Spring 2006 Graduate Courses

Lectures

(ACLG W4001) Archaeological Theory Practice 
J. Smith
Archaeological theory and practice takes students through process of archaeological thought, from formulation of an idea, through processes of survey and excavation, to analysis of data, and interpretation of results. Archaeologies from several world cultures are included. The many topics covered include: the meaning of archaeology, excavation, conservation, ceramics, the individual and culture groups, and cultural heritage.

(AHIS G4126) Indian painting
V. Dehejia
This course focuses on Indian painted manuscripts created from the fifteenth century onwards at both the Mughal imperial center of Delhi and the various Hindu Rajput courts of Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills. Guest lectures will be presented by scholars who have extensively researched specific traditions of Indian miniature painting.

(AHIS W4626) Tourism & North American Landscape 
E. Hutchinson
Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing. 
Examines the relationship between Ninteenth Century landscapes (paintings, photographs and illustrations) and tourism in North America. The semiotics of tourism, the tourist industry as patron/tourist as audience, and the visual implications of new forms of travel will be explored via the work of Cole, Moran, Jackson and others.

(AHIS W4657) Russian Art 1860-1910 
E. Valkenier

(AHIS W4317) Monumental Programs in Medieval Art: 400-1350
A. Bouché 
No prerequisites: suitable for motivated students at all levels. 
A study of monumental programs—cycles of imagery—in variety of architectural contexts: portal sculpture, wall painting, stained glass, floor and ceiling decoration. Students will become familiar with major iconographical themes, symbolic meanings of buildings, textual sources of these programs (the Bible, biblical apocrypha, mystery plays, legends, fable and theology) and the reasons behind their creation.

(AHIS G6630) Post-War Critical Theory
J. Rajchman

(AHIS G6249) Greek Art and Architecture II 
C. Marconi
An introduction the Art and Architecture of the Greek World during the Classical and Late Classical Period (480-323 BCE).

(AHIS G6466) Venetian Painting of the Renaissance 
D. Rosand
Selected topics on painting in Venice from ca. 1450 to the end of the 16th century, with special attention to problems of context and interpretation; emphasis on major painters Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Jacopo Bassano.

(AHIS G6650) Multiple Modernities
E. Pasztory
A comparative approach to the vibrant contemporary arts outside the West which seem not to fit easily into current classifications. The aim is to initiate the discourse for the study of modern art and architecture in the countries of Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

(AHIS G6710) Tradition & Innovation In German Architecture: Schinkel, Semper, Mies
B. Bergdoll
Prerequisite for undergraduates: course in 19th or 20th century architectural history and instructor's permission. Discussion sections for undergraduates to be arranged. 
German Architectural design and theory from Winckelmann to the early work of Mies van der Rohe with special emphasis on Schinkel and his contemporaries in Prussia, Bavaria, and Baden. Key texts of architectural theory and contemporary literary or philosophical theories that shaped architectural thought.

Seminars and Colloquia

Happenings: Art and the Everyday, 1958-1968
J. Rodenbeck
This seminar examines the happening, an artform that flourished around 1958, first in the United States, then in Europe and to a limited extent in Japan, and then died out around 1968. We will ask what relation happenings had to anti-modernist and modernist formations; what features the canonical works shared; and how new critical approaches might inflect our understanding not only of these historical objects but also of more recent artistic and art historical projects. Interested students will have the opportunity to do research in conjunction with the exhibition "Allan Kaprow—A Survey Presentation," currently being organized by the Munich Haus der Kunst and the Eindhoven Van Abbemuseum.

(AHIS G8058) African Architecture 
S. Vogel
We will examine architectural invention in sub-Saharan Africa concentrating on the abundant local invention. Topics include: urban and village design; adaptation to the environment and climate in the main style zones; aesthetics and meaning; the science and engineering of building systems and construction techniques; the dynamics of social relationships mapped by structures and revealed by maintenance; adaptation to contemporary desires.

(AHIS G8427) Art Theory & Criticisms of the Renaissance 
D. Rosand
Theories of art and the artist, with special attention to the development of an aesthetics of painting. Focus will be on texts by Cennini, Alberti, Michelangelo, Pino, Dolce, and Vasari-with consideration as well of non-artistic texts, such as those by Castiglione and Ariosto.

(AHIS G8451) Architecture of the Vatican: XV to XVII century 
F. Benelli
A basic reading knowledge of Italian and an understanding of architectural drawings are strongly suggested. An investigation into the development and transformation of the Vatican site from the first modification of early Christian basilica by Nicholas V to the construction of the Bernini's piazza in the XVII century. The seminar will explore relations between architecture and power, liturgy and religion, the Pope's self-representation and urban strategies through the analysis of drawings, documents and contemporary texts. A basic reading knowledge of Italian and an understanding of architectural drawings are strongly suggested.

(AHIS G8543) Ancients & Moderns: Cultural Ruptures and Debate in the Baroque Age 
H. Ballon
Seminar on aspects of architecture, urbanism, art theory, and representation in France during the early modern period. Topics include urban planning in Paris; the chateau and classical garden; Versailles; ritual forms of the monarchy; ideology and iconography of Louis XIV; the rise of the Academies; the quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns.

(AHIS G8685) Art and Technology 
J. Crary
Selected problems in the history and theory of relations between art and technique, from the Renaissance invention of perspective and printing to contemporary artificial intelligence and virtual reality technologies. Panofsky, Benjamin, Francastel, Mumford, Kracauer, Heidegger, Adorno, McLuhan, Virilio, Foucault, Deleuze, Kittler, Haraway, and Koolhaas.

(AHIS G8875) Examination of the 'Cinematic' 
J. Rajchman
What is the cinematic? How does it change our ideas of art? In this seminar we will examine the answer Gilles Deleuze gave to these questions twenty years ago when he presented cinema as a way of thinking with movement- and time- images, with a long series of connections with other arts and disciplines and socio-political mutations, which increasingly had to confront a society of information and control. Readings from a number of sources will supplement the examination of Deleuze's two volumes on film, and their attempt to introduce a new aesthetics of duration.

(AHIS G8885) Made in the Museum 
A. Higonnet
This seminar studies the museum as a condition of nineteenth-century visuality. Concentrating on the work of seven important artists, the seminar will investigate issues of originality and reproduction raised by artists' relationship to the evolving institution of the art museum. Two weeks each will be devoted to: Canova, Thorvaldsen, Turner, Géricault, Morse, Menzel, and Manet. New modes of reproduction and collecting offered by neo-classical sculpture, lithographic prints, museum copies, and photography will be discussed, as well as problems in the geography of nineteenth-century art made brought about by new technologies of communication, including relationships among European countries, between Europe and the United States, and between western and Japanese art.

(AHIS G8140) Describing Art: Ancient Ekphrasis between Aesthetics Theory and Artistic Practice
F. DeAngelis
Ekphrasis, the vivid description of objects or scenes, can be considered one of the main tools for investigating the constantly shifting relationship between the visual and the verbal, especially in the field of the arts. Its early but already very rich history in classical antiquity, from Homer to Philostratus, has been crucial also for subsequent developments in the Western artistic tradition, down to our times.

(AHIS G8278) Roman Historical Relief Sculpture 
N. Kampen
Prerequisites: Knowledge of at least one of the following: Latin, French, German, Italian Course investigates the representation of historical events, both specific and typical, on public monuments of the Roman republic and the impreial period.

(AHIS G8825) Art History After the "End" of Art 
K. Moxey
This course analyzes the fate of art history in the absence of universally recognized theories of art and history. To what extent do the old "master narratives" still constitute a necessary backdrop against which new approaches must find their place? What are the disadvantages of the present uncertainty?

(AHIS G8269) New Approaches to the Study of Romanesque and Gothic 
S. Murray
An exploration of the themes and issues that have animated the study of Romanesque, and Gothic art in recent decades. We will begin with humanistic concerns (anthropology, sociology, semiotics, narrative, etc) and will conclude with the application of digital technology to the understanding of Romanesque.

(AFAS G4080, Section 002) Topics in the Black Experience: Black West: African American Artists in the Western United States
Kellie Jones
Preference given to African-American Studies Majors; register yourself during the registration period
This course considers the creative production of African Americans primarily in California in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Of interest are the graphic and photographic works of Grafton Tyler Brown and J.P. Ball and the Narratives of black cowboys in the 19th century. Moving to the 20th century we will consider sculpture by Beulah Ecton Woodard and Sargent Johnson and architecture by Paul Williams and their relationship to modern themes and theory, particularly that of the Harlem Renaissance. We will also look at African American connection to the film industry through black westerns like The Bronze Buckaroo, Harlem Rides the Range and Two Gun Man from Harlem all from the 1930s. In the contemporary period we will explore the work of artists in dialogue with the Black Arts Movement including Betye Saar, Charles White, David Hammons, and Senga Nengudi. Themes pertinent to the course include: how African American identities and cultural production imbricated with concepts of what is considered "western" or trends of west coast artmaking?; what can these artists tell us about notions of space, place, and migration in the African American imagination?

(FILM W3500) Interdisciplinary Studies
K. Minturn
Seminar may count towards AHAR students course and/or seminar requirements.