AHIS BC 1001x Introduction to the History of Art I

Introduction to the art of the past with an emphasis on the variety of perspectives from which it may be studied. Artworks from different period cultures will be selected for discussion in depth. Members of art history faculty and other invited speakers lecture in their fields of specialization. Ancient, Medieval, and early Renaissance will be covered. Note: weekly discussion groups to be arranged.

AHIS BC 1002y Introduction to the History of Art II

Introduction to the art of the past with an emphasis on the variety of perspectives from which it may be studied. Artworks from different period cultures will be selected for discussion in depth. Members of art history faculty and other invited speakers lecture in their fields of specialization. Renaissance to Modern art will be covered. Note: weekly discussion groups to be arranged.

AHIS V 3203y Arts of Japan

Survey of Japanese art from the Neolithic through the Edo period, with emphasis on Buddhist art, scroll painting, decorative screens, and wood-block prints.
General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

AHIS V 3250y Roman Art and Architecture

Architecture, sculpture, and painting of ancient Rome from the second century B.C. to the end of the Roman Empire in the West.
General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

AHIS W 3600x Nineteenth Century Art

Studies European visual arts of the 19th century. Covers a century of rapid stylistic, political and technological changes beginning with the radical changes of the Enlightenment and ending with the glamorous portraits of the Belle Epoque. Considers careers and works of individual artists, formal innovation, the invention of new media, materials, institutional structures, and ideological functions.
Discussion Section Required. General Education Requirement: Historical Studies (HIS). General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

AHIS BC 3642y North American Art and Culture

Introduction to the art of North America from the colonial period until World War II. Surveys the contributions of Anglo-Americans, Latino/as, Native Americans and African-Americans to painting, sculpture, photography, graphic art and the built environment paying close attention to the development of artistic movements and institutions, the contributions of art to cultural dialogues, and changing ideas about artistic production and spectatorship.

AHIS BC 3651y Native American Art II

Introduction to Native American art of the plains, southwest, and California regions from the period of European contact to the present, and to issues of historiography. Surveys painted, carved, tailored, and architectural works. Focuses on understanding the relationship between social organization and artistic expression, and cross-cultural discourses.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

AHIS BC 3654y Institutional Critique

Examines precedents for institutional critique in the strategies of early twentieth-century historical avant-garde and the post-war neo-avant-garde. Explores ideas about the institution and violence, investigates the critique and elaboration of institutional critique from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and considers the legacies of institutional critiques in the art of the present.

AHIS BC 3655y The Discourse of Public Art and Public Space

Examination of the meaning of the term "public space" in contemporary debates in art, architecture, and urban discourse and the place of these debates within broader controversies over the meaning of democracy. Readings include Theodor Adorno, Vito Acconci, Michel de Certeau, Douglas Crimp, Thomas Crow, Jurgen Habermas, David Harvey, Fredric Jameson, Miwon Kwon, Henri Lefebvre, Bruce Robbins, Michael Sorkin, Mark Wigley, and Krzysztof Wodiczko.
General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART). Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

AHIS BC 3673y The History of Photography

Focuses on the intersection of photography with traditional artistic practices in the 19th century, on the mass cultural functions of photography in propaganda and advertising from the 1920s onwards, and on the emergence of photography as the central medium in the production of postwar avant-garde art practices.

AHIS BC 3674x Art since 1945

Introduction to the history of art in post-war Europe and the United States from 1945 to the present, emphasizing questions of methodology of modernist studies and the diversity of theoretical approaches.
General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART). Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

AHIS BC 3675y Feminism and Postmodernism in Contemporary Art

Examines art and criticism of the 1970s and 1980s that were informed by feminist and postmodern ideas about visual representation. Explores postmodernism as (1) a critique of modernism, (2) a critique of representation, and (3) what Gayatri Spivak called "a radical acceptance of vulnerability." Studies art informed by feminist ideas about vision and subjectivity. Places this art in relation to other aesthetic phenomena, such as modernism, minimalism, institution-critical art, and earlier feminist interventions in art.

AHIS BC 3681y Late 20th Century Art: The 1960's to the Present

Introduces the history of contemporary artistic practices from the 1960s to the present, and the major critical and historical accounts of modernism and postmodernism in the arts. Focusing on the interrelationships between modernist culture and the emerging concepts of postmodern and contemporary art, the course addresses a wide range of historical and methodological questions.

AHIS BC 3682x Cubism and the Crisis of Representation

The artistic phenomenon that came to be called Cubism is widely considered to be pivotal in the history of twentieth century art. This course studies Cubism in all of its complexity. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which Cubist artists respond to the dramatically changing notions of space, time and dimension in the early twentieth century. - A. Alberro
Prerequisites: 20th Century Art recommended. Limited to 55 undergraduate students (no graduate students)
3 points

AHIS BC 3683y Museum Practicum - Exhibitions: Engaging Public Understanding

Be art at the Guggenheim Museum. Noted contemporary artist Tino Seghal and the Guggenheim are looking for articulate students to engage visitors in conversation about culture, 12 hours a week for 6 weeks. The conversations are the work of art. Conversation with professor as conclusion.

AHIS BC 3685x or y Art Film and Video

Introduces the history of art film and video art practices of the twentieth century. Focusing on the interrelationships between art film, video art, and modernist culture, the course addresses a wide range of social, historical, and methodological questions arising from the advent and development of these new media.

AHIS BC 3685x History of Art Film and Video

Introduces the history of art film and video art practices of the twentieth century. Focusing on the interrelationships between art film, video art, and modernist culture, the course addresses a wide range of social, historical, and methodological questions arising from the advent and development of these new media.

AHIS BC 3936x The Frick Museum

Course Description to Come

AHIS BC 3990x Japanese Prints: Images of Japan's Floating World

Ukiyo-e, the "images of the floating world," present a vivid and highly romanticized vision of the dynamic urban culture of Japan during the 17th through 19th centuries. Considers ways in which these images promoted kabuki theater, glamorized life in the licensed prostitution quarters, and represented sexuality and gender. We will study how print designers and publishers dodged government censorship as they ruthlessly parodied contemporary life, literature, and venerable artistic traditions.

AHIS W 4480y Art in the Age of the Reformation

Explores the ways in which the culture and social functions of artistic production in Germany and the Netherlands were transformed as a consequence of the dissemination of the ideologies of humanism and the Reformation.

AHIS W 4626y Tourism and the North American Landscape

Examines the relationship between 19th-century landscapes (paintings, photographs and illustrations) and tourism in North America. The semiotics of tourism, the tourist industry as patron, the tourist as audience, and the visual implications of new forms of travel explored via the work of Cole, Moran, Jackson, and others.

AHIS W 4703y Japanese Architecture from the mid-19th C. to the Present

Examines Japanese architecture and urban planning from the mid-19th century to the present. We will address topics such as the establishment of an architectural profession along western lines in the late 19th century, the emergence of a modernist movement in the 1920's, the use of biological metaphors and the romanticization of technology in the theories and designs of the Metabolist Group, and the shifting significance of pre-modern Japanese architectural practices for modern architects. There will be an emphasis on the complex relationship between architectural practice and broader political and social change in Japan.

AHIS BC 3031y Imagery and Form in the Arts

Operation of imagery and form in dance, music, theater, visual arts and writing; students are expected to do original work in one of these arts. Concepts in contemporary art will be explored.

AHIS BC 3936x The Frick Collection

Made possible by the Frick Collection, the seminar studies the historical context, collection, installation, and ideas of one of New York City's great museums. Granted privileged access to the galleries and the archives of the Frick Collection, students will have a unique opportunity to learn directly from art objects and primary sources.

AHIS BC 3941y Contemporary African Photography and Video

Explores the development of contemporary photographic and video practices as they relate to Africa. Organized thematically, it focuses on the individual case studies, artists, and exhibitions that comprise the dynamic and international realm of contemporary photography and video by artists living on and off the African continent.

AHIS BC 3948y The Visual Culture of the Harlem Renaissance

Introduction to the paintings, photographs, sculptures, films, and graphic arts of the Harlem Renaissance and the publications, exhibitions, and institutions involved in the production and consumption of images of African-Americans. Focuses on impact of Black northward and transatlantic migration and the roles of region, class, gender, and sexuality.

AHIS BC 3949x The Art of Witness: Memorials and Historical Trauma

Examines aesthetic responses to collective historical traumas, such as slavery, the Holocaust, the bombing of Hiroshima, AIDS, homelessness, immigration, and the recent attack on the World Trade Center. Studies theories about trauma, memory, and representation. Explores debates about the function and form of memorials.

AHIS BC 3950x Contemporary Photography and Video in Asia

Explores the range of contemporary photographic and video work being made in Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Considers the artists, institutions, publications and exhibitions that have contributed to the growing centrality of Asia in the contemporary art world.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 15 students. Barnard Art History seminar application required. See dept. website. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
4 points

AHIS BC 3951y Contemporary Art and the Public Sphere

Critically examines contemporary debates about the meaning of public art and public space, placing them within broader controversies over definitions of urban life and democracy. Explores ideas about what it means to bring the term "public" into proximity with the term "art." Considers the differing ideas about social unity that inform theories of public space as well as feminist criticism of the masculine presumptions underlying certain critical theories of public space/art.
Prerequisites: AHIS BC1001 - BC1002 or equivalent. Enrollment Limited to 15 students. Permission of the instructor. Preference to seniors and Art History majors. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
4 points

AHIS BC 3952x Art and Mass/Popular/Everyday Culture: 1850 to the Present

Examines interactions between art in Europe and the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, on the one hand, and non-art forms of culture that are called variously "mass," "popular," and "everyday" culture, on the other. Places art/mass culture interactions within the rise of bourgeois society, the invention of democracy, and relations of class, gender, sexuality, and race. Studies major critical theories and debates about the relationship between art and mass culture.
Prerequisites: AHIS BC1001 - BC1002 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 15 students. Permission of the instructor. Preference to seniors and Art History majors. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
4 points

AHIS BC 3957x or y 1980s Feminism and Postmodernism in the Visual Arts

Examination of art and criticism that is informed by feminist and postmodern ideas about subjectivity in visual representation which first achieved prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s, exerting a profound influence on contemporary aesthetic practice. Explored in relation to earlier concepts of feminism, modernism, social art history, and "art as institution." Artworks discussed include those of Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Louise Lawler, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Hans Haacke, Mary Kelly, and Catherine Opie, among others.
Prerequisites: AHIS BC1001 - BC1002 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 15 students. Permission of the instructor. Preference to seniors and Art History majors. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART). Not offered in 2009-2010.
4 points

AHIS BC 3959xy Senior Research Seminar

Independent research for the senior thesis. Students develop and write their senior thesis in consultation with an individual faculty adviser in art history and participate in group meetings scheduled throughout the senior year.

AHIS BC 3960y Senior Research Seminar

Independent research for the senior thesis. Students develop and write their senior thesis in consultation with an individual faculty adviser in Art History and participate in group meetings scheduled throughout the senior year.

AHIS BC 3968x Art Criticism

Contemporary art and its criticism written by artists (rather than by art historians or journalistic reviewers). Texts by Dan Graham, (Art and Language), Robert Smithson, Brian O'Dougherty, Martha Rosler, Barbara Kruger and others. Also, considers the art and writing of each artist together.

AHIS BC 3970x Methods and Theories of Art History

Introduction to critical writings that have shaped histories of art, including texts on iconography and iconology, the psychology of perception, psychoanalysis, social history, feminism and gender studies, structuralism, semiotics, and post-structuralism.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to Barnard Art History majors only. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
4 points

AHIS BC 3985x Introduction to Connoisseurship

Factors involved in judging works of art, with emphasis on paintings; materials, technique, condition, attribution; identification of imitations and fakes; questions of relative quality.

AHIS BC 2001x and y Introduction to Drawing

Introduction to drawing as an open-ended way of working and thinking. The class is primarily a workshop, augmented by slides, lectures and field trips. Throughout the semester, students will discuss their work one-on-one with the instructor and as a group. Starting with figure drawing, we will investigate drawing as a practice involving diverse forms of visual culture.

AHIS BC 2005x Painting

Basic understanding of the visual representation of space, color, and form are developed by setting specific tasks to be executed in oil painting. Classwork will include drawing and painting from the model as well as still-life arrangements. Emphasis is on the painting methods and techniques used historically in Realism, Expressionism, and Abstraction. Students are encouraged to develop oral and written skills through weekly discussions and assignments that accompany the examination of visual art. No prior experience is necessary.

AHIS BC 2006x and y Painting

Basic understanding of the visual representation of space, color, and form are developed by setting specific tasks to be executed in oil painting. Classwork will include drawing and painting from the model as well as still life arrangements. Emphasis is on the painting methods and techniques used historically in Realism, Expressionism, and Abstraction. Students are encouraged to develop oral and written skills through weekly discussions and assignments that accompany the examination of visual art. No prior experience is necessary.
2 points

AHIS BC 2007x Painting

Basic understanding of the visual representation of space, color, and form are developed by setting specific tasks to be executed in oil painting. Classwork will include drawing and painting from the model as well as still-life arrangements. Emphasis is on the painting methods and techniques used historically in Realism, Expressionism, and Abstraction. Students are encouraged to develop oral and written skills through weekly discussions and assignments that accompany the examination of visual art. No prior experience is necessary.
2 points

AHIS BC 2008y Painting

Basic understanding of the visual representation of space, color, and form are developed by setting specific tasks to be executed in oil painting. Classwork will include drawing and painting from the model as well as still-life arrangements. Emphasis is on the painting methods and techniques used historically in Realism, Expressionism, and Abstraction. Students are encouraged to develop oral and written skills through weekly discussions and assignments that accompany the examination of visual art. No prior experience is necessary.
2 points

AHIS BC 3003x and y Supervised Projects in Photography

Designed for students to conduct independent projects in photography.
Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 15 students. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

AHIS BC 3530x Advanced Studio

An interpretive study of the theoretical and critical issues in visual art. Projects that are modeled after major movements in contemporary art will be executed in the studio. Each student develops an original body of artwork and participates in group discussions of the assigned readings.