Summer 2023 Course Offerings

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

Session 1 | May 9 - June 30, 2023 (8 weeks)

Class #15070 | ONLINE | ASYNCHRONOUS  

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. 

GE foundation lit, visual and performing arts and historical and cultural studies course

History of Art 3901 - World Cinema Today

Session 1 | May 9 - June 30, 2023 (8 weeks)

Class #22589  |  IN PERSON  |  TUE & THUR 5:10-7:55PM

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.

GE VPA and diversity global studies course

GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course

History of Art 4820: The Arts of Japan

Session 1 - 8 weeks | May 9 - June 30

Class #22628  | ONLINE | MON, WED, FRI 9:50-11:25AM 

Students will explore the arts of Japan from 500 BCE to 1868, covering a wide range of materials, including sculpture, calligraphy, ink paintings, architecture, oil painting, and woodblock prints. We will discuss historical and social contexts, such as gender and representations of the body, Buddhist versus secular viewing contexts, and the relations of power involved in the collection of “Japanese art.” The class will follow a rough chronological order while allowing the linkages between past and present to be examined, rather than obscured. No past experience in Japanese studies or art history required. 

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

Session 2 | June 5 - July 28, 2023 (8 weeks)

Class #22626 | IN PERSON | MON, WED, FRI 3:20-4:55PM

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. 

GE foundation lit, visual and performing arts and historical and cultural studies course

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

Session 2 | June 5 - July 28, 2023 (8 weeks)

Class #19328 | 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. 

GE foundation lit, visual and performing arts and historical and cultural studies course

History of Art 2901: Intro to World Cinema

Session 2 | June 5 - July 28, 2023 (8 weeks)

Class #18729 | ONLINE | 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 (roughly 1827-2001) 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 “medium specificity”), 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.

GE VPA and diversity global studies course

GE foundation lit, vis and performing arts course