Art History

A survey of Western art from ancient times to the present that places monuments of art in social, historical, and cultural contexts.

Survey of the arts of India, China, Korea, and Japan. These arts will be examined with an emphasis on style as cultural expression, the meaning of arts in a religious context, and the impact of the cross-cultural exchange.

Introduction to the design history and cultural significance of domestic interiors in a range of places and periods. Students will investigate how the visual, spatial, and material aspects of living environments both express and actively shape changing values. Topics include aspects of planning decoration, and social usage; shifting conceptions of privacy and family; and the role of design in the formation of gender, class, and national identities.

Why do you see the way you do?  Find out through this course's exploration of the exciting ways in which vision and representation were and are constructed in the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries. By examining a variety of representational forms, including painting, photography, film, and PowerPoint, students understand that "seeing" is a complex and dynamic process; there's no such thing as "just looking".

A focus on a variety of monuments and traditions of art and architecture, with the goal of exploring issues concerning style, function, technique, and meaning. Attention will be paid to topics such as creativity, the artist and society, sacred and secular art, gender and art, crafts and popular art vs. the fine arts, and the body in art.

A topically organized course with the specific topic varying according to program.

A series of case studies involving a variety of architectural sites across different time periods and cultural settings in West, South, Southeast, and East Asia.  Students examine how sites operate within specific historical settings, tracing religious, political, and cultural shifts.  While addressing important developments in the built environment, the course introduces methods for interpreting and analyzing architecture and explores the debates that animate the preservation of historic sites and the role of monuments in the tourist industry.

A study of the prehistoric, historic, and contemporary arts of Native American peoples of North America. This course will study the arts of mainly Southwest, Woodlands, Great Plains, and Northwest Coast cultures with particular attention to their historiography, style, technique, symbolic meaning, and place in ritual. A wide range of media will be covered, including sculpture, painting, architecture, pottery, textile arts, jewelry, and body decoration.

An examination of the debates that animate the study of the art, architecture, and visual cultures of South Asia (modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) from the c. 2600 BCE Indus Valley Civilization to contemporary Bollywood film. Students will examine how religious sites and objects, imperial art, and film operate within specific historical and regional settings, thereby tracing religious, political, social, and cultural shifts over time.  In addition, students will consider how meanings are constructed and conveyed through visual mediums such as photography, film, and fashion.

A survey of selected art traditions in ancient Mesoamerica and Andean South America from 2000 BCE to 1600 CE, focused around the theme of nature and the environment. The course covers art and architecture of the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Chavin, Moche and Inca, and the people of Teotihuacan, looking particularly at how nature and the environment have informed and shaped their styles, meanings, functions, and underlying ideologies.

Survey of the history of visual arts in Islamic cultures. The course will examine architecture, painting, ceramics, and textiles in Arab, North African, Turkish, Persian, and Indian contexts. Special consideration will be given to the interaction between local visual traditions and Islamic values.

Examines how the mass-produced material world (graphic design, advertising, objects, etc.) in mostly modern and contemporary United States can shape our experiences in intentional and unintentional ways. You will learn about power dynamics in education to prepare you to teach about topics such as racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, and more in relation to the material world (topics can include Black Power, video games, maps, postage stamps, and more). You will be responsible for teaching some of the class material; your class session will be open to the Skidmore community. The course unfolds over three stages. Stage 1: I provide background in and moderate discussion on several topics, including power in teaching and learning, why group work is an effective learning technique, Nazi use of material culture to exert power (the Nazis were the orginators - and preeminent practitioners - of multi-media exertions of power), the resistance found in material objects to Nazi power, and how American mid-century modern design reinforced sexist and racist power dynamics. The sections on Nazi and mid-century modern design serve as models for you to reflect on when you prepare to teach your classes on American topics (stage 3). Stage 2: You prepare to teach with my support. This includes reading and discussing texts on effective teaching and group work developing a teaching plan on American material culture. You will master your topic, decide what your peers must know about it, how best to convey that information, what kind of homework to assign, and what kind of deliverable your peers will provide. Stage 3: You teach course material.

Examines power dynamics in the architecture, furnishings, and usage of living environments in the United States from the 18th century to the present. Students will study how many aspects of domestic design contribute to social injustice; how people navigate and resist oppressive design; and how design can foster diversity, equity, and inclusion. Particular attention will be paid to intersections of race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and dis/ability. Students will create a public-facing project that educates others about historical legacies and current issues concerning power, identities, and lived experience in domestic spaces.

A concentrated focus on writing intended for declared or potential art history majors. Students will develop strong writing proficiency through analysis of professional art history writing. They will strengthen particular skills required in the discipline, including research techniques, close looking, and analysis based on visual and written evidence.

A survey of the practices and methods of the discipline of art history, intended for majors or potential majors. Examines the key questions, interpretive approaches, institutional structures, and modes of dissemination that shape the work of the art historian. Students develop skills that are essential to advanced art historical study, such as visual literacy, research, critical reading, and writing.

An exploration of the major developments in architecture, sculpture, and painting from Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations through the Hellenistic period. Attention is given to the influences on Greek art from the East and to the influence of Greek art on other cultures.

An examination of architecture, sculpture, and painting beginning with the Villanovan and Etruscan cultures and continuing through the Republic and Empire (fourth century AD). Topics covered include wall painting, narrative sculpture, and city planning.

An examination of the origins of Christian art in the Late Antique world and its subsequent development in the Byzantine world and early Medieval Europe. Areas studied include the Early Christian catacombs, Ravenna mosaics, the animal style and Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts, Carolingian Europe, and Byzantine mosaics, icons and decorative arts.

European art from the tenth through the fourteenth centuries, with a focus on painting, manuscript illumination, sculpture, stained glass, and the decorative arts.

Renaissance art in fifteenth and sixteenth century Italy, Flanders, and Germany. Artists include Masaccio, Donatello, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Jan van Eyck, Bosch, Dürer, and Bruegel.

An exploration of how representations of bodies engaged a wide range of cultural preoccupations in Europe between the 1500s and the 1700s. Students will explore how pictured and sculpted bodies celebrated and challenged power, facilitated pleasure and oppression, shaped religious belief, channeled anxieties about otherness, and encoded ideas about gender, sexuality, race, class, and nationality.

A topically organized course, with the specific topic varying according to program.

A topically organized course with specific topic varying according to program.

A survey of European and American modern and contemporary art beginning in the late nineteenth century and concluding with contemporary trends. We will consider a range of movements including post impressionism, cubism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, minimalism, and conceptual art in their cultural and art historical contexts.

A history of modern design from 1750 to the present, with an emphasis on design movements in the twentieth century. We will focus on modern European and American design, surveying objects made from a wide range of materials, including textiles, metals, ceramics, and the print media. We will situate movements such as Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, and Bauhaus in their cultural and art-historical contexts.

Explores the significance of consumer goods in histories of colonization, enslavement, and modern social formation from the 19th century to the present. Students will examine how consumer practices and access to natural resources and commodities are dependent upon unequal power relationships that privilege western, white populations and have devastating consequences for the earth. Students will interrogate the disproportionate impact of this process on formerly colonized and enslaved populations and will explore strategies to effect change. Studying these topics across space and time will provide a context for understanding and engaging with contemporary realities and concerns in the U.S. We also will resist rampant consumerism by considering the experiences of people forced to abandon their belongings due to political crises and natural disasters, and by cultivating more conscientious, meaningful relationships with the things in our lives. Students will develop public-facing activities to educate the Skidmore community about the environmental and human costs of everyday objects.

A survey of the stylistic evolution and meaning of dress, hair, and body accessories in Europe and America from c. 1400 to the present. Through analysis of both artifacts of material culture and representations of dress and hair in works of art, this course focuses on the role of men's and women's fashion in constructing identity, for example, to signify gender, political ideals, and social class. Further, it investigates the religious, economic, and political institutions that work to shape fashion. Additional themes, such as the relationship of fashion design to the fine arts and to craft, the rise of haute couture, the undressed body, and the history of specific items of dress such as the corset, the periwig, and the suit will be explored.

Internship opportunity for students whose academic cocurricular work has prepared them for professional work related to the major. With faculty sponsorship and department approval, students may extend their educational experience into such areas as museums, art galleries, art auction houses, private art collections, arts administration, art conservation, and architecture and historic preservation.

An exploration of methods for depicting various types of narratives in Asian art, including narrative reliefs, wall murals, illustrated manuscripts, hanging and hand scrolls, graphic novels, and films of East, South, and West Asia. Course features selected case studies drawn from the last two thousand years. Students will study mythology, epic literature, historical manuscript, poetry, and popular stories, and explore ways they have been illustrated at different times in history.

An examination of South Asian and Japanese popular visual culture from the nineteenth century through the present. The course explores a wide range of visual-cultural products, including prints, photographs, postcards, advertisements, clothing, Indian film, and Japanese manga and anime. Students will connect popular visual culture to larger themes and processes, such as modernization, nationalism, globalization, capitalism, identity, class, gender, and tourism.

Explores the identities of European and North American artists during the 18th and 19th centuries. Students will examine how social norms and biases shaped the ways in which artists defined themselves and were defined by others. Case studies will address conceptions of race, gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, mental health, and nationality. We also will consider how artists were trained; how they engaged with patrons, consumers, and critics; and how they imagined the cultural value of art.

An introduction to the history of the medium from its “invention” in 1839 to the present. This course looks at such forms of photography as pictorialism, straight photography, montage, documentary, and photojournalism, situating them in their social, cultural, and art-historical contexts. A significant theme of the course will be how, or even whether, photographs depict reality.

An examination of the history, theory, and practice of modern museums from the turn of the century to the present day, with a focus on the relationship between living artists and the museum. Students will gain experience in many aspects of museum operation including exhibition, education, and conservation. Guest speakers will join with the Tang Museum staff to present case studies and facilitate discussions on a variety of topics such as architecture, audience, tourism and administration.

Examines historical, political, curatorial, and theoretical issues related to collections and exhibitions of South Asian, Islamic and African/African diasporic arts in the west, focusing on the United States, to help students understand issues pertaining to power, justice, and identity in contemporary America. From colonial expositions (world’s fairs) to the rise of national museums to recent curatorial debates, this course critically engages with practices of display and representation of South Asian, Islamic, and African/African diasporic arts in the colonial, modern, and contemporary eras. In particular, recent movements demanding social justice for marginalized communities are forcing western museums to re-evaluate their collections and modes of display; questions of reinterpretation, de- accessioning and repatriation are coming to the fore like never before. Students will engage with these efforts to decolonize the museum and critical curatorial practices as they design their own exhibits or propose a reinstallation of an existing one through developing exhibition narratives and physical display spaces of their own design.

Sculpture and painting in fourteenth-century Europe, with special focus on the "Proto-Renaissance" painters in Italy and manuscript illumination and sculpture in France and Germany. Topics include the revolutionary art of Giotto, the rise of late Medieval devotional art, Art and the Black Death, and the Limbourg Brothers and International Gothic art.

An exploration of the origins of Italian Renaissance art in the fifteenth century, from Ghiberti, Masaccio and Donatello, to Botticelli and the Bellini.

An examination of a controversial artistic style that generated heated debate among artists, critics, and consumers in eighteenth-century Europe. With their sensuous forms and pleasing motifs, rococo images and artifacts were appreciated by many elites, but they were also widely criticized for their non-classical style, eroticism, and associations with femininity, fashion, and decoration. The rococo idiom continued to be disparaged throughout the modern period, and is only beginning to be taken seriously as a significant mode of visual expression. Students will explore how this style engaged the social values of eighteenth-century elites; why it generated a legacy of negative responses; and what its critical fortunes can tell us about the shifting values of artists, viewers, and art historians between the nineteenth century and the present.

Painting in France, Flanders, and Germany in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with particular emphasis upon the art of Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Dürer, and Bruegel.

A topically organized course that addresses problems and issues of special interest at the advanced level.

A study of the artistic cultures of the two capitals of imperial power in the nineteenth century, London and Paris. We will focus on artistic developments that both supported and critiqued this imperialist age, including the art competitions at the world's fairs of 1855 and 1889, the fashion for orientalism, the medieval nostalgia of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, and the self-conscious modernity of the Impressionists.

A study of visual culture in France between 1785 and 1815, with a focus on the French Revolution. Students will explore how visual representation contributed to the development of revolutionary ideologies and the nature of social and political experience during a turbulent period of radical change. Students will examine paintings, caricature, and designs for festivals and clothing, giving particular attention to the display and dissemination of art and design; modes of spectatorship; issues of class, gender, and citizenship; and the role of the artist in revolutionary culture.

A study of the role of gender in the images, artifacts, or built environments of a particular culture, area, or time period. Students explore the construction of gender identities through factors such as artistic training, subject matter, style, patronage, collecting, display, spectatorship, and/or theoretical discourses on art. Content of the course will vary depending on the specialty of the instructor.

A study of the role of gender in the images, artifacts, or built environments of a particular culture, area, or time period. Students explore the construction of gender identities through factors such as artistic training, subject matter, style, patronage, collecting, display, spectatorship, and/or theoretical discourses on art. Content of the course will vary depending on the specialty of the instructor.

A study of the role of gender in the images, artifacts, or built environments of a particular culture, area, or time period. Students explore the construction of gender identities through factors such as artistic training, subject matter, style, patronage, collecting, display, spectatorship, and/or theoretical discourses on art. Content of the course will vary depending on the specialty of the instructor.

Recent developments in American and European art. The class situates a range of contemporary art movements and practices, including pop, earthworks, performance, video, and the more traditional forms of painting, sculpture, and photography, in their cultural and art historical contexts. Students will explore such issues as the status of art institutions, the connections between high art and popular culture, theoretical readings of art works, and artists' self-conscious expression of an identity politics.

Recent developments in American and European art. The class situates a range of contemporary art movements and practices, including pop, earthworks, performance, video, and the more traditional forms of painting, sculpture, and photography, in their cultural and art historical contexts. Students will explore such issues as the status of art institutions, the connections between high art and popular culture, theoretical readings of art works, and artists’ self-conscious expression of an identity politics.

Guided by the instructor, the student does independent reading and research in a specific area of art history.

Guided by the instructor, the student undertakes advanced research begun in a prior independent study.

For senior Art History majors who wish to be considered for departmental Honors.  Students will develop public-facing projects that enhance engagement with visual culture within the Skidmore community or beyond.  Projects might include hosting a guest speaker, giving a presentation at a local school or community center, creating a social media campaign.

An intensive, integrative exploration of a specific topic through group discussions and research-based projects. Students will consider diverse perspectives on the topic from both scholarship and popular culture and will apply knowledge gained in other courses across the disciplines. Students will take ownership of their learning both individually and collectively, strengthen academic skills that are transferable to a wide range of professional settings, and reflect on the relevance of the course material for their lives as engaged global citizens.

The culminating experience of the art history major.  Students explore potential career paths and develop pre-professional skills such as application writing, interviewing, and networking.

Professional experience at an advanced level for juniors and seniors with substantial experience in art history. With faculty sponsorship and department approval, students may extend their educational experience into such areas as museums, art galleries, art auction houses, private art collections, arts administration, art conservation, and architecture and historic preservation.

An exploration of the artist interview as a form of original art historical research.  Students will learn how oral histories can function in a museum collection archive. Working in teams, students will closely examine and research artworks in the Tang Museum collection, prepare questions for the artists, and create videotaped interviews. Students will learn different methodological approaches to the interview and consider such questions as: how does editing play a role in making meaning; who defines the meaning of an artwork; and is the artist always the best source about his or her own work?