INTRODUCTION TO ART HISTORY

This course provides students with an introduction to two key areas of art historical analysis and recognition. This introduction serves as a primary foundation from which they develop their ability to view art and architecture technically, academically, and formally. Students are encouraged to contextualize what they see and to remain aware of the importance of the circumstances of every artwork’s conception. They consider how artworks can be viewed as bearers of both explicit and implicit meaning, and they carry out close readings of artworks in order to observe the significance of specific details. The principal aim of the course is to make students aware that each work of art that they scrutinize is an articulate and articulated object, and that they have the capacity to understand what they see through systematic visual examination. The course will introduce students to fundamental developments in art history exemplified in the work of selected writers, who laid the subject’s foundations.