18TH CENTURY ART IN EUROPE

This course will examine the history of art in Europe from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century. This was a period of dramatic cultural change, marked by, among other things, the challenging of traditional artistic hierarchies; increased opportunities for travel, trade, and exchange; and the emergence of “the public” as a critical new audience for art. Students will be introduced to major artists, works, and media, as well as to key themes in the art historical scholarship. Topics will include: the birth of art criticism; the development of the art market; domesticity and the cult of sensibility; the ascension of women artists and patrons; and the visual culture of empire, slavery, and revolution. The emphasis will be on France and Britain, with forays to Italy, Spain, Germany, India, America, and elsewhere.

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Frederique Baumgartner
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 3 points

History Painting and Its Afterlives

History Painting & Afterl

This course will study the problematic persistence of history painting as a cultural practice in nineteenth century Europe, well after its intellectual and aesthetic justifications had become obsolete. Nonetheless, academic prescriptions and expectations endured in diluted or fragmentary form. We will examine the transformations of this once privileged category and look at how the representation of exemplary deeds and action becomes increasingly problematic in the context of social modernization and the many global challenges to Eurocentrism. Selected topics explore how image making was shaped by new models of historical and geological time, by the invention of national traditions, and by the emergence of new publics and visual technologies. The relocation of historical imagery from earlier elite milieus into mass culture forms of early cinema and popular illustration will also be addressed.

• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Jonathan K Crary
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

ARTS OF JAPAN

Introduction to the painting, sculpture, and architecture of Japan from the Neolithic period through the present. Discussion focuses on key monuments within their historical and cultural contexts.

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Matthew P McKelway
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 3 points

ARTS OF CHINA, JAPAN AND KOREA

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 Asia.

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Xu Tingting
  Info
• Instructor: Andrea J Horisaki-Christens
  Info
• 3 points

INTRO LIT/METHODS OF ART HIST

Required course for department majors. Not open to Barnard or Continuing Education students. Students must receive instructors permission. Introduction to different methodological approaches to the study of art and visual culture. Majors are encouraged to take the colloquium during their junior year.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Avinoam Shalem
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

SENIOR THESIS

Prerequisites: the departments permission. Required for all thesis writers.

• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Michael Cole
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

Architecture and Deception

Fittingly in the age of fake news, this seminar addresses how lying, deception, concealment, and forgery have shaped the history of architecture and its historiography. It deals not only with architects’ lies, but also with how their architecture can be deceptive in many different ways. It also analyses how architectural narratives—including biographies—and historical accounts have been shaped by falsehoods and distortions. While addressing philosophical issues that remain relevant to our present, the course will examine some of the most influential architects and key works of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth century—a pivotal time within intellectual history for the definition of the concept of ‘truth’ and also, therefore, of its opposite.  Students will learn how to make use of the many lenses through which architecture can be investigated. The goal is not only to acquire a foundation in European architectural history, but also, more broadly, to develop the skills necessary to analyze architecture and to deal with original architectural objects and texts, as well as to cultivate a critical attitude towards architectural literature.

• M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Eleonora Pistis
  Info
• 4 points

NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRITICISM

Prerequisites: junior or senior standing, and the instructors permission. This course examines a diverse selection of texts that have a crucial bearing on the formation of concepts of modernity and on new aesthetic practices in nineteenth-century Europe and North America. Using works of art theory, fiction, poetry, and social criticism, the seminar will trace the emergence and development of new models of cultural and subjective experience and their relation to social and historical processes. Readings include work by Diderot, Schiller, Shelley, Carlyle, Poe, Baudelaire, Ruskin, Emerson, Huysmans, Pater, Nietzsche and Henry Adams.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Jonathan K Crary
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Landscape and the Visual Arts in China

Landsape, Visual Art in China

The landscape of China is marked by sites that have acquired lasting cultural significance the interactions of the visual arts and myth, ritual, and literature.
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 seventeenth century; Tiger Hill, a frequent destination of literati visitors from the Suzhou area; and the Orchid Pavilion, a site in Zhejiang Province that gained fame through its association with a famous calligrapher.             The seminar will introduce students to a broadly interdisciplinary approach to the visual arts drawing on methodologies from art history, anthropology, the history of religion, and other fields.  No knowledge of Chinese is expected, but students who do know the language will be guided to appropriate sources.  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.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Robert Harrist
  CULPA: 19 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Imperial (Re)Visions: Art and Empire in

Art and Empire in India

This seminar aims to teach students how to look at, think about, and engage critically with the visual culture of British India. Together, we will examine the repercussions of the Anglo-Indian colonial encounter on the disciplines of painting, decorative arts, photography, and architecture. We shall not only study the objects themselves, but interrogate the cultural, political, and intellectual circumstances under which they were produced, circulated, collected, and displayed. Finally, we will explore the legacy of the British empire today—its influence on contemporary art, the politics and practices of museum displays, repatriation debates, and beyond.

• T 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Tara Kuruvilla
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

MODERN JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE

This course will examine Japanese architecture and urban planning from the mid-19th century to the present. We will address topics such as the establishment of an architectural profession along western lines in the late 19th century, the emergence of a modernist movement in the 1920's, the use of biological metaphors and the romanticization of technology in the theories and designs of the Metabolist Group, and the shifting significance of pre-modern Japanese architectural practices for modern architects. There will be an emphasis on the complex relationship between architectural practice and broader political and social change in Japan.

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Jonathan Reynolds
  CULPA: 10 Info
• 3 points

Planning and Programming An Exhibition,

Exhib. Planning & Program

This bridge seminar studies the history of childhood, through a 2022 Boston Institute of Contemporary Art exhibition. 
To Begin Again
was planned to consider how we imagine childhood in our present moment.  How do 20 of today’s major artists, many of whom are parents, and belong to an inclusive range of backgrounds, represent the beginnings of human life?  Now, the socially stratified consequences of Covid-19 on families and education are also at stake. Due to Covid-19, the timing of the ICA exhibition has allowed an interval in which to re-think what exhibition programming might consist of, in light of the exhibition’s subject, and recent history.  Thanks to a Harvard Radcliffe Institute grant, a virtual seminar will convene museum, childhood and education experts to discuss best practices and new possibilities.  Students will attend the workshop as well as an artist’s talk, and meet with the exhibition curator, as well as several museum education professionals, to understand how a museum exhibition comes into being.  Assignments will include practicing aspects of research and writing necessary to a successful exhibition. A crucial resource and practicum for the seminar will be a website of the museum programming seminar, funded and managed by the Harvard, Radcliffe Institute, to which seminar graduate students will contribute. This seminar requires long reading assignments at the start of the semester, professional interactions with eminent scholars, and independent work in the second half of the semester.  It is therefore suitable only for the most advanced undergraduates.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Anne Higonnet
  CULPA: 31 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

GILLES DELEUZE:THINKING IN ART

The philosophy of Gilles Deleuze has emerged as one of the richest, most singular adventures in post-war European thought; Foucault considered it the most important in France, and more generally, in the 20th century. In all of Deleuze's work there is a search for a new 'image of thought.' But how did art figure in this search, and how did the search in turn appeal to artists, writers, filmmakers, architects, as well as curators or critics? In this seminar, we explore the complex theme of 'thinkin in art' in Deleuze, and its implications for art in the 21st century or for the global contemporary art of today.

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: John Rajchman
  Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Medieval Monuments and Memory

The medieval world was filled with monuments that defined both the places people lived and traveled through and the ways they understood their communities. This course investigates how architecture and sculpture shaped medieval perceptions of the past and how medieval patrons hoped to make a mark on the future. Case studies will explore the commemoration of the dead, the definition of political identities, the construction of local histories, the presentation of older architectural elements inside new structures, the creation of new stories to redefine preexisting sites, and other relevant topics. We will also discuss how modern restorations, neo-medieval monuments, museum collections, and political discourse impact how medieval monuments are made meaningful today.

• W 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Megan Boomer
  Info
• 4 points

CRITICAL COLLOQUIUM

The structure of the colloquium combines reading and analysis of texts by major theorists and critics. Each week discussions focus on key terms and analytical lenses in the history of art and art criticism. The course is designed to allow for guest presentations on particular issues by critics and writers, just as it draws on the expertise and participation of Columbia faculty. The aim is to develop students critical thinking and for them to learn directly from leading practitioners writing about modern and contemporary art. In addition to department faculty, writers for Artforum, Grey Room, Parkett, Texte zur Kunst, and October, among other venues, regularly participate in the colloquium.

• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Janet L Kraynak
  Info
• 4 points

MA METHODS: COLLOQUIUM

• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Frederique Baumgartner
  CULPA: 3 Info
• 4 points

Surrealism

Surrealism has attracted the attention of Frankfurt School theorists and Feminists alike, often much of it negative. It has been a thorn in the side of art historians and modernists who find its claim to originality and formal innovation baffling. This course will explore those puzzles through the movement’s most important traces, both visual and textual.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Rosalind Krauss
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

PAINTING IN THE SONG DYNASTY

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Robert Harrist
  CULPA: 19 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

PROSEM-INTRO-STUDY OF ART HIST

Required course for first-year PhD Students in the Art History Department.

• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Zeynep Celik Alexander
  Info
• 4 points

EDO PERIOD PAINTING

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Matthew P McKelway
  CULPA: 6 Info
• 4 points

Renaissance Portraits

The portrait has long been central to the very idea of the Renaissance: it has reinforced the Burckhardtian characterization of the period in terms of naturalism and of the rise of the individual; it has exemplified the notion of a recovery an ancient past (Roman busts, coins); and it has seemed the typifying expression both of the bourgeois mercantile republic and of its opposite, the court. The seminar will consider all of these possibilities, but also raise questions that cut in other directions: in a period where the human body and life study became the basis for art making, was the portrait even a coherent category? Why did some artists (Sofonisba Anguissola) build careers around portraiture when others (Michelangelo) avoided the practice? How should we think about anonymous portraits, about works that cannot be approached in terms of the sitters’ identity? How might questions of race change our approach to the genre?

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael Cole
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

DIGITIZATION AND (ANTI)DEMOCRACY

The idea that technology––in particular information technologies––is democratizing is a truism whose origins go back to the postwar era. With the rise of digitization––i.e. the Internet, social media––this utopianism has accelerated, promising user autonomy, decentralization, and new forms of engagement and participation that will inevitably shape community and make the world a better place. This course seeks to problematize these claims by examining theories of digitization, democracy, and technical society. It questions the universalism that underlies such utopianism––in particular with regards to matters of race, gender, and ethnicity––approaching technologies as socially symbolic meanings that both build upon and produce new forms of knowledge, potentially engendering political inequality and anti-democracy. Welcoming students from departments across the university, the course aims to generate a cross-disciplinary dialogue about these issues in relation to art, culture, and society.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Janet L Kraynak
  Info
• 4 points

Identity and the Senses in Contemporary

Identity & Senses in Cont

This course examines the politics of identity in visual art of the United States from the 1990s to the present alongside the development of sensory studies. We will consider the rise and fall in multicultural initiatives and the subsequent emergence of post-identity discourse in the arts that marks this period. Our focus is on artistic practices that challenge the visual rhetoric of race, gender, class, sexuality, and ethnicity. Students will read texts that fall under the rubrics of feminism, performance studies, musicology, African American and African Diaspora studies, and critical race theory among others. At the same time, literature on the history and social construction of the senses will provide a framework for us to explore how smell, sound, taste, and touch affect our experience of works of art as well as how we engage with one another. Key developments and exhibitions—such as the significant entry of practitioners from the African diaspora into the international art world, advancements in technology, the 1993 Whitney Biennial, and “Freestyle” (2001) at the Studio Museum in Harlem-—will anchor our discussion.

• M 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Uchenna Itam
  Info
• 4 points

HIST-ARCHITECTURAL EXHIBITIONS

• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Barry G Bergdoll
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

Issues in Performance Art

Wedged between the rudiments of theater and the gestures of visual art, performance art came to prominence at the end of the twentieth century.  Our concentration in this course will be primarily on artists and practices in the twentieth century. Central to our investigations will be discussions surrounding performance as catalytic process, as temporal art, and issues of the body as form. Feminist performance art will be the focus for this semester: woman’s body as a space-claiming, mark-making, speculative, archival, writing body.  We will also take advantage of
Performa21, The Ninth Biennial of New Visual Art Performance
which takes place October 12-31 and will be held at various venues around the city.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Kellie Jones
  CULPA: 3 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Jerusalem: The Making of the Holy

Jerusalem & Making of the

What are the reasons for declaring a particular space holy? How are the borders of this holy space made visible? What practices and rituals are employed in holy spaces? Can the sanctity of the holy be transferred? The city of Jerusalem is the case study through which these questions will be critically examined. The city, sacred to three monotheistic religions, has been made and remade throughout history as a sacred space to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The course will examine Jerusalem's changing architectural program over circa one thousand years, as well as its representation in images and texts from Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources. The main focus will be the Haram al-Sharif, the temple mount in Jerusalem as well as other spaces in the old city of Jerusalem and its vicinity, in which further sacred spaces were built and designed for pilgrims. Aspects of different rituals and even oral traditions will be brought into discussion to illustrate the varied methods and politics of the space and the continuous contestations over Jerusalem’s sacredness up to the present day. At the same time, modern, mainly nationalistic, methods for reconstructing past narratives for Jerusalem will be critically discussed, focusing mainly on archaeology, urban architectural developments and museum display.

• M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Avinoam Shalem
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

M.A. THESIS

• Instructor: Alexander Alberro
  CULPA: 12 h-index: 17 Info
• Instructor: Zainab Bahrani
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Frederique Baumgartner
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Barry G Bergdoll
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Diane Bodart
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Gregory Bryda
  CULPA: 7 h-index: 1 Info
• Instructor: Zeynep Celik Alexander
  Info
• Instructor: Michael Cole
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Jonathan K Crary
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Francesco de Angelis
  CULPA: 10 Info
• Instructor: Vidya Dehejia
  CULPA: 16 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Dawn H Delbanco
  CULPA: 12 Info
• Instructor: Rosalyn Deutsche
  CULPA: 11 Info
• Instructor: Noam M Elcott
  CULPA: 6 h-index: 7 Info
• Instructor: David A Freedberg
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Meredith Gamer
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Robert Harrist
  CULPA: 19 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Anne Higonnet
  CULPA: 31 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Elizabeth Hutchinson
  CULPA: 9 Info
• Instructor: Kellie Jones
  CULPA: 3 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Branden W Joseph
  CULPA: 9 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Holger A Klein
  CULPA: 13 Info
• Instructor: Rosalind Krauss
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Janet L Kraynak
  Info
• Instructor: Matthew P McKelway
  CULPA: 6 Info
• Instructor: Ioannis Mylonopoulos
  CULPA: 13 Info
• Instructor: Eleonora Pistis
  Info
• Instructor: John Rajchman
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Jonathan Reynolds
  CULPA: 10 Info
• Instructor: Simon Schama
  CULPA: 3 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Avinoam Shalem
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Zoe S Strother
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Lisa Trever
  CULPA: 2 Info
• Instructor: Michael J Waters
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 3 Info
• 4 points

RESEARCH FOR ADVANCED STUDENTS

• Instructor: Alexander Alberro
  CULPA: 12 h-index: 17 Info
• Instructor: Zainab Bahrani
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Frederique Baumgartner
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Barry G Bergdoll
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Diane Bodart
  CULPA: 3 Info
• Instructor: Gregory Bryda
  CULPA: 7 h-index: 1 Info
• Instructor: Zeynep Celik Alexander
  Info
• Instructor: Michael Cole
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Jonathan K Crary
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Francesco de Angelis
  CULPA: 10 Info
• Instructor: Vidya Dehejia
  CULPA: 16 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Dawn H Delbanco
  CULPA: 12 Info
• Instructor: Rosalyn Deutsche
  CULPA: 11 Info
• Instructor: Noam M Elcott
  CULPA: 6 h-index: 7 Info
• Instructor: David A Freedberg
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Meredith Gamer
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Robert Harrist
  CULPA: 19 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Anne Higonnet
  CULPA: 31 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Elizabeth Hutchinson
  CULPA: 9 Info
• Instructor: Kellie Jones
  CULPA: 3 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Branden W Joseph
  CULPA: 9 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Holger A Klein
  CULPA: 13 Info
• Instructor: Rosalind Krauss
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Janet L Kraynak
  Info
• Instructor: Matthew P McKelway
  CULPA: 6 Info
• Instructor: Ioannis Mylonopoulos
  CULPA: 13 Info
• Instructor: Eleonora Pistis
  Info
• Instructor: John Rajchman
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Jonathan Reynolds
  CULPA: 10 Info
• Instructor: Simon Schama
  CULPA: 3 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Avinoam Shalem
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Zoe S Strother
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Lisa Trever
  CULPA: 2 Info
• Instructor: Michael J Waters
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 3 Info
• 3 points