Art Courses
ART 130: Elements of Design
Introduction to basic design problems in various two- and three-dimensional techniques and media. A prerequisite for most other courses in studio art. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 131: Studio Art: Drawing
The primary purpose of this introductory drawing course is to help you develop your ability to interpret and record the world around you. This course provides you with techniques to translate the 3-dimensional world into 2 dimensions. You learn the basics of line, value, and composition to help translate observations and ideas into drawings. Through this course, you develop a visual vocabulary to critically examine the world and develop themes that you will communicate visually. The course also helps you gain valuable problem-solving skills, hone your ability to concentrate, work through failure, and develop confidence in improvisation and experimentation. This is a technical drawing course. Limited to first- and second-year students or Art Majors. Other Juniors and Seniors must have permission from the instructor to enroll. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 142: Digital Design Foundations
Digital Foundations uses formal exercises of the Bauhaus to teach the Adobe Creative Suite. The curriculum decodes digital tools and culture while explaining fundamental visual design principles within a historical context. Students develop an understanding of the basic principles of design in order to implement them using current software. There are no prerequisites for this course. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 150: 3-D Modeling Foundations
3D Modeling Foundations serves as an introduction to crafting models in 3D software and covers preparing and exporting digital files for a variety of presentation methods: 2D print, web/browser-based viewing, Augmented Reality filters, and Virtual Reality headsets. Applications for this technology are far-reaching and include: to-scale and representational models of biological systems, prosthetics and medical device prototyping, frameworks and experiments with physics, game design, motion capture, special effects, data visualization, graphical user interface (GUI) design, web design, graphic design, fine art, marketing through virtual and augmented reality, and more. The course curriculum is project-based and introduces students to 3D modeling tools through an understanding of the basic principles of design. The course introduces up-to-date methods and tools but focuses on working proficiency with Unity, Spark AR, and Autodesk Maya. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 155: Stop Motion Animation
This course is an introduction to basic animation principles for students with little or no animation experience, using a camera or mobile phone and minimal equipment. Through demonstrations and short exercises students become familiar with a variety of animation techniques, including storyboarding, lighting, shooting, editing, image-capturing software and puppet building methods. Unorthodox and alternative approaches to stop motion animation are also covered such as back-lit clay on glass, single-page surface alteration, and special effects using pixilation. Cost of materials is not included in tuition; it will be billed upon enrollment and is not refundable. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
cross listed: CINE 155
ART 229: Art and Environment
(Art and Environment: Exploring Landscapes and Sustainability.) In this course we explore the unique relationship and history of the arts and the environment. In recent times an increasing number of creatives in fields such as sculpture, sound art, and architecture have shifted their focus towards environmental awareness. Production methods and materials that embrace sustainability, repurposing and reutilization are making their mark around the world. We learn about these efforts and use them as inspiration to create new work. Students explore ways that artists can use social practice to create awareness, study western and non-western concepts of the landscape, and discuss the everlasting desire to look at nature for inspiration. We use a variety of recycled/repurposed materials and electronic media to produce artwork focused on our relationship with the environment and how we can create immediate and long-term positive impact on our habitats. No prerequisites; ES110 or ES120 recommended for Environmental Studies majors. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
cross listed: ES 229
ART 230: Painting
This course is designed for the beginning student in oil painting. The emphasis in this course is on the description and analysis of the world around us. Students will learn the basics of color theory, color mixing, how to prepare and stretch a canvas, how to use and mix paint, and different techniques for various effects using brushes, rags, and palette knives. Emphasis will be on value and depth and their relationship to color. Students must have experience in drawing with value. Students will participate in group critiques and will be exposed to ideas and techniques through slide lectures. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 231: Figure Drawing
This course is designed to give advanced students an opportunity to develop their ability to draw and interpret the human form. Working from the model, students will explore a variety of techniques including gesture drawing, studies of volume and mass, and contour and cross-contour drawing. Prerequisite: Art 131. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 232: Drawing from Nature
Close observation is the foundation of scientific inquiry. It is also key to making art. In this course, students use their surroundings—from microscopic organisms to the forests and prairies around the 91ÉçÇø campus—as a source of discovery and inspiration for making drawings. Working with a variety of materials, students develop their abilities to observe and interpret nature. Students move between indoor and outdoor spaces, including the Shooting Star Savanna and biology laboratories. Students study scientific illustrations and learn how to create them. Field trips to local prairie and woodland restoration projects and sites such as the Chicago Botanic Garden are an important component of this course. The course is designed for all levels, beginning through advanced. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
cross listed: ES 232
ART 233: Sculpture
This course will familiarize students with the basic language and art-historical background of sculpture as both a narrative medium and a contemplative objectification of some of humankind's deepest desires. Reading key texts in the theory and history of modern and contemporary sculpture along with the creation of sketches, models and 3-dimensional artworks students will explore how sculpture functions in various contexts to convey meaning and to pose questions of reality and perception, identity, originality, psychology, society and space. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 234: Landscape Painting
An outdoor, landscape/nature course involving the student in the observation of nature, transcribed through perceptual data, and resulting in painting and drawing. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 235: Drawing and Landscape Painting
(Drawing and Landscape Painting in the Social Media Age.) This course is a primarily outdoor experience that explores the nature of "landscape" in a heavily mediated era. What is the place of drawing and landscape painting in an age where landscapes are routinely shared via smartphones, and when panorama photography, 360-degree videos, and virtual reality imaging are becoming as commonplace as cameras? This course involves the student in the careful observation of nature, transcribed through perceptual data, and resulting in painting and drawing. No prerequisites.
ART 237: Performance Art
This course will provide students with an understanding of performance art as a constantly evolving and flexible medium. The class will trace the emergence and development of performance art as a form of expression both distinct from and yet dependent upon traditional and experimental forms of theater and other contemporary manifestations of theatricality. Students will negotiate, through reading, research, discussion and planning and practical application, the blurred boundaries between performing and living, entertainment and art. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
cross listed: THTR 224, ENGL 233
ART 238: Mixed Media for a Remixed World
This course asks students to cross boundaries—to create with different techniques, materials, and methods—through sustained exploration of how art can respond to and interact with the current mashup and remix moment. Students will use drawing media, paint, and transfer processes—combining them with non-traditional ways of making, such as 3D printing, sculptural books, digital photography, and collage. The emphasis will be on experimentation to not only familiarize students with relevant techniques but also to produce unexpected outcomes toward the production of innovative works of art that will kick start student practice for the future. No prerequisites.
ART 239: Applied 3D Design and Fabrication
An introduction to the fundamentals of design thinking, problem solving, and construction in three-dimensional space. Design is an increasingly common activity that helps address a wide range of needs and emerging issues in our world. From scientific research to social and political messaging, the emergence of design thinking has become an important analytical tool. This course is an introduction to the use of various tools, techniques and materials to design and fabricate, to think critically while engaging in problem solving and to learn how to collaborate in a wide array of settings and professional fields. Students use processes ranging from traditional wire, foam, wood, and cardboard fabrication to new digital CNC routing, 3D printing, and virtual three-dimensional sculpting. This course includes at least one interdisciplinary project in collaboration with another department of the College. No prerequisites. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 240: Digital Photography
This introductory course familiarizes students with the fundamental concepts and practice of digital photography. Students use the basic elements of the camera - the lens, the shutter and the aperture - as well as the inventive use of lighting, to create images that are processed through the digital environment of the computer lab. The course addresses aesthetic principles as they relate to composition, space, exposure, light and color. Processing of images includes learning to control scale, color, file size and resolution while moving from digital image to printed document. Students also learn an introduction to photographic history and visual literacy. No prerequisites. Course Fee Applies (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 241: Data is Beautiful
Data visualization is the art of storytelling in a graphical medium. This studio course teaches students how to better understand, analyze and communicate with data in order to tell engaging visual stories. Students will learn to transform qualitative and quantitative information into appealing aesthetic forms, learn to evaluate the effectiveness of visualization designs, and think critically about design decisions to convey information effectively and intuitively. Students start with traditional drawing materials and then expand into digital tools such as Illustrator, Photoshop and the creative coding environment, Processing. No prerequisites. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 243: Video, Sound, and Electronic Art
(Time-Based Media: Video, Sound and Electronic Art)This is an introductory course to time-based media and electronics that help students develop skills and techniques in professional video, sound, and electronic production software and hardware. By putting technology and new media to use in such forms as experimental documentary, video projection, sound installation, and electronic interactivity, we explore the potential of contemporary art practices within and beyond galleries and museums. Once equipped with the professional and creative practices learned in this course, students will have important and highly sought-after skills in a variety of fields including art and technology. No prerequisites. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
cross listed: CINE 243
ART 245: Digital Art
This class explores digital media through the eyes of contemporary art. Exposure to contemporary work in two-dimensional digital media, contemporary art theory and criticism will assist the students to develop their own artistic voice in the context of ongoing contemporary conversations in art. Students explore complex image manipulation and generation options and refine technical skills in preparation for advanced artwork. Projects are designed to combine student's conceptual abilities with technical expertise. Emphasis is on integration of digital images, scanned images and drawing into high-resolution images for output and use in large-scale projects, image-sequencing possibilities, and integration of multi-media installations. Prerequisite: ART 142. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 253: Graphic and Digital Design
Graphic Design focuses on developing graphic communication skills for both print and web-based formats through a series of exercises and assignments that help students to successfully integrate image and text with an emphasis on commercial design practices. Students explore visual design concepts, and use the communicative power of design elements in order to create effective solutions to real-world visual problems. Students learn the principles and techniques of publication and website design, using Mac platforms with the Adobe Creative Cloud. Topics include: letter design and typeface, layout, logo and letterhead, computer-generated images, illustration, grid design and wire-framing. Prerequisites: Art 130 and Art 142. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 261: Art of Social Change
Artists have a long history as agents of social change, using "traditional" art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture, and a bit more recently photography, performance, and video to critique various aspects of society and to propose alternatives for the future. The consideration of social engagement as an artistic medium in and of itself has become an important current in contemporary art since at least the 1990s. This course begins with a consideration of some of the ways artists in the past approached social and political concerns. We then focus on the more recent proliferation of artists with social practices both within and outside of the gallery/museum realm of contemporary art. Students address various important historical, theoretical and practical texts; conduct discussions and presentations; and collaborate to design and enact original works of socially engaged art. No prerequisites. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Global Perspective.)
cross listed: ETHC 261
ART 285: Creative Arts Entrepreneurship
Creative Arts Entrepreneurship will offer an overview of the processes, practices, and decision-making activities that lead to the realization of our creative ideas. Students from across the humanities, arts, sciences, and business will learn the unique contexts and challenges of creative careers, with an emphasis on collaborative projects. The course will help students understand the nature and structure of arts enterprise while cultivating their own career vision and creative goals. Creative Arts Entrepreneurship is designed for students interested in developing, launching, or advancing innovative enterprises in arts, culture, and design, and those who love the initiative, ingenuity and excitement of putting creative ideas into action. The course combines readings and in-class discussions with site visits, case studies, guest lectures by working artists and creative professionals, and student-driven projects. No prerequisites.
cross listed: MUSC 285, ENTP 285, ENGL 285, THTR 285
ART 330: Advanced Painting
Advanced work in painted media. Prerequisite: Art 230. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 331: Advanced Drawing
Advanced drawing is designed for the student with previous studio drawing background. The course will explore abstraction and non-objective drawing techniques and ideas. Students will, working from known sources, develop abstract imagery and explore new and varied media and materials. Non-objective compositions will be stressed in the later half of the semester. Color will also be an integral aspect of the drawing process. Slides, lectures and field trips will be included in the course work. Prerequisite: Art 131. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 333: Advanced Sculpture
This course approaches contemporary ideas in sculpture with challenging individual and collaborative studio projects, pertinent reading and writing assignments addressing sculptural practices and forms, and virtual methods of sculptural hypothesis. Topics addressed include the relationship between form and function, the importance of process and materiality, developing a conceptual framework, and the context of presentation in conveying meaning. As a 300-level studio course, students are expected to produce work of sophisticated conceptual and formal quality, and to develop a sense of their own artistic style working in 3 (and 4) dimensions. Written project statements will be important components of the presentation of all studio assignments. Critiques will be rigorous and honest, with the paramount goal of improving the effectiveness of each student's artwork as well as their mechanisms of presentation. Prerequisite: Art 233 OR Art 130 and Art 133. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 334: Installation Art
In this course students integrate a variety of artistic media and processes to negotiate the transformation of specific spaces. Students work both collaboratively and independently on creative projects with the goal of better understanding the contextual importance of site and the potential meanings of materials. Attention is paid to engaging audiences in both art-dedicated and non-art spaces, and to sustainable and practical materials and construction plans. Prerequisites: ART 130, ART 142, and either ART 233 or ART 239. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Experiential Learning.)
ART 335: Experiments in Mixed Media
This course gives students the experience of translating their ideas into two- and three-dimensional artworks that incorporate more than one medium. Students create projects such as collages, artist books, and works integrating found objects. Emphasis is on adopting unorthodox methods and material experimentation to create formally and conceptually coherent works of art. Critiques and slide lectures are included. Prerequisite: Art 131, or by permission of instructor. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 339: Adv Applied 3D Design & Fabrication
Advanced work in Applied 3D Design and Fabrication. Prerequisite: ART 239. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 340: Advanced Digital Photography
Working in response to specific challenges from photographic history, as well as contemporary photographic work, students further develop camera skills--as well as the inventive use of artificial and natural lighting, setting and backdrop, to create images that are processed through the digital environment of the computer lab. Students use the unique expressive qualities of photography to explore the conceptual possibilities of this versatile medium in collaborative as well as individual projects, realizing specific ideas in concrete visual form. As a 300-level studio course, students are expected to produce work of sophisticated conceptual and formal quality, and to develop a sense of their own artistic style. Written project statements are important components of the presentation of all studio assignments. Prerequisite: Art 240. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
ART 343: Adv, Video, Sound & Electronic Art
(Advanced Video, Sound, and Electronic Art) This course further enriches and helps develop new skills and techniques in professional video, sound, and electronic production software and hardware. Using technology and new media as a means to produce compelling works of art, this project based studio course allows student to work on extensive and complex time-based projects. Students taking ART 343 are expected to know the fundamentals of video and sound production and post-production. The course emphasizes completion, craftsmanship, and presentation through well designed video, sound and electronic art installation practices. The course also includes an overview of media art history and theory. Completion of both ART 243 in combination with ART 343 helps prepare students for an exciting array of professional possibilities in media, arts, and technology. Prerequisite: ART 243. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
cross listed: CINE 343
ART 345: Advanced Digital Art
This class explores digital media through the eyes of contemporary art. Exposure to contemporary work in two-dimensional digital media, contemporary art theory and criticism will assist the students to develop their own artistic voice in the context of ongoing contemporary conversations in art. Students explore complex image manipulation and generation options and refine technical skills in preparation for advanced artwork. Projects are designed to combine student's conceptual abilities with technical expertise. Emphasis is on integration of digital images, scanned images and drawing into high-resolution images for output and use in large-scale projects, image-sequencing possibilities, and integration of multi-media installations. As a 300-level studio course, students are expected to produce work of sophisticated conceptual and formal quality, and to develop a sense of their own artistic style working in digital media. Written project statements will be important components of the presentation of all studio assignments. Prerequisites: ART 142 and 245 or permission of instructor. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 353: Advanced Graphic Design
Advanced Graphic Design builds upon course content from Art 253 Graphic Design. Emphasis is on developing graphic communication skills through a series of exercises and assignments that help students to successfully integrate image and text with an emphasis on commercial design practices as it relates to Print Media. Students explore visual design concepts, and use the communicative power of design elements in order to create effective solutions to real-world visual problems. Students learn the principles and techniques of publication design, using Mac platforms with Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. As a 300-level course, students are expected to expand upon conceptual development, typography, and the quality of execution and presentation of each project. Topics include: branding and advertising, promotional series design, editorial layout, specialty product design, using computer-generated images, illustration, photography, and print media techniques. Prerequisite: Art 253. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts and Technology Intensive.)
ART 381: Radical Women: Latina/x Artists
(Radical Women: Cross-disciplinary Approaches Latina / Latinx Artists.) Inspired by the 2017 exhibition of the same name, Radical Women is a seminar that immerses students in the practices of LatinX and Latina women artists from 1960 through the present. Using work by artists including Lygia Clark, Ana Mendieta, and Cecilia Vicuña as a starting point, students engage with contemporary practitioners whose work echoes these practices. The course focuses on ways in which artists engage the political body—including through self-portraits, the relationship between the body and landscape, the mapping of the body, the power of words, and repression and resistance. Students conduct research, contribute to discussion, and complete a set of individual and collective assignments including presentations on the artists. Final projects can take the form of a critical or creative research paper or an artistic project in a self-selected medium. Prerequisites: This interdisciplinary seminar is open to students across disciplines and does not require prior studio experience. Prior 200-level Art and Art History, Humanities, or Social Science courses recommended, or by instructor permission. Corequisites: Prior 200-level Art and Art History, Humanities, or Social Science courses recommended, or by instructor permission. Course Fee Applies. (This course satisfies Humanities and Global Perspective.)
cross listed: GSWS 381, LNAM 381
ART 399: Inter-Text Journal
(Inter-Text Undergraduate Journal for Social Sciences and Humanities.) This course is a practicum aimed at engaging students in the process of scholarly peer-review, academic journal production, and print and digital publishing. Students learn how to use InDesign, an important software suite for visual communication. This 0.25 credit course is graded on a Pass-No Pass basis and requires enrolled students to complete forty (40) hours of work as Editorial Board members while contributing to the production and selection of feature essays, peer review, editing, layout and formatting of the journal, and release of the journal at the annual publication party. Inter-Text aims to publish exceptional student work and foster community among students inside and outside of the classroom in the humanities and social sciences.
cross listed: HIST 399, POLS 399, ENGL 399
ART 480: Senior Seminar in Studio Art
The Studio Art Senior Seminar is designed as a capstone experience for artists wanting a deeper engagement in vital issues in artists' professional development, including critical feedback and support in developing an independent body of artwork. With a focus on refining verbal, written and visual skills, the curriculum combines real-world professional development tools with deep thinking about creative practice to empower artists to create the foundation for sustainable, creative careers. The Senior Seminar culminates in a Senior Art exhibit in the Sonnenschein and Albright Galleries, for which students will be responsible for devising a portfolio of individual work or independent project. Prerequisite: Senior standing in the major or permission of the instructor. Course Fee Applies.
ART 490: Internship
ART 492: Creative Project
A well-documented and well-executed visual project completed in the senior year may count as a senior thesis. (See Academic Regulations in the Student Handbook for details.) As with other theses, the final project will be reviewed by a thesis-examining committee consisting of three faculty, at least one from outside the Art Department. Students are encouraged to consult with members of this committee during the planning and execution of the project. (This course satisfies Experiential Learning.)
ART 494: Senior Thesis
Art History Courses
ARTH 110: Intro to Visual Arts and Design
(Introduction to Visual Arts and Design) This course introduces students to the subject of art history and the major questions and methods of the discipline. Students will not only learn foundational issues, such as composition, medium, and basic interpretive skills, but also the ways in which art, architecture, and design are defined and have operated in cultures across time. The principal aim of the course is to give students the opportunity to analyze and write about works of art. This is the recommended first course in Art History and is required of all Studio Art and Art History majors and minors, although students of all disciplinary backgrounds and skill levels are welcome. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
ARTH 189: Public Art in Chicago
In this course, we will explore what makes for "good" public art and how artists conceive of, propose, and execute projects intended for the public sphere. Public art is vital to the spirit of a city and the quality of life of its residents. From "the Picasso" to Jaume Plensa's fountains, from Anish Kapoor's iconic Cloud Gate ("the Bean") to Buckingham Fountain, Chicago is an international flagship site of public art. Attesting to its importance, Mayor Rahm Emanuel proclaimed 2017 as the "Year for Public Art" in Chicago. We will use the city of Chicago as a text to consider prominent public artworks as well as the hidden gems tucked away in neighborhoods, many of which include historically ethnic enclaves (e.g., Pilsen, Chinatown, Bronzeville) and/or concentrations of other minority populations (e.g., Boystown). No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
ARTH 200: New Media Art and Design
(Survey of New Media in Art, Design, Technology and Culture.) New media is at the cutting edge of the production of art and design. But what is it and how does it help shape visual cultures, and societies around the world? This course takes a humanistic, global approach to learning about this dynamic topic. Theories of new media help us understand the technological and information revolution. Art and new media have become integral parts of our changing societies. Theoretical, practical, and cultural ideas such as Postmodernism, The Anthropocene, and Post-humanism are examples of ways to understand the influence of New Media in our world. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Global Perspective.)
ARTH 201: Writing Art Criticism
This course will explore the process of writing about art from an evaluative and critical perspective. Drawing from a variety of examples and styles, students will engage a broad range of methodologies in art criticism. Students will hone observational and written communication skills as they assess, analyze, and interpret works of visual art, as well as effectively articulate critical judgments. Most importantly, by uncovering the process and structure of the review and the role it plays in the art world and the media, this course will encourage students to explore new ways of thinking about looking at art in writing, and how to inspire their readers' responses to visual culture. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 202: Photography of the Street
What role does the street play in photography, and how did street photography develop as a genre within the medium? How does street photography prompt us to consider and reconsider the role of photography in our daily life? In documenting our world? In history? This class considers the role of the street photography and its evolution in understanding our world, and the ways in which this approach to representation might complicate our understanding of photography as a medium. We examine key photographers from Thomas Annon and Eugene Atget to Gary Winograd, and John Free as well as historical texts and the specific considerations that develop when we take the street and its people as our subject. In addition, we take what we learn about the development of street photography out to the street to explore street photography ourselves in a practical sense. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
ARTH 203: Art and the Internet
This course examines the impact of the Internet on art, from its origins in the 20th century to today. Our questions include: how access to the Internet has affected art created from objects made with and for online platforms; how artists use the Internet as a source and inspiration of subject matter for artistic creation; how the Internet affects the distribution of art made both for the Internet and older objects that gain new life through digitization and placement on the Internet; how such digitization allows for increased distribution of art around the world; and how this influences viewers' understanding of artistic objects from both our own and other cultures to help us to better understand our world more broadly. Among the Internet tools and contexts we address are: digital imaging, websites, virtual galleries, museums and exhibitions, and digital archives that are dispersed over the Internet. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
ARTH 205: All That Glitters: Byzantine Art
Luminous. This is how Byzantine Art is rendered in our public imagination. From glittering mosaics and soaring spaces to gold-leafed manuscripts and richly patterned vestments, few periods in the history of art conjure notions of opulence as powerfully. But there's much more to the art and architecture of Byzantium, whose influence is felt to this day. Extending over vast territories and three continents at its peak, the Byzantine empire endured for over twelve centuries. This class is an introduction to the rich array of art forms that flourished in Byzantium and theological ideas that animated them, the ways in which Byzantine art and religion disseminated and integrated with local forms and cultures throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond, and the influence of Byzantine art on later art and artists – up to and including our present day. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Global Perspective.)
cross listed: RELG 205
ARTH 206: Chinese Art and Culture
This course examines the history of Chinese art from the Bronze Age to the present with emphasis on the major art forms and their relationship to contemporary social, political, and religious development. (This course satisfies Global Perspective.)
cross listed: ASIA 206
ARTH 210: Art of Ancient Mediterranean World
Painting, sculpture, and architecture of ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. (This course satisfies Global Perspective.)
ARTH 211: Medieval Art
A survey of European art from the era of Constantine (ca. 400) through the Gothic period, about 1300. (This course satisfies Global Perspective.)
ARTH 212: Italian Renaissance Art
An introduction to Italian art from the late Gothic period until the Reformation, ca. 1300 to 1600. (This course satisfies Global Perspective.)
ARTH 215: Reformation to Revolution:1600-1800
This course surveys European Art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, focusing on the Baroque and Rococo styles in the context of the religious and political upheavals of this turbulent era. We consider issues such as the rise of capitalism and global trade, the challenges of new faiths to the Roman church, shifts in outlook and philosophy as they intersect with art, and social and intellectual changes to the status of artists. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Global Perspective and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 217: Nineteenth Century Art
Introduction to art and architecture in Europe and America from the neoclassicism associated with the French and American revolutions to the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist avant-gardes. Course readings emphasize the relationship of art to other social movements. Students tie classroom study to the collections of area museums. (This course satisfies Global Perspective.)
ARTH 218: Twentieth Century Art
Introduction to European and American art from Post-Impressionism to Postmodernism. Course readings reveal competing constructions of this history that is still in the making. Students tie classroom study to the collections of area museums. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 219: American Art
The visual arts in North America, covering painting, sculpture, architecture, and the applied domestic arts, from the Colonial period to the present. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: AMER 219
ARTH 220: History of Architecture
Evolution of architectural style and thought from antiquity to the present.
ARTH 221: Modern Architecture
This class examines the history of architecture from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. Students will be introduced to architectural terminology and techniques for analyzing architecture. They will also study the major trends in architectural design in the twentieth century, the issues faced by architects, and the social and functional problems that architecture is designed to solve.
ARTH 222: History of Photography
This course examines the history of photography from its invention in 1839 to the late 20th century. Students will be introduced to terminology and techniques specific to the photographic medium. This course will discuss photographic conventions and customs, and the extent to which they reflect and construct societal institutions (particularly in the United States). Students will also study the special properties of photography as icon, index and symbol, and become conversant in the semiotics of the image. No prerequisites; previous experience in ArtH 110: Introduction to Visual Arts will be helpful. (This course satisfies Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 223: Northern Renaissance Art
Arts of the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Spain from ca. 1350 to ca. 1550. (This course satisfies Global Perspective and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 224: History of Prints
The graphic arts of the Western tradition, from about 1400 to the twentieth century. (This course satisfies Global Perspective and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 225: American Architecture
The course will survey American architecture from the seventeenth century to the present. Topics will include early colonial architecture, architecture of the new republic, nineteenth century eclecticism and domestic revival, the Chicago School and the skyscraper style, and the development of modern architecture in the twentieth century. Other themes to be discussed include changes in domestic demographic and population patterns, post-war housing, issues in American historic preservation and new urbanism. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
ARTH 226: Colonial Latin American Art
This course will consider the arts of Central and South America from the conquest to independence (ca. 1500-1850) and will explore the intersections among art, culture, and power in the specific conditions of Colonial Latin America. (This course satisfies Global Perspective.)
cross listed: LNAM 226
ARTH 238: Curating an Art Collection
This course explores the curatorial function of the Sonnenschein Gallery of 91ÉçÇø. Using the study of the history and theory of art galleries/museums as a foundation, this class will use the College's own extensive and eclectic art collection to get practical experience in the study, identification and arrangement of the art collection. The culmination of the class will be to plan and install an art exhibition in the Sonnenschein Gallery using collection components. Prerequisite: ARTH 110 (This course satisfies Experiential Learning and Humanities.)
ARTH 239: Museum Histories and Practices
This course will provide an introduction to the rise and functions of museums in Western and global cultures. Among the issues to be considered are: collectors, collecting and display; the history of the Western museum from the Enlightenment to the contemporary era; types and functions of museums from art museums to zoos; spaces and architecture for displaying artifacts and collections; strategies of display and curating; systems and practices among museums; the spread of the "museum idea" across the globe. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 245: Indigenous Arts of the Americas
This course introduces the art and material culture of the Indigenous Americas from pre-contact to the present. We consider how Indigenous cultural production, including architecture, painting, basketry, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, photography, performance, and new media operate within and outside of the category of "art" in conjunction with diverse traditions and world views. By centering Indigenous voices and perspectives, this course emphasizes how different forms of Indigenous art across time represent continuous, dynamic, and lived traditions which have preserved culture and resisted domination in the face of colonial conflict, assimilation, and oppression. Thematic topics include the material expression of cosmologies, belief systems, and environmental relations; the role of ethnography in the history of Indigenous art; the politics of museum display and ownership; and the decolonization of institutions and (art) histories in conjunction with visual sovereignty. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: AMER 245
ARTH 280: Architecture in East Asia
This course explores a diverse body of architecture in China and Japan from ancient to contemporary times. We will investigate the major architectural types in traditional East Asia - including cities, temples, palaces, gardens, and houses - as well as individual monuments like Japan's Himeji Castle and the 'Bird's Nest' Olympic stadium in Beijing. In addition to examining the architectural history of these sites, we will discuss thematic issues related to design, space, landscape, ritual, memory, and modernity. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Global Perspective.)
cross listed: ASIA 280
ARTH 282: Depicting Difference in Western Art
(Depicting Difference: Images of the Racial and Religious 'Other' in Western Art.) This course will examine how Western cultures visually depicted those they considered different from themselves: those they considered to be 'Other.' We shall investigate European traditions of depicting difference, beginning with Classical Greece and Rome's conceptions of the monstrous races and continuing through to contemporary artistic challenges to stereotypical representations of otherness. While our explorations will range from the Ancient to the Modern world, our course will be particularly focused on the role visual imagery of the 'Other' played in supporting colonialism and Western discourses of cultural superiority in the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries. As this course is focused on how Western cultures depicted those of different racial, religious and cultural backgrounds, it will undoubtedly foster critical analysis and understanding of different races, religions and cultures. No prerequisites.
cross listed: ISLM 282
ARTH 286: Topics in Islamic Art
This course examines the visual arts of early and medieval Islam from the seventh through the thirteenth centuries in Muslim territories, ranging from Central Asia to Spain. Through an examination of diverse media, we shall explore the role of visual arts played in the formation and expression of Islamic cultural identity. Topics will include the uses of figural and non-figural imagery, religious and secular art, public and private art and the status, function, and meaning of the portable luxury objects. No prerequisites.
cross listed: ISLM 286, RELG 286
ARTH 306: Buddhist Arts of Asia
In the early centuries CE, Buddhism spread eastward from its origins in India to China, Korea, and Japan. It brought with it a rich religious tradition that altered forever the visual arts of these regions. Students in this course will explore the painting, sculpture, and monuments of the East Asian Buddhist world from ancient times to the twentieth century, paying particular attention to issues of patronage, ritual, iconography, symbolism, and style in order to better understand the complex relationships between religion and art. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Global Perspective.)
cross listed: ASIA 306
ARTH 320: Landscape and Representation
Art has long been a site through which societies have visually and materially expressed and explored diverse experiences of the landscape. This course examines the changing nature of land, place, and environment in art and its representation and deployment as a genre, theme, and medium, with special attention to the Great Lakes as an ancestral and contested site. Approaching diverse art forms such as Indigenous earthen monuments, landscape painting, earthworks, photography, installation art, and site-specificity from ecocritical and decolonial art historical lenses, we consider "nature" as a cultural-aesthetic construction and as a politically embattled site inhabited by human and non-human agents and beings. With select local site and collection visits, we consider the role of [the] E/earth in art as material, vibrant matter, pigment, place, and collective home of social, cosmological, and ecological relations. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
cross listed: ES 320
ARTH 321: Photo and its Cultural Effects
(Photography and its Cultural Effects: The Evolution of a Medium and Questions of Representation, 1860-1900.) How did photography change how people understood the world during the US Civil War and beyond? How did it capture the war, the landscape, and the people of the US? Of the world? How did people see and understand photographs? Who did it leave out and how? Beginning with the US Civil War, this class will explore photographs between 1860 and 1900 as well as their cultural use and circulation. We will examine the development of photography as well as the understanding of photographs as "real" depictions through images of the Civil War and other concurrent and later kinds of photographs including portraits, landscape photographs, and the racialized lynching photographs of the end of century. This class will also consider the ways that photography presented a mediated representation of race and diversity, and even developed as a tool of power and privilege through restricted representation and access for those less fortunate. Prerequisite: At least one art history class or consent of instructor. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: AMER 321
ARTH 323: Monuments and Memory
This course explores the cultural function of monuments and other images dedicated to memory. We shall consider the definition of a monument and the social behavior of remembrance. Topics will include the commemoration of public triumph, defeat, trauma, private memory, funerary architecture, photography, and mourning. Prerequisite: one art history course. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 325: Women, Art and Society
This course considers the contributions of women artists to the Western tradition of art making and examines the way art in the Western world has used the figure of woman to carry meaning and express notions of femininity in different periods. (This course satisfies Global Perspective and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: GSWS 325
ARTH 326: Gender Identity in Modern Art
Since the late nineteenth century, communities of artists and critics have defined themselves in opposition to the dominant forms of maleness and heterosexuality. This course examines the definitions of 'homosexuality' and 'feminism,' and traces their development in and influence on the visual arts. Prerequisite: one art history course. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: GSWS 326
ARTH 338: Contemporary Exhibition Practices
This is a highly collaborative course in which students work with Chicago artists to mount a professional art exhibition. Students work in groups on every aspect of the exhibition process ?including the conception of the exhibit, the budget of expenses, the curation of artists?work, the design of exhibition and promotional materials, the plan and execution of educational programming, and the processes of installation and deinstallation. To prepare students to undertake this project, the first part of the semester is devoted to readings and discussion on contemporary curatorial theory and practices, written assignments designed to augment learning objectives, and visits to Chicago museums and galleries to meet with art professionals. Prerequisite: ARTH 110 or another college-level art history course. (This course satisfies Experiential Learning and Humanities.)
ARTH 355: The Art of the Sixties
Students in this class will examine the many and varied practices of art making in the 1960s, a decade characterized by national and global ideological change, the explosion of counterculture and the retirement of older notions of what qualifies as 'art.' Yet, so as not to study this decade in a vacuum, close attention will be paid to the artistic practices preceding the 1960s in order to more fully understand the iconoclasms that would follow. Prerequisite: At least one art history class or consent of instructor. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 360: Contemporary Art
Focuses on the art of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, from about 1970 until the present day, to trace the development of contemporary artistic movements and expression. Prerequisite: ARTH 110, or another college-level art history course. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 361: Topics in Contemporary Art
Spring 2021 Topic: Global Conflict and Representation. This course explores imagery of and for conflicts across the globe using contemporary media such as photography, film, video, and digital media. The course examines the role of photographic and filmic images, and their digital counterparts to record, interpret, inspire or contain conflicts, including: wars, political protests, independence movements, and transnational activism such as climate change. The course examines both the historical trajectory of representations of global conflict and also examines issues that are occurring today like the current global pandemic and the global rise in catastrophic wild fires of 2020. The course charts the history and influences of these media as they were affected by and contributed to such conflicts. Prerequsite: One Art History course. (This course satisfies Global Perspective and Writing Intensive.)
ARTH 380: Renaissance Art and Domesticity
This course examines the original setting of works of art in the secular context of the household during the Renaissance (about 1300-1650). It will also consider representations of the domestic sphere as evidence for the functions of objects in houses, palaces, or villas. Addressing issues of patronage, function and audience, the course explores the uses men and women in the Renaissance made of works of art in their homes. Among the art forms we will analyze are: domestic architecture, paintings (frescoes, portraits, cassone, spalliere), sculpture, furnishings, metalwork, ceramics, tapestries and other textiles. Prerequisite: at least one art history course or consent of the instructor. (This course satisfies Global Perspective and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: GSWS 380
ARTH 383: Hell, Damnation and Romanesque Art
This seminar will explore the fascinating?nd often terrifying?rtistic production of the Romanesque period (c. 1000-1200 CE) in Medieval Europe. Although often characterized as part of the 'Dark Ages,' this period is actually one of unprecedented artistic and cultural activity, worthy of in-depth exploration. Taking a thematic approach, this seminar will place Romanesque art within its broader cultural, political and religious contexts. Topics will include: The Cult of Saints; Monasticism; Popes and Kings; Knights and Castles; Crusader Art; and Misogyny and Depictions of Women. Prerequisite: one art history course. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
ARTH 385: Art, Power, and Wealth
(Art, Power and Wealth in the Global Middle Ages.) This course examines works of art produced by diverse communities in southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and western Asia during the Middle Ages (c. 500 – 1500 CE). We focus on questions of intercultural exchange as manifested in visual culture, exploring the impacts of power, ethnicity, and religion. Through case studies of luxury objects, iconic architecture, monuments, and paintings, this class considers the ways in which artists, patrons, and viewers within Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions articulated their spiritual and intellectual values and religious and socio-economic identities. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Global Perspective.)
ARTH 485: Sem: Means & Meth of Art Historians
(Seminar: Means and Methods of Art Historians). In-depth consideration of special issues, fields, or topics with careful attention given to questions of methods of investigation and the reporting of research. An exploration of some of the principal methods used by art historians in their investigations of the visual arts including historiography, style and connoisseurship, iconography and iconology, social history, and other means of interpretation. Prerequisite: senior standing in the major or permission of the instructor.