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Confirm course times, discussion section times, and call numbers on the Directory of Classes.
All Columbia seminars (with "AHIS" prefix) require an application. Columbia seminar applications are due on Monday, December 1, 5:00PM in 826 Schermerhorn Hall. The application form can be found here. Download the Undergraduate Seminar Application for Barnard as a RTF.
If you are interested in a Barnard seminar, please attend the first day of class. Please compose a brief statement (1-2 paragraphs) explaining your interest in and preparation (e.g., past coursework) for the course. Address the statement to the instructor (Dear Prof. xxxx.) Include: name, PID or social security number, school, Major/Concentration(s), year, email address. An individual application is required for each seminar to which you apply.
Many courses fall into more than one distribution area. However, A SINGLE COURSE can never fulfill two Field requirements AT THE SAME TIME . For example, AHIS W4155: The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Mesopotamia can fulfill either 'Ancient' or 'non-Western' but never both . CHECK to see which requirement the courses below fulfill here.
Please note that 4000 level lectures are "introductory graduate courses" and are open to advanced undergraduate and all graduate students, and a limited amount of registered auditors from the School of Continuing Education, if the instructor permits auditors.
To be announced
(AHIS BC1001) Introduction to the History of Art II
A. Higonnet
Either term may be taken separately. Brief examination of the techniques of visual analysis, followed by a chronological survey of the major period styles of Western European art. Emphasis on the introduction of form and content in the works studied and on the correlation of the visual arts with their cultural environments. BC1001: Greek and Roman art; medieval art. BC1002: Renaissance to modern art.
(AHIS W3110) The Athenian Acropolis in the 5th & 6th Centuries BCE
J. Mylonopoulos
The course places the architecture and the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon in the centre of the scheduled class sessions. The course also aims at a contextualisation of the Parthenon within the broader architectural, artistic, and topographical context of the Athenian Acropolis during the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. The chosen chronological frame focuses on the period of the most intensive activity on the Acropolis. Two class sessions will, nevertheless, give a brief overview of the Acropolis after the end of the Peloponnesian war and concentrate on the transformation of the Acropolis into “Greece’s museum of the past”, an Arcadian topos of human imagination.
(AHIS W3208) The Arts of Africa
Z. Strother
Introduction to the arts of Africa, including masquerading, figural sculpture, reliquaries, power objects, textiles, painting, photography, and architecture. The course will establish a historical framework for study, but will also address how various African societies have responded to the process of modernity.
(AHIS V3250) Roman Art & Architecture
N. Kampen
The architecture, sculpture, and painting of ancient Rome from the 2nd century B.C. to the end of the Empire in the West.
(AHUM V3340) Art in China, Japan, & Korea
D. Delbanco
Introduces distinctive aesthetic traditions of China, Japan, and Korea--their similarities and differences--through an examination of the visual significance of selected works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other arts in relation to the history, culture, and religions of East.
(AHUM V3342) Masterpieces of Indian Art & Architecture
N. Poddar, A. Seastrand
Introduction to 2000 years of art on the Indian subcontinent. The course covers the early art of Buddhism, rock-cut architecture of the Buddhists and Hindus, the development of the Hindu temple, Mughal and Rajput painting and architecture, art of the colonial period, and the emergence of the Modern.
(AHIS BC3642) North American Art & Culture
E. Hutchinson
Examines North American painting, sculpture, photography, graphic art and decorative arts from the colonial period until World War I. Artists discussed include West, Copley, Cole, Spencer, Powers, Aragon, Duncanson, Church, Homer, Eakins, MacNeill, Whistler, Cassatt, Moran, Tanner, and Muybridge.
(AHIS W3645) 20th Century Architecture and City Planning
M. de Michelis
Major movements, figures, and theoretical positions in European and American architecture since 1890. Attention to the influential urban proposals of Wright, Le Corbusier, Hilbesheimer, CIAM, Archigram, the Metabolists, and Venturi & Scott Brown.
(AHIS W3650) 20th Century Art
B. Joseph
Major developments in 20th-century art, with emphasis on modernist and avant-garde practices and their relevance for art up to the present.
(AHIS BC3675) Feminism and Post Modernism in Contemporary Art
R. Deutsche
Examines art and criticism of the 1970s and 1980s that were informed by feminist and postmodern ideas about visual representation. Explores postmodernism as (1) a critique of modernism, (2) a critique of representation, and (3) what Gayatri Spivak called "a radical acceptance of vulnerability." Studies art informed by feminist ideas about vision and subjectivity. Places this art in relation to other aesthetic phenomena, such as modernism, minimalism, institution-critical art, and earlier feminist interventions in art.
(AHIS BC3681) Late 20th Century Art
A. Alberro
This course introduces the history of contemporary artistic practices from the 1960s to the present, and the major critical and historical accounts of modernism and postmodernism in the arts. Focusing on the interrelationships between modernist culture and the emerging concepts of postmodernism and contemporary art, the course addresses a wide range of historical and methodological questions. These include the evolving idea of artistic autonomy, the changing role of cultural institutions, the shifting relationship of high art and mass culture, the impact of new technologies on cultural production, and the emergence of new audiences for art.
(AHIS G4085) Andean Art & Architecture
E. Pasztory
Survey of the art of the Andes from earliest times until the Spanish conquest. Emphasis on the nature of Andean tradition and the relationship between art and society.
S. Murray
How have "Gothic" edifices been represented in words and images? Examines monuments and considers the historiography and theories that they have generated.
(AHIS G4385) Renaissance Architecture, History & Theory
F. Benelli
A survey of Renaissance Architecture in Italy through its buildings and its theory, from Brunelleschi to Palladio and the influence to other European country.
(AHIS G4422) Painting in Early Renaissance Florence
W. Hood
This course surveys developments in Florentine painting form the late 14th to the late 15th centuries. It will place special emphasis on monumental fresco painting on the relationships among panting, sculpture, and architecture; and on the shaping of individual styles in a period of intense competition.
(AHIS G4523) Foucault & the Arts
J. Rajchman
We will explore the work of Michel Foucault in its relations with visual art, its criticism and its history. We examine the development of his historical work, his critical aims, and his methods in and through their relations with the visual arts and art institutions: first, through his own criticism or analysis of Raymond Roussel, Manet, Velasquez, and Magritte, and views on the museum; then through his invention of new sorts of archival work, fictions and other documentary forms, and finally through his reflections on the question of artistic work as a ‘technique of subjectivisation’ or as ‘critical act of enlightenment’. We then consider attempts to extend these aspects of his work today in new ways or in relation to new problems.
(AHIS W4626) Tourism and the North American Landscape
E. Hutchinson
This course will look at the relationship between 19th century landscapes (paintings, photographs, illustrations, and other forms of visual culture) and tourism in North America. Several class sessions will be devoted to case studies of different tourist destinations including the Catskills, Niagara Falls, Mayan ruins, the Antebellum South, Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. We will read representations of these American landscapes against nineteenth-century travel literature, guidebooks and other visual documents to obtain a richer understanding of the historical context in which such imagery circulated.
(AHIS G4703) Japanese Architecture from the mid-19th Century to the Present
J. Reynolds
This class will examine the history of Japanese architecture and urban planning from the mid-19th century to the present.
(AHIS W4855) African American Artist in the 20th & 21st Centuries
K. Jones
This course is a survey of visual production by North Americans of African descent from 1900 to the present. It will look at the various ways in which these artists have sought to develop an African American presence in the visual arts over the last century. We will discuss such issues as: what role does stylistic concern play; how are ideas of romanticism, modernism, and formalism incorporated into the work; in what ways do issues of postmodernism, feminism, and cultural nationalism impact on the methods used to portray the cultural and political body that is African America?
Columbia University undergraduate seminars require an application, which are due on Monday, December 1, 5:00 pm in 826 Schermerhorn Hall. The application form can be found here. Download the Undergraduate Seminar Application for Barnard as a RTF.
(AHIS W3895) Major’s Colloquium: Literature and Methods of Art History
H. Klein
Prerequisites: the department's permission. Students must sign-up in 826 Schermerhorn. Introduction to different methodological approaches to the study of art and visual culture. Majors are encouraged to take the colloquium during their junior year.
(AHIS BC3110) Imagery and Form in the Arts
J. Snitzer
Operation of imagery and form in dance, music, theater, visual arts and writing; students are expected to do original work in one of these arts. Concepts in contemporary art will be explored.
(AHIS W3818) Mapping Gothic France
S. Murray
This seminar will examine relationships between artistic and humanist-antiquarian studies of antiquity from the late 14th through the fifteenth centuries and their role in the Renaissance "rebirth of antiquity". Emphasis will be on drawing, painting, manuscript illumination, and sculpture.
(AHIS W3827) Tracing Identities: Jewish Art from the Antiquity to the Present
A. Rosen
This seminar considers pivotal periods in the history of image-making, precisely those moments when people are moved to alter, censor, or destroy works of art. It is usually during periods of controversy that anxieties about figuration, the political uses of imagery, and the fear of sensory experience become articulated. Historically, many of these iconoclastic movements have changed the course of art history (e.g. the Byzantine controversy; the Reformation; the French Revolution & the birth of the museum). Finally, we will explore the embrace by modernists of the iconoclast as a creative model. Readings range from late antiquity to contemporary art; from Europe, U.S., to Africa.
(AHIS W3849) Chichen Itza and its Sacred Well
E. Pasztory
In this seminar we will read seminal literature on Chichen Itza while analyzing its architecture and sculpture. Each student will select a major monument to work on as the class reconstructs the ancient city. It is hoped that information gleaned through the methods of art history will add to our knowledge of this complex and fascinating place. Undergraduates will have the chance to do some “pioneering” work instead of just repeating the literature.
(AHIS W3872) Made Men: The Male Nude in Western Art
W. Hood
This seminar concentrates on a single image, the male nude. The course will survey works of art from Classical antiquity, the Middle Ages and Renaissance; it will also investigate the legacy of the Classical/Renaissance male nude in Modern and Contemporary art.
(AHIS W3896) Between the Still and Moving Image
N. Elcott
Digital convergence—where distinct media are subsumed beneath binary code—provides the immediate occasion to investigate the uniqueness and productive confusion of film and photography from historical, theoretical, and aesthetic perspectives. Through close visuals and analysis, we will explore mediated time, memory, modes of spectatorship, early cinema, experimental film, contemporary art, digital imaging, and a range of media and art theories that chart the intersections of photography and film from the late 19th century through the present.
(AHIS BC3941) Contemporary African Photo
I. Brielmaier
Description to come
(AHIS W3964) TransAtlantic Avant-Gardes: From Latin America to Europe, 1930-1960
K. Cabañas
This seminar will introduce the avant-gardes of the mid-twentieth century through a consideration of the real and "imagined" dialogue between artists from Europe and Latin America. By focusing on various international centers of artistic activity, the course addresses a wide range of historical and methodological questions: the relation between abstract art and context; the avant-gardes' different relations to history and formal experimentation; the transformation and varying conceptions of artistic autonomy; the complex temporality of aesthetic modernism and modernization in Latin America; and the formation of new audiences on both continents. Each session focuses on a significant movement or figure so that students can draw out the complex interrelationships between artistic experimentation, geopolitical context, and identity. Special attention will be given to artists' writings and group manifestos, including: Cercle et Carré, universalismo constructivo, Grupo Madí, concretismo and neoconcretismo, art cinétique, art informel, and the Group de recherche d'art visuel (GRAV).
(AHIS W3986) From Burnt Corks to Camps: Stereotypes and Performance in 19th & 20th Century America
C. Peariso
In this course, we will begin to work through the growing body of literature dealing with stereotypes and minstrelsy in nineteenth and twentieth century America. We will proceed historically – from antebellum blackface minstrelsy, to gender impersonation, hip-hop culture, and Da Ali G Show – seeking to evaluate the forms and significances of stereotypes and their performance at various moments in United States history. Through a series of historical and theoretical readings, we will begin to grapple not only with the very thorny and politically charged history of minority races, genders, classes, and sexualities in the United States, but also with broader questions of identity, performance, representation, and opposition.
(AHIS G4085) Andean Art & Architecture
E. Pasztory
Survey of the art of the Andes from earliest times until the Spanish conquest. Emphasis on the nature of Andean tradition and the relationship between art and society.
(AHIS G4120) Asian Art & Art Institutions
J. Rajchman
Description to come
(AHIS W4357) Gothic Architecture
S. Murray
How have "Gothic" edifices been represented in words and images? Examines monuments and considers the historiography and theories that they have generated.
(AHIS G4385) Renaissance Architecture, History & Theory
F. Benelli
A survey of Renaissance Architecture in Italy through its buildings and its theory, from Brunelleschi to Palladio and the influence to other European country.
(AHIS G4422) Painting in Early Renaissance Florence
W. Hood
This course surveys developments in Florentine painting form the late 14th to the late 15th centuries. It will place special emphasis on monumental fresco painting on the relationships among panting, sculpture, and architecture; and on the shaping of individual styles in a period of intense competition.
(AHIS G4523) Foucault & the Arts
J. Rajchman
We will explore the work of Michel Foucault in its relations with visual art, its criticism and its history. We examine the development of his historical work, his critical aims, and his methods in and through their relations with the visual arts and art institutions: first, through his own criticism or analysis of Raymond Roussel, Manet, Velasquez, and Magritte, and views on the museum; then through his invention of new sorts of archival work, fictions and other documentary forms, and finally through his reflections on the question of artistic work as a ‘technique of subjectivisation’ or as ‘critical act of enlightenment’. We then consider attempts to extend these aspects of his work today in new ways or in relation to new problems.
(AHIS W4626) Tourism and the North American Landscape
E. Hutchinson
This course will look at the relationship between 19th century landscapes (paintings, photographs, illustrations, and other forms of visual culture) and tourism in North America. Several class sessions will be devoted to case studies of different tourist destinations including the Catskills, Niagara Falls, Mayan ruins, the Antebellum South, Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. We will read representations of these American landscapes against nineteenth-century travel literature, guidebooks and other visual documents to obtain a richer understanding of the historical context in which such imagery circulated.
(AHIS G4703) Japanese Architecture from the mid-19th Century to the Present
J. Reynolds
This class will examine the history of Japanese architecture and urban planning from the mid-19th century to the present.
(AHIS W4855) African American Artist in the 20th & 21st Centuries
K. Jones
This course is a survey of visual production by North Americans of African descent from 1900 to the present. It will look at the various ways in which these artists have sought to develop an African American presence in the visual arts over the last century. We will discuss such issues as: what role does stylistic concern play; how are ideas of romanticism, modernism, and formalism incorporated into the work; in what ways do issues of postmodernism, feminism, and cultural nationalism impact on the methods used to portray the cultural and political body that is African America?
(AHIS G6450) Titian
D. Rosand
Lectures on the art of Titian and its resonance, the position of the artist and his achievement within a Venetian context and beyond. Topics will include: issues of style and technique, the development of oil painting and a pittura di macchia; the altarpiece; religious narrative; mythological narrative; portraiture; the graphic arts and printing in Venice; Titian’s circle of friends (Aretino and Sansovino); patterns of patronage; politics and religion; Titian’s legacy.
(AHIS G6670) Interwar Photography & Film
N. Elcott
At the center of the avant-garde imagination—and the interwar period in Europe more broadly—were photography and film. Long relegated to the margins of art history and rarely studied together, photography and film were variously the guiding light and mass dissemination of avant-garde images and techniques. This lecture course delves into interbellum photography, film, and writing as it surveys a range of avant-garde movements and national cinemas; seminal artists and theorists; and topics such as montage, abstraction, advertising, sites of reception, and the arrière-garde. Film screenings will take place most Tuesday evenings.
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All graduate seminars require an application. Applications are due by Monday, December 1, 5:00PM without exception in 826 Schermerhorn Hall. The seminar application for all Art History and Archaeology graduate seminars consist of a one-page form, available only online as a PDF or as a RTF (the office does not have copies of the form.) Do not attach second pages or letters to the form, only this application form will be accepted. An individual application form is required for each seminar to which you apply. Please drop off seminar applications to 826 Schermerhorn by the deadline.
(AHIS G8040) History of Architectural and Design Exhibitions at the MoMA
B. Bergdoll
From it's first seminal exhibition on the International Style curated by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in 1932 to the "Light Construction" and "Un-private House" exhibitions organized by Terence Riley in the 1990s, the Architecture & Design Department at MOMA has played an important role in defining architecture both for practicioners and a wider public. This course will examine the history of the department, of it's role in designing and conceiving exhibitions at every scale from photography displays to the houses built in the garden by Breuer and Ain, and of it's reception and influence.
(AHIS G8075) The Object & the Museum: African Art in the West
S. Vogel
The vast majority of all the African art objects in the world today are held by collections outside the continent. Studies of classical African art normally -- and appropriately – focus on the original historical context of the works in Africa, bypassing this anomaly. This seminar for advanced graduate students will examine the problematics of the situation – the factors that drained Africa of its old art objects, and current issues and practices in collecting. Students will confront the physical object, removed from its village, redefined and recontextualized in Manhattan as an element of western décor or material culture. Readings and class discussions will cover the ethics of collecting, the market, and the display of religious or sensitive objects; conflicts over identity, representation, and whose message will be heard in the museum; questions of forgery, quality and museum authority -- among many other issues of contention including definitions of African art itself. Taking advantage of New York City’s abundance of collections, the course will offer students direct contact with major works of African art.
(AHIS G8116) Landscape and Representation in China
R. Harrist
The landscape of China is marked by sites that have acquired lasting cultural significance through the interactions of myth, ritual, literature, and the visual arts. Representations of these sites, which include sacred mountains, scenic areas, and tourist destinations, promoted habits of viewing that directed visitors to seek out unusual vistas, strange rock formations, or ancient monuments. Memories of historical events or famous people associated with the sites added to their mystique. Among the most notable sites that will be covered in the seminar are Mt. Tai, a mountain sacred in both Confucian and Daoist thought; Mt. Huang, an area of spectacular, rugged peaks that became a popular tourist site in the 17th century; and Tiger Hill, a frequent destination of literati visitors from the Suzhou area.
The seminar will require a broadly interdisciplinary approach, and students will be encouraged to draw on methodologies from art history, anthropology, the history of religion, and other fields. Readings in the history and theory of landscape in the West also will be included in the seminar in order to broaden the range of questions that can be asked about the experience of landscape in China.
(AHIS G8119) Asian Art & Art Institutions
J. Rajchman
Curatorial Modular.
(AHIS G8158) Topics in Ancient Near Eastern Art: Art of the Second Millennium
Z. Bahrani
This seminar will investigate art and concepts of art and aesthetics in the second millennium BC. The seminar will be focused on the cultures of the Ancient Near East and is intended to provide in depth tutoring and a format for discussion for advanced graduate students who are being prepared for the PhD degree in ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology. The texts consulted will include primary ancient texts in the Akkadian language, as well as secondary literature on the art and archaeology of second millennium Mesopotamia and the larger ancient Near Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean areas. The seminar will also make use of objects that will be on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the spring of 2009, in the exhibition scheduled to open at the same time. The seminar will therefore also be able to investigate questions of historiography and exhibition practices of Near Eastern Antiquity.
AHIS G8215) Stories and Histories in Stone: Archaic Greek Sculpture
J. Mylonopoulos
The seminar will focus on the stylistic and formal analysis of Archaic sculpture, mainly the Kouros and Kore types, as well as on the puzzling visual ambiguity of the images, which enabled their semantic polyvalence as reflected in their manifold functions.
(AHIS G8323) Ink Paintings of Medieval Japan
M. McKelway
Explores the origins and development of the ink painting tradition in Japan from the 14th - 16th centuries, paying special attention to Chinese precedents, the format of the poem-picture scroll, and the Japanese Zen monastic milieu in which the genre flourished.
(AHIS G8325) Japanese Cultural Identity and the Problem of "Tradition" in the Arts
J. Reynolds
This seminar will examine debates over the meanings of "Japanese Tradition" and its significance for contemporary cultural practices from the mid-19th century to the present.
(AHIS G8333) Matter of Faith: The Cult of Relics in the Middle Ages
H. Klein
Description to come.
(AHIS G8621) Black British Art & Theory
K. Jones
This course considers the development of visual culture in this European outpost of the African Diaspora. Of interest is the way the discipline of cultural studies, which evolved in postwar Birmingham, intersected with the rise of black consciousness throughout Britain in the 1980s. How did the interactions of intellectuals and artists at this moment in the late 20th century lead to the creation of strong postcolonial theory and practice? Readings include works by Bhabha, Carby, Gilroy, Hall, Maharaj, and Mercer. We will look at visual production by Bhimji, Boyce, D-Max, Fani-Kayode, Julien, Kempadoo, Piper, and Pollard among others. We will also discuss selected exhibitions and publications that supported this movement.
(AHIS G8627) Ornament & Architecture
V. Di Palma
Description to come.
(AHIS G8686) Methods Seminar: Picasso
R. Krauss
Four major exhibitions are taking place in Spring 2009 devoted to Picasso et les maitres. This seminar will explore art-historical treatments of Picasso and cubism, as well as the vexing issue of pastische. Reading will include Gérard Gennette, Jean-Joseph Goux, and René Girard, among others.
(AHIS G8697) Modernism without Organs: John Cage and the Visual Arts
B. Joseph
John Cage—known as one of the West’s most avant-garde composers, who delivered his music over to chance and made compositions without any sounds—is routinely invoked as an important “influence” on contemporary art. His artistic connections include Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, and Andy Warhol; Allan Kaprow, Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, George Brecht, Robert Whitman, Robert Morris, La Monte Young and the general areas of happenings, fluxus, and early minimalism; the cinematic endeavors of Stan VanDerBeek; the dance of Merce Cunningham, Simone Forti, Yvonne Rainer, and more. Nevertheless, the understanding of Cage’s role within the arts has been more often marginalized or repressed than investigated or explored. In this course, we will seek to flesh out the Cagean “paradigm” in its historical and theoretical specificity and to pursue a genealogical investigation into the operation, impact, and implication of ideas such as silence, space, chance, indeterminacy, and multiplicity as they were adopted, adapted, and/or resisted within the post-War development of the visual arts.
(AHIS G8701) Problems in Style
D. Rosand
The central problem for study and discussion will be the “late style” of artists, testing the notion of “old-age style.” Preliminary topics for discussion will include: concepts of “style” and models of its assumed development; the “life” of styles and the life of the artist. The focus will be on particular cases, individual artists in several traditions, west and east, ancient and modern.
(AHIS G8868) Addressing Sensation in Architecture
M. De Michelis
Description to come.
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