Autumn 2025 Course Offerings

History of Art 2001 ONLINE - Western Art I: Ancient and Medieval Worlds

Course Designer - Professor Karl Whittington, Instructor - Professor Kristen Adams

Class # 25346 | ONLINE | Full Semester | ASYNCHRONOUS

Course Designer - Professor Karl Whittington, Instructor - TBD

Class #27024 | ONLINE | 7 Weeks, Session 2 |  | ASYCHRONOUS

This course examines the history of Western Art (architecture, painting and sculpture) from the third millennium BCE through the fifteenth century CE. Rather than a complete “survey” of that period, the course will concentrate its attention on a select group of representative monuments. We will examine not only the monuments themselves, but also the historical context in which they were produced in order to explore their purpose and the way that they functioned. There will be a strong emphasis on visual analysis and understanding how visual forms convey meaning and relate to the viewer. Our goal is to impart not only a body of knowledge but also a set of critical tools, which you should be able to apply to even material not specifically covered in this course. 

Image: Hagia Sophia

GEN foundations: Literary, Visual and Performing arts (LVPA) and Historical and Cultural Studies 

History of Art 2001 HONORS - Western Art I: Ancient and Medieval Worlds

Instructor Sarah Schellinger

Class #35328 | IN PERSON | MON & WED 12:45 - 2:05

This course examines the history of Western Art (architecture, painting, sculpture, and other media) from the Palaeolithic through the Medieval periods. Rather than a complete survey of each era, the course will focus on a select group of representative objects and monuments. We will analyze these pieces using in-depth visual analysis as well as primary textual sources to fully understand the breadth and depth of their importance. The goal is to impart not only a body of knowledge but also a set of critical tools that can be applied to a wide range of visual material found in other courses and disciplines. Additionally, we will engage with secondary sources that will introduce the historical context in which the objects and monuments were produced. This will allow us to investigate how social, political, and cultural ideologies influence the production and reception of material culture. By the end of this course, you will have developed an analytical and interpretive vocabulary that can be applied to all art historical periods.

GEN foundations: Literary, Visual and Performing arts (LVPA) and Historical and Cultural Studies 

History of Art 2002 - Western Art II: Europe and the United States, Renaissance to Modern

Professor Andrew Shelton 

Class # 17784 (+Recitation)  | IN PERSON | LECTURE: MON & WED 10:20 - 11:15 | Recitation: FRI 10:20 - 11:15 or 11:30 - 12:25 

Course Designer - Professor Jody Patterson

Class # 21331 | ONLINE | ASYNCHRONOUS

This course examines the art of Europe and the United States from about 1400 to the present, with an emphasis on developments in painting. Rather than a traditional survey of that period, the course will concentrate on a select group of representative works that shaped—and were shaped by — Western social, political, economic, and intellectual history. There will be a strong emphasis, too, on questions of analysis and interpretation —including, in some cases, the changing history of the artworks’ reception. The goal will be to impart not only a body of knowledge but also a set of critical tools, including visual literacy, that students will be able to apply to a wide range of material not specifically covered in the course.

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual and Performing Arts (LVPA) and Historical and Cultural studies

History of Art 2002 HONORS - Western Art II: Europe and the United States, Renaissance to Modern

Instructor Julie Defossez

Class #35331 | IN PERSON | WED & FRI 11:10 - 12:30

This course examines the art of Europe and the United States from about 1400 to the present, with an emphasis on developments in painting. Rather than a traditional survey of that period, the course will concentrate on a select group of representative works that shaped—and were shaped by — Western social, political, economic, and intellectual history. There will be a strong emphasis, too, on questions of analysis and interpretation —including, in some cases, the changing history of the artworks’ reception. The goal will be to impart not only a body of knowledge but also a set of critical tools, including visual literacy, that students will be able to apply to a wide range of material not specifically covered in the course.

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual and Performing Arts (LVPA) and Historical and Cultural studies

History of Art 2003 - The Art & Visual Culture of East Asia

Professor Christina Wei-Szu Burke Mathison

Class # 17787 (+Recitation)  | IN PERSON | LECTURE: MON & WED 11:30 - 12:25 | Recitation: FRI 10:20 - 11:15 or 11:30 - 12:25

This course offers an introduction to the visual arts in East Asia, from the Neolithic through today. The course examines in particular the relationship between cultural production and changing notions of authority in East Asia in a comparative historical perspective. Case studies will be drawn from China, Korea, Japan, and neighboring regions. Issues examined include: religion and early state formation; courtly culture and monumentality; the development of urban popular culture; the age of empire; art and modernization.

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual and Performing arts (LVPA) and Historical and Cultural Studies 

History of Art 2009 - Introduction to African American Art

Professor Sam Aranke

Class #35342 | IN PERSON | TUE & THUR 9:35 - 10:55 

This class argues that the history of African American Art offers us, in practice and theory, histories of “high” and “low” art, everyday objects, and ways of seeing. By conducting a chronological approach to African American Art, we will trace moments of historical continuity as well as emerging practices in order to better understand how the methods, materials, and meanings bracketed under the category of African American Art have been a site of innovation, experimentation, and avant-garde practice. We will spend this semester juxtaposing conventional approaches to art (painting, sculpting, line drawing, installation) with innovative approaches to visual culture (found objects, everyday materials, contemporary performance). Central to our approach is the role of visual, performing, and expressive arts as cultural objects that help us study how race, ethnicity, and gender diversity are formative to African American art and its histories.

Image: Romare Bearden, The Dove, 1964, Cut-and-pasted printed paper, gouache, pencil, and colored pencil on board, 13 3/8 x 18 3/4" (33.8 x 47.5 cm), Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, © Romare Bearden Foundation/VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts (LVPA) and Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity (REGD)

History of Art 2301 - Classical Archaeology

Professor  Mark Fullerton

Class #36014 | ONLINE |  ASYNCHRONOUS

GEN foundations: Historical and Cultural Studies 

History of Art 2901 - Introduction to World Cinema

Course Designer - Professor Kris Paulsen, Instructor - TBD

Class #25317 | ONLINE | Full Semester |  ASYNCHRONOUS

Course Designer - Professor Kris Paulsen, Instructor - TBD

Class #28482 | ONLINE | 7 Weeks, Session 2 | ASYNCHRONOUS

This course will introduce students to the history of film as an artistic medium and a global art form. We will track technological, aesthetic, and formal developments in its evolution from photographic and proto-cinematic technologies to digital cinema by studying particular masterpieces, and focusing on the role of the director or auteur. We will pay close attention to the medium’s complex relationship to time, its changing materiality, and its fraught relationship to truth and reality. Students will engage in a historical and formal study of international cinema through a chronological survey of its major forms, techniques, and its relationship to the broader history of art, as well as social and political history. We will sample its major and “minor” forms, from Hollywood productions to art gallery experiments and cinema from the developing world. Students will be introduced to the grammar of film through a historical account of its formal evolution and the stylistic analysis of the visual and narrative structures of individual films.

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual and Performing arts (LVPA) 

History of Art 3010 - Gender and Sexuality in European Art

Professor Karl Whittington

Class #29298 | ONLINE | ASYNCHRONOUS 

This course offers an introduction to the intersectional study of European Art, exploring the intertwining ideologies of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity from the Ancient Mediterranean World to the present. We will see that the ways artworks impact and construct ideas and stereotypes about gender, race, and sexuality in the modern world are deeply influenced by their development in premodern history. Topics to be explored include the ways in which ideas about gender roles and identities are shaped by artworks; the gendered contexts of artistic production; gendered practices of viewing works of art; the changing status of female and non-white artists and patrons in Europe; the way people of color were depicted in premodern European art; and queer and transgender artists and artworks. We will investigate the ways in which works of art enforced particular codes of behavior for people of different genders and races, but also how works of art served as sites of resistance to such roles and stereotypes, and as a place where individual identities were negotiated and portrayed. We will explore both famous works of European art and also lesser-known paintings, sculptures, buildings, and objects of visual culture. 

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts (LVPA) and Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity (REGD)

History of Art 3050 - Careers In History of Art

Instructor TBD

Class #28695  | IN PERSON | FRI 2:30-3:30

In this course, students will be introduced to a wide range of professions that History of Art students go on to after graduation. First, you will have the opportunity to do some analysis of and reflection upon what your personal traits are, and what kind of work you find meaningful. Based on the criteria you develop, you will then be able to size-up the work experiences in a range of different fields that History of Art students enter. We will hear from guest speakers working in a wide range of fields, who will share their experiences on the job market and in their work. We will also explore strategies for identifying and obtaining internships, as well as the details of job seeking, including resume, curriculum vitae and LinkedIn profile preparation, as well as the writing of cover letters, statements of purpose and interviewing for jobs.

History of Art 3060 - Campus Collections

Instructor TBD

Class # 35332 | IN PERSON | MON 12:30 - 1:30

This 1 credit course will offer students the chance to engage with the diverse and extensive art collections found on the Ohio State University campus, including those of the Hale Black Cultural Center, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, and the Museum of Classical Archaeology, among others. Classes will include theoretical discussions of collecting as a practice alongside practical conversations about how to access campus collections independently for use in future research. In addition to object-focused studies, students will have the chance to explore a wide range of career paths in arts curation and management through conversations with curators, librarians, and subject experts with specializations ranging from European medieval manuscripts to modern costumes and fashion. 

History of Art 3521 - Renaissance Art in Italy

Professor Kristen Adams

Class # 25772 | IN PERSON | MON & WED 3:55 - 5:15

This course offers a panoramic introduction to the greatest artists and masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance from its beginnings in Florence through its triumph in Rome and Venice. After setting the stage with a brief overview of the art of the Late Gothic period in Italy, lectures will trace the nature of the revolutionary changes that transformed painting, sculpture and the decorative arts in the 15th and 16th centuries. Students will consider how art was deployed to project social, political, or spiritual power and authority, and explore how spaces such as chapels, monasteries, private palaces, and the public square shaped the viewing experience for artists and viewers alike. A number of Renaissance environments will be experienced in Virtual Reality in collaboration with the Emerging Tech Studio and students will reflect on how modern technology brings this remarkable period in history to life in new ways.

Image: Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game, 1555 

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts (LVPA)

History of Art 3901 - World Cinema Today

Course Designer - Professor Erica Levin, Instructor - TBD

Class # 27025 | ONLINE | ASYNCHRONOUS 

This course will survey the best of world cinema within the past decade or two, including representative examples of national cinemas, such as (potentially, since the selections would change) Iranian, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Indian; ethnic cinemas, such as (potentially) Kurdish, Jewish diaspora, and Quebecois; regional cinemas, such as (potentially) Eastern European and Middle Eastern cinemas; continental cinemas, such as African and South American; global cinema, such as Euro-American, Hong Kong, and Dogme 95; and the cinemas of civilizations, such as Islamic, Judeo-Christian, and Confucian. Not all these categories, or others that are possible, are represented in any given quarter.

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts (LVPA)

History of Art 4001 - Writing Seminar in History of Art - Envisioning the Nation: Modern and Contemporary Art in Asia

Professor Namiko Kunimoto

Class # 25316 | IN PERSON | TUE & THUR 11:10 - 12:30

This course will teach art history majors how to write about art in a clear and compelling manner. Students will also improve their ability to critically engage with texts and do in-depth visual analysis. Through our readings, discussion, and careful looking at images, students will consider the ways the state has been represented, reacted against, and questioned in Asian and North American art. How did events such as the Pacific War impact the art world and how did representation in turn inform competing ideologies of nationhood and gender? How has globalization affected artistic practice? While addressing these issues we will examine various works of modern and contemporary art, including film, installation, photography, painting, and performance art.

History of Art 4016 - Senior Research Seminar in History of Art -  Ghosts, Ghouls, and Demons: The Supernatural in Visual Culture

Professor Ujaan Ghosh

Class # 25329 | IN PERSON | TUE & THUR 3:55 - 5:15

History of Art 4541 - 17th Century Art of Italy ad Spain

Instructor Kristen Adams

Class #35897 | IN PERSON | MON & WED 2:20 - 3:40 

The seventeenth century marks an era of heightened artistic experimentation and experience, a phenomenon loosely labeled “the Baroque” by art historians. Baroque art is emotional, visceral, seductive, and even manipulative. This course will help students learn how to interpret and critique this vast, complex, often contradictory, and even fun period of art from primarily two geographical areas, Italy and Spain (ca. 1580-1700). Students will explore topics such as the demands placed on religious imagery following the Counter-Reformation, the relationship between art theory and art-making, artistic self-fashioning, the rise of new genres of painting and specialized art markets, and the transmission and translation of iconography and ideas across the European continent and beyond. The art and architecture covered in this course will provide unique avenues to approach a period in history marked by political and religious upheaval, scientific discovery, and intellectual developments that shaped the modern world. We will look in-depth at artworks by the Carracci, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Nicolas Poussin, Diego Velazquez, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Francesco Borromini, and others to discuss how artists and architects influenced contemporary audiences and opened new networks of artistic and intellectual exchange that impact our world even today.

Image: Gianlorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne, 1622-25

History of Art 4620 - 20th Century European Art: Mind & Medium, European Art & Philosophy in Dialogue

Instructor Amy Schuessler

Class # 35335 | IN PERSON | MON & WED 9:35 - 10:55 

This course explores the dynamic relationship between 20th-century European art movements and their contemporary philosophical frameworks. For example, we will examine how Cubism's fracturing of perspective aligned with Phenomenology's questions about perception, how Surrealism embodied psychoanalytic theory, how Abstract Expressionism reflected Existentialist ideas about authenticity and freedom, and how Conceptual artists challenged fundamental ideas about art itself. Through careful analysis of key artworks, texts, and historical contexts, we will uncover how artists and prominent thinkers jointly responded to rapid modernization, global upheaval, and shifting social paradigms. By examining these pivotal movements and their theoretical underpinnings, we will gain a nuanced understanding of how European artists and philosophers grappled with the profound changes that shaped the 20th century.

Course activities include lectures and comparative analysis of a variety of artworks in concert with critical texts, emphasizing how theoretical ideas manifest in visual form. Students will develop skills in formal analysis, conceptual interpretation, and interdisciplinary thinking through guided discussions, written assignments, and a final curatorial project. 

Image: Gabrielle Münter, Lady in an Armchair, writing (Stenography: Swiss Woman in Pyjamas) 1929.

History of Art 4630 - Inventing the Americans: The Art of Citizenship, Nationhood, and Democracy, 1776-1900

Professor Jody Patterson

Class # 35338 | IN PERSON | TUE & THUR 3:55-5:15

This course is concerned with how citizenship, nationhood, and democracy were constituted in and through works of art from the founding of the United States in the late 18^th century, through the nation’s rise to global dominance by the turn of the 20^th century. We will look at a range of artworks — including painting, sculpture, print, and photography — with a view to understanding how the nation, its citizens, and differing approaches to democracy were made visible (or rendered invisible) in culture. What do these artworks say about national identity and historical memory? How do they convey a common set of ideals and values that create an overarching sense of unity and identity in American society? Conversely, how and why do different social groups contest certain artworks or visual representations? Unifying themes in this course include the implications of geographical and political redefinition of the United States through Westward expansion and imperialism, processes of economic and social modernization, and the shifting definitions of what it meant to be an “American,” who counted as a “citizen,” and how democracy was pictured for different audiences.

GEN Themes: Citizenship for a Diverse and Just World (CDJW)

History of Art 4701 - An Introduction to Buddhist Art and Iconography

Instructor Catherine Karnitis

Class # 35334 | IN PERSON | WED & FRI 3:55-5:15

This course focuses on key monuments, objects, and themes in Buddhist art from the earliest known imagery to contemporary art and ritual practice. The course material is presented chronologically and regionally and examines such topics as commemorative and reliquary sites and art works, sculptures and paintings of Buddhist figures, and ritual implements and expressions. The visual and material culture is approached through various lenses, including historiographically, iconographically, its social and political context, and its materiality. Religious and philosophical concepts and textual traditions are introduced to explore the liberatory aims of the world of Buddhist art.

Image: Bodhisattva, Northern Qi, ca. 550-560

History of Art 4810 - The Arts of China

Professor Christina Wei-Szu Burke Mathison

Class # 28932 | IN PERSON | TUE & THUR 2:20 - 3:40

The distinct and influential visual culture of China reflects the dynam­ic periods in China’s history. This course examines the art and history of China thematically and chrono­logically exploring the culture’s artistic practice in religious, ritual, political, and courtly contexts. Be­ginning with early pottery-making and jade-carving cultures and pro­ceeding into the twenty-first century, students will analyze the main artis­tic trends over time and wrestle with the related issues of power, authen­ticity, and politics.

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts (LVPA)

History of Art 4820 - The Arts of Japan

Instructor Hannah Slater

Class # 35344 | IN PERSON | TUE & THUR 5:30 - 6:50 

This course is an introduction to the visual arts of Japan from prehistory up to 1868. It offers a wide overview of materials, formats, and means of making, from architecture and interior design to sculpture, ceramics, painting, textiles, and woodblock prints. This course examines representations of foundational narratives, court culture, gender, nature, and nation. Special attention is given to the impact of Shinto and the transmission of Buddhism in establishing visual traditions. No prior experience in art history or Japanese art is required.

GEN Foundations: Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts (LVPA)

History of Art 5001 - Special Topics: Dreams and Conflicts, Black Visual Culture

Professor Benjamin Jones

Class # 35345 Undergraduate, # 35346 Graduate  | IN PERSON | TUE & THUR 12:45 - 2:05 

Beginning with the inception of art history as a discipline and race as a politico-cultural category, this course centers on black life in and beyond the archive. We move in reverse chronology through a historiography of the archive and its limits as we consider the visual politics of race/sex. Course content enables students to think critically about how visual politics have shaped the landscape of race; how visual arts are related to other expressions of culture, such as music, theatre, and dance; and how Black artists have embodied and contested regimes of racial knowledge anchored in the visualization of Blackness. We will trace moments of historical continuity as well as emerging archival practices in order to better understand how the methods, materials, and meanings related to Black art have been a site of innovation and experimentation, and have shaped modernity and modern art. Students will be introduced to primary research historically, theoretically, and by conduction hands-on archival research of their own.

Image: Nyame Brown, “Lesson 5: What is your Black? The Blue Leopard 13 choppin’ it up with the Green Knight” (2016), oil and chalk on blackboard

History of Art 5901 - Silent Cinema, 1895-1927

Professor Mark Svede

Class # 28567 Undergraduate, #28568 Graduate | IN PERSON | TUE & THUR 5:30 - 6:50 

A survey of the evolution of silent film from its origins as a technological novelty to its fullest realization as an internationally divergent art form. In addition to considering stylistic trajectories, this course will examine the development of viewing habits and expectations, the cultivation and accommodation of diverse audiences, consolidation of a creative industry and its interface with broader economic forces, and the social consequences of cinema’s ascendancy.

Image: Stills from Bed and Sofa (dir. Abram Room, 1927)

History of Art 5910 - Documentary Cinema

Professor Erica Levin

Class # 35341 Undergraduate, # 35340 Graduate | IN PERSON | WED & FRI 12:45 - 2:05 

The artist Hito Steyerl observes, “The documentary form as such is now more potent than ever, even though we believe less than ever in documentary truth claims.” This course explores the paradox she identifies by looking closely at the history of documentary cinema, from the first film named to the genre – Nanook of the North – to the present day, as it shapes a wide range of moving image practices. The class follows an historical trajectory, but will encourage you to think comparatively and analytically about documentary form, ethics, and aesthetics. We will examine the major modes of documentary filmmaking including cinema verité, direct cinema, investigative documentary, ethnographic film, agit-prop, activist media, autobiography and the personal essay. Through formal analysis, we will ask how these different documentary modes generate or exploit a variety of “reality effects.” Along the way, we will consider why the promise of documentary truth is always beset by uncertainty, or as Steyerl describes it, “a shadow” of insecurity. Rather than accept this phenomenon as a constraint or a limit, we will explore how experimental filmmakers and artists like Steyerl help us to see the value and meaning of the “perpetual doubt” documentary inspires. 

History of Art 7190 - Curatorial Practicum

Professor Kris Paulsen 

Class # 35337 | IN PERSON | THURS 2:15- 5:00 

This class introduces graduate students to the operations, practices, and missions of the various departments that comprise an art institution. We will learn how each relates to the final exhibition that a public encounters in the gallery. Though field trips, expert guest visits, and structured, scaffolded assignments toward a large final project, students will produce all the components of a museum exhibition and understand the role each department of the institution plays in producing and supporting exhibitions. The goal of this course is to not only train students to curate exhibitions, but to also understand and respect the labor and workflows of the institution as a whole. It may appear, from the outside, that curators are solely responsible for the exhibitions we see. This is obviously, upon consideration, not the case. To be an effective curator, one must be aware of the production process beyond concept and artist selection, and the internal deadlines and protocols in place to make sure exhibitions open on time, on budget, and with the timely collaboration of colleagues. By the end of the semester, students will have drafted materials representing the outputs of each department of the museum, producing a complete dossier of an executable exhibition for one of our campus or local spaces. This practical knowledge will be paired with theoretical and critical writing about the ethics of exhibition making and philosophies of curating. 

Image: David Tudor’s “Rainforest V (variation 1)” (1973) at the Museum of Modern Art, 2019

History of Art 8561 - Modernity and its Discontents: Latin American Art in Global Context

Professor Carlos Rivas

Class # 28566 | IN PERSON | WED 2:15- 5:00 

This graduate seminar critically examines “modernity” and Modernism in Latin American art, challenging Eurocentric narratives and exploring multiple, contested modernities. Through close studies of artists such as Tarsila do Amaral, José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and Anita Malfatti, among others, we will analyze how their work engages with colonial legacies, transnational networks, and the politics of their day. Key themes include Indigeneity, Indigenism, primitivism, abstraction and figuration, surrealism’s reinventions, and feminist interventions. Readings will pair foundational theories of modernity and postcoloniality with primary texts by artists and critics. By centering Latin American artists as theorists of their own modernities, this course rethinks dominant Latin American historical narratives from a global perspective.

Image: Tarsila do Amaral, Óperarios (Workers), oil on canvas 1933, Brazil.

History of Art 8601 - Property Values: Visual Regimes of Ownership, Speculation, and Extraction in Film and Art

Professor Erica Levin

Class # 27023 | IN PERSON | THUR 2:15- 5:00 

This course takes up the question of how art and cinema are bound up with visual regimes of property. We’ll explore philosophical and legal genealogies of property as frameworks for administering space, defining social hierarchies, and extracting value. We will explore how art and moving images are imbricated in these processes through close analysis of case studies drawn from the history of painting, photography, cinema, museum policy, and conceptual art. We’ll also examine how art and moving images are mobilized in the context of economic and political crises of value, with an eye toward the way artists and filmmakers engage counter histories and oppositional modes of visuality. Given that a significant number of our case studies will be moving images, this course is crossed with FILMSTD 7001: Advanced Theory Seminar: Methods and Applications and eligible for credit toward the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Film Studies.

Image: Wire service photograph, Spencer Platt, New York, 2012