Art History (ARTH)

This advanced graduate seminar centers on art museums in the United States. Topics include the historical development of museums, related cultures of display, recent debates on institutional mission and responsibility, and contemporary artists who employ the museum as medium, subject matter or site. Course work centers on a substantial research paper based on primary source materials. Required field trips.

Advanced topics in African Art will deal with current thematic or methodological issues such as contemporary African arts and artists, arts of the African Diaspora, a particular media (such as architecture or the textile arts), portraiture and identity, the royal arts of Africa, African film and performance, or gender in the arts of Africa.

Topics in Medieval Art may include the study of major buildings and artistic monuments in the medieval Mediterranean and in Western Europe, art in service of empire building, medieval audiences and modes of reception, and the afterlives of monuments into the contemporary period. Course work centers on a substantial research paper based on primary source materials.

This seminar explores artistic exchange between the Christian west and competing cultures in the east from c. 1250-1600, focusing on the powers of Italy and their interaction with the Islamic dynasties, the Mamluks of Egypt and the Ottomans in Turkey, as well as the Christian state of Byzantium. Special topics of interest may include palace architecture; city planning; portraiture; the exchange of luxury goods; and the use of art as a diplomatic tool. Substantial research paper required.

This course may include studies of major artists, such as Caspar David Friedrich or Edouard Manet, specific artist groups like the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, or thematic issues such as the relationship between art and nationalism.

This course examines the socio-historical, political, cultural and philosophical dimensions of public art in American society, from the Early Republic to the present day. Topics may include: the nature of public art, its uses and functions, as well as civic and official attitudes towards art in the public sphere. Issues of censorship, propaganda and the "culture wars" of the 1980s and 90s will be highlighted. Substantial research paper required.

A study of the many developments and trends in American art since 1945. This course will focus on major American movements and artists since World War II, with an emphasis on understanding the theoretical basis of those movements and the development of the art market during this period. Seminar format.

This advanced graduate seminar may include studies of modern and contemporary painters (i.e., Gerhard Richter), sculptors (i.e., Kiki Smith), performance and video artists (i.e., Bill Viola), or thematic issues such as the relationships between art, technology and gender/racial politics. Students are expected to do original research with primary sources.

Art of indigenous peoples in the Americas (Meso, Central, South and/or North America) before European contact. The course will examine domestic and state architecture, painting, textiles, ceramics, metalwork and earthworks within the context of geographic, state, religious and social issues. Other topics include museum display, repatriation and western taxonomies.

Seminar on the architecture and material culture of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. The course will examine the design and construction of the house, its decorative arts, mechanical devices, landscape and garden design, Mulberry Row, the Monticello joinery and the Indian Hall. Field trips to Monticello are required.

Topics in American art may include studies of major artists such as Thomas Cole, George Catlin or Thomas Eakins, a specific group like the Hudson River School, or thematic issues such as art produced in a colonial context, sentimentalism in American genre painting or representations of the American west in art.

Study of selected topics in art history. May be repeated when course content changes. See MyMadison for current topics.