Art

ARH 110 Art and Its Histories (4 Credits)

This course explores how art and architecture have profoundly shaped visual experiences and shifting understandings of the past and present. Featuring different case studies, each section includes work with original objects, site visits and writings about art. Unifying themes include: (1) materials, techniques and the patterns deployed to create space; (2) the design, function and symbolism of images and monuments; (3) artistic production and its relation to individual and institutional patronage, religion, politics and aesthetics; (4) issues turning on artists’ fame versus anonymity and uniqueness versus reproducibility; and (5) cross-cultural exchanges. Enrollment limited to 25. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring

ARH 190 Colloquium: Art History: Theories, Methods, Debates (4 Credits)

The meanings ascribed to art and architecture from any culture or period turn upon the interpreter’s preoccupations and methods. This colloquium examines contemporary debates within the discipline, locating them within the field’s own history. The class asks what kinds of knowledge historians of art and architecture produce and legitimize? What kinds of questions do they ask, what means do they use to answer them? Considering art and architectural history as a living field, the focus falls on recent scholarship, with an eye to the dynamic ways in which it builds on and/or departs from the history of the discipline. Enrollment limited to 18. Prerequisites: ARH 110 or a first-year seminar taught by a member of the department. {A}

Fall, Annually

ARH 200 China in Expansion (4 Credits)

During the formative periods when the local and global forces simultaneously took actions in shaping Chinese civilization, the functions of images and objects, the approaches to things and the discourses around art underwent significant shifts, not only responding to but also mapping out the "Chinese-ness" in visual and material culture. This course of early Chinese art investigates diverse media bronze vessels, sculptures, murals, textiles, architecture and other visual and material forms in relation to political and military conquest, cross-cultural exchange, the dissemination of ordinary practices and the formation of identities. Key terms/issues for the course will include expansion, connection and materiality. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARH 201/ POR 201 Brazilian Art Inside and Out (4 Credits)

Offered as POR 201 and ARH 201. This course serves as an introduction in English to contemporary and modern Brazilian art. Course materials and class discussions address such topics as public vs. private art spaces, national vs. global identities, the role of art as agency for social change and as site of memory, activism, resistance and transformation. {A}

Fall, Variable

ARH 204 Inkas, Aztecs and Their Ancestors (4 Credits)

What is antiquity in the Americas? To explore this question, this class focuses upon visual cultures and urban settings from across the Americas. Emphasis rests upon recent research especially about the Inka, the Aztec, and their ancestors, but we will also study current debates in art history and archaeology. Among the themes we will discuss: sacrifice and rulership, representations of human and deified beings, the symbolic and economic meanings of materials and the ethics of excavation and museum display. Case studies include architectural complexes, textiles, ceramics and sculpted works from Peru, Mexico, the Caribbean and the U.S. Southwest. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 207 Translating New Worlds (4 Credits)

In this class we ask how travel to and through the New World was imagined, described and lived by Indigenous residents as well as those who came to the Americas from across the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Our focus rests upon the ways in which geographies, anthropologies, material objects, and pictorial and written records shaped colonial ambitions and experiences. Among the objects we will consider: books and painted images, dyes and metals, feathers, and urban buildings. Case studies will be drawn from across the Americas, including Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Haiti, and the United States. We will also discuss contemporary cultural practices that seek to explain, interpret, and redress colonial encounters and settlements in the Americas. Group A, Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 212 Ancient Cities and Sanctuaries (4 Credits)

This course explores many different aspects of life in the cities and sanctuaries of the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, Etruria and Rome. Recurrent themes include urbanism, landscapes and patterns of worship, including initiation, sacrifice and pilgrimage. The class probes how modern notions of the secular and the sacred influence interpretation and how sometimes the seemingly most anomalous features of the worship of Isis or of the juxtaposition of commercial and domestic space within a city can potentially prove to be the most revealing about life in another place and time. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 216 The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Roman World (4 Credits)

From North Africa to Gaul, from the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) to Asia Minor, the interrelationships of art and power in the visual culture of the ethnically diverse Roman empire, from the first century B.C.E. through the fourth century C.E., are the subject of study. We also examine works of art from later periods as well as literature and film that structure our perception of the Roman world. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 217/ CLS 217 Greek Art and Archaeology (4 Credits)

Offered as CLS 217 and ARH 217. This course is a contextual examination of the art and architecture of Ancient Greece, from the end of the Bronze Age through the domination of Greece by Rome (ca. 1100-168 BCE) and handles an array of settlements, cemeteries and ritual sites. It tracks the development of the Greek city-state and the increasing power of the Greeks in the Mediterranean, culminating in the major diaspora of Greek culture accompanying the campaigns of Alexander the Great and his followers. The course takes a broadly chronological approach, and the question of a unified Greek culture is stressed. Continuing archaeological work is considered. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARH 225 Arts of Asia (4 Credits)

This multicultural course introduces students to the visual arts of Asia from the earliest times to the present. In a writing- and speaking-intensive environment, students will develop skills in visual analysis and art historical interpretation. Illustrated class lectures, group discussions, museum visits, and a variety of writing exercises will allow students to explore architecture, sculpture, painting, and other artifacts in relation to the history and culture of such diverse countries as India, China, Cambodia, Korea, and Japan. (E) {A}{H}

Fall, Variable

ARH 228/ MES 228 Islamic Art and Architecture (4 Credits)

Offered as MES 228 and ARH 228. This course surveys Islamic visual art and architecture from the spread of Islam in the seventh-century until the present day, covering the Dome of the Rock and Persian miniatures to French Orientalism and Arab Spring graffiti. Attention is focused upon the relationships between Islamic visual idioms and localized religious, political and socioeconomic circumstances. In particular, lectures and readings examine the vital roles played by theology, royal patronage, gift exchange, trade and workshop practices in the formulation of visual traditions. Direct analysis of Islamic artworks at the Smith museum expand students’ command of critical visual analysis. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 233 Medieval Art on the Move: Pilgrimages and Crusades (4 Credits)

Focusing on buildings and representations created from the 11th through the 13th century, this course explores the intersection between artistic production and the movement, peaceful and bellicose, of people, ideas and objects during the Romanesque and early Gothic periods. Topics include monastic and royal patronage, the pilgrimage church and Crusader castle as specific building types, iconographic programs and their political agendas, and the transnational circulation of artifacts and cross-cultural visual encounters. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARH 234 The Age of Cathedrals (4 Credits)

Architectural, sculpted and pictorial arts from North of the Alps, c. 1150-1300. Rather than a survey, this course proposes a thematic approach to allow for an in-depth examination of key concerns of the Gothic era, such as the interface between visual creations and new forms of patronage and devotional attitudes, the rise in literacy and secular culture, the development of scientific rationality, or the sustained contact with the Islamic world. Counts for ARU.

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARH 242 Italian Art and Architecture, 1300-1575 (4 Credits)

A contextual study of architecture, painting, printmaking and sculpture, from the central Italian communes of the fourteenth century to villas of Andrea Palladio in the sixteenth. Major artists considered include Giotto, Donatello, Bramante, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Veronese and Vasari. Organizing themes include: materials and techniques; individual artists' training and careers; the relationship of the visual arts to religion, politics, Humanism and a renewed engagement with Roman antiquity. The course explores the overlapping and distinct concerns of the papacy (Rome), of republican governments (Florence, Siena, Venice) and of aristocratic rulers (Ferrara, Mantua, Milan, Naples, Rimini), among other patrons. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 247 Colloquium: The Art and History of the Book (4 Credits)

Will books as material objects disappear in the near future? Or will the book, a remarkably long-lived piece of communication technology, continue to flourish and develop alongside its electronic counterparts? This course surveys the artistry and history of books from the ancient world through medieval manuscripts, hand press books and machine press books, to the digital media of today. Students discover how books were made, read, circulated and used in different eras, and explore the role they have played over time in social, political, scientific and cultural change. The course involves extensive hands-on work with books and manuscripts from across the centuries and sustained engagement with current debates about book, print and media culture. Enrollment limited to12. Instructor permission required. {A}{H}

Spring

ARH 250 Building Baroque Europe (4 Credits)

European architectural, urban and landscape design from (precisely) 1537 to about 1750. Specific topics include Tuscany under the first three grand dukes; Rome in the 17th century; France under the first three Bourbon kings; the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire; the significant enlargement or establishment of capital cities (Turin, Amsterdam, Versailles, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Dresden, Berlin, Vienna); the rise of the English country house; the English landscape garden; and palaces, pilgrimage churches and monastic complexes in Bavaria, Franconia and Austria. Focus throughout on the fundamental interdependence of architecture and society. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 253 The Arts in Britain, 1714–1820 (4 Credits)

Artistic production under the first three Hanoverian kings of Great Britain. Topics include royal patronage; urban developments (London, Bath, Edinburgh); the English landscape garden; the English country house and its fittings; collecting and display; the Grand Tour; aesthetic movements (Gothic Revival, the Sublime, the Picturesque, Neoclassicism); artists’ training and careers (among others, the brothers Adam, Gainsborough, Hawskmoor, Hogarth, Reynolds, Roubiliac and Wright of Derby); maps, prints and books; center vs. periphery; and city vs. country. Reading assignments culled from primary and secondary sources; including travel and epistolary literature. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 258 The Arts in Eighteenth-Century France (4 Credits)

A study of painting, sculpture, architecture, urban and landscape design, printmaking and the luxury arts in France, from the last years of Louis XIV's reign to the French Revolution. Recurring themes include artists' training and careers; academies, aesthetics and art theory; art criticism and the viewing public; collecting and display; patronage; and the relationship of art to politics, literature and science. France's pacesetting role in contemporary art is explored by looking beyond its borders to other courts--among them Bourbon Naples, some German-speaking principalities, Great Britain, Russia, Spain and Sweden--and to the French Atlantic world. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 278 Race and Gender in the History of Photography (4 Credits)

This course introduces the history of photography, emphasizing the ways photographs represent, mediate, construct and communicate histories of race, gender, sex, sexuality, intimacy and desire. The class studies a variety of photographic images, from the daguerreotype to digital media, from fine arts photography to vernacular images. Students consider objects that have forged connections among loved ones, substantiated memories or served as evidence, considering critical questions about photography’s relationship to identity, affect, knowledge production and power. The course focuses on race and gender, and also attends closely to photography’s relationship to identity broadly speaking, including class, ability and religion. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 281 Modern, Postmodern, Contemporary (4 Credits)

This course examines global artistic tendencies since 1945 in their art-historical and socio-historical contexts. The class considers such developments as American abstraction and the rise of New York, neo-dada, pop, minimalism, conceptual art, earthworks, the influence of feminism, postmodernism, the politics of identity, conceptions of the site and the institution, global publics and the global culture of art, and the theoretical issues and debates that help to frame these topics. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARH 283 Architecture Since 1945 (4 Credits)

This course presents a global survey of architecture and urbanism since 1945, from post-World War II reconstruction and planning, through critiques of modernism, to postmodernism, deconstruction, critical regionalism and beyond. Major buildings, projects, movements and tendencies are examined in their historical, theoretical and rhetorical contexts. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 285pm Topics: Great Cities-Pompeii (4 Credits)

A consideration of the ancient city: architecture, painting, sculpture and objects of everyday life. Women and freed people as patrons of the arts are emphasized. The impact of the rediscovery of Pompeii and its role as a source of inspiration in 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century art is discussed. No prerequisite. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 285rm Topics: Great Cities-Rome (4 Credits)

Urban and architectural history of the Eternal City, comprising seven famous hills whose summits and slopes (and the valleys in between) are a cradle of Western civilization. Extensive readings in primary sources and the analysis of works of art of all types will help us understand why Rome has constituted such an indispensable and inexhaustible point of emulative reference from the traditional date of its founding (21 April 753 BCE) to the fascist era and beyond. Considered as well is the relationship between city and country as expressed in the design of villas and gardens through the ages. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 286 History and Theory of Performance Art: Why Did the Performance Artist Cross the Road? (4 Credits)

This class addresses the history and theory of performance art since the 1960s, introducing artists whose work has shaped the field and the issues which have become important in the reception of performance art. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 288 Colloquium: Techniques in Digital Art History (1 Credit)

This course provides students with a robust set of skills for today’s art historian. With an emphasis on hands-on training using Imaging Center facilities, students complete multiple small projects in digital mapping, digital timelines and other data visualizations, scanning and photography of artworks, documenting artwork with international data standards, creating virtual galleries, 3D scanning and more. Short readings on the application of these methods in current art history scholarship is also assigned. Software includes Google MyMaps, Tableau, Timeline JS, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Artstor/JSTOR Forum, Wordpress, Unity and others. S/U only. Enrollment limited to 12. {A}{H}

Interterm

ARH 289 Art and Medicine, Late 18th Century to the Present (4 Credits)

This course examines intersections of art and medicine from the late 18th century to the present. Considering a variety of texts and objects, from wax medical models and public health posters to Mona Hatoum’s cell-like sculptures and photographic coverage of the 2014 Ebola epidemic, the course disentangles how medical understandings of the body filter into artistic production and popular thought and vice versa. While course material is primarily from Europe and the United States, the course attends to the ways medical imaginings of the body engage with imperialism and geopolitical boundaries, as well as race, gender, ability, class and sexuality. (E) {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290ab Colloquium: The Artist's Book in the 20th Century (4 Credits)

A survey of the genre from its beginnings in the political and artistic avant-garde movements of Europe at the turn of the 20th century through contemporary American conceptual bookworks. In particular, the course examines the varieties of form and expression used by book artists and the relationships between these artists and the sociocultural, literary and graphic environments from which they emerged. In addition to extensive hands-on archival work in the library’s Mortimer Rare Book Room and the museum’s Selma Erving Collection of Livres d’Artistes, students read extensively in the literature of artistic manifestos and of semiotics, focusing on those critics who have explored the complex relationship of word and image. Enrollment limited to 18. Instructor permission required. Group B. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290ca Colloquium: Topics in Art History-Contemporary Art (4 Credits)

This class examines current issues in contemporary art, suggested by critical debates and significant exhibitions. The class is particularly interested in practices and debates that offer the following: analyses of the global condition of art; demonstrations of the influence of new technologies; reflections on institutional frameworks; excavations of earlier art-historical moments; and accounts of the shifting status of art, artists and audiences in the contemporary public sphere. Prerequisite: One 200-level art history course, or equivalent. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290cg Colloquium: Cities, Gardens, Utopias: 1400-1900 (C) (4 Credits)

Characteristic forms and the ritual, social, political, economic and cultural significance of the built environment in Europe and the Americas. Capital cities (among them Amsterdam, Berlin, Florence, Karlsruhe, London, Madrid, Mannheim, Paris, Rome, St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Washington, D.C.); colonial cities (among them Boston, Cuzco and Philadelphia) communities founded by the religiously persecuted or the religiously inspired; garrison towns; industrial towns; urban infrastructure (streets, squares, provisioning of water and other utilities, public transportation, and public amenities); garden design in England, France and Italy; Utopian thought and planning; and city vs. country. Counts for ARU. Prerequisite: ARH 110 recommended. Enrollment limited to 20. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290cv Colloquium: Topics in Art Historical Studies-Visual Culture and Colonization (4 Credits)

How does conquest by foreigners change the ways that images, civic spaces and objects are created and used? What kinds of hybrids does colonization produce? Is it possible to describe what is “colonial” about art or architecture? Focusing on recent scholarship, this course addresses these queries, highlighting the 16th–19th centuries. Among the topics we consider are interpretive work in the field of “colonial studies,” the mapping and construction of colonial spaces, exchanges that brought people and objects into contact (and conflict) with one another, how colonialism can shape the meaning of objects, and the nationalist histories of colonial projects. Enrollment limited to 20. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290fs Colloquium: Topics in Art History-The Visual Culture of Freed Slaves in the Roman Empire (4 Credits)

Many ancient Roman houses and tombs belonged to freed slaves who had established themselves and their families in the world. Assessed through the lens of elite authors who disparaged freed people, these monuments have often been judged as lesser, imperfectly emulating lost aristocratic models. On the contrary, as a close reading of these houses and tombs themselves demonstrate, freedmen and freedwomen celebrated their transformation from being things to being persons of means by finding visual means to celebrate their industry, their wealth, their ambition and their identification with mythological figures who had once been enslaved. Enrollment limited to 20. {A}{H}

Spring, Alternate Years

ARH 290gi Colloquium: Topics in Art Historical Studies-Gothic in the Modern Imagination (4 Credits)

From College Hall to Hogwarts and Romantic ruins to video games, Gothic visual culture has provided a vast reservoir of materials for post-medieval cultural productions, both historicizing and deliberately anachronistic. Salient moments in the reception of medieval art and architecture are examined to understand how they have served differing cultural and political agendas from the 18th century onward. Topics include: Gothic Revival architecture; Troubadour and Pre-Raphaelite paintings; American Gothic; the Anarchist cathedral; the Middle Ages in film and fashion. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290ib Colloquium: Topics in Art Historical Studies-Playing with Ink and Brush (4 Credits)

For more than a thousand years, ink has been maintained as the principal medium of painting and calligraphy in East Asia. This course surveys the continuities and ruptures of East Asian ink art seen through the formal, cultural and political factors. It also unravels the constant re-appropriation of the “archaic” medium. The course embraces art works in various media—paintings, calligraphy, books, woodblock prints, installation, performance and animation—that were created by premodern and modern artists. Sessions are organized both thematically and according to a rough, chronological sequence. Enrollment limited to 20. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290ic Colloquium: Topics in Art History-Iconoclasm (4 Credits)

Why have individuals and groups been moved to destroy art? How has art been construed as both essential, bewitching and dangerous? This class considers representational imagery in ancient Greece and Rome, and in Judaic and Islamic traditions; the Byzantine iconoclastic controversy; 16th-century Northern European iconoclasm and the coincident wholesale destruction of indigenous American art; the Counter-Reformation validation of religious imagery; the French Revolution; and attacks on works of art in the modern world. Students consider censorship and philistinism generally, and when (or whether) campaigns of renovation and restoration can legitimately be called iconoclasm. Enrollment limited to 18. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290lb Collloquium: Topics in Art History-The Presence of the Past: Libraries as a Building Type in the Ancient Mediterranean World (4 Credits)

This course looks at the famed third-century BCE library at Alexandria, Egypt, precedents like the library of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal at Nineveh (with epics and omen texts on clay tablets) and later extant examples like the Library of Celsus at Ephesus to discuss the development of the library as a public building type. The class also compares later innovations like Labrouste’s Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, Snøhetta’s award-winning 2002 Bibliotheca Alexandrina (on the site of the ancient library) and Maya Lin’s renovation of Neilson Library, analyzing how the buildings themselves make knowledge manifest. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290ls Colloquium: Topics in Art Historical Studies-Age of Louis XIV (4 Credits)

An examination of the fundamental role of the visual arts in fashioning an extraordinary and indelible image of rulership during the reign (1643–1715) of Louis XIV. Ensembles and individual objects in many media—painting, sculpture, architecture, landscape design, prints, illustrated books, furniture, tapestries, numismatics, works commissioned or obtained in Rome, and literary production—are related to the centralized bureaucracy that came to define the French state. Time permitting, students may consider the impact of the palace of Versailles on other European courts. Enrollment limited to 20. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290mc Colloquium: Topics in Art Historical Studies-Meditations in Caves (4 Credits)

The course is an introduction to Buddhist grottoes of East Asia. We will learn the historical trajectories of Buddhist grottoes, including the development of cave architecture, mural painting, and sculpture. It pays special attention to the site specificity of the visual imageries, and their transmissions, commissions, and functions. The case studies in this course range from the Kizil Caves and Mogao Caves in Northwestern China, to the Yungang Caves and Longmen Caves in the central plains, and the Seokguram Caves in the Korean Peninsula. We will also consider the collecting, preserving and displaying of Buddhist grottoes in the contemporary world. Enrollment limited to 20. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290qt Colloquium: Topics in Art History-Queer and Trans Visual Culture (4 Credits)

As representations of queer and trans subjectivities has left the largely coded citations of the closet, they have come to rely on discursively complex and intersectional forms of representation that at once exceed, and rely on, queer cultures, communities, and even subjects. Queer and trans visual culture has long offered a way for queer subjects to both represent, and come to understand, who they are and how meaning is inscribed onto and through [their] bodies. This class leverages history and theory to explore a range of media from fine art to popular culture, and develop a queer lens with which to interrogate visual culture. This class maps the trajectory from the early twentieth century to our present moment, and ultimately seeks to describe what queer visual representation is—and perhaps is not—today. Prerequisite: ARH 110. Enrollment limited to 25. (E) {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290ra Colloquium: Topics in Art History-Representing Animals (4 Credits)

This colloquium investigates the space between animal studies and art history. Examining case studies from the early modern period to the present, the class considers questions such as: What constitutes the animal, and how do images shape responses to this question? How and why have artists deployed animals as visual signs? How did the collection of animal specimens in the West both depend on and sustain networks of imperialism? Students' conversations will center around the meaningful role images and objects play in shaping understandings of the human, the animal, nature, identity and both human and animal culture. Prerequisite: ARH 110. Enrollment limited to 20. (E) {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 290ss Colloquium: Topics in Art Historical Studies-Swords and Scandals (4 Credits)

Since the beginning of cinema, the decadence of the ancient Romans has been a subject of fascination. Starting with HBO's Rome (2005-2007) and Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), we'll explore the multiple sources of the visual tropes used to construct this universe and seek to analyze it in aesthetic, historical, and ideological terms. Their twentieth-century counterparts from films of the silent era to Hollywood epics like Spartacus (1960) and Cleopatra (1963) as well as cult classics like Caligula (1979) will be scrutinized in order to gain an understanding of how Romans function cinematically as cultural signs in varying historical contexts. Enrollment limited to 20. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 320 Art & Money: A Calderwood Seminar on Public Writing (4 Credits)

Art and money are inextricably intertwined. We’ll delve into the ramifications of this relationship in the ways art is valued in the contemporary art market and the consequences for museums, collectors, artists, and for the general public. Topics include artists’ self-fashioning for the market as well as the historical detective work it takes to reveal the practices which have fed this market of limited supply and infinite demand including looting and forgery. These are stories which need to be shared with an ever-wider audience especially in a time when the importance of art to humankind needs reevaluation. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 350 Seminar: The Arts in England, 1485-1714 (4 Credits)

Constitutional limits on monarchical power, the embrace of Protestantism, religious intolerance and fanaticism, revolution and regicide, and a much vaunted (when not exaggerated and misleading) insularity, set the stage in England for patterns of patronage and a relationship to the visual arts both similar to and significantly different from modes established in Continental absolutist courts. While critically examining the perennial notion of "the Englishness of English art," we shall study the careers of the painters, printmakers, sculptors, architects and landscape designers whose collective efforts made English art, at long last, one to be reckoned with. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 352ce Seminar: Topics in Art History-Imperial Matter: The Arts of China's Early Empires (4 Credits)

Why did the First Emperor of China build his grand mausoleum as a microcosm? What foreign motifs and luxury goods were brought to the Chinese proper and by whom? How did trade and war affect the making of the arts 2,000 years ago? These are some of the core questions embedded in this seminar, which investigates the power of things that made a difference in shaping the conditions of the Qin and the Han, Chinese first empires. Throughout the semester, students closely examine art objects and read leading scholars of early imperial Chinese art around the world. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. Counts for ARU. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 352gr Seminar: Topics in Art History-The Grand Tour (4 Credits)

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European aristocrats and others undertook journeys abroad, sometimes several years in length, to develop and hone their appreciation of history, culture and the visual arts, with Italy as the privileged destination. While sojourning here and there, tourists sought works of art (printed images importantly among them) that recorded the buildings, paintings and sculptures they had encountered, and artists in Rome and elsewhere strove to turn this demand to account. This seminar explores this and numerous other facets of this striking and consequential form of multicultural education and precursor of modern mass tourism. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 352rp Seminar: Topics in Art History- Uncollecting: Repatriations, Reparations and the Ethics of Return (4 Credits)

This course studies the ethics of return, focusing on collections of belongings made under colonial conditions. Across the 2000s, hundreds of artifacts, artworks, ancestral creations and animal (including human) bodies have been repatriated. But what does it mean to “return” belongings taken—indeed, often stolen—in the colonial past? What, really, can repatriation accomplish? Is reparation a better option, and what might it entail? Drawing examples from a wide range of geographies, and highlighting recent—especially decolonial—scholarship, the course debates these issues. Open to students in any discipline. Pre-req: one class in the visual arts, archaeology, anthropology, museum studies or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 352vc Seminar: Topics in Art History-Visual Culture and Colonization (4 Credits)

How does conquest by foreigners change the ways that images, civic spaces and objects are created and used? How do different forms of colonialism shape the meaning of objects? What kinds of loss does colonization produce, what kinds of resilience? Focusing on recent scholarship, this seminar addresses these queries, highlighting the 16th–19th centuries. Among the topics we consider: the mapping and construction of colonial spaces, exchanges that brought people and objects into contact (and conflict), nationalist histories of colonial projects, and current debates about decolonization, repatriation and reparation. Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 374bc Seminar: Topics in 20th and 21st Century Art-Border Crossings in Contemporary Art (4 Credits)

Border crossing, voluntary or involuntary, has become an important theme in contemporary global art, framing the conditions of the exile and the “illegal alien,” the tourist and the refugee, the service worker and the sex slave. This seminar examines the work of a range of contemporary artists examining border crossings of various kinds, focusing especially on the models and experiences of globalization that emerge through their practices. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {A}{H}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARH 390 Seminar: Art History Capstone (4 Credits)

The capstone provides students with an opportunity to reflect on their path through the major, to develop projects that grow out of and synthesize their previous coursework. It enables students to have an overview of things achieved and to showcase their competence in an area of focus in planning for their futures. The class is designed to support the challenge of conceptualizing and developing individual projects: weekly class meetings will provide scaffolding for student progress. In the collaborative workshop space of the class, students share their projects in stages, which are discussed and edited by their peers. Prerequisites: ARH 110, ARH 190 and at least two 200-leve ARH courses. Enrollment limited to 12. Juniors and seniors only. Instructor permission required. {A}{H}

Spring

ARH 400 Special Studies (2-4 Credits)

Fall, Spring

ARH 430D Honors Project (4 Credits)

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 162 Introduction to Digital Media (4 Credits)

An introduction to the use of digital media in the context of contemporary art practice. Students explore content development and design principles through a series of projects involving text, still image and moving image. This class involves critical discussions of studio projects in relation to contemporary art and theory. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 14. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring

ARS 163 Drawing I (4 Credits)

An introduction to visual experience through a study of the basic elements of drawing. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 18. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring

ARS 172 Studio Art Foundations (4 Credits)

This cross-disciplinary studio course involves two-dimensional, three-dimensional and time-based approaches. Students are introduced to a range of conceptual and practical frameworks for making and thinking about art. This course is strongly recommended for students considering the art major. By emphasizing visual thinking, risk-taking and critical reflection, this course also has relevance for other disciplines. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 15. Priority given to first years. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring

ARS 200/ IDP 200 Art & Design: Making Radical Futures (4 Credits)

Offered as IDP 200 and ARS 200. This course explores speculative design practices as a way to collaboratively envision radical social transformation. The course focuses on imagining worlds without capitalism, building on local Solidarity Economy efforts. Students work in small groups to make these visions tangible through stories, installations, performances and models of everyday objects from the future. Students learn to make iteratively as a process of critical thinking, analyze how designed things reaffirm or resist the hegemonic power of capitalism and evaluate project work based on its ability to provoke questions and connect with viewers. Prerequisites: 100-level studio art course or IDP 116 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 16. (E) {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 205pz Topics in Studio Art Workshops: Posters, Zines and Prints in Public (2 Credits)

This 7-week studio intensive explores print-based artworks and the expressive qualities of distribution, archive and exchange. We will use printmaking, binding and presentation techniques to consider the personal, collaborative and political scope of print media. Studio Art Workshops allow students with any level of experience to explore a thematic, expanded approach to art practice. When multiple workshops are offered, students may take different topics during the first and second half of the semester for a total of 4 credits. Up to 4 credits of workshops may count toward the Studio Art Major. No prerequisites. Majors and non-majors welcome. S/U only. Enrollment limited to 12. (E) {A}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARS 205sj Topics in Studio Art Workshops: Drawing Social Justice (2 Credits)

This 7-week studio intensive engages topics of social justice as central to our discussion and visual inquiry. Through studio work, artist research, class excursions and short readings, students will use drawing as an expansive medium to conceptualize and relate their ideas. This course is experimental in nature and will have no defined emphasis on traditional drawing techniques, instead we will take an expanded/interdisciplinary media approach to drawing, to explore how critical questions of social justice can be developed into impactful artworks. Studio Art Workshops allow students with any level of experience to explore a thematic, expanded approach to art practice. When multiple workshops are offered, students may take different topics during the first and second half of the semester for a total of 4 credits. Up to 4 credits of workshops may count toward the Studio Art Major. No prerequisites. Majors and non-majors welcome. S/U only. Enrollment limited to 12. (E) {A}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARS 263 Video and Time-Based Digital Media (4 Credits)

This course builds working knowledge of multimedia digital artwork through experience with a variety of software, focusing on video and time-based media. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 14. No prerequisites. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall

ARS 264 Drawing II (4 Credits)

An introduction to more advanced theories and techniques of drawing, including the role of drawing in contemporary art. The emphasis of the class is on both studio work and class discussion. A major topic is the development of independent projects and practice. Students may require additional supplies and are responsible for purchasing them directly. Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisite: ARS 163 or ARS 172 or equivalent. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARS 266 Painting I (4 Credits)

Various spatial and pictorial concepts are investigated through the oil medium. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: ARS 163 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 269 Lithographic Printmaking I (4 Credits)

Introduction to the printmaking technique of hand-drawn lithography and photographic halftone lithography using Adobe Photoshop. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 12. Prerequisite: ARS 163, or permission of the instructor. {A}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARS 272 Intaglio Printmaking (4 Credits)

This course is an in-depth introduction to the expressive potential of the printed image and the distinct visual and tactile qualities of etching and drypoint. The class explores how prints can function as social devices, manifestations of texture and opportunities for collaboration. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: ARS 163 or ARS 172, or equivalent. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 273 Sculpture I (4 Credits)

The human figure and other natural forms. Work in modeling and plaster casting. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisite: ARS 163, ARS 172 or equivalent. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 274 Projects in Installation I (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to different installation strategies (e.g., working with multiples, found objects, light and site-specificity, among others). Coursework includes a series of projects, critiques, readings and short writing assignments. Students may require additional supplies and are responsible for purchasing them directly. Enrollment limited to 12. Prerequisite: ARS 172 or equivalent. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 275 The Book: Theory and Practice I (4 Credits)

(1) Investigates the structure of the book as a form; (2) provides a brief history of the Latin alphabet and how it is shaped calligraphically and constructed geometrically; (3) studies traditional and non-traditional typography; and (4) practices the composition of metal type by hand and the printing of composed type on the SP-15 printing presses. A voluntary introduction to digital typography is also offered outside class. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring

ARS 277 Woodcut Printmaking (4 Credits)

Relief printing from carved woodblocks can create images that range from precise and delicate to raw and expressionistic. It is a direct and flexible process that allows for printing on a variety of materials at large and small scales. Students use both ancient and contemporary technologies to produce black and white and color prints from single and multiple blocks. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: ARS 163 or ARS 172, or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 280 Introduction to Architectural Design Studio: Analog Processes - Ground (4 Credits)

In nurturing architecture’s foundational principles of visual, material and conceptual experimentation, this course lays the foundation for subsequent studios, lifelong learning and curiosity for architectural design processes. It probes the material, organizational and spatial qualities of the ground, a shared horizontal territory inhabited by plants, people and buildings--one that is as much cultural as it is natural. Through iterative and analog processes, students integrate drawing and making to construct and reconstruct lines in the ground. Probing the physical and conceptual ground for natural or constructed patterns, students develop foundation-level design skills within the context of larger environmental and cultural discourses. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Not open to students who have taken ARS 283. Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisite: ARH 110 or equivalent. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 281 Introduction to Architectural Design Studio: Digital Design Processes - Air (4 Credits)

This studio probes the material, organizational and spatial qualities of the line architecture’s most fundamental element. Through iterative and digital processes which engage light and air as their main references, students integrate drawing and making to construct and reconstruct lines in both virtual and physical space, and in two and three dimensions. Materialization of digital processes is tested through multiple full-scale, physical models. Through the act of making and remaking constructed lines, students oscillate between intuitive and critical modes of thinking, while further developing foundation-level design skills including analytic drawing, digital fabrication, and issues relating to scale and site specificity. Students may require additional supplies and are responsible for purchasing them directly. Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisite: ARS 280 or equivalent. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 282 Photography I (4 Credits)

An introduction to visual experience through a study of the basic elements of photography as an expressive medium. Each section involves either black and white or a combination of darkroom and digital processes. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisite: ARS 162 or ARS 172 or equivalent. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 361 Interactive Digital Multimedia (4 Credits)

This course emphasizes individual and collaborative projects in computer-based interactive multimedia production. Participants extend their individual experimentation with time-based processes and development of media production skills (3D animation, video and audio production) developed in the context of interactive multimedia production for performance, installation or internet. Critical examination and discussion of contemporary examples of new media art augment this studio course. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: ARS 162. Enrollment limited to 14. Instructor permission required. {A}{M}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 362 Painting II (4 Credits)

Painting from models, still life and landscape using varied techniques and conceptual frameworks. Students may require additional supplies and are responsible for purchasing them directly. Prerequisites: ARS 266. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARS 363 Painting III (4 Credits)

Advanced problems in painting. Emphasis on thematic self-direction and group critical analysis. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 12. Prerequisite: ARS 362. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARS 364 Drawing III (4 Credits)

Advanced problems in drawing, including emphasis on technique and conceptualization. The focus of this course shifts annually to reflect the technical and ideational perspective of the faculty member teaching it. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: ARS 163 and ARS 264. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARS 366pc Topics in Painting-Painting Comedy (4 Credits)

Looking at an array of contemporary artists in global and historical contexts, students will create works that explore the comedic modes of irony, wit, melodrama, slapstick, and other visual deliveries of humor. The class will involve short experimental assignments, iterative works, and independent projects, produced in varied painting media. During the semester we will use workshop based studio practices, to explore the personal and cultural idiosyncrasies and conventions, through which humor operates as a visual tension that can tell stories about self, society, politics and power. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: ARS 266. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARS 370se Topics in Installation Art-Unforgotten: Memory and Socially Engaged Art (4 Credits)

In this course, the class creates and critically interrogates socially engaged art. The focus is the subset of those practices that originate and gain power from remembering events of the past. Formats include site interventions, community collaborations, performance, traditional studio practices or intersections of these. The processes and physical forms of the (art) works complicate boundaries between art and education, art and sociology, and art and activism. The course is organized as a laboratory/workshop to experiment with ideas and forms of socially engaged art. At the same time, students discuss (aesthetic and participant impact) rubrics for these projects and analyze their efficacy. Students may require additional materials and are responsible for purchasing them directly. Prerequisite: One 4-credit studio art course. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 372 Printmaking, Mark-Making, Image-Making, World-Making (4 Credits)

This course is an opportunity for students to expand upon their existing printmaking knowledge and learn how to combine multiple processes such as intaglio, relief, monotype and lithography. The class pays attention to the unique marks made by each process; considers the relationship between drawn, digital and photographic images in print; and uses the capacity to print multiples as a means to construct physical, social or narrative forms. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: at least one 4-credit 200-level printmaking course or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARS 374 Sculpture II (4 Credits)

Advanced problems in sculpture using bronze casting, welding and various media. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisites: ARS 273. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 376 Printmaking: Color, Texture and Scale (4 Credits)

This course is an opportunity for students to expand upon their existing printmaking knowledge and learn how to combine multiple processes such as intaglio, relief, monotype and lithography. The class explores printmaking as a transformative process that creates rich, layered color relationships, builds and responds to texture and converts information into multiples. Students have the chance to work at ambitious scales, including using print media to create installations, three-dimensional forms or distributable public projects. Hand-drawn, digital and photographic approaches are available. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisite: one 4-credit 200-level printmaking course. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARS 380 Architectural Design Studio: Transient Spaces - Terrestrial Bodies (4 Credits)

This research-based architectural design studio utilizes digital processes to analyze and reinterpret canonical architectural precedents, linking the digital to fluid conceptual ideas which are both historic and contemporary. In particular, the studio probes the spatial qualities of the moving body—as a site of both deep interiority and hyper-connectivity. In a return to the territory of the ground (see ARS 280), and within the larger context of ecologically and geopolitically induced migration and displacement, this studio investigates themes related to mobility and transience and the ways in which the body traverses territories of ground. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to 15. Prerequisites: ARS 280 and ARS 281 or equivalent. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 381 Architectural Design Studio: Transient Spaces - Aquatic Bodies (4 Credits)

In a return to probing the material, organizational and spatial qualities of the line (see ARS 281), this research-based architectural design studio questions the agency of the line in relationship to contemporary issues of mobility and migration. In particular, this studio privileges the sea as a lens from which to view a changing world order and to explore ways in which architectural representation may be foregrounded as an investigative and speculative site. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisites: ARS 280 and ARS 281. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Annually

ARS 383 Photography II (4 Credits)

Advanced exploration of contemporary photographic techniques and concepts. Students work on assigned and self-directed projects using various analog and digital techniques, studio lighting, large-format printing, and interdisciplinary approaches. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Prerequisites: ARS 282. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Alternate Years

ARS 384em Topics in Photography: Photography as Extended Media (4 Credits)

This course explores the possibilities of photography, expanding its boundaries in relation to sculpture, moving image, technology and installation. Structured in four sections, students respond to assignments within each section and work on an independent final project. Possible areas of studio exploration include darkroom and digital production, camera-less processes, moving image and installation. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. This course can be repeated once for credit with a different topic. Enrollment limited to 14. Prerequisite: ARS 282. Instructor permission required. (E) {A}

Spring, Alternate Years

ARS 384lv Topics in Photography: Light--Visibility and Erasure (4 Credits)

This course explores the technological, poetic, and conceptual potential of light within photography and lens-based practices. Approaches include material-focused darkroom processes, studio lighting techniques, and the option to work with digital production and presentation technologies (such as scanning, laser cutting, projection, or VR). The course incorporates quick experimentation and sustained independent work, engaging ways in which light (and its absence) is a central lever within photographic production, materiality, and meaning. This course can be repeated once for credit with a different topic. Enrollment limited to 12. Prerequisites: ARS 282 . Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARS 385 Senior Studio I (4 Credits)

This capstone course is required for all senior ARS majors. Students use the framework of the course to focus, challenge and re-conceptualize their studio work in media of their choice. Critiques, readings, written assignments, presentations and discussions support the development of an inventive and rigorous independent art practice. The semester culminates in a group exhibition. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Enrollment limited to Smith College Senior ARS majors. {A}

Fall

ARS 389/ LSS 389 Broad-Scale Design and Planning Studio (4 Credits)

Offered as LSS 389 and ARS 389. This class is for students who have taken introductory landscape studios and are interested in exploring more sophisticated projects. It is also for architecture and urbanism majors who have a strong interest in landscape architecture or urban design. In a design studio format, the students analyze and propose interventions for the built environment on a broad scale, considering multiple factors (including ecological, economic, political, sociological and historical) in their engagement of the site. The majority of the semester is spent working on one complex project. Students use digital tools as well as traditional design media and physical model building within a liberal arts-based conceptual studio that encourages extensive research and in-depth theoretic inquiry. Previous studio experience and two architecture or landscape studies courses suggested. Priority given to LSS minors and ARU majors. Enrollment limited to 14. Instructor permission required. {A}

Fall, Spring, Variable

ARS 390 Five College Advanced Studio Seminar (4 Credits)

This course is limited to junior and senior art majors from the five colleges. Particular emphasis is placed on thematic development within student work. Sketch book, written self-analysis and participation in critique sessions is expected. Students may require additional materials and are responsible for purchasing them directly.Enrollment limited to 15, three students from each of the five colleges. Prerequisites: selection by faculty; junior and senior art majors, advanced-level ability. Offered in rotation within the five colleges. Normally offered at Smith every fifth fall. {A}

Fall

ARS 399 Senior Studio II (4 Credits)

This one-semester capstone course is required of senior and junior (completing in fall semester) Plan B majors. Students create work in media of their choice and develop the skills necessary for presenting a cohesive exhibition of their work at the end of their final semester, as required by the Plan B major. Course material includes installation or distribution techniques for different media, curation of small exhibitions of each others’ work, and development of critical discourse skills through reading, writing and speaking assignments. In addition to studio faculty, Smith museum staff may occasionally present topics of conceptual and/or practical interest. Core studio materials are provided. Students are responsible for the purchase of additional supplies required for individual projects. Senior ARS Majors only. {A}

Spring

ARS 400 Special Studies (1-4 Credits)

Normally for junior and senior majors. Written project description required. Students may require additional materials and are responsible for purchasing them directly.

Fall, Spring

ARS 430D Honors Project (4 Credits)

Special approval required.

Fall, Spring, Annually