Curriculum

First-year visual and critical studies majors must take all of the courses that follow.

AHD-1030 / AHD-1035 Visuality and Modern Art I and II

FID-1130 / FID-1135 Drawing I and II

HHD-1040 Political History of the Modern World: 18th and 19th Centuries

HMD-1050 Modern Philosophy: 18th and 19th Centuries

PHD-1007 Lens Arts

PHD-1080 Introduction to Digital Imaging One

VCD-1030 History of the Image

VHD-1010 Reading, Thinking, Writing

VSD-1120 Space, Shapes and Techniques

Second-year visual and critical studies majors are required to take:

REQUIREMENT A

One semester each of

AHD-2010 The Origins of Art

FID-2310 Looking Into Music

FID-2376 Printmaking: Etching and Woodcut

VSD-2010 Life Drawing

VSD-2120 Sculpture

REQUIREMENT B

Choose one course from each of the following groups:

VCD-2564 The Industry of Art: From Curator to Artist to Dealer

or VCD-3087 The Diasporas Emerge: Filling in the Gaps

VCD-2236 Theories of Vision and Color

or VCD-2237 The History and Practices of Perspective

VHD-2060 Visuality in Poetry

or VHD-2070 Visual Poetics

VSD-2102 The Artist’s Journal: Developing Content

or VSD-2103 The Artist’s Journal: Developing Systems for Art-Making

or FID-2228 Sensational Painting and ...

Note: Students may take more than the minimum required courses from Requirement B to fulfill second-year elective choices in Requirement C.

REQUIREMENT C

In addition to requirements A and B, students must take 3 elective credits in studio and 3 elective credits in art history or humanities. Note: Studio courses can be chosen from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses that otherwise have prerequisites. Studio courses carry a prefix of ADD, AND, CFD, CID, CVD, DSD, FID, IDD, ILD, PHD, SDD, SMD, VND, or VSD. Art history and humanities and sciences from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses that otherwise have prerequisites. Art history and humanities and sciences courses carry a prefix of AHD, HCD, HDD, HHD, HLD, HMD, HPD, HSD, HWD, VCD or VHD (including courses not already taken from requirements A and B).

Third-year visual and critical studies majors are required to take:

REQUIREMENT A

One semester each of

VCD-3020 Theories of Imitation

VCD-3040 Aesthetic Theory

VSD-3010 Junior Seminar

REQUIREMENT B

Choose one course from each of the following groups:

VCD-3051 Art in Theory: 1648-1900

or VCD-3052 Art in Theory: 1900-1990

or AHD-3137 Irony and Beauty

VSD-3402 Advanced Projects in Mixed Media

or VSD-3807 Fiber Arts

HSD-4026 Art, Science and the Spiritual

or VCD-3112 Art and Politics

VSD-3121 Digital Video

or VSD-3827 Art Writing

REQUIREMENT C

In addition to requirements A and B, students must take 9 elective credits in studio and 3 elective credits in art history or humanities. Note: Studio courses can be chosen from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses that otherwise have prerequisites. Studio courses carry a prefix of ADD, AND, CFD, CID, CVD, DSD, FID, IDD, ILD, PHD, SDD, SMD, VND, or VSD. Art history and humanities and sciences from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses that otherwise have prerequisites. Art history and humanities and sciences courses carry a prefix of AHD, HCD, HDD, HHD, HLD, HMD, HPD, HSD, HWD, VCD or VHD (including courses not already taken from requirements A and B).

Fourth-year visual and critical studies majors are required to take:

REQUIREMENT A

One semester each of

AHD-4140 Senior Seminar

VHD-4010 Essay Workshop

VSD-4010 Thesis Studio I

VSD-4015 Thesis Studio II

VSD-4050 Thesis Workshop

REQUIREMENT B

In addition to requirement A, students must take 6 elective credits in studio and 9 elective credits in art history or humanities. Note: Studio courses can be chosen from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses that otherwise have prerequisites. Studio courses carry a prefix of ADD, AND, CFD, CID, CVD, DSD, FID, IDD, ILD, PHD, SDD, SMD, VND, or VSD. Art history and humanities and sciences from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses that otherwise have prerequisites. Art history and humanities and sciences courses carry a prefix of AHD, HCD, HDD, HHD, HLD, HMD, HPD, HSD, HWD, VCD or VHD (including courses not already taken from requirements A and B).

Elective art history and studio courses can be chosen from among the undergraduate offerings, including courses that otherwise have prerequisites. Unless otherwise indicated, all courses in the visual and critical studies general course listing grant three credits per course.

AHD-1030 / AHD-1035 Visuality and Modern Art I and II

Two semesters: 3 art history credits per semester

These courses will examine the interconnections among modern art, modernity and visuality. Topics will include the historical development of “modern” vision, the impact of photography and film on visualization, and the decline of realism and the emergence of abstraction. The goal of these courses is to bring together historical, philosophical, scientific and technological studies of visuality and relate them directly to “modern” artistic practice.

FID-1130 / FID-1135 Drawing I and II

Two semesters: 3 studio credits per semester

Focusing on the perceptual skills involved in image-making, these courses will examine drawing as an act of producing independent works of art and as a preparatory process in organizing a finished work. Assigned projects will explore the formal elements of art, such as line, space, scale and texture. Materials will include pencil, charcoal, pen-and-ink and wash, among others. Projects range from the figure and still life, for example, to mapping and storyboarding.

HHD-1040 Political History of the Modern World: 18th and 19th Centuries

semester: 1.5 humanities and sciences credits

This course will examine three significant themes unique to the modern era: 1) the struggle for individual rights; 2) the expansion of capitalism; 3) the increasing prominence of government as an agent for social change. These themes are traced from the founding of the United States and the dissolution of the European monarchies through the rise of the nation state.

HMD-1050 Modern Philosophy: 18th and 19th Centuries

One semester: 1.5 humanities and sciences credits

This course will introduce some of the key Western philosophical ideas, from the period of the European Enlightenment to the dawn of the 21st century. Through readings by Hume, Kant, Rousseau, Marx and Nietzsche we will examine central terms within the variety of philosophical trends and disputes of each period, including empiricism, political philosophy and aesthetic theory.

PHD-1007 Lens Arts

One semester: 3 studio credits

From the invention of photography to the growing potential of interactive and online photographic work, the lens-based arts have played a central role in defining our culture. This multidisciplinary course will examine the dramatic changes in lens-based technologies and their evolving nature, and explore a variety of imaging devices in studio projects.

PHD-1080 Introduction to Digital Imaging

One semester: 3 studio credits

Gaining a fundamental understanding of Adobe Photoshop, Bridge and Lightroom applications will be the focus of this course. Topics covered include image size and resolution, flatbed and film scanning, color modes, file formats, painting and editing tools, file management, image adjustments, working with layers and layer masks, and output options. By the end of the semester, students will have a basic understanding of how to work with photographs in a digital environment.

VCD-1030 History of the Image

One semester: 3 art history credits

Serving as an introduction to the place of the image in art, society and philosophy and, this course will examine the relation of the art image to the image in magic, science and religion. It will offer students a comparative study and critical introduction to the image in a variety of mediums: dance, film, photography, literature, music and the plastic arts. The commercial image, the sexual image, the image of the human body, as well as self-image and the world as image will also be explored.

VHD-1010 Reading, Thinking, Writing

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This required course emphasizes writing and critical thinking through the study of literature. The first goal is for students to express themselves clearly, critically and thoughtfully, using language. The second goal is for students to explore writing as a personal process and as an artist’s tool. Texts may include premodern works from the Western canon, along with more contemporary, experimental and non-Western literature.

VSD-1120 Space, Shapes and Techniques

One semester: 3 studio credits

The fundamental principles and structures of the material world will be the focus of this course. Students will work with a variety of materials and develop an understanding of their essence and relevance for individual results. Training of the eye (observation), brain (inquiry) and hand (tactile) will result in comprehension and sensitivity of all things 3D. Practical work will give a framework for context, connections and meaning. Project-based assignments will reinforce these fundamental principles. The goal of the course is to gain the ability to analyze and articulate attitudes, materials and relationships.

AHD-2010 The Origins of Art

One semester: 3 art history credits

The Arts serve as a record of the history of ideas and society. This course will explore the development of what we call art, by examining its emergence and development in the context of specific Western and non- Western societies and civilizations. To do so, the class traces the changing nature of representation in painting, sculpture and architecture from the Paleolithic to the early 19th century. Topics include art and ritual, iconoclasm and theories of God, the separation of art and craft, the social history of art and the rise of the individual, idealism and aesthetics. Discussion, slide presentations and museum visits are a part of the course. Note: Successful completion of AHD-2010 will exempt Honors Program students from AHD-1010 and AHD-1015, Art History I and II.

VSD-2010 Life Drawing

One semester: no credit

With a focus on the live model, this course will address the figure in space using a variety of techniques. From short to long poses, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the human form while examining various concepts relevant to the history of drawing: line and gesture, positive and negative space, composition and the picture plane, tone, form and proportion, and perspective, among others. The class will discuss contemporary forms of life drawing and its relevance to the art market.

VHD-2060 Visuality in Poetry

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

How are words made into images? What is the science of figurative language? What are opportunities for music, image and language to complement as opposed to contrast with one another? This course will address these fundamental questions by engaging with poetic works drawn from diverse periods. In this effort to understand poetry’s relationship with the visual world, we will read closely and critically. We will study the mechanics of poetry and work on writing, listen to writers and attend readings to arrive at a practical understanding of writing and prepare for tackling the larger questions of ekphrasis in poetry.

VHD-2070 Visual Poetics

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

This course will investigate how the visual world intersects with the abstraction of language in canonical texts by poets. We will read Donne, Blake, Wordsworth, Whitman, Dickinson, Hopkins, Yeats, Stevens, Pound, Eliot, Auden and Ashbery, among others, and trace how poetry has struggled to capture through language what “seeing feels like.” We will explore artistic devices for making the invisible visible, the abstract concrete, the mute vocal and the small magnificent. Studying theories of mimesis, modes of representation and aesthetic frameworks will complement the reading and writing of poems.

VSD-2102 The Artist’s Journal: Developing Content

One semester: 3 studio credits

The goal of this course is to create a visual journal through paintings and works on paper that record the artist’s interests and concerns. Experimentation with various materials and techniques, as well as investigating ideas of personal iconography, symbolism and narrative will be emphasized. Using painting, drawing, basic printmaking and collage, students will be helped in developing weekly journal pieces and a collaborative publication for the semester. Students will be required to keep a sketchbook, review exhibitions and take their own photos for reference and documentation.

VSD-2103 The Artist’s Journal: Developing Systems for Art-Making

One semester: 3 studio credits

This course will focus on using pre-determined systems and instructions to create works, and explore the journal approach to art-making in other cultures. Students are required to keep a sketchbook, review exhibitions and take their own photos for reference and documentation.

VSD-2120 Sculpture

One semester: 3 studio credits

Serving as an introduction to sculptural materials, ideas and techniques, the primary goal of this course is to broaden the ways in which students understand sculpture and interpret the three-dimensional world. With this focus in mind, the emphasis will be on the physical shaping of ideas. A range of materials will be introduced, including clay, paper, wood and plaster. By utilizing basic skills and materials, students can begin the process of creating meaning from material.

VCD-2173 Gender Trouble

One semester: 3 art history credits

A radical collective inquiry into the ‘aesthetics of resistance’ that occur when the gendered non-conforming body speaks in the visual is the focus of this course. We will explore using the arts to engage in the queering of fixed social boundaries, a most ancient form of antiauthoritarian power and sensuous (spiritual) pleasure for use by bodies situated at the borderlands of gender, race, class, pleasure and power. Presentations of slide and video work by key contemporary and historical feminist figures will help students situate their creative practice in relationship to contemporary discourses around intersectional feminism— race, class, gender and sexuality. How do we make sense of feminist art of the past and present—its contradictions, slogans and symbols? What content is lost in translation during art’s shift from private practice to public locus? Reading assignments by a range of provocative critical theorists will be given and students will bring in work in any medium for weekly critique. This course includes a special focus on underground, pansexual and transnational networks we can define loosely as post-racial, punk, queer, hip-hop, radical and sex- positive feminist culture.

FID-2228 Sensational Painting and ...

One semester: 3 studio credits

What do we do when we look? What happens as we build pictures? What makes an image memorable? We will consider the context for these concerns from Cézanne to psychedelic art to current exhibitions. Learn to focus your intentions while fine-tuning your intuition. Work from observation, imagination or printed sources with an emphasis on the distinctly physiological experience of painting.

VCD-2236 Theories of Vision and Color

One semester: 3 art history credits

In this course, students will be asked to consider theories of vision and color through a variety of lenses: critical, cultural, scientific, (art) historical, philosophical, experiential and literary, to name a few. Such consideration will be facilitated by a corresponding diversity of methods, encompassing reading, discussion, screening, observation, experimentation and site visits. We will attempt to arrive at an understanding of both vision and color as multivalent and ever-evolving phenomena. Throughout, students will be encouraged to consider the role of vision and color in both historical and contemporary art practices and in relation to their own artistic development.

VCD-2237 The History and Practices of Perspective

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course challenges students to understand and to analyze the phenomenon of perspective as a cultural invention. Central topics will include infinite space and illusion, the fixed eye and the gaze, and the relationship between vision and power. The history of perspective will be encountered as it relates to scientific, religious, and philosophical movements by way of readings and visual presentations. Texts by Leon Batista Alberti, Erwin Panofsky, Jacques Lacan, Norman Bryson and Martin Jay, among others, will be discussed.

VCD-2241 The Artist as Programmer

One semester: 3 art history credits

In the post-studio interdisciplinary art world, technology plays a critical role in an artist’s practice. The ubiquity of the Internet, displays and computers demands a new kind of literacy today. By examining contemporary artists working on the periphery of traditional media, we’ll explore the implications for art and artists. Readings and lectures will be supplemented by in-class exercises that introduce fundamental programming principles with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. To emulate the interdisciplinary art world mentioned, this course is a hybrid art history course with studio practice.

VCD-2256 Medieval Art and Modernity

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course will focus on the transition from feudalism to capitalism, examining the social context that informs the art forms of the period. We will reframe the Middle Ages away from the stereotypical view of the backward Dark Ages and consider its artistic and intellectual innovations as precursors to modernity. Spending time understanding the ideologies and philosophies of the period, we will examine art and literature while also considering developments in music, dance and theater. Readings will be paired with discussions to understand how the social, political and economic systems of medieval Europe are reflected in art.

VSD-2256 Painting as Sorcery

One semester: 3 studio credits

Painting is magic. In this course, students will discover an alchemical approach to painting by actively combining traditional techniques with alternative methods of building an image (photo, digital, 3D construction) and breathing new life into their work. Through combinations of controlled experiments and critical thinking, students will examine how perceptions of images can be altered through material manipulation.

VSD-2302 Obsessive Painting

One semester: 3 studio credits

Is making art just a socially acceptable way of channeling obsessive behavior? Look at Agnes Martin’s grid paintings; Morandi’s bottles; Henry Darger’s 15,145 pages of manually typed, hand-painted manuscript; Paul Noble’s fantasy worlds; Vija Celmins’s waves and rocks, and James Hampton’s thrones. It appears that each artist had no “off” switch. This course will address the artist’s never-ending pursuit of ideas, subjects, motifs or materials. Class time will be dedicated to painting and both group and individual critiques.

FID-2310 Looking into Music

One semester: 3 studio credits

Many artists approach their own work by way of ideas and properties that are primarily associated with another form of expression. Music, abstract and non-material by nature, has often served as a means of exploring the visual arts. This studio course will consider the interrelationship of the visual arts and music by first examining historic examples through lectures and individual research, then applying some of those principles to student projects and presentations. Beginning with the ancient belief in universal connectedness (such as the Harmony of the Spheres), topics will include: structural comparisons of visual and aural creativity; the nature of abstraction; phenomenological similarities and paradoxes of visual and aural perception; sociological and political activism; artistic and legal implications of appropriation in art and music; the interdependency of visual and sound elements in multi-disciplinary art forms such as theater, film, animation, music video and web-based art.

FID-2376 Printmaking: Etching and Woodcut

One semester: 3 studio credits

This course offers a thorough introduction to different image-making possibilities available in two major areas of printmaking. Etching will be explored through the introduction of line etching, soft ground, aquatint and photoetching. The second half of the semester will focus on monoprint, linoleum and woodcut. Starting from a direct application of color in monoprint, students will then explore the use of color separations and overlays to create color linoleum and woodcut prints.

VCD-2564 The Industry of Art: From Curator to Artist to Dealer

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course looks to critically address the complex history of the museum, (white box) gallery, atelier and exhibition as cultural institutions. We will examine how these institutions position themselves, how they exist in actuality and the complex—and oftentimes controversial—relationships they have both with artists and with society. Through the ideas generated in this course students will engage on a practical level by participating in the promotion, installation, design and curation of exhibitions, which are supplemented by on-site visits to numerous cultural institutions.

VSD-3010 Junior Seminar

One semester: no credit

This seminar will focus on developing studio work in preparation for thesis projects. Emphasis will be placed on coherently conceptualizing each student’s independent project, as well as how to contextualize the work through documentation and building a portfolio. Note: Open to junior visual and critical studies majors only.

VCD-3020 Theories of Imitation

One semester: 3 art history credits

A historical and philosophical examination of various ways in which theories of imitation have considered visual and textual imitations is the focus of this course. Readings will include: Plato, The Republic (excerpts); Denis Diderot, The Paradox of Acting; J. J. Winckelmann, Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works; Erich Auerbach, “Figura”; David Summers, The Judgment of Sense (excerpt); Oscar Wilde, “Decay of Lying”; Harold Bloom, “Necessity of Misreading”; Rene Girard, To Double Business Bound (excerpt); Paul Ricoeur, “Mimesis and Representation”; Jacques Derrida, “Economimesis.”

VCD-3040 Aesthetic Theory

One semester: 3 art history credits

Lacking in the long history of aesthetics and the philosophy of art is the case study approach of applying a theory directly to an artwork to see how effective it is. Does it define what art is or is not? Does it help us decide the sensory value of an artwork? Are there judgments of taste and sensory discriminations? Is there an aesthetic pleasure, a feeling of the ‘sublime,’ or is it all in the eye of the beholder? Is beauty a property of things or something we attribute to them? Ultimately, can theories of art provide a framework for critically responding to our art, our culture and nature? We intend to answer these questions by lining up some of the greatest theoreticians of the Western canon: Kant, Hegel, Croce, Adorno, Danto, Derrida, Goodman, Greenberg and Arnheim, with some of the most provocative art of our times.

VCD-3051 Art in Theory: 1648-1900

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course will focus on what became the central ideas that informed the European tradition of art theory and criticism. The goal is to acquaint students with the writings and ideas of these times, which were considered to be the foundation of what constitutes art and the art experience. VCD-3052 Art in Theory: 1900-1990 One semester: 3 art history credits Important articles, manifestoes, and artists’ statements of the 20th century will be examined in this course. Lectures will connect the artwork produced during that time to these texts and offer a comprehensive understanding of both images and ideas.

VSD-3066 Make Your Own Art World: Independent Exhibitions, Projects and Spaces

One semester: 3 studio credits

How do you envision your role as an artist in the world of contemporary art? The commercial gallery system presents one possibility, but what are the other options for participating in the current conversation around art? Independent and artist-run spaces offer an alternative to the traditional, market-driven, private gallery system. In this course, we will trace the history of alternative spaces in New York and also look at contemporary artist-run and independent galleries. In addition to readings, screenings and discussion, we will visit and meet the directors of exhibition spaces such as Artist’s Space, Art in General, Canada, Momenta, Participant, Rex Regina, and Soloway. Students will collaborate to curate and produce an exhibition at Soloway Gallery.

VSD-3083 Watercolor Workshop

One semester: 3 studio credits

Never used watercolor before? Or know the fundamentals and want to become better? Learn the nuts and bolts of making a watercolor drawing from beginning to end. This course will take you step-by-step through the process and show you how to draw what’s in your head to make it a reality. Understanding how watercolors work can be a great way to improve your painting and drawing skills in a variety of media, including acrylics and oils. This course will give you the techniques you need to go and make the paintings and drawings you want to create.

VCD-3087 The Diasporas Emerge: Filling in the Gaps

One semester: 3 art history credits

In this course we will comb through the Western European canon of art and history to trace the roots of important black, Latino and indigenous thinkers, artists, poets and musicians who have shaped the politics, culture and representations of modern and contemporary art. We will delve into an array of historical, decolonial and philosophical texts and source materials to expand our knowledge and understanding of the canon by unearthing the contradictions inherent in the legacy of Western European Enlightenment and imperialism. Students will be presented with two case studies. The first will be surrealism, its relationship to the Négritude movement and the influence of the Blues. We will read and unpack thinkers such as Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter and Franklin Rosemont. For the second, we will look at New York City in the late 1970s and ‘80s to unpack the cross-pollination of the arts in the city, through the lens of Martha Rosler, Jeff Chang and the poetry of Pedro Pietri to expand our knowledge of the canon to include those influential poets musicians and artists from Chinatown, Loisaida and the South Bronx that were left behind.

VCD-3112 Art and Politics

One semester: 3 art history credits

The contentious and complex relationship between art and politics­—historically and in the contemporary scene—will be explored in this course. How do political realities shape the content and form of art? In what way can art illuminate the problems of the time? What is activism and how can artists participate in it? In a wrong world, does art have the right even to exist? We will consider the correlation of art to its time by examining a number of key ideas and debates—the relationship of art to the state, realism, autonomy and commitment, the avant-garde, the culture industry, representation, individualism, form and content, gender egalitarianism—while also looking closely at works of art to see what insight aesthetic experience may offer into the dangers we face and the possibility of political progress. Movies, theater, poetry, television, novels, music, painting and performance will all be explored. Throughout, we will study urgent social and political realities such as inequality, the decay of democracy and climate change, alongside social and political movements aiming to ameliorate the situation.

VSD-3121 Digital Video

One semester: 3 studio credits

Designed as a general introduction to video production and theory, in this course students will examine moving-image cultures from a production point of view. We will begin with hands-on experience with cameras, lighting, sound and editing. Theory will then be introduced through concepts in video-making (narratives, structures, rhythms, etc.) and discussions related to topics such as the divide or hybrid of documentary and fiction, found footage, cinematic time, subjectivity/objectivity and essay films. Finally, students will collaborate on a project that encompasses the process of digital video, from concept and scriptwriting to production and editing.

AHD-3137 Irony and Beauty

One semester: 3 art history credits

Irony is a puzzling concept, far deeper than the dictionary definition: “Irony is the act of using words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.” If this were the case, all sarcasm would be irony and the truly ironic act would be nothing more than a cheap theatric. Thankfully, real irony is hard to come by. It is rooted in something more than cleverness, just as beauty is more than simply being pretty. The idea of beauty is, at its core, a moment of transcendence, an experience of something greater than the tangible world has to offer. When done well, irony is a concentrated disaffection with what has been presented as truth; it is a mode of rebellion. Can beauty and irony co-exist or are they mutually exclusive? Is there any irony in the paintings of Barnett Newman or is it all deadly serious? Has irony become too easy? And has beauty ceased to answer any real questions? These are the issues we will address as we try to reconcile these seeming opposites.

VSD-3402 Advanced Projects in Mixed Media

One semester: 3 studio credits

Advanced Projects in Mixed Media is a studio course with an emphasis on materiality and experimentation. Materials are suggested for assignments but ultimately can take any form—photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. The course embraces the wide-reaching methods of contemporary art, which also includes the potential use of performance and video as well as considerations of context and technology. Students are expected to achieve a greater understanding of themselves as artists and begin to construct their own artistic voice. The course is divided into three sections: The Four Elements, The Five Senses and The Four Temperaments—with focuses on physical matter, experience/interpretation and emotion. Weekly projects will be discussed in a group critique; reading assignments, screenings and field trips are included.

VSD-3807 Fiber Arts

One semester: 3 studio credits

This course will introduce students to the basics of working within several classic American fiber arts traditions, including spinning, weaving, dyeing, appliqué, quilt-making, embroidery, and basic fabric design. While traditional ways of working and basic techniques will be demonstrated and stressed in the first half of the semester, students will use their skills to create individualized artistic projects during the second half of the course. In the end, this course is a hybrid of new and old techniques, combining craft and fine art.

FID-3849 Silkscreen: Build Your Own Business

One semester: 3 studio credits

Turn your art into your career! This course will cover the process of silkscreening, from creating hand-drawn and digital separations to learning how to print on a variety of materials, including paper, textile, metal and plastic. We will also explore how to utilize the silkscreen process to create your own line of products such as T-shirts, tote bags and greeting cards. Additionally, we will discuss building brand, pricing work, establishing a customer base and mastering social media for your company. How to create an online marketplace, how to package and ship the product and dealing with inventory will be addressed.

VSD-3827 Art Writing

One semester: 3 studio credits

The written word has always had a close relationship to the visual arts, starting with Plato and The Puranas of ancient India and continuing right up to the era of Artforum and online magazines like Hyperallergic. In this course, we will examine and work with many different kinds of art writing. Readings will range from artists’ writings, art criticism, interviews and manifestoes to essays about art and society and writings generated by galleries and museums. A series of short writing assignments will explore various subgenres of art writing and allow students to sharpen their writing skills and refine their authorial voice. The final project will allow students to write in depth about an art-related topic of their choice. Texts include pieces by a wide range of artists, writers and critics, including Max Beckmann, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, Dave Hickey, Mira Schor, Ken Johnson, Nancy Princenthal, Salvador Dali and Mina Loy.

VHD-4010 Essay Workshop

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

The essay is a literary form perfect for grappling with complex ideas in a direct and personal manner. Less rigid than the scholarly treatise, its openness allows a writer tremendous flexibility in considering a chosen topic from numerous angles. In this course, we will examine the uses and particular strengths of the essay by reading and discussing a wide range of examples, as well as writing short essays in a variety of styles. Our reading will range from the invention of the modern essay in the 16th century by Montaigne to opinion pieces in current magazines. Writing assignments will explore uses of the essay for diverse purposes, including satire, humor, advocacy, art criticism and the investigation of contemporary issues. The goal throughout will be to help students identify different means of writing available to them as they begin to conceive of and develop the written component of their thesis projects.

VSD-4010 / VSD-4015 Thesis Studio I and II

Two semesters: 3 studio credits per semester

Consisting of weekly critiques by faculty and visiting artists, these courses provide the anchor by which the final thesis project is undertaken.

HSD-4026 Art, Science and the Spiritual

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

What is our place in the universe? How do we perceive the world? Students will learn how modern science has profoundly transformed modern art. The theories of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein forever changed how artists understand reality. The rise of science also entailed the decline of organized religion, causing traditional spiritual questions to be reformulated in secular terms. At the same time, the theories proposed by psychologists—the new doctors of the soul—revolutionized modern society’s understanding of the human psyche. Artists responded to the challenges posed by science and psychology by creating new metaphors for the human condition during the first secular, scientific age in human history. We will explore the interplay between art, science and the spiritual by evaluating major scientific and religious trends of the 20th century in relation to the representative artistic movements and works of the time.

VSD-4050 Thesis Workshop

One semester: 3 studio credits

Intended to hone the skills necessary for the undertaking of the thesis project, this course will examine the material and intellectual contexts in which the thesis is pursued.

AHD-4140 Senior Seminar

One semester: 3 art history credits

Unlike the historical avant-garde that situated itself outside of mass culture, today’s emerging avant-garde art seems to anticipate ways of working from within and in relation to mass culture. Art is steadily moving out from the “white cube” to participate in a global continuum that’s hosted by satellite TV and cable, the Internet, all forms of wireless communication and international biennials. The fractious history of art and mass culture has grown exponentially within the past two decades in direct proportion to the invention of new imaging technologies and the development of global economies. This course proposes to examine the scant, but rich, history of relations between art and mass culture, and to chart the rise of media-related art. We will immerse ourselves in screenings of contemporary video/multimedia work of the past two decades and seek out as many pertinent exhibitions as we can throughout the semester. We will also read interviews with artists and curators, as well as texts on media theory, globalism and the like.

AHD-4140 Senior Seminar: Printmaking

One semester: 3 art history credits This seminar will focus on questions specific to printmaking, publishing and artist’s multiples. Visiting artists, publishers, curators and printers will discuss emerging trends in printmaking, with a special focus on the expanded printmaking technologies in the digital age. Issues such as materials, scale, cost, presentation and distribution will complement discourse concerning printmaking’s iconographic base. Students will create a body of work and interact through critique formats.

Independent Study

One semester: 3 studio credits

Junior or senior students who wish to pursue a special project not covered by the parameters of their department’s curriculum are eligible to apply for an independent study course. Students must have earned a grade point average above 3.00 at SVA, and must submit their study goals as a detailed proposal for approval by the department chair. Proposals for an independent study must be made prior to the course adjustment period for that semester. 

Internship

One semester: 3 studio credits

Students can gain valuable experience and broaden their professional network through an internship with an employer. Internships-for-credit are available to juniors and seniors who have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or better. To receive credit, students must apply online during the designated application period, be approved by the Career Development Office, and registered for the internship by their academic advisor. Students need to work 150 hours during the semester (usually 10 to 15 hours per week), participate in a weekly online course with other SVA interns, and complete midterm and final self-evaluations. Elective studio credit is awarded for the successful completion of an internship. For more information go to sva.edu/career.