Each topic will slice across a span of cultural time often including Colonial, Early Republic, Civil War, Victorian, Early Modernism, the Great Depression, and Contemporary periods. Students are assigned research papers or oral reports on topics generated by readings, lectures, and class discussions. A survey of pre-contact art and architecture of Mexico and South America. This course examines the Picasso's art production and uses its critical reception to chart twentieth century art criticism and theory. A study of primary documents investigating how artists worked, focusing on technology and techniques during the Ancient and Medieval periods.
Emphasis is on ceramics, glass, metalwork, and painting.
Before enrolling, students must be in consultation with a studio instructor and the art history instructor to make arrangements for studio facilities, in one of the above areas, that will be necessary to produce a studio work in lieu of a research paper. This seminar emerges from recent interest in rethinking monuments, in reconstructing historical narratives and in reshaping public memory. Students examine recent art dealing with historical events and the recovery of these narratives into a new collective memory. We will debate the nature of history and memory in contemporary culture and the use of visual form to combat cultural amnesia.