Introduction to the History of Architect

INTR HISTORY ARCHITECTURE

This course is required for architectural history and theory majors, but is also open to students interested in a general introduction to the history of architecture, considered on a global scale. Architecture is analyzed through in-depth case studies of key works of sacred, secular, public, and domestic architecture from both the Western canon and cultures of the ancient Americas and of the Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic faiths. The time frame ranges from ancient Mesopotamia to the modern era. Discussion section is required.

• TR 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Michael J Waters
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 3 Info
• 4 points

ATHENIAN ACROPOLIS-5/6CENT BCE

• MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Ioannis Mylonopoulos
  CULPA: 13 Info
• 3 points

Before Rome: The Art and Architecture of

Before Rome: Art & Arch.

This course explores the rich artistic traditions of the peoples living in Italy—the Etruscans, Italics, Greeks, Celts—from their emergence in the early first millennium BCE to their eventual absorption within the system of “Roman” art. While the arts of Etruria will form the backbone of the course, its conceptual focus will be on the densely entangled web that connected the diverse visual landscapes and creative practices of the Italian peninsula both to each other and to external centers of artistic production, from Cyprus and Carthage to Syria and the cultures of northern Europe. In addition to intercultural connectivity— imports and exports, convergences and divergences, parallels and unique features—special attention will be paid to the socio-political and religious dimensions of art and architecture. Both iconic and non-canonical objects will be examined, ranging from furniture and weaponry to anatomical votives and mythological paintings. This lecture is the first in a three-year cycle that also includes “Roman Art and Architecture” and “Rome Beyond Rome.”

• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Francesco de Angelis
  CULPA: 10 Info
• 3 points

TWENTIETH CENTURY ART

The course will examine a variety of figures, movements, and practices within the entire range of 20th-century art—from Expressionism to Abstract Expressionism, Constructivism to Pop Art, Surrealism to Minimalism, and beyond–situating them within the social, political, economic, and historical contexts in which they arose. The history of these artistic developments will be traced through the development and mutual interaction of two predominant strains of artistic culture: the modernist and the avant-garde, examining in particular their confrontation with and development of the particular vicissitudes of the century’s ongoing modernization. Discussion section complement class lectures. Course is a prerequisite for certain upper-level art history courses.

• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Alexander Alberro
  CULPA: 12 h-index: 17 Info
• 4 points

Visual Activism

How has visual culture played a role within the social movements of the last several decades, such as #BlackLivesMatter and Extinction Rebellion? How, we might ask, is activism made visible; how does it erupt (or disappear) with collective fields of vision?  Drawing upon Black South African queer photographer Zanele Muholi’s term “visual activism” as a flexible rubric that encompasses both formal practices and political strategies, this lecture class interrogates contemporary visual cultures of dissent, resistance, and protest as they span a range of ideological positions.

We will examine recent developments in and around recent intersections of art and politics from around the world, looking closely at performances, photographs, feminist dances, graffiti, murals, street art, posters, pussy hats, and graphic interventions, with a special focus on tactics of illegibility and encodedness. Topics include visual responses to structural racisms, global climate change, indigenous land rights, state violence, gentrification, forced migration, and queer/trans issues.

• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: Julia Bryan-Wilson
  Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Introduction to East Asian Art: China, J

Intro to East Asian Art

This lecture course, with two weekly lectures and additional section meetings, surveys the broad outlines of the artistic traditions of China, Korea, and Japan, introducing key concepts, such as multiplicity, impermanence, and transmediality, through a diversity of forms of visual expression in painting, sculpture, bronze, ceramics, lacquer, and architecture. The weekly lectures and discussions will explore interregional relations and influence in order to discover not only the features that make each geographical tradition distinct, but also closely interconnected. Among the key themes to be examined are the archaeology of ancient East Asia, the development of Buddhist art, the arts of landscape and narrative painting, woodblock prints, and finally East Asia after modernity.

• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Jin Xu
  Info
• 4 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 10:10 a.m.-noon
• None None-None
• Instructor: Noam M Elcott
  CULPA: 6 h-index: 7 Info
• Instructor: Avinoam Shalem
  CULPA: 4 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

SENIOR THESIS

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

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Barry G Bergdoll
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 3 points

The Public Monument in Antiquity

Pub. Monument in Antiquit

This seminar will focus on the invention of the public monument as a commemorative genre, and the related concepts of time, memory and history in the ancient Near East (west Asia), Egypt, and Greece. Public monuments will be studies in conjunction with ancient texts (in translation) as well as historical criticism, archaeological and art historical theories. The seminar considers ancient monuments in relation to, and in the context of, modern concepts of monuments, history and heritage and the debates surrounding them. The seminar also introduces these methodologies and debates to students.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Zainab Bahrani
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Renaissance Architecture on the Page

Renaiss. Arch on the Page

This seminar examines how architecture was conceived, represented, and disseminated through drawings, prints, and books in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. Bringing together the study of manuscripts, architectural drawings, printed treatises, and reproductive media such as woodcuts, engravings, and etchings, the course investigates the central role of the page as a critical site of experimentation and the production of architectural knowledge in the Renaissance. By breaking down traditional divisions between media, it seeks to elucidate interconnected graphic and textual practices. It also aims to understand how the mediation of architecture on the page conditioned its reception across a range of contexts. The weekly seminar is structured thematically and roughly chronologically, and will consist of discussion of primary and secondary sources, an examination of visual material, and student presentations. We will also draw on a variety of critical theory while also being grounded in an object-based approach, utilizing especially the rich collections of Avery Library.

• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Michael J Waters
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 3 Info
• 4 points

Introduction to Design History

Intro to Design History

This course offers an introduction to the history of design from the eighteenth century through the twenty-first century, with emphasis placed on the twentieth century. Attention will be paid to a wide range of design specializations, including industrial design and product design, fashion and textile design, automotive design, and graphic design. Proceeding in roughly chronological order, it will explore key themes in the history of design, including matters of taste and etiquette, social reform, the production of value, design education, branding and marketing, and recent trends in sustainable, speculative, and digital design. The course also considers the relationship between design and other modes of material production, including architecture, fine art, and craft.

• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Hannah R Pivo
  Info
• 4 points

REFLEXIVITY IN ART & FILM

This seminar will explore a range of individual works of Western art from the 16th century to late 20th century in which the tension between illusionism and reflexivity is foregrounded. It will focus on well-known paintings and films in which forms of realism and verisimilitude coexist with features that affirm the artificial or fictive nature of the work or which dramatize the material, social and ideological conditions of the work’s construction. Topics will include art by Durer, Holbein, Velazquez, Watteau, Courbet, Morisot, Vertov, Deren, Godard, Varda, Hitchcock and others. Readings will include texts by Auerbach, Gombrich, Brecht, Jameson, Barthes, Didi-Huberman, Bazin, Lukacs, Mulvey, and Daney

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

Latinx Artists Coast to Coast

This course takes a close look at visual art and performative culture by artists of Latin American descent in the U.S. or Latinx, Latina/o art.  The artists we will study trace their heritage to Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, along with other countries in Latin America.  We will consider how these wide-ranging and diverse creative expressions come to signify
Latinidad
while in the process transforming U.S. culture. This means examining colonial era histories that inform the work of contemporary Latinx artists including, but not limited to, histories of race and botanical illustration. We will also look at the histories and visual expressions of Afro-Caribbean and Taíno spiritual practices that have had a great influence on Latinx art production. Course themes include: physical and psychic borders, indigeneity, colonialism and racialization, gender and sexuality, and expanding notions of American art and identity. Class discussions will focus on close examination of theoretical approaches and individual works along with shifting ideas of representation.

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

Architecture in Western Europe 1066-1399

Medieval Arch. 1066-1399

This course explores architecture in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The time frame starts with the conquest of England in 1066 and ends with the appointment of Gothic experts in 1399 to advise on the construction of Milan Cathedral towards the end of the Middle Ages. The first historical event coincides with the creation of architecture of a bewildering scale while the second reflects the end of building without architectural treatises or architectural theory - in a modern sense. The course will also introduce students to new digital technologies such as laser scanning and photogrammetry for the study of medieval architecture. No preliminary knowledge of medieval history or architectural history is needed, and no knowledge of digital technologies or specific computer skills is expected.

The monuments selected belong to a period that starts when architecture moved away from Roman antique models and ends just before the re-adoption of Classical standards in the Renaissance. In this course the originality of medieval architecture, its relationship with earlier and later monuments, and the dramatic effort involved in its creation will be discussed. Major themes of medieval society such as pilgrimages, crusades, piety, the cult of relics, and the social and intellectual context of the Middle Ages are also part of this lecture. In the first weeks, important concepts of medieval society and its architecture will be presented in combination with a number of new technologies recently adopted in the field. These introductory classes will offer the foundations needed to understand artistic and architectural developments in the Middle Ages. While the course will focus on architecture, different media are included when they provide valuable information on the artistic and cultural context to which buildings belong. New technologies serve as a basis for a critical discussion about the changes in method introduced by new media and technologies in the field of architectural history.

• MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
• Instructor: Stefaan Van Liefferinge
  Info
• 3 points

Hadrian's Villa: An Imperial Court and I

This seminar aims to understand Hadrian’s Villa by contextualizing it within the broader network of Roman imperial residences—palaces and villas alike—and by focusing on the relationship between architectural spaces and decoration on the one hand, and social practices and daily routines on the other. Basing on the findings of Columbia’s own excavations, special attention will be devoted to the cultic life at the villa, with particular emphasis on its non-elite inhabitants and the relationship between “high” and “low” forms of religiosity.

The scope of the seminar is interdisciplinary: applications of students from all departments are welcome. Familiarity with Greek and Roman art, architecture, and history is strongly recommended.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Francesco de Angelis
  CULPA: 10 Info
• 4 points

Art and Theory in a Global Context

Art & Theory in Global Co

What is “globalization”? How does it change the way we think about or show art today? What role does film and media play in it? How has critical theory itself assumed new forms in this configuration moving outside post-war Europe and America? How have these processes helped change with the very idea of ‘contemporary art’? What then might a transnational critical theory in art and in thinking look like today or in the 21st century? In this course we will examine this cluster of questions from a number of different angles, starting with new questions about borders, displacements, translations and minorities, and the ways they have cut across and figured in different regions, in Europe or America, as elsewhere. In the course of our investigations, we will look in particular at two areas in which these questions are being raised today -- in Asia and in Africa and its diasporas. The course is thus inter-disciplinary in nature and is open to students in different fields and areas where these issues are now being discussed.

• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: John Rajchman
  Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

CURATORIAL COLLOQUIUM

The Curatorial Colloquium is taken in the second semester of study and is required for the completion of the M.A. in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies. The course introduces students to the history, theory and practice of object collection and display as well as to exhibitions such as Documenta and the various international biennials. The course is designed to allow for guest presentations on particular issues by curators and museum professionals, 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 in the exhibition and display of modern and contemporary art. In addition to department faculty, curators from MoMA, the Whitney, the International Center for Photography, and other institutions regularly participate in the colloquium.

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

MATERIALS & PRACTICES-ART HIST

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

MODA THESIS PREP

The MODA Thesis Prep is a required course for MODA students who plan to commence their thesis in the Fall of the following semester. The course introduces students to the fundamentals of an MA thesis; the process of identifying and developing an appropriate topic; the distinctions between a written/scholarly, or an exhibition-based thesis; formulating a proposal; and an introduction to the research and writing process that will be undertaken during the thesis year. As a central aspect of modern and contemporary art historical writing is determining one’s methodological approach––i.e. the “how” of the argument––during the course of the semester, key methodologies used in modern and contemporary art history will be reviewed, helping students to identify an appropriate approach to pursue with their select topic.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Janet L Kraynak
  Info
• 3 points

ORIGINS OF MOD VISUAL CULTURE

.

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

The Wisdom of Art Roland Barthes Pr

Barthes Practice of Sign

The postwar analysis of contemporary art has jettisoned many of the fields of the discipline of art history: iconography; workshop; style, in favor of a reading based on the semiology of the sign. This has transformed the discourse on contemporary art, especially as that concerns Cubism and Abstraction. The course will focus on semiology and Barthes’ practice of it, with recourse to his major works:
Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes
,
S/Z
,
Mythologies,
and
Camera Lucida.

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

EIDOLON:THE IMAGE IN ANTIQUITY

• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Zainab Bahrani
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

EDO PERIOD PAINTING

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

Medieval Sculpture

MEDIEVAL SCULPTURE

This graduate seminar will take place almost exclusively in museum galleries in New York (and one weekend trip to the Boston area, date TBD), where we will study medieval sculpture through firsthand encounters with artworks. While engaging with classic and contemporary theoretical approaches to the medium, we will prioritize close examination of objects themselves. Starting with sculpture's ambivalent reception and its association with pagan idolatry, the course will explore how the formal, material, and phenomenal qualities inherent to the three-dimensional medium endowed sculpture with a unique ability to convey complicated theological precepts to the masses, elevate the drama of the liturgy, and conjure visionary experiences. Our study will encompass reliquaries, altarpieces, tombs, monumental architectural programs, and liturgical props, among other works.

• M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Gregory Bryda
  CULPA: 7 h-index: 1 Info
• 4 points

The Diagram

How does diagramming make subjects available for intellectual exploration, explanation, and even play? How do diagrams thwart understanding? We might think of diagrams as fixed forms of imaging that passively reflect existing notions, but by exploring recent work on diagramming by historians of art as well as scholars in the philosophy of mind, this course will study the ways in which diagrams can function as creative spaces in which thinkers can contemplate the possibilities of innovative juxtapositions and systems of organizing information.

• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Susanna C Berger
  Info
• 4 points

INTRO TO COMPARATIVE MEDIA

Comparative media is an emergent approach intended to draw upon and interrupt canonical ideas in film and media theory. It adopts a comparative approach to media as machines and aesthetic practices by examining contemporary media in relation to the introduction of earlier technologies. The class also extends our focus beyond the U.S. and Europe by examining other cultural locations of media innovation and appropriation. In doing so, it decenters normative assumptions about media and media theory while introducing students to a range of media practices past and present.

• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• 4 points

Architecture in and of the Museum

Arch. in & of the Museum

In the last twenty-five years the historical study of museums has ballooned into a veritable separate discipline known as museum studies, which deals with the history of collections, the ideology of the museum as a public institution, and the politics of exhibitions. It is not the intention of this seminar to present an overview of this vast literature but rather to posit a set of questions proper to architectural history that intersect with both the history and historiography of the museum since the mid-18th century, with an overwhelming emphasis on the art (as opposed to the natural history, science, technology, history, or literary) museum.  The seminar intertwines two themes at vastly different scales: the inclusive one of the architectural history of the art museum as a building – including all aspects of interior disposition, display strategies and technologies, lighting, exterior form, and urban spatial disposition – and the more highly specialized one of architecture as a subject matter for collecting and display in the museum context.   Within art history the focus has been largely on the development of both the architectural and institutional structure of the art museum; but the fact that architecture overlaps issues of aesthetics, of history, and of science and technology, invites us to consider both the question of the architecture of the museum and architecture in the museum from a more comprehensive view of the museum type.  In both a set of questions recur: the idea of de-contextualization, of aesthetic experience divorced from use and daily environment, of classification and display, of education and/or vs. entertainment, or cultural hegemony and colonialism.

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

South-South Constellations in Cont. Art

This course proposes that a significant strand of contemporary art and exhibition-making activates the political and epistemic force of the 1955 Bandung Conference and its afterlives in the tricontinental and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) as a living methodology. We will examine how the Bandung Conference’s legacy of anti-colonial struggle, political nonalignment, and Third World solidarity gives rise to a new kind of art and a new kind of exhibition—both occupying an in-between position that refuses the terms of Western modernism and the socially engaged realism promoted by many on the left in the midtwentieth century. Rather than treating Bandung as a fixed historical event, we will approach it as a methodological orientation that produces this third space of practice and display, structuring how artists and curators alike rethink sovereignty and democratic cultural exchange.

• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Alexander Alberro
  CULPA: 12 h-index: 17 Info
• 4 points