The course is arranged geographically from western through central to eastern and southern Africa, and will conclude across the Atlantic Ocean with a brief investigation of African visual traditions in the Caribbean and the Americas. Weekly discussion sections, movies and videos, and museum visits will complement the lecture. Introduction to the Visual Arts. The elements of the language of form. Themes and purposes of images.
Visual arts are a part of the human experience in all cultures and all time periods.
The ability to appreciate, to understand, and to assess the quality of visual art can enrich a person's life and broaden one's thinking. This course will introduce students having no formal art or art historical background to the major forms of visual expression through human history from the Stone Age to the present. We will examine works of art in various media such as painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, architecture, graphics, and industrial design. Students will learn how artists use the language of form to communicate information, to express emotion, and to explore the world of nature and the world of the mind. Students will learn the basic techniques of the various media.