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Department of Art History
Course Offerings
Fall / 2015
106 Jefferson Hall
929 W. Harrison MC 201
AH
100
Introduction to
Art and Art History
Visiting Instructor | TBA
Mondays / Wednesdays / Fridays
9-9:50am
Room BH 317
or
Assistant Professor | Elise Archias
Professor | Blake Stimson
Tuesdays/Thursdays
11-12:15pm or 2-3:15pm
Room BH 317
This course will investigate various forms, meanings, and purposes of art. Techniques, styles, media, and content will be addressed in different cultural, historical
and social contexts. These questions will be considered through four distinct ways
of seeing that we will call the “believing eye,” the “analytic eye,” the “alienated
eye,” and the “market eye.” Readings will be drawn from the work of renowned art
historians, philosophers, artists, and critics writing about major monuments and
artistic movements. Students will learn how to make sense of artworks and their
place in history. More importantly, they will develop and enhance their visual literacy to better prepare them for the increasingly complex, cross-cultural world we
find ourselves in today, a world that, more and more, relies on images rather than
written or spoken words as its primary medium of communication.
AH
110
Art History I
World History of Art and
the Built Environment I
Associate Professor | Ömür Harmanşah
Mondays / Wednesdays / Fridays
12-12:50pm
Please see the UIC schedule for discussion days/times.
Room HH 107
Comprehensive overview of world art, architecture, and visual culture of ancient
and medieval societies from prehistory to 1400 BCE. Introduces students basic
analytical tools of art history in studying pre-modern art and architecture in their
cultural, political and historical context.
Creative Arts Course
AH
130
Photography in History
Visiting Instructor | TBA
Mondays / Wednesdays / Fridays
2-2:50pm
Room SH 319
Developments in the history of photography including cultural, social,
commercial, scientific, political and artistic applications, and its transformation
of the related social meanings of art and subjectivity.
Field trips required at a nominal fee. Recommended background: Any art history
course; any photography studio course. Past course.
AH
160
Trends in International
Contemporary Art Since 1960
Assistant Professor | Elise Archias
Mondays 2-5pm
Room JH 209
This course is an introduction to contemporary art. In it we explore some themes,
questions, and formal strategies that have occupied different people in different
zones of the global contemporary art world since 1960. The course groups artists
according to different types of strategy for responding critically to contemporary
conditions with the aim of transforming them through art’s limited but
extraordinary means. What have people thought art should do and be during the
last 50 years? We will look at some of the concrete arguments artists have put
forward for why art should be political or autonomous, critical or spectacular,
aggressive or nurturing, and then some, keeping it always in mind that we are
trying to figure out what we want art to do and be today.
AH
180
Introduction to Museum and
Exhibition Studies
Visiting Instructor | TBA
Wednesdays 3-6pm
Room HH 303
This course engages students with museum and exhibition histories, frameworks
and experiences through key readings, films, visits to campus and area museums
and exhibits, and guest lectures by cultural sector professionals and faculty in
affiliated areas including anthropology, art, and history. This course is open to all
undergraduate students. It is a core course for the new Museum and Exhibition
Studies Minor.
AH
204
Greek Art and Archaeology
Associate Professor | Jennifer Tobin
Tuesdays / Thursdays
9:30-10:45am
Room LCA A003
From the mysterious palaces of the Minoans to the architectural triumph of the
Parthenon, the ancient Greeks created monuments that were to form the corner
stone for the art and architecture of Western Europe. Come learn about the
rise and fall of this vibrant society, as it colonized the Mediterranean and Black
Seas, defended against Persian invasion,conquered the East under Alexander
the Great, and fell to Rome with the defeat of Cleopatra. See how throughout
these turbulent times, the Greeks continued to create statues and buildings that
celebrated their specific society but also honored humanity as a whole.
Creative Arts and Past Course
AH
210
The Art and Archaeology of
Ancient Egypt
Associate Professor | Jennifer Tobin
Tuesdays/Thursdays
8-9:15am
Room SH 319
Ancient Egypt from 6000 BC-400 AD. Architecture, sculpture and painting in
their social and historical contexts. Same as AAST 210, and ARST 210.
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing.Creative Arts, and Past course.
AH
232
History of Film I:
1890 to World War II
Lecturer | Martin Rubin
Teaching Assistant | Aaron Hammes
Mondays/Wednesdays
3-4:50pm
Room BH B6
History of film from its beginnings in the 1890s up to World War II.
Same as ENGL 232 and MOVI 232.
AH
235
History of Design I: 1760-1925
Assistant Professor | Jonathan Mekinda
Tuesdays / Thursdays
11-12:15pm
Room - Please see the UIC schedule for location
This lecture course surveys the history of design in Europe and the United States
from about 1760 to 1925 from various historical, methodological, and theoretical
perspectives. Covering a range of fields, including industrial design, graphic
design, architecture, interior architecture, and fashion, this course will explore
the evolution of the role of the designer in modern society and examine a wide
range of objects as both products and agents of social, cultural, and political
transformation. Ultimately, this course aims to introduce students to the myriad
ways in which design interacts with culture and society. Same as DES 235
AH
264
African American Art
Visiting Instructor | TBA
Tuesdays/Thursdays
2-3:15pm
Room HH 107
Interdisciplinary survey of the artistic production of African American artists
from the nineteenth century to the present. Same as AAST 264. Creative Arts, and
World Cultures course.
AH
271
Native American Art
Visiting Instructor | TBA
Mondays / Wednesdays / Fridays
11-11:50am
Room SH 319
Survey of the arts of the indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada.
Same as NAST 271.
Prerequisite(s): 3 hours of art history at the 100 level or consent of the instructor.
World Cultures course.
AH
301
Theories and Methods in Art History
Visiting Instructor | TBA
Wednesday 9-11:45am
Room JH 209
The methodologies and theories of the discipline and their application to selected
problems. Previously listed as AH 200. Required for majors in art history.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing and major in art history, or consent of the instructor.
AH
422
Topics in the Literature
of Architecture
Professor | Martha Pollak
Tuesdays 2-4:50pm
Room HH 303
This seminar will take up selected readings in the theory and criticism of
architecture. The readings will focus on works authored by architects,and will
range from Vitruvius to Louis Sullivan, and beyond.
AH
460
Topics in Modern and
Contemporary Art Eros and
Enlightenment
Associate Professor | Nina Dubin
Mondays 3-5:50pm
Room HH 303
What would it mean to consider eighteenthcentury art through the lens of the
period’s evolving discourse on love? The explosion of a novel-reading public; the
Enlightenment’s often nervous inquiry into the sentiment of love and its status
in relation to the equally unstable category of friendship; the expansion of
epistolary culture and the attendant vogue for love letter pictures; the ubiquitous
presence of Cupid, even in such unexpected contexts as financial literature: these
and other phenomena suggest that eros played a central yet complicated role in
eighteenth-century self-imaginings.
Moreover, love was considered indissociable from such equally fraught domains
as trust and risk. Examining a broad range of cultural objects, this seminar
seeks to expand, challenge and enliven our understanding of art and eros in the
eighteenth century.
AH
510
Historiography of the Visual
Arts: 1750-1960
Professor | Martha Pollak
Thursdays 10-12:45pm
Room HH 303
In this seminar we will examine the intellectual underpinnings of art history as
a discipline, theories of art, and art criticism. The readings will range from the
early modern to c.1960. The purpose of the seminar is also to explore research and
interpretive methods internal to art history.
AH
532
Cultural Collections
Assistant Professor: Lori B. Batista
Thursdays 2-5pm
Room JH 209
What makes a collection? How are collections cared for, preserved, catalogued
and conserved? What circulates from a collection? How do organizations and
institutions define areas for collecting? In this course, we will examine the
theories, practices, and interpretations that inform how objects, images and
ephemera make their way into the collections of libraries, cultural centers and
museums. Students will become more knowledgeable about collections processes
through field trips, lecture-demonstrations, tours, discussions, and collectionsrelated projects coordinated with local arts organizations and cultural institutions.
AH
543
Writing for Exhibitions
Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor | Claudine Isé
Mondays 5:30-8:30pm
Room JH 209
This course is a practicum on writing for a variety of art-related contexts, with
a particular emphasis on museums and art galleries. Most class meetings are
divided as follows: first half, discussion of reading assignments and/or group
discussion with guest speakers; second half, group critiques of our weekly writing
assignments.
The course covers the following areas: museum wall labels and didactic panels
(traditional and experimental forms); press releases; art reviews (short and long
format); short and long brochure and catalogue essays; and grant narratives for
fundraising and grant applications.
In addition, we’ll explore emerging writing forms as they occur in a variety of
social media contexts(Twitter, museum blogs and the social media landscape
in general) and will critically examine how social media can be used not only as
exhibition marketing and public relations tools, but as a way to extend the reach
of an art exhibition. This class will also feature numerous guest speakers
AH
545
Museum Genres, Practices,
and Institutions
Associate Professor | Therese Quinn
Wednesdays 6-9pm
Room HH 303
This seminar examines the history and evolving frameworks of museums through
critical inquiry and close readings of literary, theoretical, and other kinds
of media and “texts” produced about and by museums. Students will gain
perspectives on the institutional contexts, social practices and political potentials
of museums in dialog with a diversity of museum workers and other practitioners
at Chicago’s cultural institutions.
AH
561
Seminar in Contemporary
Architecture and Art:
ADORNO: Now and Forever
Associate Professor | Lisa Lee
Professor | Blake Stimson
Wednesdays 9-12pm
Room HH 303
This seminar will take up the work, the reception and continuing relevance of
Theodor Adorno, one of the most important critical theorists of the past century.
Spanning questions of aesthetics, philosophy, literary and cultural criticism,
readings will be drawn from all of Adorno’s works and from selected examples of
his reception in more recent theory and criticism (e.g. Lisa Lee, Dialectics of the
Body, Fredric Jameson, Late Marxism, and Jean-Francois Lyotard, “Adorno as the
Devil”) and artistic practice (e.g. Allan Sekula, Andrea Fraser, and Doug Ischar).
For more information: lisalee@uic.edu or stimson@uic.edu.