Art History Course Descriptions
ARTH-105: Art: The Historical Experience (3)
An introduction to works of art in historical context. Western art from prehistory to the present with in-depth study of such major architectural monuments as the Parthenon, Chartres Cathedral, St. Peter's in Rome, and such artists as Michelangelo, Raphael, El Greco, Gentileschi, Rembrandt, the French Impressionists, and Picasso. Usually offered every term.
ARTH-201: Mediterranean Art (3)
Offered as part of the AU Abroad Madrid and the Mediterranean program. An introduction to Mediterranean history and art, centered chronologically on art movements with emphasis on the differences between Spanish art and its Mediterranean counterparts. The course is an in-depth study of painting, sculpture, and architecture that includes stylistic as well as thematic manifestations, examining art in the Mediterranean from cave paintings to the twentieth century from a variety of cultures and geographic regions, and introducing students to stylistic periods, major works and artists, and the traditional methods of art history. Usually offered every fall.
ARTH-205: Art of the Renaissance (3)
Architecture, sculpture, painting, and prints of Renaissance Italy and Northern Europe. Considers the interplay of art with philosophy, theology, and social change, and examines the artistic legacy and rich creative achievements of a culture inspired by classical antiquity. Usually offered every spring. Prerequisite for General Education credit: LIT-125 or HIST-100 or HIST-110 or WGST-150.
ARTH-210: Modern Art: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (3)
An introduction to the art of the modern period. Presents in cultural and historical contexts the work of major artists such as David, Goya, Delacroix, Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp, Pollock, and many others. Emphasizes what is unique about modern art and the expanding conception of creative expression in our era. Usually offered every term. Prerequisite for General Education credit: ARTH-105 or COMM-105 or LIT-120 or LIT-135.
ARTH-215: Architecture: Washington and the World (3)
Appreciation of our architectural heritage and a study of its history through the great buildings of Washington. Monuments such as the White House and the Capitol are studied in relation to structures from which they have evolved. Students obtain a knowledge of building traditions of Washington, the United States, and the Western world. Usually offered once a year. Prerequisite for General Education credit: ARTH-105 or COMM-105 or LIT-120 or LIT-135.
ARTH-220: Introduction to the Arts of Japan (3)
Explores Japanese art from ancient to contemporary, covering sculpture, calligraphy, ink paintings, architecture, photography, woodblock prints, abstract painting, and other art forms. Emphasizes historical and social contexts, such as gender dynamics, religion, nationalism, and propaganda. Usually offered every fall.
ARTH-250: Art History of the World Regions (3)
Topics vary by section, may be repeated for credit with different topic. Rotating topics offered through various AU Abroad programs, including analysis of major artists, groups, and stylistic developments of a specific region and time period. Topics explore the historical, cultural, and social contexts of the artists and works discussed and may focus on several forms of visual art/culture, including architecture, sculpture, painting, prints, and installations, and include on-site visits to museums and galleries, as well as architectural and archeological locations.
ARTH-303: Medieval Art (3)
A survey of Medieval art covering Early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic developments in architecture, painting, and sculpture. Usually offered alternate years. Prerequisite: ARTH-105.
ARTH-308: Gothic Art (3)
Architecture, painting, sculpture, manuscript illuminations, and stained glass from the twelfth to the fifteenth century in Europe. Meets with ARTH-608. Prerequisite: ARTH-105 or ARTH-303
ARTH-331: Visual Arts in the United States to 1890 (3)
This course covers portraiture, landscape, and genre painting from the early Colonial period to the late nineteenth century. It examines major artists and movements including Colonial portraiture, Hudson River School and Luminist landscape, sculpture, and photography, and artists including Eakins, Homer, and Cassatt. Emphasizes cultural politics, colonialism, slavery, Native Americans, gender issues, and relationships between American and European art. Meets with ARTH-631. Usually offered alternate falls. Prerequisite: ARTH-105 or permission of instructor.
ARTH-332: Visual Arts in the United States: 1890 to 1935 (3)
This course covers art from the Gilded Age through early 1930s. It examines major artists and movements, including American Impressionism, Ashcan School, American modernist abstraction, Harlem Renaissance, and regionalism. Focuses on relation to European modernisms and U.S. cultural politics, including gender and racial issues and the rise of major museums, dealers, and collectors. Meets with ARTH-632. Usually offered alternate springs. Prerequisite: ARTH-105 and ARTH-210 or permission of instructor.
ARTH-333: Visual Arts in the United States: 1935 to 1970 (3)
This course covers dramatic changes in realism and modernism in the mid-twentieth century including Mexican art, leftist politics, the Great Depression and federal support, geometric modernisms, Abstract Expressionism, New Realism, Pop Art, and photography. Emphasizes major artists and cultural politics including the New Deal, Cold War, gender and racial difference, and contributions of art critic and dealers. Meets with ARTH-633. Usually offered alternate falls. Prerequisite: ARTH-105 and ARTH-210 or permission of instructor.
ARTH-334: Contempoary Visual Art and Postmodernism (3)
This course covers contemporary art since 1970 created in the United States by American and international artists. It examines movements including Minimalism, earth art, photorealism, Neo-Expressionism, feminism, new abstraction, identity politics, installation and performance art. Emphasizes critical understanding of postmodernist theory related to multiculturalism, racial/ gender difference, queer theory, censorship, ecology, and social/political critique. Meets with ARTH-634. Usually offered alternate springs. Prerequisite: ARTH-105 and ARTH-210 or permission of instructor.
ARTH-335: Twentieth Century Women Artists of the Americas (3)
This course focuses on women artists' contributions to twentieth century art in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America. It examines women's struggles and successes, their iconographic and stylistic interests, and the analysis of their works in relation to theories of gender, feminism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism. Usually offered alternate springs. Meets with ARTH-635. Prerequisite: ARTH-105 or ARTH-210.
ARTH-350: Regional Studies in Art History (3)
Topics vary by section, may be repeated for credit with different topic. Rotating topics offered through various AU Abroad programs, including analysis of major artists, groups, and stylistic developments of a specific region and time period. Topics explore the historical, cultural, and social contexts of the artists and works discussed and may focus on several forms of visual art/culture, including architecture, sculpture, painting, prints, and installations, and include on-site visits to museums and galleries, as well as architectural and archeological locations.
ARTH-390: Independent Reading Course in Art History (1-6)
Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.
ARTH-392: Cooperative Education Field Experience (3-9)
Prerequisite: permission of department chair and Cooperative Education office.
ARTH-396: Selected Topics: Non-recurring (1-6)
Topics vary by section, may be repeated for credit with different topic.
ARTH-490: Independent Study Project in Art History (1-6)
Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.
ARTH-491: Internship (3)
Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.
ARTH-500: Approaches to Art History (3)
Reading, discussion, and written work based on subjects such as style, iconography, semiotics, the art museum, and social, psychological and feminist approaches. Attention to critical interpretation and writing research papers. Prerequisite: four art history courses or graduate standing.
ARTH-508: Painting: Rococo through Impressionism (3)
Counter-Rococo currents in the late eighteenth century, including neoclassicism and proto-Romanticism, with a detailed study of David and Goya; French Romanticism in the art of Gericault and Delacroix; romantic landscape painting with emphasis on Turner, Constable, Friedrich, Corot, and the Barbizon School; the realism of Courbet; Manet and Degas; and Monet and the French Impressionists. Usually offered alternate years. Prerequisite: two art history courses including ARTH-105 or equivalent.
ARTH-510: Painting: Post-Impressionism to Expressionism (3)
Reactions to Impressionism in the 1880s and 1890s in France and elsewhere in Europe. Emphasis on the art of Seurat and the Neo-Impressionists, Cezanne, Gauguin and the Symbolists, and Van Gogh. Also studied are Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Vuillard, Munch, Ensor, and Klimt. Art Nouveau and Expressionism are considered as Post-Impressionist phenomena, and their effect on the early work of Matisse and Picasso is assessed. Usually offered once a year. Prerequisite: two art history courses including ARTH-105, or equivalent.
ARTH-511: Painting: Cubism through Surrealism (3)
Analyzes the development of Cubism in the art of Picasso and Braque, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, and the Italian Futurists. Also studied are the non-objective styles of Kandinsky and Mondrian, and the Dada and Surrealist movements, with emphasis on Duchamp, Miro, and Picasso. American art since 1945 and its roots in traditions of European modernism are also considered. Usually offered once a year. Prerequisite: ARTH-105 or equivalent.
ARTH-513: Italian Painting: Early Renaissance (3)
Developments in Florence, Siena, and Venice in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, including the classical revival, narrative, linear perspective, and the role of social and theoretical factors in the practice of art. Emphasis on major figures such as Giotto, Duccio, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, and Giovanni Bellini. Usually offered every third semester. Prerequisite: two art history courses including ARTH-105 or equivalent.
ARTH-514: Italian Painting: High Renaissance (3)
Development of high Renaissance and early Mannerist styles in Rome, Venice, and Florence in the first half of the sixteenth century. Major artists emphasized include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giorgione, and Titian. Includes consideration of issues such as the elevation of artists' social status and the emergent concept of artistic genius. Usually offered every third semester. Prerequisite: two art history courses including ARTH-105 or equivalent.
ARTH-515 Italian Painting: Late Renaissance and Early Baroque (3)
Examines Italian art from the mid-sixteenth through early seventeenth centuries, considering the flourishing of art theory, late Mannerist and early Baroque style, and the significant emergence of female artists. Artists include Bronzino, Vasari, late Titian and Michelangelo (sculpture and painting), Tintoretto, Veronese, Sofonisba Anguissola, the Carracci, Caravaggio, and Artemisia Gentileschi. Usually offered every third semester. Prerequisite: two art history courses including ARTH-105 or equivalent.
ARTH-520: Seminar in Art History (3)
Topics vary by section, may be repeated for credit with different topic. Reports and critical discussion of research papers. Usually offered every term. Prerequisite: six art history courses or permission of instructor.
ARTH-590: Independent Reading Course in Art History (1-6)
Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.
ARTH-608: Gothic Art (3)
Architecture, painting, sculpture, manuscript illuminations, and stained glass from the twelfth to the fifteenth century in Europe. Meets with ARTH-308.
ARTH-631: Visual Arts in the United States to 1890 (3)
This course covers portraiture, landscape, and genre painting from the early Colonial period to the late nineteenth century. It examines major artists and movements including Colonial portraiture, Hudson River School and Luminist landscape, sculpture, and photography, and artists including Eakins, Homer, and Cassatt. Emphasizes cultural politics, colonialism, slavery, Native Americans, gender issues, and relationships between American and European art. Meets with ARTH-331. Usually offered alternate falls.
ARTH-632: Visual Arts in the United States: 1890 to 1935 (3)
This course covers art from the Gilded Age through early 1930s. It examines major artists and movements, including American Impressionism, Ashcan School, American modernist abstraction, Harlem Renaissance, and regionalism. Focuses on relation to European modernisms and U.S. cultural politics, including gender and racial issues and the rise of major museums, dealers, and collectors. Meets with ARTH-332. Usually offered alternate springs.
ARTH-633: Visual Arts in the United States: 1935 to 1970 (3)
This course covers dramatic changes in realism and modernism in the mid-twentieth century including Mexican art, leftist politics, the Great Depression and federal support, geometric modernisms, Abstract Expressionism, New Realism, Pop Art, and photography. Emphasizes major artists and cultural politics including the New Deal, Cold War, gender and racial difference, and contributions of art critic and dealers. Meets with ARTH-333. Usually offered alternate falls.
ARTH-634: Contemporary Visual Art in Postmodernism (3)
This course covers contemporary art since 1970 created in the United States by American and international artists. It examines movements including Minimalism, earth art, photorealism, Neo-Expressionism, feminism, new abstraction, identity politics, installation and performance art. Emphasizes critical understanding of postmodernist theory related to multiculturalism, racial/ gender difference, queer theory, censorship, ecology, and social/political critique. Meets with ARTH-334. Usually offered alternate springs.
ARTH-635: Twentieth Century Women Artists of the Americas
This course focuses on women artists' contributions to twentieth century art in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America. It examines women's struggles and successes, their iconographic and stylistic interests, and the analysis of their works in relation to theories of gender, feminism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism. Usually offered alternate springs. Meets with ARTH-335.
ARTH-690: Independent Study Project in Art History (1-6)
Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.
ARTH-691: Internship (3-6)
Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.
ARTH-692: Cooperative Education Field Experience (3-6)
Prerequisite: permission of department chair and Cooperative Education office.
ARTH-696: Selected Topics: Non Recurring (1-6)
Topics vary by section, may be repeated for credit with different topic.
ARTH-792: Research Seminar in Art History (3)
Topics vary by section, may be repeated for credit with different topic. Seminar topic is normally from one of the following areas: Renaissance art, Baroque and Rococo art, nineteenth-century art, twentieth-century art, American art and architecture, or from thematic or conceptual categories such as landscape or gender. M.A. thesis-option papers originate from this course. Usually offered every term. Prerequisite: M.A. in Art History candidates with permission of department chair.
ARTH-793: Directed Research in Art History (3)
Must be in a field listed under ARTH-792, but not in field covered in ARTH-792 that semester. Usually offered every term. Prerequisite: M.A. in Art History candidates with 12 hours of graduate art history with a B average or better and permission of department chair.