The history of art embodies the human imagination, human history, and the rich tapestry of human cultures in a memorable and accessible form. Art history is an examination of how images and monuments communicate and how they function in society: to teach us, move us, and to exalt us – and also, occasionally, to mislead us and to sway our opinions against our better judgment. The study of art provides an access to other cultures, other eras, and other ways of thinking, and will prepare you for your junior year abroad and for an entire lifetime of thinking and living with a global and historical perspective.
The art history major and minor are offered through the Department of World Languages and Cultural Studies. The art history major requires 38-40 hours of coursework. The art history minor requires 24 hours of coursework.
4.00
A survey of the art of western civilization from prehistoric caves to the cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are presented in their historical context. Course covers Egyptian, Ancient Near Eastern, Greek, Roman, early Islamic, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A survey of the art of Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present. Works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are presented in their historical context. Course covers the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Post-Modernism.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
Chosen from among the following courses. At least one of the six-eight courses must be ARH 401, The Seminar in Art History. ARH 401 may be taken more than once when topic varies.
4.00
An examination of the civic, religious, and domestic art and architecture of the Ancient Mediterranean cultures of Greece and Rome. Temples, forums, basilicas, city planning, sculpture, pottery, wall painting, mosaics, and engineering achievements will be examined in their cultural contexts.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Religious and secular painting, sculpture and architecture and the minor arts in the context of medieval civilization. Examples of mosaic, ivory carvings, manuscript illumination, enamel work, stained glass, altarpieces, fresco painting, basilica churches, monasteries, and cathedrals from early Christian, Byzantine, Barbarian, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic periods included.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Painting, sculpture and architecture of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in Italy viewed in their cultural context. Issues covered include the search for ideal form, the tools of realism, changes in patronage, and the development of portraiture. Artists include Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of 17th and 18th century painting, sculpture and architecture in Italy, Spain and Northern Europe. Artists include Rembrandt, Rubens, Caravaggio, Bernini, Poussin, Velasquez, Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Chardin, and Hogarth.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Landscape painting and Impressionism in European painting. Artists include David, Ingres, Friedrich , Constable, Delacroix, Goya, Courbet, Millet, Daumier, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Cassatt.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of European painting and sculpture from around 1880 to 1940, including Symbolism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism, Constructivism, De Stijl, The Bauhaus, Dada and Surrealism. Artists include Gauguin, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Kandinsky, Picasso, Braque, Malevich, Mondrian, Duchamp, Masson, Magritte, Dali and Ernst. Normally offered alternate years.
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of American painting, sculpture, photography and architecture from the colonial period through WWII. Artists include the Freake limner, Smibert, Copley, West, Stuart, Jefferson, Whistler, Sargent, Eakins, Homer, Ryder, Bierstadt, Cole Church, Bingham, Lane, Hosmer, Inness, Sloan, Sullivan, Wright, Hopper, Sheeler, Davis, Shahn, O Keefe, Dove, Hartley, Marin, Bellows, Riis, Hine, Stieglitz, Strand, Weston, Steichen and Lange.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Painting, sculpture, and architecture of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Northern Europe, viewed in their historical context. Issues included the invention of oil painting, the development of woodcut and engraving, the effect of the Reformation on art, and the relationship to the Renaissance in Italy. Artists include van Eyck, Durer and Brueghel.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of European and American art since WWII, including Abstract Expressionism, Colorfield Painting, Pop Art, Minimalism, Neo-Dada, Happenings and Performance Art, Earth Art, Feminism, Neo-Expressionism and Post-Modernism. Artists include Bacon, Giacometti, Hofmann, Pollock, De Kooning, Frankenthaler, Rothko, Newman, Stella, Judd, Andre, Hesse, Calder, David Smith, Serra, Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Smithson, Holt, Christo, Nevelson, Kaprow, Kosuth, Kruger, Sherman, Baldessari, Salle, Polke, Basquiat, Kiefer, and Haring.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
This course examines the art world of the past 20 or so years with special attention to the roles and exhibition practices of contemporary art museums and galleries. Questions addressed will include: Who are the major artists and what are the major trends in todays artworld? What civic and educational roles have museums played historically, and what are their roles today? How do different approaches to exhibit display and interpretation fulfill those roles? Class visits and assignments at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and other local venues will examine these issues in practical application. This course fulfills the ECR requirement.
Offered Fall Term
Expanded Classroom Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
This course explores the rich cultural heritage of New England from the late seventeenth century to the early decades of the twentieth. Particular attention will be paid to the role that New England and the city of Boston played within a national cultural context and in shaping our ideas of a distinctly New England aesthetic. One of the goals of this course is to explore the idea of the imagined and idealized New England, which has come to serve as a nostalgic symbol of Americas past. Through an examination of paintings, sculpture, photography, architecture, and material culture, the class offers an in-depth look at the ways New England developed its distinctive character and personality, and how its visual culture has shaped the region.
Alternates Fall & Spring
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
4.00
This course covers women artists from the sixteenth century to the present as well as the new direction of art-historical scholarship developed by feminist art historians during recent decades.
Offered Spring Term
Cultural Diversity Opt A,Cultural Diversity Opt B,BFA Humanities Requirement,Cultural Diversity BFA,
4.00
An introduction to the study of photographs. The history of the medium in Europe and America from its invention to the present. Lectures address photographic theory and methodology, and photographs are studied both as art objects and as historical artifacts. Topics include portraiture, documentary photography and photojournalism, Pictorialism and art photography, landscape photography, and issues of gender, race,identity, and the body.
Occasional
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
Permission of instructor needed
4.00
Topic will vary from year to year.
Offered Spring Term
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
An independent study form must be submitted to the CAS Deans Office.
1.00- 4.00
Students meet with a departmental faculty member to pursue advanced studies in areas of particular interest to them.
Occasional
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
Two of the eight upper-level courses may be taken outside of the Department of World Languages and Cultural Studies, through the art history offerings at NESAD, or in related areas of visual culture such as the philosophy of art, photojournalism, advertising, cinema, and select 3-credit studio art and design courses, such as the following:(Other courses may be permitted at the discretion of the major advisor.)
3.00
This course concentrates on the traditional techniques of observational drawing. Fundamental principles and elements of drawing are introduced in structured lessons and exercises, which are supplemented by additional outside assignments. Foundation Drawing I stresses the development of visual skills as well as the broad use of drawing concepts, vocabulary, techniques and variety of materials.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
ADF S101, ADF S143
3.00
In this introductory course, students will learn to accurately perceive relationships of shape, form, color and value, and to translate that information through the medium of paint. In a series of in-class and outside projects on canvas, prepared paper and panel, students will explore various approaches to the use of acrylic and oil paint. Emphasis will be placed on the development of disciplined technical skills as well as the exploration of paintings potential as a medium of communication and creative visual expression.
Offered Spring Term
Intended for majors only
3.00
This course features a hands-on approach to the study of color as students create, modify and compare hues, values and strengths through the direct mixing and application of paint. Also explored will be issues of color harmony, chromatic light, space, color assimilation, and color psychology, as well as past and present views on the use of color in art and design. This intensive focus on the specific issues of color gives students experience with and flexibility in the use of color in their work.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
3.00
The focus of this course is the fundamental logic and structure of two-dimensional organization. Emphasis will be placed on the essential elements of visual language: line, shape, value and texture. Students will learn to develop dynamic approaches to visual problem solving by combining these elements into a unified whole. Skills will include technical proficiency in a variety of wet and dry media, appropriate presentation of work, and the ability to discuss work critically.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
ADF S151, ADF S551, ADF S166, or ADF S566
3.00
This course focuses on the fundamental elements of three-dimensional form. Line, plane and volume will be explored as students develop visual analysis and critical thinking skills in the round. The role of scale, proportion, structure, surface, light and display will be addressed, as students create forms that activate space and engage the viewer. The course will proceed from work with simple forms and techniques to more challenging and comprehensive problems addressing both additive and subtractive methods.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
ADF-182 and the Fine Art Program Directors consent.
4.00
This course introduces the students to Italian Renaissance art, artists and culture from the first evidence in the Italian Gothic (around the 1260s) to the Early and High Renaissance, predominantly in Florence and Venice, up to the 1600s. The course will survey the history of painting, sculpture and architecture as we study the works individually, for their formal elements and visual importance, but also within their aesthetic, historic, political and cultural context. Class discussion and a visual analysis of works of art will encourage personal interpretation and critical thinking. A list of terms related to the Renaissances introduces the language of art. Normally offered during the summer. Offered in Italy only.
Expanded Classroom Requirement
4.00
The coursework introduces students to the artistic and visual traditions from South and East Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas. In addition to the material culture of the particular region under study, the coursework will consider socio-political ideals, religious belief systems, and cultural principles that shaped or informed the work and the ideology of civilizations beyond the Western hemisphere. Comparative analysis among non-western and western traditions will be used to critically analyze the salient points of influence, rejection and modifications of aesthetic affinities. Class lectures will be supplemented with museum seminars specifically the rich non-western collections at the MFA, Boston. Guided field trips to the museum will allow students to formally analyze the works of art discussed in lecture and text material.
Occasional
Cultural Diversity Opt B,Cultural Diversity BFA,Asian Studies,Humanities & History,Expanded Classroo
4.00
A chronological survey of South Asian art (2300 BCE - 1750 CE) including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Examination of art and architecture from their first and still mysterious beginnings in the Indus Valley, through the great masterpieces of Buddhist and Hindu art to the coming of Islam, including the eclectic culture of the Mughal courts and the golden age of miniature paintings. Consideration is given to the multiple aspects of patronage in Indian culture - religious, political, economic - through case studies of individual works of art and architecture. (Formerly HUM 345)
Humanities & History,Cultural Diversity Opt B,Humanities Literature Requirement,Asian Studies
4.00
An introduction to the role of photography in the journalistic process. A discussion of photography as communication and a survey of the history of photography.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
Humanities & History
4.00
Theoretical and practical applications of communication are considered in terms of advertising strategies and campaigns for media.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
4.00
Film history from 1895 - 1940. An introduction to the language and technology of cinema as developed by pioneering filmmakers, and a basic discussion of aesthetics and criticism of film. Key films from the silent era through Orson Welles Citizen Kane.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
4.00
Problems of women at work and at war, in love, marriage and pregnancy, as seen in Hollywood films, both old and new, and in documentaries. The roles of women are examined historically, psychologically, sociologically, and cinematically. Normally offered yearly.
Offered Fall Term
Humanities & History
4.00
Film history from 1940 until 1970. Includes an emphasis on film aesthetics, criticism, and history from World War II through the end of the Hollywood studio system; from film noir to Italian Neo-Realism to the French New Wave.
Offered Spring Term
Humanities & History
4.00
A survey of films produced in the German speaking countries from the 1920s to the present. Includes the Weimar republic, the Nazi period, postwar production from both East and West Germany, and new trends since reunification. Film esthetics and socio-historical context. All films shown in German with English subtitles.
Occasional
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
Take ENG-102 or ENG-103 or Instructors consent. Span 302 is strongly recommended for Spanish and Latin American & Caribbean Studies majors and minors.
4.00
A survey of films from Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, and other Latin American countries. Taking the Cuban Revolution as our point of departure we shall explore the relationship between film and society and think about how our own understanding of a culture and its history is often shaped by the images that we receive on the screen. All films shown in Spanish with English subtitles. Discussions in English.
Occasional
Cultural Diversity Opt B,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
What counts as art? What is beauty? Are there objective standards of beauty? This course examines the nature of aesthetic experience, art, beauty, and creativity. Through the classic and contemporary readings, the students will be introduced to philosophical issues concerning the meaning of art, artistic representation, perceptions of art, interpretation, and criticism. Students will be encouraged to reflect on their own experience of art and explore the relationships among the artist, the audience, the artwork, and the world. 1 term - 4 credits. Normally offered every third year.
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
Seminar for Freshmen
ENG 101
ARH 101
MATH 130 or equivalent
Free Elective or Minor
ENG 102
ARH 102
Social Science requirement
Science (with lab)
Modern Language requirement
Art History upper-level
Cultural Diversity A or B*
Ethics requirement
Modern Language requirement
Art History upper-level
Free Elective or Minor
Non-lab Science requirement
Cultural Diversity A or B*
Art History upper-level
Free Elective or Minor
Literature requirement
Art History (or related option)
Art History upper-level
Free Elective or Minor
Art History upper-level
Art History (or Honors Thesis)
Free Elective or Minor
Free Elective or Minor
Art History (or related option)
Free Elective or Minor
Free Elective or Minor
Free Elective or Minor
*Courses fulfilling the Cultural Diversity requirement may be double-counted with core or major requirements. Please consult the relevant section in this catalog for details.
**Core requirements include an Expanded Classroom Experience. Art history majors are encouraged to fulfill this requirement through a semester or yearlong study abroad program during their junior year.
The art history minor consists of six courses (24 credits).
4.00
A survey of the art of western civilization from prehistoric caves to the cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are presented in their historical context. Course covers Egyptian, Ancient Near Eastern, Greek, Roman, early Islamic, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A survey of the art of Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present. Works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are presented in their historical context. Course covers the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Post-Modernism.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
An examination of the civic, religious, and domestic art and architecture of the Ancient Mediterranean cultures of Greece and Rome. Temples, forums, basilicas, city planning, sculpture, pottery, wall painting, mosaics, and engineering achievements will be examined in their cultural contexts.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Religious and secular painting, sculpture and architecture and the minor arts in the context of medieval civilization. Examples of mosaic, ivory carvings, manuscript illumination, enamel work, stained glass, altarpieces, fresco painting, basilica churches, monasteries, and cathedrals from early Christian, Byzantine, Barbarian, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic periods included.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Painting, sculpture and architecture of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in Italy viewed in their cultural context. Issues covered include the search for ideal form, the tools of realism, changes in patronage, and the development of portraiture. Artists include Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of 17th and 18th century painting, sculpture and architecture in Italy, Spain and Northern Europe. Artists include Rembrandt, Rubens, Caravaggio, Bernini, Poussin, Velasquez, Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Chardin, and Hogarth.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Landscape painting and Impressionism in European painting. Artists include David, Ingres, Friedrich , Constable, Delacroix, Goya, Courbet, Millet, Daumier, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Cassatt.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of European painting and sculpture from around 1880 to 1940, including Symbolism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism, Constructivism, De Stijl, The Bauhaus, Dada and Surrealism. Artists include Gauguin, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Kandinsky, Picasso, Braque, Malevich, Mondrian, Duchamp, Masson, Magritte, Dali and Ernst. Normally offered alternate years.
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of American painting, sculpture, photography and architecture from the colonial period through WWII. Artists include the Freake limner, Smibert, Copley, West, Stuart, Jefferson, Whistler, Sargent, Eakins, Homer, Ryder, Bierstadt, Cole Church, Bingham, Lane, Hosmer, Inness, Sloan, Sullivan, Wright, Hopper, Sheeler, Davis, Shahn, O Keefe, Dove, Hartley, Marin, Bellows, Riis, Hine, Stieglitz, Strand, Weston, Steichen and Lange.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Painting, sculpture, and architecture of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Northern Europe, viewed in their historical context. Issues included the invention of oil painting, the development of woodcut and engraving, the effect of the Reformation on art, and the relationship to the Renaissance in Italy. Artists include van Eyck, Durer and Brueghel.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of European and American art since WWII, including Abstract Expressionism, Colorfield Painting, Pop Art, Minimalism, Neo-Dada, Happenings and Performance Art, Earth Art, Feminism, Neo-Expressionism and Post-Modernism. Artists include Bacon, Giacometti, Hofmann, Pollock, De Kooning, Frankenthaler, Rothko, Newman, Stella, Judd, Andre, Hesse, Calder, David Smith, Serra, Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Smithson, Holt, Christo, Nevelson, Kaprow, Kosuth, Kruger, Sherman, Baldessari, Salle, Polke, Basquiat, Kiefer, and Haring.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
This course examines the art world of the past 20 or so years with special attention to the roles and exhibition practices of contemporary art museums and galleries. Questions addressed will include: Who are the major artists and what are the major trends in todays artworld? What civic and educational roles have museums played historically, and what are their roles today? How do different approaches to exhibit display and interpretation fulfill those roles? Class visits and assignments at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and other local venues will examine these issues in practical application. This course fulfills the ECR requirement.
Offered Fall Term
Expanded Classroom Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
This course explores the rich cultural heritage of New England from the late seventeenth century to the early decades of the twentieth. Particular attention will be paid to the role that New England and the city of Boston played within a national cultural context and in shaping our ideas of a distinctly New England aesthetic. One of the goals of this course is to explore the idea of the imagined and idealized New England, which has come to serve as a nostalgic symbol of Americas past. Through an examination of paintings, sculpture, photography, architecture, and material culture, the class offers an in-depth look at the ways New England developed its distinctive character and personality, and how its visual culture has shaped the region.
Alternates Fall & Spring
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
4.00
This course covers women artists from the sixteenth century to the present as well as the new direction of art-historical scholarship developed by feminist art historians during recent decades.
Offered Spring Term
Cultural Diversity Opt A,Cultural Diversity Opt B,BFA Humanities Requirement,Cultural Diversity BFA,
4.00
An introduction to the study of photographs. The history of the medium in Europe and America from its invention to the present. Lectures address photographic theory and methodology, and photographs are studied both as art objects and as historical artifacts. Topics include portraiture, documentary photography and photojournalism, Pictorialism and art photography, landscape photography, and issues of gender, race,identity, and the body.
Occasional
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
Permission of instructor needed
4.00
Topic will vary from year to year.
Offered Spring Term
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
4.00
A survey of the art of western civilization from prehistoric caves to the cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are presented in their historical context. Course covers Egyptian, Ancient Near Eastern, Greek, Roman, early Islamic, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A survey of the art of Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present. Works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are presented in their historical context. Course covers the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Post-Modernism.
Offered Both Fall and Spring
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
An examination of the civic, religious, and domestic art and architecture of the Ancient Mediterranean cultures of Greece and Rome. Temples, forums, basilicas, city planning, sculpture, pottery, wall painting, mosaics, and engineering achievements will be examined in their cultural contexts.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Religious and secular painting, sculpture and architecture and the minor arts in the context of medieval civilization. Examples of mosaic, ivory carvings, manuscript illumination, enamel work, stained glass, altarpieces, fresco painting, basilica churches, monasteries, and cathedrals from early Christian, Byzantine, Barbarian, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic periods included.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Painting, sculpture and architecture of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in Italy viewed in their cultural context. Issues covered include the search for ideal form, the tools of realism, changes in patronage, and the development of portraiture. Artists include Giotto, Masaccio, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of 17th and 18th century painting, sculpture and architecture in Italy, Spain and Northern Europe. Artists include Rembrandt, Rubens, Caravaggio, Bernini, Poussin, Velasquez, Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Chardin, and Hogarth.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Landscape painting and Impressionism in European painting. Artists include David, Ingres, Friedrich , Constable, Delacroix, Goya, Courbet, Millet, Daumier, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Cassatt.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of European painting and sculpture from around 1880 to 1940, including Symbolism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism, Constructivism, De Stijl, The Bauhaus, Dada and Surrealism. Artists include Gauguin, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Kandinsky, Picasso, Braque, Malevich, Mondrian, Duchamp, Masson, Magritte, Dali and Ernst. Normally offered alternate years.
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
A study of American painting, sculpture, photography and architecture from the colonial period through WWII. Artists include the Freake limner, Smibert, Copley, West, Stuart, Jefferson, Whistler, Sargent, Eakins, Homer, Ryder, Bierstadt, Cole Church, Bingham, Lane, Hosmer, Inness, Sloan, Sullivan, Wright, Hopper, Sheeler, Davis, Shahn, O Keefe, Dove, Hartley, Marin, Bellows, Riis, Hine, Stieglitz, Strand, Weston, Steichen and Lange.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
Painting, sculpture, and architecture of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Northern Europe, viewed in their historical context. Issues included the invention of oil painting, the development of woodcut and engraving, the effect of the Reformation on art, and the relationship to the Renaissance in Italy. Artists include van Eyck, Durer and Brueghel.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
This course examines the Spanish contributions to Modern art with a specific concentration on the Spanish masters Goya, Picasso, Dali and Miro. Through these artists, the course will explore one of the most controversial periods of Spanish and European history, from the 19th through the dawn of the 20th century. The course is offered only at Suffolks Madrid campus. Students will take advantage of the rich cultural offerings of the city by making frequent visits to the Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofia museums. (Taught in Madrid)
Occasional
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
4.00
A study of European and American art since WWII, including Abstract Expressionism, Colorfield Painting, Pop Art, Minimalism, Neo-Dada, Happenings and Performance Art, Earth Art, Feminism, Neo-Expressionism and Post-Modernism. Artists include Bacon, Giacometti, Hofmann, Pollock, De Kooning, Frankenthaler, Rothko, Newman, Stella, Judd, Andre, Hesse, Calder, David Smith, Serra, Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Smithson, Holt, Christo, Nevelson, Kaprow, Kosuth, Kruger, Sherman, Baldessari, Salle, Polke, Basquiat, Kiefer, and Haring.
Occasional
BFA Humanities Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
This course examines the art world of the past 20 or so years with special attention to the roles and exhibition practices of contemporary art museums and galleries. Questions addressed will include: Who are the major artists and what are the major trends in todays artworld? What civic and educational roles have museums played historically, and what are their roles today? How do different approaches to exhibit display and interpretation fulfill those roles? Class visits and assignments at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and other local venues will examine these issues in practical application. This course fulfills the ECR requirement.
Offered Fall Term
Expanded Classroom Requirement,Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
4.00
This course explores the rich cultural heritage of New England from the late seventeenth century to the early decades of the twentieth. Particular attention will be paid to the role that New England and the city of Boston played within a national cultural context and in shaping our ideas of a distinctly New England aesthetic. One of the goals of this course is to explore the idea of the imagined and idealized New England, which has come to serve as a nostalgic symbol of Americas past. Through an examination of paintings, sculpture, photography, architecture, and material culture, the class offers an in-depth look at the ways New England developed its distinctive character and personality, and how its visual culture has shaped the region.
Alternates Fall & Spring
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
4.00
This course covers women artists from the sixteenth century to the present as well as the new direction of art-historical scholarship developed by feminist art historians during recent decades.
Offered Spring Term
Cultural Diversity Opt A,Cultural Diversity Opt B,BFA Humanities Requirement,Cultural Diversity BFA,
4.00
An introduction to the study of photographs. The history of the medium in Europe and America from its invention to the present. Lectures address photographic theory and methodology, and photographs are studied both as art objects and as historical artifacts. Topics include portraiture, documentary photography and photojournalism, Pictorialism and art photography, landscape photography, and issues of gender, race,identity, and the body.
Occasional
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
Permission of instructor needed
4.00
Topic will vary from year to year.
Offered Spring Term
Humanities Literature Requirement,Humanities & History
An independent study form must be submitted to the CAS Deans Office.
1.00- 4.00
Students meet with a departmental faculty member to pursue advanced studies in areas of particular interest to them.
Occasional
Humanities & History,Humanities Literature Requirement
