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Photograph courtesy of the University Archives and Columbiana
Library, all photographs © Trustees of Columbia University
in the City of New York
The Core Curriculum is the centerpiece of the first two years
of undergraduate study at Columbia. It entails four required
courses-Contemporary Civilization, Literature Humanities, Music
and Art Humanities-which focus on masterpieces of western civilization
and build upon the notion, as Lionel Trilling put it, that "there
is a certain minimum of our intellectual and spiritual tradition
which a man must experience and understand if he is to be called
educated." By now the Core is so well established that
we easily forget its radical roots as a grand experiment in
undergraduate education. Before World War I Columbia College
had been overshadowed by the University's graduate and professional
schools, and its educational mission was undefined. Rejecting
the emphasis on preprofessional training, the College forged
a new identity after the war based on a liberal arts curriculum.
The establishment of Contemporary Civilization in 1919 announced
that new commitment to general education. There were national
trends which encouraged this sort of curricular change: college
attendance was growing and became a prerequisite for professional
training. But Columbia's response was innovative and timely,
and the great books approach to general education was taken
up nationwide. The other Core courses were introduced in 1937
as a two-year sequence. Freshmen studied literature in Humanities
A, followed the next year by Humanities B, which was devoted
to music and fine arts. Lit. Hum. was a required course, but
Humanities remained optional for ten years while the faculty
experimented with its format. There were concerns whether students
who otherwise had no exposure to non-verbal forms of expression
could be introduced to music and art in a seminar situation.
Consequently Humanities B was originally designed as a lecture
course, with lectures alternating on music and art. In 1941,
the two subjects were separated, each confined to a semester
with three weekly meetings, one mass lecture and two seminar
meetings. The lecture was eliminated in 1946, bringing Art and
Music Humanities in line with the other Core courses as discussion-based
classes of about twenty students.
Since 1947 Art and Music Hum. have been required, and the format
has been fixed, but our department continues to debate the extent
to which we should bow to the text-based instruction of the
overall curriculum. We recently introduced a primary source
reader, but many faculty believe that a course devoted to looking
and to visual literacy should keep reading assignments to a
minimum. The staffing of Art Humanities over the past fifty
years mirrors changes in the department, especially the growing
integration of the graduate and undergraduate programs.
The first director of Art Hum. was Everard Upjohn (1904–78),
an architectural historian who was probably better known as
the great-grandson of Richard Upjohn, designer of Trinity Church
on Wall Street. Upjohn had founded the Department of Fine Arts
at the University of Minnesota before Columbia recruited him
in 1935 to develop the undergraduate program in Fine Arts. Within
the department, there were essentially separate undergraduate
and graduate faculties, and structural divide which remained
until the mid-1960s. At a time when undergraduate teaching was
devalued within the department, Uppie's commitment to Art Humanities,
which he taught from 1937 until his retirement in 1970, was
no doubt important, but he may not have been the ideal person
to redefine the status quo. His daily routine involved lunch
at the Men's Faculty Club followed by thirty minutes of bridge,
and it was no secret, as he told a reporter, that "I can't
stomach modern art."
The first generation of Art Hum. teachers included Paul Wingert,
Grand Manson, George Collins, Norris Kelly Smith (the Preacher),
and Howard McParlin Davis, whose close connection to Art Humanities
spanned nearly fifty years, from the time he joined the faculty
in 1944 until 1991. While Howard's teaching became legendary
on campus, the course has always involved a large number of
faculty ranging from full professors to preceptors. In the early
years, the instructional staff included a number of young instructors
who taught six sections a year; David Rosand did this when he
joined the faculty in 1964. The system of preceptorships was
established in the late 1960s; it enables about sixteen advanced
graduate students every year to continue dissertation work while
gaining valuable teaching experience. In this way our undergraduate
and graduate programs have become interdependent, so much so
that the recent university-wide shrinkage of the graduate school
presents our department with special problems.
As for the curriculum, it has changed relatively little. The
earliest description I have found dates from 1941: "Discussion
and analysis of the place in civilization of selected masterpieces
in the visual arts. Such landmarks as the Parthenon in Athens,
the Gothic Cathedral , the paintings of Raphael, Picasso and
other outstanding masters in art are considered." Michelangelo,
Rembrandt, and Frank Lloyd Wright and the Skyscraper were also
among the original topics. Howard Davis, long-time Director
of Art Humanities, added units on Bruegel, El Greco, and Bernini.
Since then El Greco was replaced with a pre-Columbian unit on
Palenque, which in turn was replaced by Goya, and Amiens Cathedral
was briefly replaced by Chartres. The units on modern architecture
were also changed giving us the following lineup: the Parthenon,
Amiens Cathedral, Raphael, the sculpture of Michelangelo, Bruegel,
Rembrandt, Bernini, Goya, Monet, Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright
and Le Corbusier.
The title of the course was recently changed from "Masterpieces
of Fine Arts" to "Masterpieces of Western Art"
in order to acknowledge the focus of the syllabus and emphasize
the position of the course within the core curriculum. While
some faculty believe that Art Humanities should adopt a multicultural
curriculum, we have opted to develop comparable courses in non-Western
art. We offer Asian Art Humanities (Japan, China, and Korea)
and Indian and Islamic Art Humanities and hope to add African
Art Humanities in the near future.
The
Media Center for Art History, Archaeology, and Historic Preservation
developed an online database for the Masterpieces of Western
Art Course. Also known as Western Art Humanities, this course
has been a requirement of the Core Curriculum of Columbia College
since 1947. The Art Humanities database is designed to support
classroom discussions and museum visits.
A sophisticated search function is correlated with the Art Humanities
syllabus to reinforce the ideas and themes presented in class.
Search fields include names of artists, titles of works, subject
areas—classical, Christian, portrait, funerary monuments,
materials, techniques, etc.—that allow the student to
approach the images from a variety of vantage points.
The database may also be repurposed to enable professors or
doctoral candidates to build course syllabi, develop in-class
teaching aids, or shape texts and images for upcoming publications.
With the same technology, students will be able to research
and compile critical materials for an upcoming exam and discuss
topics with his or her fellow students. Keeping the breadth
of potential users in mind, the database was designed in conjunction
with the Department of Computer Science so data can be exported
across platforms.
[ view
Web site ]
Students request exemption by petition to the Office of the
Core Curriculum (418 Hamilton Hall). The petition includes:
A simple cover page with the date,
your name, CUID, class/year, school (CC, SEAS, or GS), local
address and phone, home address, e-mail, course title and number
(of course comparable to Art Humanities taken at other institution),
semester and year the course was taken, and institution where
course was taken.
A one page essay requesting exemption
based on a comparable course taken at another COLLEGE or UNIVERSITY
(not college level work taken during high school).
The syllabus for the comparable
course.
graded papers (if possible).
Send/drop off documents 1 through 4 to: Office of the Core Curriculum,
418 Hamilton Hall.
The Director of Art Humanities will review this material and,
if necessary, interview the student. The student and the appropriate
class dean/advisor will be informed of the Director's decision,
usually within three weeks of the receipt of the completed petition.
Historically, exemption from Art Humanities has been granted
infrequently. However, in the past, students petitioning on
the basis of courses similar to Art Humanities taken at Emory
University, New York University, CUNY Baruch College, Hampshire
College, and Sarah Lawrence College have been granted exemption.
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