Spring 2021 Course Descriptions

CAH 1000.10 – Art of the Exhibition

Professor Obler

What responsibility do curators in Washington, D.C. have to represent art from various cultures and time periods to the U.S. public and visitors from other countries? What particular challenges do this city’s museum educators, guards, development staff, conservators, etc. face? What place does contemporary art have in a city dense with political debate and heavily laden with historical memory? Museums across the country (and world) are facing a historical reckoning and in many cases scrambling to address their elitism and complicity with colonialism. In this seminar, we will take arts institutions in DC as our case study. Even if we can’t visit museums and galleries together in person this semester, we can meet with the people who work here to learn, first-hand, what measures are being taken. Our meetings will be complemented by class discussions on readings that address questions such as the difference between diversity and decolonization, the implications of museums’ monied origins, and activism in the art world. For their final project, students will draft their own suggestions for the improvement of DC’s art institutions.

 

CAH 1032.10 – Survey of Western Art II

Professor Lipinski

This course will introduce you to the history of art, from 1400 to the present, through a selected group of paintings, sculptures, prints, and architecture produced in Europe, the United States, Asia, the Americas, and Africa. Each class will delve into a broad topic or theme and explore specific visual examples. From this course of study, you will gain an understanding of how the form and materials of art creates meaning. You will understand how an artist shapes his/her work and learn how specific historical circumstances and ideas based on religion, philosophy, and the individual and/or collective imagination, play a role in both the form and meaning of the work.

 

CAH 1091 – Art History II: Historical Perspectives

Professor Elliott

This course covers the history of art and architecture produced by cultures around the world from prehistory to the 19th c.  We will look at works of architecture, sculpture, and painting considering the process of their creation as well as placing their meaning in a cultural context.  Using case studies from different cultures and time periods, the course is subdivided to explore some of the general themes that often provide meaning to artistic expression including cosmology and ritual, the body and face, and the concept of identity.  By the end of the course you should have the skills necessary to analyze works of art and architecture based on an understanding of visual, iconographic and contextual analysis, comparative study, and the interpretation of art historical sources.  It will be mandatory that students in this course visit various art galleries and museums throughout the semester. Most, if not all, of these visits will take place outside of regularly scheduled class periods.

 

CAH 2155.80 – American Architecture II

Professor Jacks

This course examines the built environment in the United States from the Civil War and Reconstruction, through the Gilded Age and Victorian and Queen Anne periods, the Prairie School and California Modern, to the establishment of the International Style and the arrival of the European avant-garde – Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer and Eliel Saarinen – in architectural schools after World War II. Some lectures follow the development of a specific movement – such as the Chicago School, Stick Style, Art Deco or City Beautiful, while other lectures trace the impact of individual architects and their careers: Henry Hobson Richardson, Henry Hobson Richardson, Daniel Burnham, Frank Furness, John Wellborn Root, Frederick Law Olmsted, Louis Sullivan, Charles and Henry Greene, Irving Gill, Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Richard Morris Hunt, Charles McKim, Richard Neutra, Rudolf Schindler, Gustav Stickley, Frank Lloyd Wright, McKim, Mead, White, William Lescaze, Buckminster Fuller, Eliel Saarinen. Through in-depth analysis of buildings, students come to understand how questions of technology, function and aesthetic are brought to bear in the design process. For example, skeletal steel technology paved the way for the tall office building in Chicago after the Great Fire, while in New York City the setback skyscraper evolved in response to zoning requirements. Buildings can be seen both as artifacts and as signifiers of larger social, cultural, and economic determinants. Apart from major landmarks, we also explore the architectural fabric in between – apartment houses, company towns, industrial warehouses and commercial infill. Finally, we consider how vernacular traditions informed the emergence of Academic Eclecticism, which varied from region to region – Spanish Colonial and Mission in the southwest, Renaissance Revival in the northeast.

 

CAH 2161.10 – History of Decorative Arts

Professor Pierce

Through the lens of the decorative arts, both high-style and vernacular, students will examine material culture as a reflection of larger historical trends and cultural/socio-political developments. The course includes study of objects from a wide range of media, including furniture, metalwork, ceramics, textiles, and graphic arts. Stylistic developments are considered in their cultural frameworks, while at the same time objects are assessed from formal and aesthetic standpoints. Broad themes covered in the course include: cultural priorities and standards as expressed in objects and interiors; the role of technology in shaping the everyday; continuing forms, revivals, and patterns in design history; introduction to major design movements such as Classicism, Romanticism, Modernism, Exoticism, Naturalism, Craft, and Industrialization; pertinent vocabulary, key designers, patrons, and craftspeople.

 

CAH 2190.10 – East Asian Art

Professor Kumar-Dumas

This course offers a history of 5,000 years of East Asian art though close study of objects, with an emphasis on the Smithsonian Freer/Sackler collection. Classes will be presented thematically in rough chronological order. A selective survey of objects representing artistic traditions of China, Japan, and Korea will be supported by active collaborative learning via Blackboard and through regular in-class presentations. Together, we will develop an understanding of the major visual and material developments in East Asian art history and connect them to larger social and cultural themes.

 

CAH 2192.10 – Art of Southeast Asia

Professor McKnight Sethi

This course considers visual and material culture of mainland and maritime Southeast Asia from early archaeological settlements to the contemporary period. Regions to be studied include present-day Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. We will examine the rich confluence of Indian, Chinese, and indigenous beliefs and artistic practices through close examination of architecture, painting, sculpture, textiles, and performative traditions. Students will acquire a working knowledge of the geographical, political, and social forces in the region, and explore the ways in which art and architecture operate in this diverse cultural terrain. Class time will include lectures, group discussions, and close study of objects in the Freer|Sackler Galleries of Art and the GW/The Textile Museum. No previous knowledge of Southeast Asian history or art history is required.

 

CAH 3060.10 – History of Design

Professor Lipinski

Since the mid-nineteenth century design has exercised an increasingly important role as a cultural force. This wide-ranging survey from 1850 to the present presents a history of designed objects, images, and spaces, including products, furniture, appliances, interiors, posters and other printed materials, and the latest digital media. Influences among the design disciplines, as well as developments in materials and technologies, are studied within their cultural, political, economic, and social contexts.

 

CAH 3105.80 – Reimagining the Roman World

Professor Pollack

This course studies the art and architecture of the Roman Empire through the lens of modern archaeology, art historiography, and classical literary sources. Rome’s foundational myth and history, recorded by such writers as Virgil, Ovid, Plutarch, Livy, Tacitus, and Suetonius, have established the framework from which we interpret the Roman World. The visual remains of the Roman Empire further illuminate these sources and leave us pondering the reasons why the Romans have left a permanent impression on western art and civilization. Furthermore, we will explore how our ever-changing perception of Roman antiquity has altered our interpretation of the Romans through the analysis of archaeological finds as well as artists from the early modern era who appropriated Roman History.

 

AH 3142.80 – European Art of the Late 19th Century
AH 3142W.80 – European Art of the Late 19th Century

Professor Robinson

This course considers the development of Realism, Impressionism and Post Impressionism in the context of the intellectual, political, economic and social climate of a Europe confronted with and responding to multifaceted revolutionary transformations. All three styles are examined in reference to France. Realism and its singular English and Russian interpretations are similarly addressed.

 

CAH 3165W.10 – Later 20th Century Art

Professor Dumbadze

This course is a thematic and historical look at primarily contemporary American art from the mid 1960s to the present.  The first half of each session will be a lecture; the second half will be spent on a close discussion of the assigned readings and the material covered in the lecture.

 

AH 3170.10 – Materials, Methods, and Techniques in Art History

Professor Reuther

Materials, Methods, and Techniques in Art History (AH3170) connects students of art history to works of art in an immediate and direct way by investigating them primarily as objects. Students research works of art in local museums and reconstruct them in the studio following traditional methods. In addition to hands-on reconstructions, students will be introduced to recent research trends in technical art history, becoming familiar with current practices in the conservation, restoration, imaging and chemical analysis of works of art.

 

SEMINAR COURSES

CAH 4129.80 – Urbanism in Rome
CAH 6225.80 – Urbanism in Rome

Professor Jacks

A seminar exploring the urban development of Rome from its transformation under Augustus and succeeding emperors, to its conversion under Constantine as an urbs sacra through the institutions of the early church and the adaptation of pagan buildings for Christian worship. Following the Babylonian captivity in Avignon, we shift focus to the papal initiatives to establish the Vatican as the spiritual nucleus of the Renaissance city through pilgrimage and the laying of arterial roads. In the 17th century, powerful families such as the Borghese, Barberini, Doria-Pamphili, and Chigi used their influence to carve out residential complexes for their extended households through the architectural genius of Borromini, Bernini and Pietro da Cortona. At the same time, the growth of the reform orders – Jesuits, Oratorians and Theatines – as well as confraternities, hospitals and colleges, added to the rich fabric of the Baroque streetscape. Students use guidebooks and period maps to trace the development of one of the 14 neighborhoods (rioni) through close analysis of buildings, streets and public spaces.

 

CAH 4139.80 – The Game of Crowns
CAH 6236.80 – The Game of Crowns

Professor von Barghahn

My lectures on Hapsburg patronage will begin with Philip II (1555-1598), the son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Known by his sobriquet, “el Rey Prudente”, he established Madrid as the administrative seat of Spain in 1561. Key figures of the Hapsburg court will be introduced with state portraits by such specialists as Antonis Mor and Titian, who respectively exemplified the Flemish realist and Venetian humanist styles of painting adhered to by their successors, Jorge de la Rúa, Alonso Sánchez Coello and Sofonisba Anguissola. Philip II assiduously acquired the arcane works of Hieronymus Bosch and he invited Italian Mannerists and the Milanese sculptors Leone and Pompeio Leone to decorate his famed Escorial Palace and hunting estate of Valsain.  From his paternal aunt Mary of Hungary, sister of Charles V and Archduchess of the the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium), numerous paintings, tapestries and luxury objects entered the royal collection. Philip III (r. 1598-1621) was guided politically by a valido (favorite), Don Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, the Duke of Lerma.  Under this prime minister, the court transferred briefly in 1600 to Valladolid near the Lerma estate.  Upon returning to the capital in 1606, courtly life was centered at the Alcázar of Madrid and Lerma’s nearby Casa del Campo, as well as the countryside hunting seats of the Pardo and Aranjuez palaces. The ascendancy of Philip IV (r. 1621-1665) witnessed not only the meteoric rise of a new valido -- Don Gaspar de Guzmán, the Count-Duke of Olivares -- but also ushered in an illustrious age of patronage due to the minister’s desire for a “Roman Imperial” revival. The Sevillian Diego da Silva Velázquez emerged not only as the monarch’s premier court portraitist, but additionally he served as palatine decorator. The Spanish Hapsburgs occupied impressive residences, and they patronized several monasteries and convents. Most were built in the estilo desornamentado (“unadorned style”) introduced by the architect Juan de Herrera. Allegorical artistic programs of important royal houses and rural retreats will be considered, especially great halls and walking galleries which were devised to enhance the image of the king before an erudite court. The last Hapsburg king of Spain, Carlos II (1665-1700), died without issue. The Crown then passed to the grandson of Louis XIV of France -- Philip V -- and he ushered in the new Bourbon dynasty.

 

CAH 4149.10 – New York in the 1980s

Professor Dumbadze

This seminar examines the long 1980s (1977-1993) in the New York art world. The class is both a history of Postmodernism and the wide range of artistic activities that took hold in New York during this time, and an examination of America in a pivotal moment in its history. Through a careful look at art, politics, music, and popular culture we will assess many of the artistic and social origins of where the United States is today.

 

CAH 4150.80 – War & Visual Culture
HONR 2053.83 – War & Visual Culture

Professor Obler

This seminar will consider the history of modern art as it relates to the history of modern warfare. How do artists tackle the representation of the horrors of war? Is it possible or even ethical to make art out of such suffering? Can art be an effective weapon in and of itself? Can it be a productive way to escape, critique, document, or remember war? We will trace how artists and other practitioners of visual culture have responded to and documented war since early photojournalists started bringing their cameras to the battlefields of the Crimean and Civil War. We will look at how artists and designers have both resisted and supported their governments during World War I and II, the Spanish Civil War, the Vietnam War, and the current wars in the Middle East. We will examine various attempts to work through the trauma of war through monuments and memorials, including several on the National Mall. Students will have the opportunity to pursue substantial research on a topic of their choosing.

 

CAH 4159.80 – Freemasonry and American Art
AMST 3950.80 – Freemasonry and American Art

Professor Bjelajac

During the eighteenth-century, English, Scottish, Irish and continental European stonemasons’ medieval guild traditions inspired the modern cultural formation of Freemasonry and competing international networks of masonic lodges.  Freemasonry attracted men from a wide socio-economic spectrum and found support from both radical revolutionaries and counter-revolutionary conservatives.  Barred from membership in White lodges, free African Americans created their own fraternal network of Prince Hall Freemasons.  Ever since the Age of Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions, Freemasonry’s secretive lodge meetings, mysterious initiation rituals and esoteric visual symbols have fostered orthodox Christian opposition and anti-masonic conspiracy theories charging a varying host of purported vices, blasphemies and subversive misdeeds. This course critically examines these conspiracy theories, popularized in a variety of media, while also exploring Freemasonry's racial, gender and class exclusions/divisions. Freemasonry's global networking assisted American imperialism and helped shape the nation’s capital. Washington, D.C.’s urban design, historic-revival architecture, monumental sculpture and large-scale history paintings will be subjects for lectures, readings, and class discussions.  The seminar will consider the manner in which George Washington himself came to personify American Freemasonry, becoming a model for later United States presidents who joined the fraternity.  Students will read both primary and secondary sources and will be required to write papers critically analyzing visual objects and architectural spaces while also evaluating the literature of Freemasonry, anti-masonry and secret-society conspiracies.  Contemporary artists such as Matthew Barney, Bill Traylor and Jim Shaw have appropriated masonic emblems and themes.      

 

CAH 4182.80 – Collecting India
CAH 6262.80 – Collecting India

Professor McKnight Sethi

This course explores the history of collecting art on the Indian subcontinent from the early modern to contemporary periods. Focusing on the geographical boundaries of present-day Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, we will examine the acquisition, circulation, and display of a range of visual and material objects—from paintings and textiles to photography and sculpture. Topics will include elite Mughal and Rajput collections assembled during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries; British imperial collecting and international exhibitions of South Asian art in the nineteenth century; national museums established following independence from colonial rule in 1947; and more recent “Festivals of India” and collections of contemporary art by members of the South Asian diaspora in the United States. Throughout the course students will be asked to think critically about definitions of “art” and “value” and to critically examine practices of collecting and display that have shaped our understanding of art from this diverse region.

 

CAH 6245.10 – Courbet & Manet: New Visions

Professor Robinson

This course considers the role, contributions and significance of Gustave Courbet and Ḗdouard Manet to the emergence of modernism in the nineteenth century. Through readings, lectures, and class discussions. They and their works are examined in the context of tradition and innovation during a period of profound and multifaceted transformation.

 

CAH 6250.10 – Black Art in the US: The Harlem Renaissance

Professor Lipinski

From 1919 and to the mid-1930s, African American artists, writers, and scholars produced one of the most significant eras of cultural expression in the history of the United States—the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance encompassed poetry and prose, painting and sculpture, jazz and swing, opera and dance. What united these diverse art forms was their realistic presentation of what it meant to be black in America, what writer Langston Hughes called an “expression of our individual dark-skinned selves,” as well as a new militancy in asserting their civil and political rights. Among the Renaissance’s most significant contributors were intellectuals W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Cyril Briggs, and Walter Francis White; writers and poets Zora Neale Hurston, Effie Lee Newsome, Countee Cullen; visual artists Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, and Augusta Savage; and an extraordinary list of legendary musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ivie Anderson, Josephine Baker, Fats Waller, and Jelly Roll Morton. In this course we will examine the diverse artistic and cultural products of the Harlem Renaissance, including music, poetry, fiction, painting, and photography.

 

CAH 6255.80 – Natural Magic, Religion, & American Art
AMST 6730.80 – Natural Magic, Religion, & American Art

Professor Bjelajac

This research seminar explores the visual arts in relation to a wide range of aesthetic religious experiences and magical, occult sciences. Trained in occult craft mysteries, spiritually devout artists participated in collective, utopian projects for perfecting humankind and nature from a “fallen” wilderness state as described in the biblical story of Adam and Eve.  Renaissance humanists and early modern (16th-18th century) practitioners of the arts and sciences diverged from the orthodox Christian doctrine of human depravity inherited from the “original sin” of eating forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.  European discovery of the Americas, global maritime exploration and capitalist, commercial development of previously “wilderness” territories suggested the possible recovery and perfection of paradise for White colonial settlers and their sponsoring imperial governments, all at the expense of indigenous “savages” and enslaved peoples.  Though White European settlers generally denigrated and dehumanized people of color, some artists painted portraits of Native Americans which suggested not only the semi-nude sitters’ quasi-classical nobility but also their sphinxlike possession of ancient, occult wisdom akin to European folklore secrets.  Boston-born artist John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) painted non-caricatured portraits of black Africans that conjure associations with the mysteries of alchemy, astrology and ancient Ethiopian lore from biblical and classical sources.  The seminar considers the importance of alchemy and astrology for the arts within the larger metaphysical tradition of an ancient theology or divine wisdom (pansophist) literature legendarily originating with the Egyptian god of writing, Thoth, a moon god, whom the Greeks and Romans would identify with the Egyptian magus Hermes (aka Mercurius) Trismegistus.  This “thrice great” Hermes purportedly authored the Hermetica, a collection of theological-philosophical texts that inspired generations of humanists, alchemists, Rosicrucians, scientists, antiquarians, freemasons, theosophists and writers from novelest Laurence Sterne to philosophers G.W.F Hegel and Gilles Deleuze.  Identified with Hermes and Mercury, Greco-Roman gods of all arts and sciences, the Egyptian Hermes envisioned an archetypal “Hermetic Man” comparable to the biblical Adam before the Fall.  The Hermetica’s seminal text, Pymander, or Poimandres, pronounced the Creator’s, or divine mind’s “essential man” as “androgyne because he comes from an androgyne father [god or mind]”. The Hebraic account of Creation similarly suggested that Adam was an androgyne, who embodied both male and female genders, a union of opposites “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). America’s edenic, “primitive purity” purportedly foretold millennial progress toward retrieval of Adam’s god-like wisdom and power in naming all of nature’s creatures.  American artists and collectors tended to privilege White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant values as well as masculine creativity over the feminine.  In alchemy and fine arts, the androgyne ideal traditionally possessed a masculine bias.  Cultivating an androgynous persona, the Harvard-educated artist/writer Washington Allston (1779-1843) painted pictures that blurred material boundaries, thereby inspiring later Gilded Age “tonalist painters”.  Allston claimed the Venetian Renaissance secret of color, the “philosopher’s stone” of painting.  Initiates into Venetian craft secrets transmuted opaque, earthly pigments into luminous oil glazes of ethereal tonal harmonies. Eluding cognitive naming, Allston’s tones analogically alluded to the divine “Word…made flesh” from St. John’s Gospel (1:14), a New Testament book that biblical scholars have interpreted in relation to Hermeticism.