Art History Courses [100s] [200s] [300s] [400s]

Studio Art Courses [100s] [200s] [300s] [400s]

Art Education Courses

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ART HISTORY COURSES

ARTH 131. Introduction to Art History Ancient to Medieval (1 course)

This course surveys the major developments in art and architecture from the Paleolithic period through the high Middle Ages. Emphasis falls on the ancient civilizations of the Near East, Egypt, the Aegean, Greece and Rome, the early Christian world, Byzantium, Islam and the Middle Ages in Western Europe. The approach is at once historical, in that visual forms and types of images are studied in their development over time and across cultures, and anthropological, in the sense that cultures are studied at isolated moments as a way of better understanding the significant roles art and architecture play within them. Lectures are complemented by weekly reading groups which meet to discuss key problems and explore alternative theories of human cultural and artistic evolution.

ARTH 132. Introduction to Art History Renaissance to Modern (1 course)

A survey of the history of Western art covering painting, sculpture and architecture from the Renaissance to the present. In addition to investigating artists and their works, this course looks at a variety of issues in and methodological approaches to art history. It will investigate questions such as: What is art? How do cultural biases affect the way we see? What is the role of patronage/the art market? What role have women played in the art world? What are some of the ethical and moral issues facing art museums? Class sessions include both discussions and lectures. ARTH 131 is not a prerequisite for ARTH 132.

ARTH 142. Issues in Art (1 course)

What is art? Why is it important? How and what do works of art mean? How does art help us both shape and make sense of our world? These are the overarching questions that the course will address as we thread our way through the examination of various genres of art--from traditional (landscape, portraiture) to contemporary (video, performance art); as we explore art in its economic, social and political dimensions (looking, for example, at public art and identity politics or at controversial art and the First Amendment); and as we examine the role art can play in our public and private consciousness. We will be mindful throughout of how the production of meaning in art involves a complex collaboration of artist, viewers, and artwork. In this discussion-based course we will be active viewers and analytical thinkers--reading, writing and looking, in a critical way, at images in slides, at actual works of art, and at films and videos.

ARTH 197H.   First-Year Seminar (1 course)

A seminar focused on a theme related to the study of art history. Open only to first-year students.

ARTH 201. Baroque Art: The Age of Paradox (1 course)

This course covers artists working in some of the major cultural centers of Western Europe-Madrid, Seville, Rome, Antwerp, Amsterdam. Among the artists included are Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi and Velazquez. The course also looks at problems in the interpretation of art literature - both contemporary and modern; at the concept of "spectatorship;" at issues such as the portrayal of women in Baroque art and the impact of various types of patronage. The course also includes an investigation of more marginalized forms of art, such as ephemeral works done for the many feasts and religious festivals of the Baroque era.

ARTH 212. Image, Cult, Devotion:Medieval Devotional Art and Its Audiences (1 course)

This course examines the stunning variety of images (paintings, sculptures, prints) which served as catalysts to religious devotion for medieval and Renaissance Christians. Beginning with the first image cults in the sixth century, and concluding with the Reformation's renewed call to restrict, censor or liquidate images in the sixteenth, it attempts to trace the history of attitudes toward such "devotional" imagery inside both the "high" intellectual culture, and the "low" popular culture of these periods. Why did cults form around certain types of pictures and why were they considered illegitimate by authorities? How did images such as the tormented Man of Sorrows, or the lamenting Virgin of the Pieta, which had no basis in the Gospels, become so popular and so important to the progress of lay spirituality? How did miraculous images of the saints--images which answered prayers, comforted the sinner or healed the sick with effusions of tears, blood or milk--become invested with such powers? What are the cultural-political implications for the image- controversies of today? Drawing on psychology, anthropology, social history and linguistics, we will see how the makers of devotional art create and shape certain kinds of viewing practices and how, in social terms, new audiences for the new genres are created.

ARTH 218. Cathedral and Court: Gothic Art (1 course)

This course examines selected aspects of architectural and artistic production during the high and late middle ages in western Europe. Most of the course centers on the revolutionary developments in architecture of the 12th century - the great Gothic cathedrals, with their rich sculpture and breathtaking stained glass windows. Church building is studied in the multiple contexts of medieval metaphysics, political consolidation and court patronage in France, the emergent urban economy and the class conflicts which accompanied it. Illustrated manuscripts are studied as mediums of pictorial innovation and objects of exquisite beauty, as well as sites of struggle between the Biblical truths at their center, and the obscene humor and parody at their margins. Selected aspects of the decorative arts are also studied. Lectures and group discussions.

ARTH 232. Islamic Art and Architecture (1 course)

This course, structured into illustrated lectures and group discussions, surveys the major developments of Islamic art and architecture from the mid-seventh century to the mid-15th century, and places these developments in the context of international Muslim culture in general and of the dynamic Islamic societies of the Middle East, Asia Minor, Northern Africa, Spain and India. Beginning with a number of paradigms for assessing the uniqueness of Islamic visual culture, the exploration focuses on key problems in the following areas: 1)Architecture (mosques, palaces and commemorative monuments); 2)Ornament (architectural decoration, ceramic and mosaic work, the concept of the "arabesque" and geometric abstraction); and 3) the Decorative arts (pottery, silver, ivory, carpets and illuminated manuscripts). The course concludes with a consideration of Islam's cultural and artistic contacts with the West, including relations with Byzantium, the impact of the Crusades and the "Reconquest" in Spain. Also discussed is the problem of "Orientalism" (the scholarly study of the "Orient"), as it pertains to modern colonialism, racism and anti-Arab politics in the West.

ARTH 290. Topics in The History of Art (1 course)

An in-depth study of a particular topic in the history of art. It may be an examination of a specific artist, group or movement or an exploration of a particular theme or issue in art.

ARTH 295. Art, Experience, Criticism: From Modernism to Postmodernism (1 course)

This seminar-style course provides the student with a rigorous introduction to the history and theory of art criticism as a discourse about art, as well as an opportunity to cultivate the skills of the critic him- or herself. Weekly readings and discussions explore a wide range of topics such as the birth of aesthetics, modernity and modernism, abstract art and avant-gardism, kitsch, pop art, Minimalism and varieties of postmodernism. Special topics, such as art and obscenity, public art, the museum, art and radical politics, feminism, gay and lesbian culture, and art and racism are democratically selected by the class in the final weeks of the course. Open to all students.

ARTH 302. Italian Renaissance Art (1 course)

The course explores developments in the visual arts (primarily painting and sculpture) in 15th and 16th century Italy. It includes such artists as Masaccio, Donatello, Sofonisba Anguissola, Botticelli, Leonardo and Michelangelo. The course is partly a chronological survey and partly a thematic exploration of important issues - the social construction of the artist; the problematic notion of "secularism" as it applies to Renaissance art; the concept of humanism and its effect on creative developments; the problems of Renaissance historiography; the question of whether or not women had a Renaissance. The class is also concerned with the presuppositions on which art historians have based their interpretations of Renaissance art and culture and on the methods that they have applied to support these presuppositions. A portion of the readings are from contemporary sources - the writings of Vasari, Alberti, Ghiberti, Michelangelo and Castiglione to name a few. Class sessions will be mostly discussion.

ARTH 310. Northern Renaissance Art (1 course)

The course surveys the major painters working in the Netherlands and France (Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel and many others) during the dynamic era of the 15th and early 16th centuries. Through illustrated lectures and group discussions the class focuses on the development of the realist tradition; the special characteristics which distinguish art north of the Alps from its Italian counterpart; the actual exchanges between North and South; the changing nature of piety and religious devotion; the impact of humanism and the Protestant Reformation on religious imagery; the changing forms of patronage and the changing status of the artist and aesthetic work. Did European culture at this time really experience a Renaissance, or was the notion of a rebirth, as one scholar suggests, the most medieval idea ever to occur to the thinkers and artists of the late middle ages?

ARTH 321. Crusade and Cloister: Romanesque Art and Medieval Society (1 course)

This course looks at architectural and artistic production during the heyday of feudal Europe, the 10th-11th centuries, a society divided into "three orders": knights in combat, monks at prayer and peasants at work. Popular faith at this time produced a zeal for pilgrimage, a zeal that combined with the warrior ethos of the knight to call forth the first "armed pilgrimages," the Crusades. Religious architecture and monumental church sculpture - an art form which resurfaces after nearly 500 years of neglect - were directly shaped by these historical and cultural developments. Each will be studied in its historical context, with an eye to the new ways in which images and buildings were enlisted in the diverse struggles - social, political, military, theological - with which medieval society found itself faced after the year 1000. Lectures and group discussions.

ARTH 325. Modern Art: The Shock of the New (1 course)

A thematic and chronological survey of developments in modern art (including Europe and the Americas) since the late 19th century. The course focuses on some of the key issues and questions posed by modern art. How do we judge it? What role has the women's movement played in the modern art world? How do we define pornography in relation to art? What is the role of the audience? Why must museums be considered "ideological" spaces? What are the responsibilities of artists who produce work for public spaces? What is the place of art in the common life of the times? What has been the impact of the art market? What space has the art world made for marginalized groups such as native Americans and people of color? The course investigates the many and varied ways that men and women have used the visual arts to express their experience of the 20th century. Class sessions are mostly discussion with some lectures.

ARTH 330. Van Gogh, Gauguin and "Post Impressionism" (1 course)

This course considers how art historians have conceptualized "Post Impressionism" and explores the institutions (Academy, Salon, Ecole des Beaux Arts) and market structure (dealers, auction houses, the apparatus of art criticism) that influenced or controlled how, for whom, and under what conditions art in 19th century France was produced and how, where and by whom art was consumed (that is, used, purchased, or viewed). Other issues considered are the social and financial consequences of the artists' independence from traditional institutions in nineteenth-century France and how women artists did or did not fit into these institutional and market structures. The "Post Impressionist" artists studied will be used as springboards to discuss some larger themes about art, artists, critics and audiences in a particular historical moment. Some of these artists were involved in the social movements of their time and can, therefore, be discussed against a background of modern urbanization and the philosophical, cultural, scientific and social theories of some of their contemporaries. Readings include primary sources--artists' letters, journals and other writings as well as excerpts from contemporary works and art criticism from specialized and mainstream journals of the late nineteenth century.

ARTH 332. Sin, Fear and Death in European Art,1050-1550 (1 course)

This course explores a range of visual genres which, for medieval and early modern Europeans, thematized ideas about sin and vice, guilt and penance, contempts for the world, death, burial and decay, the horror of Hell, the quest for purgation and the hope of resurrection at the end of time. Illustrated manuscripts of the Apocalypse; panoramic Last Judgment scenes from church portals; gruesome depictions of saints' deaths; miraculous images of Christ as the tortured Man of Sorrows; the sculpture of the so-called transi tombs (which showed the deceased as a worm-eaten skeleton); visions of Hell and its torments; and the "Dance of Death" of the early Renaissance, are all studies in the cultural context of Christian theology, popular religion and devotions, the monastic literature of the macabre, the catastrophes of the Black Death era, radical millenarianism and the repression of groups deemed deviant (heretics, homosexuals, Jews, witches) through to the Protestant Reformation and its aftermath. Did the Middle Ages bequeath to us, as one historian claims, a distinctly Western "guilt culture," and if so, how has the iconography of sin and death persisted in Western art up to the present day?

ARTH 352. Gender and Representation: Early Modern Europe (1 course)

This course analyzes how specific types of images--such as the nude, figurations of sexuality, images of parenthood, family and domesticity--both reflect and shape cultural attitudes toward gender and art. A primary goal of the course is to ask how given images in both their subject and formal structure, reflected, helped to construct, or sometimes subverted ideas about gender, and especially women's, roles in Europe from the 15th through the 17th centuries. The course also covers more marginalized groups of women--female mystics, "witches," prostitutes--looking at how historical ideas about these women are embodied in visual images of them. The course considers men and women as both makers and consumers of art, looks at the changing concepts of creativity and the ways in which art production came to be stratified along gender lines. We examine textile and graphic arts along with more traditional "high art" image-making. Readings in the course are both historical and art-historical; they include a variety of contemporary writings through which we explore some of the ideologies that drove how literate people in early modern Europe conceptualized the notion of "woman" . The class format is primarily discussion based on close reading of texts and images.

ARTH 390. Advanced Topics in the History of Art (1/2-1 course)

An independent directed study centered on a specific topic arranged with the instructor.

ARTH 494. Art History Projects (1 course)

Advanced work in art history. Prerequisite: senior classification and a major in art history.

STUDIO COURSES

ARTS 101. Introduction to Studio Arts 2D [0-6] (1 course)

A studio introduction to the fundamental artistic processes involved in the making of two-dimensional image-making including the study of color and design, perspective and technical drawing exercises. Required for art majors. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 102. Introduction to Studio Arts 3D [0-6] (1 course)

A studio introduction to the fundamental artistic processes involved in the making of three-dimensional image-making including the study of materials, dimensional design and sculptural aesthetics. Required for art majors. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 120. Beginning Drawing [0-6] (1 course)

Designed for the student with little or no prior drawing experience. This is an introduction to, and the practice of, the fundamental principles of drawing, i.e., light and shade, perspective, composition, line and form. These basic principles are taught in conjunction with slide lectures and discussions of the drawing ideology of the masters. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 197S.   First-Year Seminar     (1 course)

A seminar focused on a theme related to the study of studio art. Open only to first-year students.

ARTS 230. Introduction to Video Art [0-6] (1 course)

An introduction to video art production through camera and editing assignments. This course includes readings, screenings and seminars on contemporary and historical issues surrounding the medium of video art. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 231. Collage/Assemblage [0-6] (1 course)

This studio course investigates the use of found or non-traditional media in the production of 2-D and 3-D works of art. Slide lectures, projects and critiques will explore the theoretical, historical and critical base of the media from modernist developments to post-modernist, with applied elements of creative design. Students are expected to merge critical thought with design and craft sensibilities toward the end of developing personal forms of expression. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 240. Beginning Painting [0-6] (1 course)

Designed for the student with little or no prior oil painting experience. This introduction includes development of a basic understanding of oil painting, color principles, line, form and composition. Principles are taught in conjunction with slide presentations and discussions of the painting ideology of past as well as contemporary masters. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 250. Introduction to Computer Imaging and Hyper Media [0-6] (1 course)

The course involves the exploration of a sequence of computer imaging concepts that begins with an introduction to object and bit map image making. These types of images are then used in context of computer animation that is output as video or run on the computer. The course concludes with an introduction to hypermedia authoring in which the imaging and animation techniques explored earlier are applied to the creation of computer documents that also incorporate sound and interactivity. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 260. Beginning Functional and Sculptural Ceramics [0-6] (1 course)

Basic experience with fired clay as an art material. The techniques of shaping, glazing and firing clay. An introduction to the chemistry of glazes and heat treatment. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 280. Introduction to Black and White Photography [0-6] (1 course)

An introduction to the art of black and white photography, this course provides opportunities for learning personal expression, communication, critical thinking, and the aesthetics of photography through darkroom experiences and camera assignments. A 35-millimeter camera with a manual control is required. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 320. Beginning Figure Drawing [0-6] (1 course)

Designed to teach the student the fundamentals of drawing the human figure. Proportion, muscular reference points, line quality and mass are stressed in developing the student's figure drawing ability. Work is done directly from the human figure along with slide presentations to enhance the student's knowledge of the masters and the historical figure ideology. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 341-342. Advanced Painting [0-6] (1 course each semester)

An in-depth study of painting with attention being given to individual tendencies and preferences. Prerequisite: ARTS 240. Not offered pass-fail. Students may elect to take this course twice if they wish--one time under ARTS 341 and another under ARTS 342.

ARTS 361-362. Advanced Functional and Sculptural Ceramics [0-6] (1 course each semester)

Advanced work with clay and glazes. Emphasis on kiln stacking and firing and individual projects. Prerequisite: ARTS 260. Not offered pass-fail. Students may elect to take this course twice if they wish--one time under ARTS 361 and another under ARTS 362.

ARTS 381-382. Advanced Photography  (1 course)

Continuing work in traditional and experimental techniques of photography. Emphasis on individual development of both conceptual and technical concerns. Prerequisite: ARTS 280 .  Students may elect to take the course twice if they wish-one time under ARTS 381 and another under ARTS 382. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 383-384.  Advanced Video    (1 course)

Continuing work in traditional and experimental techniques of video art. Emphasis on individual development of both conceptual and technical concerns. A. Video only. B. Video and photography. Prerequisite: ARTS 230. Students may elect to take the course twice if they wish--one time under ARTS 383 and another under ARTS 384. Not offered pass-fail.

ARTS 390. Studio Art Topics [0-6] (1/2-1 course)

Studio work in specialty media such as jewelrymaking, silkscreening, sculpture, stained glass, advanced drawing and other media.

ARTS 492. Studio Projects [0-6] (1 course)

A. Printmaking; B. Painting; C. Sculpture; D. Ceramic; E. Drawing; F. Commercial Design. Advanced work in the preceding fields. Prerequisite: senior classification and a major in art.

ART EDUCATION COURSES

ARTE 400. Art Teaching Methods (1 course)

Meets the requirements of students' seeking a teaching certificate in art K-12. (This course is a study of the philosophy of education.) Includes lesson planning, courses of study, sources of supplies and equipment used in teaching art. Prerequisite: an art major with junior or senior classification.

ARTE 400EL. Art Teaching Methods for Elementary Schools (1 course)

Designed to introduce the elementary teaching majors to the purposes and methods of art education at the elementary level. (This course is a study of the philosophy of education.) Practically, the course introduces the various media available to the classroom teacher and the role of art education in the grades. Prerequisite: junior or senior classification.

E-mail questions or comments to: sbates@depauw.edu

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