Portfolio categories: <span>Art History</span>

Japanese Woodblock Prints

Explore the history and evolution of Japanese woodblock prints from their inception to current applications in contemporary art. How do we read woodblock prints? How do we understand the diversity of traditional subjects–from actors to courtesans to landscapes? How were these prints interpreted (and appropriated) by audiences outside of Japan? And how do prints influence popular culture? This course offers a deep dive into the dynamic history of one artistic medium.

Image Credit: Yōshū (Hashimoto) Chikanobu, Nobility in the Evening Cool (Koki nōryō no zu), 1887. Polychrome woodblock print. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Arts of Korea

This course is an introduction to the history of art on the Korean peninsula. Beginning in the Neolithic era, it offers a survey of significant artistic developments through the Three Kingdoms, Goryeo, and Joseon periods, in addition to works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will explore a range of media, including ceramic vessels, sculptures, paintings, textiles, and architecture. Key artifacts and artistic traditions are discussed chronologically with their political, religious, and historical contexts. Korea will be framed in context with its East Asian neighbors to showcase its crucial role in the transmission of art and aesthetics across space and time.

Image Credit: Unknown. Pojaggi (wrapping cloth). Made of ivory silk. Top of multicolored silk patchwork. Loop handle attached to center. British Museum.

History of World Architecture

This introductory course explores the history of architecture from an inclusive, cross-cultural perspective. Proceeding topically through diverse examples from across the globe, students will examine the various ways that individuals and groups responded to religious, political, social, and cultural needs through the creation of built environments. From practical solutions to monumental expressions of power, students will study the role of culture in undergirding regional construction, style, and form. This course examines both local approaches to architectural challenges and shared values that give rise to hybrid structures.

Image Credit: Karol M., Taos Pueblo, n.d. Reproduced under Creative Commons.

History of Photography

Explore the history of photography as an artistic medium, a cultural expression, a technological marvel, and a social text. During our class we will travel around the globe, analyzing photographs from Europe, the United States, and various international contexts. In addition to exploring photography as an artistic medium, we will look at the cultural discourse of photography, and engage in discussions on ethics, nationalism, gender, race, mass culture, and memory. Accordingly, the course includes readings from disciplines as diverse as art history, visual studies, visual anthropology, and sociology. Covering over a century of photographic practice, students will gain the ability to deeply understand and analyze the shifting medium of photography and its sociocultural contexts.