems of the visual are highlighted. New Media, film, television, video, traditional arts, are also treated. (A) Soraya Murray
136 – German Art, 1905-1945
Expressionism, agit-prop, the Bauhaus, New Objectivity, attacks on modernism, National Socialist realism. Painting, sculpture, graphic art, and some architecture and film, studied in the context of political events from the eve of World War I to the end of World War II.(A) Donna Hunter
163A – The Mediterranean from the Rise of Christianity to the Rise of Islam
Visual Culture from the late Roman to the early Byzantine Empire. Imperial triumphal monuments, early Christian, Roman, and Jewish catacombs, frescoes, manuscripts, and mosaics. Recommended as preparation: one course from 10 series or in medieval culture. Enrollment limited to sophomore, junior, and senior students; others should contact the instructor.(A) Maria Evangelatou
185B – Topics in African Art: Gender
In Africa, relationships exist between gender and visual culture. This course examines where categories come from, differences in men’s and women’s visual cultures, and how visual cultures teach, reinforce and negotiate gender definitions. When are male/female boundaries crossed and why? (A, E) Elisabeth Cameron
190A – Theories in Architecture
How do we construct architecture in words? Which discourses do we use and what do they tell us about how we understand architecture? How are technology and the techniques of architectural representation understood? (A) Jeffrey Lieber
190O– Art and Culture Contact in Oceania
Examines impact of culture contact on Oceanic and Euro-American visual cultures in the context of "discovery," colonialism and "post" colonialism. Topics include: 18th C. visual culture; colonial identities; primitivism; syncretism; impact of Christianity; contemporary art/market; media; tourism; transnationalism; and globalization. (A, E) Stacy Kamehiro
190U – Representations of Women in Indian Art
This seminar will deal with representations of the female divinity in Indian religious imagery, with depictions of women in secular and courtly paintings. It will also examine the roles that women have played in the production of art in the Indian subcontinent.(A, E) Kirtana Thangavelu
Winter Quarter:
10E – Introduction to Visual Culture: Africa, Oceania and the Americas
A comparative study of the arts of selected cultures which developed outside the spheres of influence of the major European and Asian civilizations. Emphasis is on the function of the arts in these disparate geographic regions. (IH, A, E) Elisabeth Cameron
80G – Religion and Visual Culture in China
Introduction to study of religious currents and practices in China and their visual expression. In addition to "religious art," topics include such pivotal matters as: body concepts and practices, representations of the natural world, and logics of the built environment. (T5, A, E) Raoul Birnbaum
100A – Methods in History of Art and Visual Culture
Introduction to the major issues of method and critique in the study of art and visual culture. This course focuses on understanding the disciplinary and critical modes of scholarly inquiry in the visual arts, including the role of historical research. Course emphasizes intensive reading, discussion and writing. (W, A) Carolyn Dean, Martin Berger
104A - Byzantine Visual Culture: Politics and Religion in New Rome, 330 - 1453
The power of the visual in the empire of Constantinople (330-1453 AD). The transition from ancient Rome to medieval Byzantium. Politics and religion in court and church ceremonial. Visual expressions of Christian faith. Cultural interactions with Western Europe, Islam and the Slavic world. (A) Maria Evangelatou
106A - Religious Traditions in Indian Art
Course will examine ways in which religious traditions are embedded in (or embodied within) art of Indian sub-continent. Topics to include: Hindu Temples; Jain art; Buddhist sacred narratives and cosmology; royal, elite and popular patronage; functions of icons. (A, E)Nick Morrissey
106I - Myth In Greek And Roman Art
An investigation of how ancient Greek and Roman artists re-presented myths and legends. Will include painted pottery, sculpture, mural painting, and minor arts. Readings will include primary Greek and Latin texts as well as modern and post-modern works on methodology and critical interpretation. (A) Janina Darling
115 - Italian Renaissance Representation and Institutions
Lives of Italian Renaissance people from birth to death, examining the nature and roles of the institutions which defined human existence in this period. The visual arts will be used both illustratively and to study how institutions fashioned their images through art and architecture. Lisa Regan
138 – Modern Architecture, 1880 to 1968
An examination of the rise of international modernism in the 20th century and the complex political and social motivations behind its ideologies and movements. Topics will include the legacy of the Beaux-Arts tradition, Expressionism, Constructivism, the primacy of Le Corbusier, Weimar Germany, Fascist architecture, Corporate Modernism, Socialist Realism, and Post-Modernism, among others. (A) Jeffrey Lieber
142 – Activist Art Since 1960
An examination of art produced for social change in the United States since 1960 focusing on five cases: the Vietnam war, Chicano civil rights, the women's movement, environmental protection, and AIDS activism. (A) Jennifer González
160 – Storytelling in Asian Art
Combination of theoretical perspectives on narrative from literary criticism, rhetoric, folklore and film theory with art historical focus on images (cave temples, stone reliefs on stupas, scrolls, dance-drama, etc.) from India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Cambodia and Indonesia. (A) Nick Morrissey
178A – Victorian America
This course examines how American writers and artists negotiated the complexities of U.S. society during the nineteenth century. With emphasis on issues ranging from women's rights to laissez-faire capitalism, and from Reconstruction to manifest destiny, we consider how the era's cultural products provided artists, patrons, and audiences with metaphorical coping strategies to counteract what Victorians perceived to be the period's overwhelming social and political changes. (A) Martin Berger
181 – Environments, Installations and Sites
A study of conceptual and formal issues which have informed the production of temporary, site-specific art works since 1960. Works that seek to transform the role of the audience, to escape or remake museum and gallery spaces, to introduce environmental concerns, or to situate art in ‘the land’ or in ‘the street’ will serve as a focus. (A) Jennifer González
189Y – Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora
This course will consider contemporary art by African artists operating in metropolitan centers, as well as Afro-British, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American production. Topics of study are organized thematically and address such areas as: constructing and deconstructing the idea of Africa, cultural authenticity, Diaspora, Creolité and creolization, hybridity, cosmopolitanism, post-black, and globalism in the arts. (A, E) Soraya Murray
190D - The World of the Lotus Sutra
Close study of the principal text of East Asian Buddhism as a self-enclosed vision of reality, with careful consideration of the forms and functions of the world of visual and aural representation that it has inspired. (A) Raoul Birnbaum
190Q – Portraiture: Europe and America, 1400-1990
Western Portraiture and self-portraiture at certain key moments (early modern Italy, sixteenth-century Germany, seventeenth-century Holland, France from the reign of Louis XIV to the Revolution, contemporary US) will be explored by reading 20th-century interpretations and some primary sources. (A) Donna Hunter
191S – Gender and Sexuality in Early Modern Italy
How Renaissance art both constructed and reflected contemporary cultural notions of gender and sexuality. In particular, we will focus on ideals of women, with relation to marriage and politics; notions of masculinity and effeminacy; homosexuality; pornography. (A) Lisa Regan
Spring Quarter:
10F – Introduction to Visual Culture: The Nude in the Western Tradition
The human body without clothing in European and European-American art and visual culture from ancient Greece to the present day. Among the themes to be addressed: gender, youth and age, sexuality and sexual preference, fecundity and potency, erotic art and pornography, primitivism and the naked body of the non-European. (IH, A) Donna Hunter
80D – Museum Cultures: The Politics of Display
Explores the history of collecting and displaying art (museums, galleries, fairs) since the mid-nineteenth century and the effect of institutional changes on aesthetic conventions. Follows the history from the origins of museums and collections to contemporary critiques of institutional exclusion and misrepresentation. (T5, A) Jennifer González
80X -- Greek Eyes: Visual Culture and Power in the Ancient Greek World
The role of visual communication in ancient Greek civilization. The construction of cultural, social, political, religious and gender identities through material objects and rituals. Images of the public and private sphere, athletic and theatrical performances, mythology, pilgrimage, and magic. (T5, A) Maria Evangelatou
105R – Northern Renaissance Art
Discusses the art of the Netherlands, Germany, and the Low Countries between roughly 1400 and 1600. Major artists will include van Eyck, Campin, van der Weyden, Durer, and Bosch; themes include "realism", religion, gender, status of the artist. (A) Lisa Regan
106X– Histories of Video
Introduces students to video art and documentaries from the 1960s to the present. Topics include experiments with multi-channel and installation spaces, community television, new documentary practices, questions of interactivity and narcissism, video's role in democratizing image making by women and people of color, and the digital turn in video. (A) Soraya Murray
107B – Topics in African Visual Culture: West Africa
Explores visual cultures of West Africa through time (Nok to present). Attention will be paid to relationships between peoples and impact of European/Arab presence on visual cultures. (A, E) Elisabeth Cameron
124 – Contemporary Architecture and Critical Debates
An examination of practitioners, projects, issues, and theories in contemporary architecture circa 1968 to the present. Topics will include the architecture of aftermath, the ethics of memory and memorialization, the corporatization of museums, the role of criticism and exhibitions, and the cult of the brand-name architect. (A) Jeffrey Lieber
151A – The Native in Colonial Latin America
Indigenous contributions to colonial Spanish American visual culture including architecture, manuscripts, sculpture, painting, textiles, feather-work, and metallurgy. Focus on colonial Mexico, the Andes and California. (A, E) Carolyn Dean
154D - Buddhist Pure Lands
Conceptions of "pure lands" are a central theme of Mahayana Buddhist thought, practice, and images. This seminar focuses on critical study of scriptural texts and commentaries, visual imagery, and related ritual and meditative practices. Special emphasis on Chinese traditions. (A) Raoul Birnbaum
159D - Writing in China
Examines material and conceptual phenomena of writing in Chinese visual culture. Focuses on the intersections of places and practices of writing through various inscribed sites, ranging from oracle bones, seals, and mountain facades to hand scrolls, architecture, and contemporary art. (A) Wen-Shing Chou
179 – The Megastructure
An exploration of the conjunction of architecture, politics, and mass society in the late 1960s and 1970s. We will examine architecture’s relation to government bureaucracies, especially state intelligence agencies and financial markets, discourses on urban redevelopment, security and surveillance, utopia and distopia, and mass media. Readings will include architectural theory, political commentary, sociological critique; we will also examine the role architecture plays in 1970’s conspiracy films and political thrillers. (A) Jeffrey Lieber
183 – Mahayana Buddhism: Problems and Perspectives
Introduction to the history, rituals and practices of Mahayana Buddhism within the context of Mahayana artistic traditions from South, Southeast, and Central Asia. (A)Nick Morrissey
189V – Art of the Venetian Renaissance
This course examines the painting, sculpture, and architecture of Renaissance Venice. Systems of patronage, the social function of art, and the particular institutions of Venice will be the main focus of the course material. (A)Lisa Regan
190M – History and Visual Culture
The literature on art and visual culture in the European tradition and the critiques which have emerged in postmodern theory, particularly as these pertain to the term and concept “history.” (A) Catherine M. Soussloff
190R - Word and Image in Illuminated Byzantine manuscripts
Religious, scientific and secular manuscripts of Byzantium: how words and images interact to express and promote central concepts of Byzantine culture; serve liturgical needs or private devotion; reflect imperial ideals; diffuse moral values and knowledge; and proclaim social status and cultural affiliations. Prerequisites; course 104A. Enrollment restricted to juniors and seniors or by permission of the instructor. (A) Maria Evangelatou
190W – Pilgrimage in South Asian Religion
Examination of the role of pilgrimage in Hindu and Buddhist religious practice. Particular emphasis on art historical, epigraphic and archaeological material from pilgrimage sites associated with the biography of Sakyamuni Buddha, accounts of historical pilgrims and representations of pilgrimage sites in Asian art. (A) Nick Morrissey
191C– Iconoclasm
What happens when, to control an object, it is destroyed? Examines destruction of art as a way of ending the object's life cycle, as a device of social tension/change, and as a colonial and post-colonial mechanism of religious/political control. Prerequisite(s): course 10E or permission of instructor. Enrollment restricted to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. (A, E) Elisabeth Cameron
