ART HISTORY
FALL 2021 PROGRAM PLANNING
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Art History Major Requirements
Art History Written Senior Thesis
Visual Arts Requirements
Senior Project for Visual Arts
Art History Minor Requirements
Please confirm all course information by visiting the fall Columbia Directory of Online Classes
(Updated August 24, 2021, please continue to check back as more information becomes available)
Note all the courses listed below are subject to change.
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UNDERGRADUATE LECTURES
AHIS BC1001 INTRODUCTION TO ART HISTORY I (full semester course)
Attempting to offer an introduction to artistic creation on a global scale, this course is team-taught by specialists in a number of different cultural and historical traditions. In the fall semester, we will discuss the art of Europe, the Middle East, India, Japan, and China, in periods ranging from the Paleolithic to the Renaissance. Museum trips are an integral part of the course.
Professor Katherine Marsengill 4pts Monday and Wednesday 2:40pm-3:55pm
Note: weekly discussion groups to be arranged. Discussion Section Required.
AHIS BC3673 INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
This course will survey selected social, cultural, and aesthetic or technical developments in the history of photography, from the emergence of the medium in the 1820s and 30s through to the present day. Rather than attempt comprehensively to review every aspect of photography and its legacies in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the course will instead trace significant developments through a series of case studies. Some of the latter will focus on individuals, genres or movements, and others on various discourses of the photographic image. Particular attention will be placed on methodological and theoretical concerns pertaining to the medium.
Note: weekly discussion groups to be arranged. Discussion Section Required.
Alexander Alberro 4 points Tuesday and Thursday 4:10pm-5:25pm
AHIS BC3667 CLOTHING
Human beings create second, social, skins for themselves. Across history and around the world, everyone designs interfaces between their bodies and the world around them. From pre-historic ornaments to global industry, clothing has been a crucial feature of people’s survival, desires, and identity. This course studies theories of clothing from the perspectives of art history, anthropology, psychology, economics, sociology, design, and sustainability. Issues to be studied include gender roles, craft traditions, global textile trade, royal sumptuary law, the history of European fashion, dissident or disruptive styles, blockbuster museum costume exhibitions, and the environmental consequences of what we wear today.
Note: weekly discussion groups to be arranged. Discussion Section Required.
Anne Higonnet 4pts Tuesday and Thursday 2:40pm-3:55pm
AHIS BC3675 FEMINISM AND POSTMODERNISM
Examines art and criticism of the 1970s and 1980s that were informed by feminist and postmodern ideas about visual representation. Explores postmodernism as (1) a critique of modernism, (2) a critique of representation, and (3) what Gayatri Spivak called a radical acceptance of vulnerability. Studies art informed by feminist ideas about vision and subjectivity. Places this art in relation to other aesthetic phenomena, such as modernism, minimalism, institution-critical art, and earlier feminist interventions in art.
Course Enrollment Notes: Limited to Juniors, Seniors, and Graduate Students.
Rosalyn Deutsche 3 Points Tuesday/Thursday 1:10-2:25
BRIDGE LECTURES
Note CU AH bridge lectures are courses open to both CU graduate students and advanced Barnard students.
AHIS W4110 MODERN JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE
This course will examine Japanese architecture and urban planning from the mid-19th century to the present. We will address topics such as the establishment of an architectural profession along western lines in the late 19th century, the emergence of a modernist movement in the 1920's, the use of biological metaphors and the romanticization of technology in the theories and designs of the Metabolist Group, and the shifting significance of pre-modern Japanese architectural practices for modern architects. There will be an emphasis on the complex relationship between architectural practice and broader political and social change in Japan.
Jonathan Reynolds 3pt Monday and Wednesday 10:10-11:25
UNDERGRADUATE SEMINARS
IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING APPLYING FOR BARNARD ART HISTORY SEMINARS
All Barnard Art History seminars are limited to 15 students and require an application for admission. Please click on links for each course application.
AHIS-BC3910 CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY AND RELATED MEDIA: THE POLITICAL EXHIBITION
An introductory survey of contemporary photography and related media through the framework of current exhibitions in New York City. Exhibitions of photography and video play a particular role in mirroring the present moment, which finds political themes front and center. Prevalent are exhibitions that redress (art) historical erasure, present counter histories, or take direct aim at specific governmental policies. Through group outings to NYC galleries and museums (approximately 8 trips) we will take stock of which artists are showing, in what contexts, and unpack both artistic and curatorial strategies. In addition to class discussion of what we’ve seen, during our time in the classroom we will look back at the select landmark photography exhibitions, to chart evolutions in the medium and their interrelation with politics.
Johanna Lehan 4pts Wednesday 12:10-2pm
NOTE THIS COURSE REQUIRES AN APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION. APPLICATIONS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN AUGUST 9TH. LINK TO ONLINE APPLICATION
AHIS-BC3968 ART CRITICISM I
This course is a seminar on contemporary art criticism written by artists in the post war period. Such criticism differs from academic criticism because it construes art production less as a discrete object of study than as a point of engagement. It also differs from journalistic criticism because it is less obliged to report art market activity and more concerned with polemics. Art /Criticism I will trace the course of these developments by examining the art and writing of one artist each week. These will include Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland, Allan Kaprow, Robert Morris, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Smithson, Art & Language, Dan Graham, Adrian Piper, Mary Kelly, Martha Rosler, Judith Barry and Andrea Fraser. We will consider theoretical and practical implications of each artist’s oeuvre.
John Miller 4pts Tuesday 11:00pm-12:50pm
NOTE THIS COURSE REQUIRES AN APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION. APPLICATIONS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN APRIL 5th. LINK TO ONLINE APPLICATION
BRIDGE SEMINARS
IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING APPLYING FOR CU AH BRIDGE SEMINARS: CU AH bridge seminars are open to both CU graduate students and Barnard students. Bridge seminars are limited to 15 students with instructor’s permission and require a Columbia Art History application for admission. Applications due August 9th at 5pm. LINK TO CU APPLICATION
AHIS GU4503 PLANNING & PROGRAMMING AN EXHIBITION SUBJECT: CHILDHOOD
This bridge seminar studies the history of childhood, through a 2022 Boston Institute of Contemporary Art exhibition. To Begin Again was planned to consider how we imagine childhood in our present moment. How do 20 of today’s major artists, many of whom are parents, and belong to an inclusive range of backgrounds, represent the beginnings of human life? Now, the socially stratified consequences of Covid-19 on families and education are also at stake. Due to Covid-19, the timing of the ICA exhibition has allowed an interval in which to re-think what exhibition programming might consist of, in light of the exhibition’s subject, and recent history. Thanks to a Harvard Radcliffe Institute grant, a virtual seminar will convene museum, childhood and education experts to discuss best practices and new possibilities. Students will attend the workshop as well as an artist’s talk, and meet with the exhibition curator, as well as several museum education professionals, to understand how a museum exhibition comes into being. Assignments will include practicing aspects of research and writing necessary to a successful exhibition.
Anne Higonnet, 4 points, Wednesday 12:10-2pm NOTE THIS COURSE REQUIRES AN APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION. LINK TO CU APPLICATION DUE AUGUST 9TH
ART HISTORY MAJOR REQUIRED COURSES
AHIS BC3530 ADVANCED SENIOR STUDIO I
The Fall Advanced Senior Studio serves as a forum for senior Visual Arts majors to develop their studio theses. The priorities are producing a coherent body of studio work and understanding this work in terms of critical discourse. The class is comprised of group critiques and small group meetings with the instructor. Visiting lecturers and professional workshops will also be scheduled and required. Each student will develop an independent body of visual work that is both personal, original and also speaks to the social conditions of our time. Each student will be able to articulate, verbally and in writing, their creative process. Each student will acquire professional skill that will support their artistic practice in the future. Each student will learn how to present and speak about their work publicly.
Enrollment Note: course limited to Barnard Senior Art History: Concentration in Visual Arts majors
Joan Snitzer 4pts Monday 2:10pm-6:00pm
AHIS-BC3959 SENIOR RESEARCH SEMINAR
Independent research for the senior thesis. Students develop and write their senior thesis in consultation with an individual faculty adviser in art history and participate in group meetings scheduled throughout the senior year. Enrollment Note: course limited to Barnard Art History Majors
Rosalyn Deutsche 3pts Tuesday 6:10pm-8:00pm
AHIS-BC3970 METHODS & THEORIES OF ART HISTORY
Introduction to critical writings that have shaped histories of art, including texts on iconography and iconology, the psychology of perception, psychoanalysis, social history, feminism and gender studies, structuralism, semiotics, and post-structuralism.
4 points Enrollment Note: course limited only to Barnard Art History majors and is a course requirement for majors in Art History: Concentration in Art History
SECTION 001Alexander Alberro Tuesday 2:10-4pm
SECTION 002 Jonathan Reynolds Thursday 10:10-12pm
VISUAL ARTS COURSES
AHIS BC2005 and AHIS BC2007 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 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.
Joan Snitzer 3 points Wednesday 2:10-6pm Enrollment Note: COURSE LIMITED TO 18 STUDENTS. INSTRUCTORS PERMISSION REQUIRED BY APPLICATION DUE 4/6. LINK TO PAINTING APPLICATION
AHIS-BC3003 SUPERVISED PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECTS
Designed for students to conduct independent projects in photography. Priority for enrollment to the class will be Barnard College students who are enrolling in classes at ICP (International Center of Photography). The cost of ICP will be covered by Barnard College. All of the other students enrolling in the course (CC, GS SOA) will be responsible for their own ICP course expenses.
John Miller 3pts Monday11:00am-12:50pm Enrollment Note: students must attend first class for instructor’s permission