Art History Major Requirements: Concentration in Visual Arts
The Art History Major with a Concentration in Visual Arts offers students the opportunity for students to approach Art History from the standpoint of studio practice. Here, students have the option of doing a studio thesis instead of a written one. The faculty, who are practicing artists, work closely with Visual Arts Concentrators, assisting them in planning a program that incorporates their artistic interests while meeting departmental requirements.
Art History Major Requirements: Concentration in Visual Arts
Requires a minimum of 12 art history courses (minimum of 39 credits) including:
1. BC1001 (Fall) and BC1002 (Spring) Introduction to Art History. This two-course sequence is required.
2. Required course to be taken in the spring semester of the Junior or Senior year
BC3031 Imagery and Form in the Arts (spring)
3. Senior Visual Arts Thesis Project
Senior Art History Majors with a Concentration in Visual Arts will research and create a thesis project in consultation with faculty members and peers in the Visual Arts. They will also attend the two-semester Advanced Senior Studio sequence, participate in group critiques, and guest artist lectures scheduled during the academic year. They will present visual art projects in two public group exhibitions planned at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters of the senior year. Note there is no one-semester Senior Visual Arts Thesis Project option.
The following two-course studio sequence is required for the Senior Visual Art Thesis Project.
BC3530 Advanced Senior Studio I (Fall)
BC3531 Advanced Senior Studio II (Spring) (Please see description of the senior thesis here).
4. One Seminar Course in Art History
5. One 19th, 20th or 21st-century elective course in Art History.
6. Two elective courses in Art History
7. Three elective courses in Visual Arts-Studio
*Courses in film can apply toward the major requirements.
*Studio courses cannot exceed 30 points of credits.
SENIOR THESIS PROJECT FOR ART HISTORY MAJORS WITH A CONCENTRATION IN VISUAL ARTS
The Senior Visual Arts Thesis Project for Art History Majors with a Concentration in Visual Arts is scheduled in the last year of the major. By that time, you will have taken Imagery and Form BC3031 and a variety of Art History and Studio courses, which may help form your approach to your thesis project.
Advanced Senior Studio I BC3530 (Fall) and Advanced Senior Studio II BC3531 (Spring) provides a two-semester framework in which to complete a senior project. Your senior project should be a cohesive body of work based on original concepts and executed with some technical proficiency. A paper approximately seven-to-ten pages in length will accompany your senior project outlining your artistic goals. This paper will serve as an artist’s statement and should describe what your work would mean to viewers as well situate your work vis-a-vis artistic precedents.
You also will take part in a senior thesis exhibition, which will be accompanied by a catalog. Here, you will be responsible for both installing your work and for taking it down at the end of the show.
GRADES
Two grades will be awarded in connection with your work on the Senior Project. One will evaluate the way in which you have fulfilled the course requirements, that is, the regularity of your meetings and the effort you have made in completing your thesis. This grade will be a letter grade. The second grade will be awarded on the basis of the evaluation of the Senior Project itself. This evaluation will consider whether or not the aims of the project were met: a pass with distinction, a pass or a fail.
OPTION FOR ART HISTORY AND VISUAL ARTS - WRITTEN SENIOR THESIS
Art History Majors with a Concentration in Visual Arts may choose to do a written Art History Senior Thesis instead of the Visual Arts Senior Project. To do this they must: Notify their adviser of their intention to do so by the end of their junior year with permission from both the Visual Arts Director and Art History chair. They must then take both Methods and Theories of Art History (BC3970) & the written Art History senior research seminar (BC3959 and BC3960). These three courses required for the written thesis option replace the Visual Arts sequence, BC3031 Imagery and Form in the Arts and Advanced Senior Studio I BC3530 (Fall) and Advanced Studio II BC3531 (Spring).
BARNARD COLLEGE STUDIO COURSE OFFERINGS
Note: Barnard studio courses are limited to 15 students with instructor’s permission. Instructor decides the roster on the first day of class. For further information please contact the Barnard Art History Department @ arthistory@barnard.edu
AHIS BC 2005x-BC2007x PAINTING I and III
This course will focus on individual and collaborative projects designed to explore the fundamental principles of image making. Students acquire a working knowledge of concepts in contemporary art through class critiques, discussion, and individual meetings with the professor. Reading materials will provide historical and philosophical background to the class assignments. Class projects will range from traditional to experimental and multi-media. Image collections will be discussed in class with an awareness of contemporary image production. 3 points Course Limited to 15 Students. Permission of Instructor. Attend the first Class.
AHIS BC 2006y-BC2008y PAINTING II and IV
A continuation of painting I & III, open to all skill levels. Students will further develop techniques to communicate individual and collective ideas in painting. This course will focus on individual and collaborative projects designed to explore the fundamental principles of image making. Students acquire a working knowledge of traditional studio skills and related concepts in contemporary art through class critiques, discussion, and individual meetings with the professor. Reading materials will provide historical and philosophical background to the class assignments. Class projects will range from traditional to experimental and multi-media. Image collections will be discussed in class with an awareness of contemporary image production. 3 points Enrollment limited to 15 students. Instructor's permission required. Attend the first day of class.
AHIS BC2001 DRAWING STUDIO
This course will introduce drawing as an open-ended way of working and thinking. The class is primarily a workshop, augmented by slides lectures and field trips. Throughout the semester, students will discuss their work individually with the instructor and as a group. Starting with figure drawing, we will investigate drawing as a practice involving diverse forms of visual culture. 3 points Enrollment limited to 15 students. Instructor's permission required. Attend the first day of class.
AHIS BC3003 SUPERVISED PROJECTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY
This class is designed for students to conduct independent projects in photogray. Priority for enrollment to the class will be Barnard students who are enrolling in classes at ICP. The cost of ICP will be covered by Barnard. All of the other students enrolling in the course (CC, GS SOA) will be responsible for their own ICP course expenses. - John Miller
3 Points Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 15 students. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
AHIS BC3031 IMAGERY AND FORM IN THE ARTS
Operation of imagery and form in dance, music, theater, visual arts and writing; students are expected to do original work in one of these arts. Concepts in contemporary art will be explored. 4 points. Required course for Art History and Visual Arts majors. To be taken in the spring semester of the Junior year (or by permission of the instructor).
AHIS BC3842 DESIGN DESIGNING
Everything we contact has been designed. Design makes and unmakes desires on a global scale. It organizes our lives—from the way we move to the interface that tracks our movements. We’ve trained for the end for a while now, apocalypse is announced on every image channel. In a world soon impossible to physically inhabit, the things we consume now consume us. The stakes have never been higher. To make a new world, we must use design. Our planet need not be disposed. It is an infrastructure for another one. To make contact with it we need to understand design as a value system for propelling possibility, not possession. The designed world requires new relation to things and fullness of use. As we read, write, experience and make our own projects, Designing Design helps us: acquire intimate knowledge of how we got here, recognize our historical allies and foes, and foster imagination and intelligence to live and make responsibly. No previous design experience is needed. Open to all. 4 Points. Studio/Seminar 2 hours plus 1 hour conference hour.
BC3530 ADVANCED SENIOR STUDIO I (Fall)
An interpretive study of the theoretical and critical issues in visual art. Projects that are modeled after major movements in contemporary art will be executed in the studio. Each student develops an original body of artwork and participates in group discussions of the assigned readings. COURSE ONLY OPEN TO BARNARD SENIOR ART HISTORY MAJORS WITH A CONCENTRATION IN VISUAL ARTS AND IS A MAJORS REQUIREMENT. To be taken during the fall semester of the Senior year. 4 points.
AHIS BC3531 ADVANCED SENIOR STUDIO II (Spring)
A requirement for senior Art History and Visual Arts Majors in which students develop their studio theses in consultation with faculty advisers. COURSE ONLY OPEN TO BARNARD SENIOR ART HISTORY MAJORS WITH A CONCENTRATION IN VISUAL ARTS AND IS A MAJORS REQUIREMENT To be taken during the spring semester of the Senior year. 4 points.
2019 Visual Arts Senior Thesis Catalog