General Course Listing

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 the courses is to bring together historical, philosophical, scientific and technological studies of visuality and relate them directly to “modern” artistic practice.

HHD-1040

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

One 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 and Critical Theory: 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.

VCD-1030

Theories and Practices of the Image

One semester: 3 art history credits

Serving as an introduction to the role of the image in art, society and the individual, this course will examine the relation of the art image to the image in biology, religion, politics, philosophy and psychology. It will offer students a comparative study and critical introduction to the image in a variety of mediums and academic traditions, from classical aesthetics to modern psychoanalytic theory. The conscious and unconscious mental image, the commercial image, the sexual and gendered image, as well as the self-image and the world as image will also be explored.

VHD-1025

Writing and Literature

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-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.

VSD-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.

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.

VSD-1130 / VSD-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.

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.

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

One semester: 3 studio credits

The goal of this painting course is to create a visual journal through a series of 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 develop journal paintings and a collaborative publication. Keeping a sketchbook, reviewing exhibitions and taking photos for reference and documentation will be required.

VSD-2104

The VCS Studio

One semester: 3 studio credits

This studio workshop will encourage students to develop their painting and drawing practice through self-initiated as well as assigned projects. Various approaches will be explored, such as using systems, working from observation, developing an archive of images, referencing art history, icon painting and printmaking. Students will keep a sketchbook and review current exhibitions.

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. In this course we’ll explore using the arts to engage in the queering of fixed social boundaries, a most ancient form of anti-authoritarian 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? Students will complete weekly reading assignments by a range of provocative critical theorists as well as bring in work in any medium for critique. This course features guest lectures and a special focus on underground, pan-sexual, transnational networks we can define loosely as punk, queer, hip hop, radical, sex-positive feminist culture.

AHD-2227

Monument/Memorial: Sculpture in the American Landscape

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course examines the influence of people and nature on national memory, with attention paid to digressions from the dominant historical thread. Geological time and the sweeping path of wildfire are monumental events for our consideration, alongside Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty,” Gutzon Borglum’s “Mount Rushmore” and the ongoing removal of Confederate statues nationwide. Readings include: Lucy Lippard, Rebecca Solnit and Terry Tempest Williams with lectures from historians, anthropologists and artists. This course aims to question American historical preservation practices and encourages students to responsibly consider the future as they erect it.

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-2241

The Artist as Coder

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.

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.

VSD-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 multidisciplinary art forms such as theater, film, animation, music video and web-based art.

AHD-2321

Sound/Mind/Material

One semester: 3 art history credits

Sound is at once ephemeral in air, concrete in material and conceptualized in the mind. This unique transformation property makes sound ideal for examining the relationship of our internal experience to physicality; our body in relationship to a world increasingly more abstracted through digital media. In this course students will recon-sider sound as material, develop their own physical-based audio work and discover theories that aim to understand these relations. Studio projects exploring unexpected and novel material for music and audio—flexible embedded circuitry, building audio speakers and sound sculpture—will be supplemented by listening and viewing of related arts and artists. Students will also respond to readings in theories of sound, new media, perception and phenomenology. This course will offer a hybrid experience—studio practice along with readings and discussion about the many possibilities for considering our relationship to the body, physical material and sound embodied in the physical world.

AHD-2332

Essential Dance Digressions for Artists

One semester: 3 art history credits

In this course for artists, theorists and budding art historians, we will approach visual art by way of dance. Constituted in time and as time, dance has as potent a relationship to memory and haunted-ness as to presence and immanence. Inhabited not just by bodies but also by people, dance ignites questions of agency and its opposite, automatism. Rearranging space from inside the choreographic frame, dance turns negative space nearly positive. Its peculiarities abound. Our first task will be to gain some purchase on dance. We will attend live performances in both traditional and alternative spaces and watch screendances. We will read relevant poets, philosophers and conceptually inclined choreographers—for example, W. B. Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Valéry, Henri Bergson, Roland Barthes, Alain Badiou, Jacques Rancière, Gregory Bateson, Ishmael Houston-Jones, William Forsythe, Meg Stuart and Jérôme Bel. The end goal is not to absorb a poetics of dance, but to defamiliarize the art idiom to which you are primarily dedicated and thus to reorient you to its fundamental features. No prior knowledge of dance required.

AHD-2374

History and Theory of Drawing Since the 18th Century

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course will cover the history of drawing from the 18th century to the present. Students will be introduced to major figures in the history of Western art during this period, and will investigate the nature of period and individual styles. Readings and discussions are designed to broaden critical perspectives and to enable students to learn how to articulate their understanding of drawing as a medium and form of artistic expression. We will begin by exploring questions on artistic preferences for materials and techniques. Required readings will address issues relating to the formal characteristics of period and individual styles, the historical context of art and its social and political meanings, and the relevance of other interpretive models, such as psychoanalysis, semiotics and deconstruction. We will read primary sources written by critics and artists and current art historical studies and criticism.

VSD-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

Professional Practices and the Art Industry

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course aims to give participants an understanding of the art world and its history, as well as how to navigate professional pitfalls. From the practical to the esoteric, we will address the complex—sometimes overlapping, other times conflicting—components and institutions of the art world. Professionals such as gilders, faux-finishers, gallerists, grant writers, photographers, art handlers and museum educators (to name a few) will be invited to lead discussions on their areas of expertise. Some sessions will be hands-on studio work, others will concentrate on strategies to support the artist and their studio practice. Students will review exhibitions throughout the semester. Finished artwork will be shared during the final class session.

AHD-2593

In and Out of Print: Modern and Contemporary Art Publications and Practices in the Expanded Field

One semester: 3 art history credits

In this course we will enthusiastically explore 20th- and 21st-century art and artist publications and related practices in the expanded field: art and artist books, chapbooks, posters, flyers, broadsheets, editions, multiples, and other printed ephemera. Historical contexts, artistic advancements and prevailing styles will be examined in-depth, across all mediums and print platforms. We will begin at the end of the 19th century with print and photography portfolios, and continue through Dada, surrealism, concrete poetry, up to Fluxus, minimalism and conceptual art, pop, pictures generation artists, underground publications (from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, including punk), and up through to contemporary artists’ engagements with published materials. Multiples and methods of reproduction will be thoroughly covered, while visiting artists, publishers, collectors and archivists will give presentations on their practical applications of—and engagements with—this subject matter.

AHD-2810

Freak(y) Theory

One semester: 3 art history credits

Queer. Crazy. Crip. Freak. Bodies that, by virtue of existing, call into question the very notion of normality and functionality. Freak(y) theory expands on the scope of traditional queer-artistic practice to propose full-scale economic, political, epistemological and cultural experiments that seek to produce difference and equality at the same time. Taking on the conceptual concerns of queer theory, crip theory and mad studies, this course will examine the historical and performative manifestations of the “freak.” We will engage with critical literature, a wide variety of performance artifacts and our own performance practices to discover how “freaky” embodiment and aesthetics can disrupt normative social practices to generate, what Foucault once called, the “utopian body.” From early 20th-century freak shows to contemporary transhumanist performance, we will explore ways in which individuals too weak, sick, out of control, deviant and sexual for dominate powers have learned to speak/act/exist without authorization.

AHD-2812

Feminist Approaches to Media

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course will combine the art history and art practice of the 20th and 21st centuries in order to familiarize students with different feminist media strategies: collage (beginning in the early 20th-century), performance and video (1970s-’80s), zines (1990s), as well as net art and social media (’90s-2000s). Accompanied by relevant readings (including Linda Nochlin, bell hooks and Lisa Nakamura), we will examine this era of feminist practice while adapting these mediums for students to explore in their own creative work.

AHD-2842

Understanding Kitsch

One semester: 3 art history credits

Although the etymology of the term is debatable, “kitsch” is generally understood to refer to the questionable aesthetic of mass-produced items created to appeal to crass, unrefined tastes. Since its emergence in the mid-1800s, artists have borrowed from and been inspired by this aesthetic; by the twentieth century, kitsch and high culture seemed at times to be so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. Championed by some as the “democratization” of taste and decried by others as catering to the lowest common denominator, kitsch embraces notions eschewed by arbiters of high culture, such as sentimentality, melodrama and cuteness. This course will discuss the culture and environment that gave birth to kitsch and its continued development. We will use kitsch as a vehicle for examining concepts that may shed light on how we view fine art objects, including an introduction to political, historical and psychoanalytical models of interpreting art; the origins of suburbia; and the difference between kitsch and propaganda. All of these topics are considered as we try to get to the root of the question: What makes fine art “art” and kitsch “kitsch”?

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.

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”; René 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.

AHD-3055

Art and the Intimate

One semester: 3 art history credits

We engage the intimate through family relationships, gender and sexuality, and even the natural and architectural spaces we inhabit. Artists have played an important role in imagining intimacy as personal, sociopolitical and ecological practice. How do we express love and belonging? What can we learn through the intimate gaze? How does our intimacy reflect our identities? When does viewership become voyeurism, and what are the ethical considerations in relation to surveillance? From documentary photographic practices to experiential performative works, art invites us to consider intimacy as a rich ground for interrelating and investigating the human condition. We will explore the intimate in visual and performance art, as it intersects with human narratives, ethics, technology and politics. In community, we will investigate intimacy as both a personal journey into one’s private and interior world, and a research practice grounded in friendship, solidarity and collaboration.

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.

AHD-3081

Critical Media Studies

One semester: 3 art history credits

Mediation has become an acknowledged and celebrated condition during a time when the visualized nature of a globalized world reconfigures our spheres of communication, values and evaluations in ways that require us to reconsider our relations to art-making. This course looks at the history of modern media as a change in tools and technology and at the media cultures they generate, with a decided stress on contemporary and emerging situations. The goal is to characterize and critically examine accepted and developing theories used to understand the real and hypothetical changes in local and global functions of media cultures. Students will participate in assigned exercises and develop and produce independent projects that combine research with textual and visual resources. A global perspective and some experience in Internet practices, web design and social media is a plus, but not required.

AHD-3092

Intersectionality and Art

One semester: 3 art history credits

How is Western art history related to power in terms of gender, sexuality, race, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, or ability? When Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” she addressed the inability of law to acknowledge discrimination that occurs across both race and gender. Since then, intersectionality has become a useful theoretical tool for discussing complex questions related to identity formation, social ordering, representation, equity and social justice. In this course we look at art-making through the lens of intersectionality through lectures, discussions, writing assignments, art projects and museum visits. This critical inquiry will enhance our understanding of our own role as makers and creators in the 21st century.

AHD-3096-A

Beyond the Veil: Orientalism and Visual Culture

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course takes as its target the thorny subject of Orientalism and its relationship to the history of visual expression. What is Orientalism, and what does it have to do with art, image-making, or even film? How does Orientalism differ from cultural appropriation, “primitivism,” “Chinoiserie,” or “Japonism”? Is Orientalism just another name for “othering” and deeming the unfamiliar as inferior to one’s own? Does Orientalism itself have a history, and if so, what does that history look like? More importantly, is Orientalism dead? In this course we study these questions through image-making, museum visits and persuasive writing. We will examine the development of Orientalism in art, tracking its emergence in history and tracing its path as a field of ethnographic study to its use as a literary and visual discourse, as introduced by Edward Said in the 1978 and as developed and critiqued by later authors. This course will expand our understanding of the complex relationships between the East and the West and reveal to what extent our understanding of these relationships, which form the background of art-making, have changed and still call for change in our own work as makers and creators working in the 21st century.

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.

AHD-3089

The Interdisciplinary Black Arts

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course will introduce students to the art and ideas of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). During the 1960s, BAM artists created aesthetic counterparts to Black self-determination and community solidarity, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York. Creating new relations to Black publics on a local, grassroots level and to diasporic politics and the African continent on a transnational level, artists broke with the limitations of painting and sculpture by blending mediums and fostering awareness of the physical and social environment. Starting from art history as our home discipline, the course will ask how BAM artists extended visual art in poetic, performative and musical directions. What were the expressions of freedom and celebration of Black social life that emerged out of this moment and how do they correlate to the present? How were they conveyed through different aesthetic strategies that can inform artists today?

AHD-3111

Art and Politics

One semester: 3 art history credits

In this course we examine perennial and contemporary issues in art and politics by a close reading of the remarkable oeuvre of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and an inquiry into the manifold influence of his thought. We read together his important works on aesthetics (Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, Letter to D’Alembert on the Theatre), politics (Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, On the Social Contract), and education (Émile). We also examine his Confessions, and how it helped shape our ideas of the value of the individual, of self-examination and of authenticity. We will make use of occasional secondary sources to illuminate these works, but will mostly rely on careful attention to the texts themselves. Finally, we examine some of the manifold legacy of this extraordinary thinker in the art of Romanticism, as well as in history, ethics and politics. Throughout, we will examine the values of equality, individuality and self-examination that underlay the work of this remarkable figure and continue to influence and challenge us today.

HPD-3516

Power, Politics and Society

One semester: 3 humanities and sciences credits

The history and prospects of American democracy will be examined in this course. To shed light on our own social and political context, we’ll read works by social theorists as well as contemporary social scientists. We’ll ask key questions: Where did democracy come from? What are the fundamental principles of democracy? What role does money play in influencing social policy? What has happened to public infrastructure? What are political parties? Why do so few Americans vote? Why is information about public affairs so poor? How does American foreign policy take shape? Why does inequality persist in the face of majority rule? How does major social change occur? Is democracy at risk today? The aim of the course is to empower students as citizens, by developing a critical understanding of the nature of political power in the society and formulating paths to action.

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 cheap theatrics. 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.

AHD-3142

New Issues in Contemporary Art

One semester: 3 art history credits

This course aims to examine the most recent trends in art, starting with the major technological changes of the 19th century (particularly the invention of recording devices and synthetic images) and progressing to the most recent issues raised by artificial intelligence, new media, metaverse, database aesthetics, or NFTs). This study will help us understand the origins of what we still refer to as “contemporary art” from a new perspective, as well as its evolution from a technical and philosophical standpoint. It will be based on the analysis of numerous works of art, as well as discussions with guest lecturers (theorists and artists) whose work is associated with these current changes.

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, 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.

AHD-3824

Video Art as Avant-Garde Practice

One semester: 3 art history credits

Early pioneers of independent film—such as Maya Deren and John Cassavetes—were deeply critical of the big-budget Hollywood films of their day. They responded by making low-budget films that thoughtfully used film media in new and unique ways, and by distancing them from cinematographic standards. Students will be encouraged to deconstruct conventional forms of narrative. We will approach video in ways that look beyond the technical, highlighting hidden mechanisms and methodologies. New technologies ultimately affect our reality and contemporary culture; that proximity enables us to have a basic understanding and use of the moving image beginning as early stages of childhood. We will analyze different format references, including video installation, web projects and film, among other media, exploring cinema in its expanded form. The course will draw on a rich body of readings.

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 Dalí 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 / Thesis Studio I

Two semesters: 3 studio credits per semester

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

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.

Independent Study

One semester: 3 studio credits

Junior and 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. Please contact the department advisor for specifics.

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.

Curriculum