Graduate Courses, Fall 2005

Please note: The online course atlas (rather than the printed course atlas) is the most current version. Last update: March 9, 2005.

ARTHIST 565: Postcolonial African Art
Kasfir -------------- T/Th  1:00-2:15 PM ---------------- Max: 5

Content:  A survey of nontraditional forms of twentieth century African art which have developed in response to the colonial and missionary experience, urbanization, and the intrusion of foreign patronage. The disruptive effects of both Islam and Christianity upon precolonial art will be analyzed, along with the "discovery" of African art by the international art market. Other topics include art as a genre of political protest in South lar art and their relationship to traditional art forms in rural areas; tourist or "airport" art and the curio trade. Particular emphasis on the self-taught urban proletarian artist as well as the graduate of Western-style university art schools.

Texts:

• Sidney Kasfir, Contemporary African Art;
• Camara Laye, The Dark Child;
• Athol Fugard, Statements;
• other readings on reserve. 

Particulars: Two or three 3-5 page critical papers (15% each); 3 in-class quizzes (15% each), final exam (20%); attendance and participation will count for the remaining points toward a grade for the course. 

ARTHIST 590: Seminar in Methods: Art Historical Research
Varner--------------- M 1:00 - 4:00 PM ----------------- Max: 10

Content: A seminar for graduate students interested in the literature and research methods of Art History.
Texts: Selected books and articles on reserve.
Particulars: Oral presentations illustrating various research methods followed by a 10-15 page essay. Grading is based on the oral and written reports as well as class participation. Course required for Art History graduate students.

ARTHIST 592: Introduction to Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
Shpuza ---------------- M 6:00 - 9:00 PM ----------------MAX: 2

Content: This course is designed to provide students interested in architecture with a basic understanding of computer-aided design and graphic analysis. Emphasizing a hands-on approach, the course is structured around a group project which is designed to let students explore the potential of the computer, not merely as a drafting and presentation instrument but as an active analytical and design aid.
Texts: TBA
Particulars: TBA

ARTHIST 592: Issues in the Conservation of Art and Cultural Properties
Renée A. Stein, Conservator-------TTh 4:00 - 5:15 PM--------MAX: 3

Content: This course will provide an introduction to the field of Art Conservation as well as an overview of the principle issues surrounding the care and preservation of cultural properties. Lecture and discussion will address historic materials and technologies, as well as aging properties, deterioration, and conservation treatment. Examples will be drawn from a wide variety of cultures and will represent diverse media, including paper, paintings, stone, metals, ceramics, archaeological remains, and historic monuments. We will examine the use of conservation science to recognize fakes or forgeries, document artists' working methods, and identify historic materials. Discussions will consider issues of aesthetics, artist’s intent, change over time, and compensation for loss or damage.
Texts: Articles to be distributed in class.
Particulars: Course format involves slide-lecture, group discussion, materials workshops, guest speakers, and hands-on work with objects. Attendance and participation in class discussion are expected. Assignments will include weekly readings, occasional short assignments, midterm and final exams, a research paper, and class presentation.

ARTHIST 596R: Internship
Rohrer

May be repeated with permission from the director of internships. Interns must be nominated by the department for internships at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, the High Museum of Art, and elsewhere. Variable credit.

ARTHIST 597R: Directed Study
Faculty; variable credit.

ARTHIST 599R: Thesis Research (Permission only)

ARTHIST 719: Women, Gender, and the Construction of Identity
Robins --------------- T 9:00-12:00 ------------------ Max: 10

Content: The social identity of any individual is made up of a number of aspects, such as age, status, gender, and social or ritual role. This identity changes over time, not only in the transitions from one life stage to the next, but also with the various roles a person may play at any given life stage. In this seminar we will explore how female images can help us understand the construction of female identities in ancient Egypt. We will examine the purposes for which these images were made and how these purposes may have affected the information the images convey; the structure of ancient Egyptian society and the hierarchy of beings that included deities and the dead as well as the living; and how female figures were represented and the roles in which they were depicted. For purposes of contextualization and comparison, we will also look at the way male figures were represented, the framework of gender and age relationships revealed by the art, and the strategies by which artists reflected cosmic and social hierarchies in their compositions. In addition, it will be necessary to consider how far the structure displayed in the art reflected actual practice within ancient Egyptian society.
Texts: Gay Robins. Women in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993; selected readings.
Particulars: participation in class discussion; presentation of readings; museum visits; 30 minute presentation of research topic; 15-20 page research paper.

ARTHIST 729: Archaic Greek Architectural Sculpture
Wescoat ----------------- TU 4:00-7:00 PM ----------------- Max:  10

Content: In this course we will examine the emergence, disposition, and meaning of sculpture on ancient Greek religious buildings, with the particular aim of elucidating the religious, political, and cultural factors that shaped Archaic and Early Classical sacred imagery. Emphasis will be placed on the time of formative development during the Archaic period, c.590-480, working with city temples and sanctuary monuments across the ancient Greek world.

Texts:

• Sarah Bancroft. Problems concerning the Archaic Akropolis in Athens,
• John Boardman. Greek Sculpture; the Archaic Period.
• Nancy Bookidis. A Study of the Use and Geographical Distribution of Architectural Sculpture in the Archaic Period.
• Brunhilde S. Ridgway. The Archaic Style in Greek Sculpture, 2nd ed.
• Brunhilde S. Ridgway, Prayers in Stone
• Articles and sections of other texts.

Particulars: In addition to weekly course work, each student will pursue a research project on which he or she will write a term paper and make a class presentation at the end of the semester.

ARTHIST 749R: Eucharistic Imagery and the Real Presence of Christ
Melion ---------------- F 12:00 - 3:00 PM -------------------- Max: 8

We will be studying the eucharistic doctrine of real presence as a source of meditative and liturgical imagery and image theory. Among the case studies to be considered are Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, Rogier van der Weyden’s Braque Triptych, Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, Pontormo’s Capponi Chapel, and Rubens’s Raising of the Cross and Descent from the Cross.

There are no textbooks, but you might find it useful to acquire Hans Belting’s Likeness and Presence (Chicago, 1994).

ARTHIST 775: Postwar Paris
Poling ---------------- Tu 1:00 - 4:00 PM ----------------- Max: 12

Content: Art in Paris during the decade following World War II, treating responses to the war and its aftermath by Picasso and other modern artists, the emergence of "new images of man," in opposition to abstract art, and the place of art in the existentialist context of the period, focusing on Sartre's discussion of artists such as Giacometti. Topics include art informel and artists' interest in Asian art and the art of the insane and other "outsiders," in the phenomenon of Art brut. Artists include Fautrier, Dubuffet, Artaud, and Michaux. Statements by the artists and texts on art by writers of the period will be examined in relation to the art, along with recent scholarship. Recent alternative views on postwar art will also be considered, including those of Bois, Buchloh, and Guilbaut. Students in other fields are welcome to work on research projects related to their area of study.
Texts: On-line reserve readings
Particulars: Class presentations, a short paper, and a research paper.

ARTHIST 775: The Architecture of Gaudi in Context
Rohrer ---------------- M 9:00 AM - noon --------------- Max: 10

Content: In this seminar we will study the work of the enigmatic Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudí, not only within the context of the development of his theory and practice, but also within the cultural, artistic, and socio-economic-political contexts of his time. We will study the evolution of his production with relation to 19th century eclecticism, turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau, and the modern movement in architecture, considering the contexts of a Barcelona undergoing major urban and cultural transformation, the politics of Catalan nationalism, and the particularities of the Catholic devotion that informed his work. We will study his formal and structural innovations with regard to their reception by Surrealists, Expressionists, Modernists and Post-modernists in an effort to understand the formation of architectural reputation.

ARTHIST 790: Teaching Art History
Fletcher--------------- W 12:50 - 2:50 PM --------------- MAX: 10

CONTENT: ARTHIST 790/791 is designed to meet the Graduate School (TATTO) requirement for a teacher training course for students in art history. It is required of those graduate students serving as TAs in ARTHIST 101/102, and is offered in concert with their teaching experience in those courses.

TEXTS:

• Stokstad, Art History , revised 2nd ed.
• Davis, Tools for Teaching

PARTICULARS: none

ARTHIST 792: British Artists of the African/Caribbean Diaspora
Chambers -------------------- W 3:00-6:00 PM ---------------------- Max: 10

Content: This course will look at issues and examples of how some Black British artists (that is to say, artists of African and African-Caribbean origin and background) have contributed to debates about history, identity and nationality in Britain and beyond over the past several decades. Covering the period of the 1930s up to the present time, the seminar will also seek to put their work into a variety of international and artistic contexts. British artists of the African/Caribbean Diaspora have often attempted to position themselves within wider international contexts, and yet, simultaneously, they have become an integral component of the British art scene. Whilst the work of older artists to be examined in the seminar ­ such as Ronald Moody and Aubrey Williams ­ could be said to eschew overtly racial issues, the work of younger artists such as Faisal Abdu'Allah and Donald Rodney frequently embraces debates about what it means to be both Black and British ­ conditions that have historically been regarded by many as being mutually exclusive. Many of these artists have produced work which exposes and highlights the often uneasy state of being critically distanced from 'British' history and cultural sensibilities and yet, at the same time, being very much an integral component of that very same history.
Text: Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980's Britain by David A. Bailey, Ian Baucom and Sonia Boyce (editors), Duke University Press, 2005.
Particulars: Students are required to produce response papers, relating to the previous week's class. Students are also required to make presentations, of between 30 - 45 minutes duration, one presentation per week, in the weeks following fall break. A 5,000 word paper, relating to some aspect of the seminar, must be submitted at the end of the semester.

ARTHIST 796R: Internship
Rohrer

ARTHIST 797R: Directed Study
Faculty
Variable Credit (1 - 12)

ARTHIST 799R: Dissertation Research
Faculty
Variable Credit (1 - 12)

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