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

Art History: Ancient through Medieval

This course introduces the history of art from prehistory through the Middle Ages. Beginning with the cave paintings of prehistoric France and Spain, this course surveys the visual arts and architecture of ancient Egypt and the ancient Near East, the Classical Greek and Roman worlds, and finally medieval Europe. This course also provides comparative global examples to understand Western movements in context. We will consider a variety of media (sculpture, pottery, wall painting, mosaics, and manuscripts as well as architecture) as meaningful expressions of their historical contexts. The basic principles of visual analysis are taught and utilized; students are also introduced to fundamental methods of art history to question how art and architecture function in society. This course also includes a visit to and analysis of artwork at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Image Credit: Unknown, Hatshepsut, 1479–1458 BCE. Red Granite.

Art History: Renaissance through Modern

This course introduces the history of art from the early Renaissance in Europe to the present in Europe and the U.S. It surveys the artists, architects, and art movements that constitute the canon of Western art since the Renaissance with an eye to examining how society influences artistic production. The role of patronage, individual artistic personalities, religion, war and peace, and attitudes about gender are explored throughout and compared across geographic boundaries. This course provides comparative global examples to understand Western movements in context. The basic principles of visual analysis are taught and utilized; students are also introduced to fundamental methods of art history such as iconography, formalism, and social art history. This course also includes a visit to and analysis of artwork at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Image Credit: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814. Oil on canvas. The Louvre.

Ways of Seeing

Image Credit: John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972.

Global Japan: Art, Anime, & Visual Culture

This course considers the global trajectory of Japanese art and visual culture from 1945 to 2016. From sushi to karaoke to martial arts, Japanese goods have permeated US markets. This class seeks to understand this phenomenon in the realm of art and visual culture through the analysis of diverse material including advertising, animation, comics, film, graphic design, installation, mascot culture, painting, photography, popular music, and street fashion. Grounded in art historical and visual studies methods, with supplementary readings from anthropology and media studies, this class will investigate issues such as the overlap between comics and contemporary art; Japanese and American approaches to animation; and the influence of Japanese graphic design on product packaging. The course will proceed thematically to address issues of nationalism, race, gender, domesticity, consumer culture, subculture, environment, minority representation, and the post-human through lecture and discussion, individual and group work, and film and video screenings. Our goal will be to critically interpret the role of Japanese art and visual culture in an increasingly interconnected world.