Graduate Dual Degree

SAIC's graduate dual degree option in Modern and Contemporary Art History and Arts Administration and Policy provides students with a means to earn two synergistic degrees as efficiently as possible while maintaining the integrity and high standards of each degree.

Application and Admissions Information

  • Priority Deadline: December 1 - $45 Application Fee
    Application Deadline: January 10 - $90 Application Fee
    Apply online via SlideRoom

    If you are also interested in applying to the Arts Administration program, please ONLY submit a single application to the Dual Degree: Modern & Contemporary Art History AND Arts Administration & Policy.

    SAIC requires applicants to apply online. Filing an online application requires a valid credit card and a current email address. You may apply to up to three programs with one application and fee. If you are applying to either the MFA in Studio or the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio you may select up to three departments of entry.

    Applications must be submitted prior to 11:00 p.m. (CST) on the appropriate deadline. When you click the "submit" button on the Graduate Application form, you will be prompted to enter credit card information to pay the application fee. Your application form is not fully submitted until you have entered your credit card information.

    Under no circumstances will an application fee be waived or refunded. After you submit the application form you will be directed to a dashboard where you can begin working on your ePortfolio(s).

  • A conferred four-year baccalaureate degree or its equivalent is required for admission to all graduate programs at SAIC. Transcripts are records of your studies that list the courses you completed, the grades received, and provide evidence of degree conferral. They may include grade sheets, exam results, final diplomas, degrees, or graduation certificates. Official copies are issued in the original language directly by your university. Copies must bear the official stamp or seal of the institution, as well as the signature of the appropriate official such as the dean, rector, registrar, controller of examinations, or office of teaching affairs. Photos, notarized copies, facsimiles, or email transmissions are not acceptable.

    Official translations are expected for all educational documents issued in a language other than English. A translation agency or university language department should issue official translations typed on official stationary and the translator must attest proficiency in the original language and indicate their translations are accurate word-for-word.

    During the application process an unofficial transcript is acceptable for review pending an Admissions decision. Official transcripts are required upon admission. Include transcripts both official and unofficial from all universities/colleges from which a degree was obtained or prerequisites were fulfilled. You can attach unofficial transcripts as .pdf or .jpg files in the Educational History section of the application form. If you are in the process of completing a bachelor's degree when you apply, a transcript showing your first three years of study is acceptable.

    Transcripts are considered official if sent directly from the degree- or credit-granting institution to the SAIC Graduate Admissions Office. Hard copy transcripts are considered official if the documents remain in the registrar's original signed and sealed envelopes. Official transcripts can be sent both in digital and hard-copy format. Digital transcripts can be sent from the degree- or credit-granting institution to gradmiss@saic.edu. Hard copy transcripts can be mailed to:

    SAIC Graduate
    36 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 1201
    Chicago, IL 60603

    Students admitted to a graduate program who have not received a high school diploma, GED or equivalent are not eligible for federal Title IV financial aid funds. 

  • Please submit two responses in your statement of purpose document:

    • Write a 500- to 700-word statement of purpose that describes the history of your interests and experiences in Arts Administration, your personal and professional motivations and goals, and your reasons for pursuing graduate study at SAIC, and thoughts on potential future directions.
    • Write a 500 to 700 word statement that describes your Art History work or research. Discuss how you came to focus on the medium, body of work, or academic area you wish to pursue at the graduate level. Also discuss future directions or goals for your work, and describe how this area of study is particularly suited to your professional goals.

    A statement of intent is required for all graduate programs though the content varies by department. You will upload your statement of purpose to the Attachments section of your E-Portfolio.

  • 3 letters of reference are required.

    You are responsible for securing letters of recommendation from persons who are qualified to write about your potential for success at SAIC. If you are currently a student or are a recent graduate, we recommend you request letters of recommendation from current or former instructors.

    Letters of recommendation should be submitted electronically via the References section of the application form. In this section you will be asked to provide an email address for each of your references. Once you click "send request," an email will be sent from SlideRoom to your references with instructions on how to submit their recommendations online.

    If your references cannot provide an online recommendation please contact the Graduate Admissions office at gradmiss@saic.edu

  • A current résumé is required.

    A resume is required for all graduate programs. Upload your résumé to the Attachments section in your E-Portfolio.

  • For the Master of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy program, submit a sample of your critical writing, up to 2,000 words in length. This can be either an essay assignment from a previous course of study, an excerpt from a longer research paper, or a recently published article.

    For the Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Art History program, submit a 15 to 25 page critical writing sample that demonstrates knowledge of the field, ability in research, and clarity of argumentation. Submissions should be written on a topic in modern or contemporary art history from the 19th century to the present, but papers dealing with earlier historical eras will be accepted if they are in dialogue with current debates and methods. Additionally, topics dealing with relevant theories and philosophies, visual studies, and film studies will be considered.

    Applicants are required to submit an E-Portfolio, though the content varies by department. Please visit your individual program of interest to find details. You must submit a separate E-Portfolio for each program or studio department to which you apply. After you pay the application fee and submit the application form, an E-Portfolio for each of the programs you selected in the application form will automatically appear in your SlideRoom dashboard.

    Submission Specifications

    • Images: .jpg, .gif, .pdf (up to 5 MB each)
    • Videos: .flv, .wv, .mov (up to 60 MB each)
    • Audio: .mp3 (up to 10 MB each)
    • Text documents: MUST be in .pdf format (up to 10 MB each)

  • TOEFL: 100 
    IELTS:
    DUOLINGO: 120

    International applicants are required to submit evidence of English language proficiency. You are waived from this requirement if you meet any of the following conditions:

    • Your native language is English
    • You have an undergraduate degree conferred by a U.S. accredited university
    • You have an undergraduate degree conferred by a university whose primary language of instruction is English

    If you do not meet one of these conditions, you must submit official English language proficiency test scores. You are strongly encouraged to schedule a language proficiency test appointment as early as possible in order to receive official test scores prior to the application deadline.

    SAIC accepts official scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), and Duolingo. The TOEFL Institution Code for SAIC is 1713. Please upload an unofficial copy of your test score results to the International Requirements section of the application form.

  • The department conducts interviews by invitation only. Applicants who pass the preliminary review will be invited to schedule an interview in Mid-February. Notification will be sent by late January. For students at a distance or unable to travel, interviews may be conducted remotely.

  • Dual Degree students writing their thesis in Art History and electing to follow the Design History pathway are expected to take ARTHI 5007 as their methods seminar followed by at least four seminars in the Design History curriculum. Thesis topics should address the history and theory of design or architecture.

    Specialization in Design History within the Master of Arts (MA) in Modern and Contemporary Art History 

    Graduate students in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism's graduate degree programs may elect to follow a specialized pathway in Design History. Coursework in this specialization focuses on the production of knowledge, discourses, practices, and domains of objects that have been understood to fall under the broad category of design. As with the MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History degree as a whole, seminars and research topics focus on the modern and contemporary periods.

    Students following the Design History pathway will study the theories and practices of design and examine the conception, production, interpretation, and consumption of design.

    MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History students electing to follow the Design History pathway are expected to take ARTHI 5007 as their methods seminar, followed by at least four seminars in the Design History curriculum. Thesis topics should address the history and theory of design or architecture.

    Recent graduate seminars and courses in Design History include:

    • ARTHI 5101: Theories of Things: Art/Design/Object
    • ARTHI 5111: Urbanization and Its Discontents
    • ARTHI 5122: Critical Terms in Modern Architecture
    • ARTHI 5547: Typographic Modernity & Print
    • ARTHI 5571: Design and the Body
    • ARTHI 5575: Extraordinary Bodies: Disability/Art/Design
    • ARTHI 4547: Biopolitics and Data Visualization
    • ARTHI 5480: Vernacular, Colonial, Global: Modern Architecture at the End of Empire
    Curricular Requirements for the Design History Pathway36 credit hours total
    ARTHI 5007: History of Art History3 credit hours

    4 graduate seminars (5000-level) in Design History

     

    12 credit hours

    Global Issues seminar (5000 level) that focuses on art worlds outside of Europe and North America or focuses on Global Art Theory.

    A list of courses that satisfies this requirement is available from the department every semester.

    3 credit hours
    2 additional seminars in Art History6 credit hours
    2 interdisciplinary electives (4000-6000 level) or additional Art/Design History seminars6 credit hours
    ARTHI 5999 and ARTHI 6999 Thesis sequence in second year6 credit hours
    Completion of thesis 

    Degree Requirements and Specifications

    1. Completion schedule: Students have a maximum of four years from entry into the program to complete coursework and submit a final, approved thesis. This includes time off for leaves of absence. Credit for Thesis Research and Writing (ARTHI 5999 and 6999) is granted only after the thesis is approved and final copies are submitted to the Department.
    2. Thesis in Progress: Students who have not submitted a finished thesis for review and approval by the end of the final semester of enrollment are given a Thesis in Progress grade (IP). All students with a Thesis in Progress grade (IP) will be charged the Thesis in Progress Fee in each subsequent full semester until the thesis is completed and approved and the grade is changed to Credit (CR). If the statute of limitations is reached without an approved thesis, the grade will be changed to No Credit (NCR).
    3. Transfer credits: A minimum of 30 credit hours must be completed in residence at SAIC. Up to six transfer credits may be requested at the time of application for admission and are subject to approval at that time. No transfer credit will be permitted after a student is admitted.
    4. Curriculum: The program requires 36 credit hours, and each individual course is generally three credit hours. Courses are subject to approval by the Art History Graduate Program Director.
    5. Art History requirement: From the Graduate Seminars and additional courses in Art History, at least one course (3 credit hours) must be taken from the list of courses designated 19th-century art history and at least one course (3 credit hours) designated early-20th-century art history. A list of courses that satisfies this requirement is available from the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism every semester.
    6. Global Issues Seminar: If the Global Issues seminar is also designated as Design History, students may use it to also fulfill one of the four graduate seminars in Design History. In this case, students would then be expected to take 3 Additional seminars in Art History rather than 2.
    7. Electives: Electives can be taken from the following departments and programs without additional approval from the Graduate Program Director: Art History, Theory, and Criticism; Visual and Critical Studies; Arts Administration and Policy; Art Education; and Writing. Graduate seminars and upper-level courses in departments other than those listed above may be allowed as electives, contingent upon prior approval from both the Art History Graduate Program Director and the course instructor.
    8. Internship/Co-op Option: Students have the option of taking up to three hours of credit through the co-op internship program. These credit hours can be taken as part of additional courses or electives, but internship credits never count toward the required number of seminar credit hours.
    9. Full-time Status Minimum Requirement: 9 credit hours

    Core Design History Faculty

    • Shiben Banerji, Design History Coordinator and Assistant Professor, Dept. of Art History, Theory, and Criticism
    • Michael Golec, Associate Professor, Dept. of Art History, Theory, and Criticism
    • Bess Williamson, Associate Professor, Dept. of Art History, Theory, and Criticism

World-Class Resources

SAIC students have special access to incomparable resources including the Art Institute of Chicago and its Modern Wing, SAIC’s John M. Flaxman Library and Special Collections, numerous on- and off-campus collections, and public programs.

Students also have at their disposal a diverse array of arts, cultural and community organizations in Chicago, and have the opportunity to work in partnership with them on a variety of projects sponsored and led by the department’s Management Studio. 

On-Campus Opportunities

Students engage directly with current trends in the fields of art history through numerous events and lectures hosted by the Art History department. The Visiting Artists Program has brought in such distinguished artists as Graham Pullin, Arlene Shechet, Anab Jain, Lewis Hyde, Irene Hofmann, Xaviera Simmons, Kendell Geers, Ron Athey, Beatriz Milhazes, and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle.

Each year, as part of the Lifton Lecture, a prominent scholar presents a public lecture on a topic related to modern and contemporary art history. A theme over the years has been an emphasis on women art historians and their contributions to the field. Students in their final year present their thesis before the department’s faculty and students.

Dual degree students participate in the production of E-merge: journal of arts administration and policy. E-merge is an online journal produced by graduate students in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Master of Arts Administration and Policy and Dual degree programs, featuring collaborations with guest editors from the SAIC Community. The journal is dedicated to fostering creative discussions amongst leading professionals, academics, and students, and provides dual degree candidates with valuable publication and journal-management experience.

Course Listing

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1041

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1042

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1043

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1044

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1107

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1060

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1102

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

Art has been many things to many people. This class introduces students to the history of art and art-like things on Earth from prehistory to ca. 1800 CE. It covers canonical examples from older scholarship alongside works and contexts emerging in recent art histories. Students will learn to perform basic art historical analysis and research, and the course will prepare them to form personal art histories, applying such art histories to their own work.

The course surveys historical art in a global scope, from the beginnings of known culture to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. It introduces students to a range of interdisciplinary frameworks for parsing the production, reception, and conceptualization of art. And it challenges students to think about the relationships between past and present, highlighting how later artists and cultures have engaged earlier art and history.

There is a small amount of required reading each week-on average about 20 pages. Written work includes weekly reading responses, two in-class quizzes, an annotated bibliography project, and a take-home final exam.

Class Number

1103

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This is an advanced section of the survey of world art and culture, prehistory to 1850. It is intended for BAAH students, Scholars Program students, and students interested in the history of writing about art (and teaching the survey). We will begin at 500,000 BC, and cover approximately 50 cultures; the list is at ow.ly/Y902K. In each case we will also question the ways historians describe the culture; we will study the ways art history textbooks promote certain senses of art and national identity; and we will consider how other institutions have tried to teach the global survey. The class is difficult, and requires a lot of memorization. Concurrent Registration in one ARTHI 1101: Discussion Section for Advanced Survey of World Art Prehistory to 1850 is required.

Class Number

1040

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1045

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1046

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1047

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This course surveys developments in nineteenth and twentieth century art and architecture. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical and critical issues, as well as the historical, intellectual, and socioeconomic changes that are reflected or addressed in the works of artists and architects. Note: ARTHI 1001 (or its equivalent) is recommended as a prerequisite for ARTHI 1002.

Class Number

1048

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 302

Description

This lecture course grounds students in basic critical themes in the history of design and design objects. Through lectures, demonstrations, and readings students study the material and discursive conditions of the history of design.

Through lecture, readings, discussions, and museum visits, the class highlights a broad range of objects and formats in graphic design, object design, fashion design, and architectural design.

Course works includes object analysis assignments, short research paper, and mid-term and final exams.

Class Number

1065

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

Students will review the materials from the previous week's lecture, both the class's main thematic and conceptual points, and also the names, practices, and places that may be required for quizzes. The TA will also lead workshops in which students exchange ideas about their notebooks, maps, papers, curated projects, or installations. Concurrent Registration with 1353: ARTHI 1001 005: Advanced Survey of World Art From Prehistory to 1850 section required.

Prerequisites

Concurrent enrollment in ARTHI 1001 Scholars Section required.

Class Number

1058

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 501

Description

Students will review the materials from the previous week's lecture, both the class's main thematic and conceptual points, and also the names, practices, and places that may be required for quizzes. The TA will also lead workshops in which students exchange ideas about their notebooks, maps, papers, curated projects, or installations. Concurrent Registration with 1353: ARTHI 1001 005: Advanced Survey of World Art From Prehistory to 1850 section required.

Prerequisites

Concurrent enrollment in ARTHI 1001 Scholars Section required.

Class Number

1059

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

Students will review the materials from the previous week's lecture, both the class's main thematic and conceptual points, and also the names, practices, and places that may be required for quizzes. The TA will also lead workshops in which students exchange ideas about their notebooks, maps, papers, curated projects, or installations. Concurrent Registration with 1353: ARTHI 1001 005: Advanced Survey of World Art From Prehistory to 1850 section required.

Prerequisites

Concurrent enrollment in ARTHI 1001 Scholars Section required.

Class Number

1104

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

Students will review the materials from the previous week's lecture, both the class's main thematic and conceptual points, and also the names, practices, and places that may be required for quizzes. The TA will also lead workshops in which students exchange ideas about their notebooks, maps, papers, curated projects, or installations. Concurrent Registration with 1353: ARTHI 1001 005: Advanced Survey of World Art From Prehistory to 1850 section required.

Prerequisites

Concurrent enrollment in ARTHI 1001 Scholars Section required.

Class Number

1105

Credits

0

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Sharp 706

Description

This course plunges students into content and ideas that universities often leave until graduate school, as we consider the role played by the 'critical' in 'visual and critical studies.' For the past ten years, it has been referred to as 'a primer for the art world.' It will still, mostly, provide you with a working vocabulary and crash course as to bodies of knowledge integral to the study of visual culture. At the same time, to productively engage in a reflective critique of society and culture, it will consider 'texts' from as diverse and contemporaneous a group of scholars, theorists, critics, and cultural producers as possible, from both inside and outside the academic institution.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2219

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Theory

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This class offers one survey of how artists have responded and adapted to moments of severe political, economic, and social uncertainty. Some, like Albert Speer in Nazi Germany and Antonio Ferro of the Estado Novo in Portugal proudly shaped the images of dictatorial regimes. Others, like Pablo Picasso, created works that spoke to the horrors committed under Francisco Franco of Spain; others, like Malangatana Ngwenya, made drawings while imprisoned and awaiting trial. We will look at a spectrum of artists whose responses to their circumstances vary widely.
Together, we ask: how does one cultivate and protect free expression? How do we historicize art made during moments of crisis, censorship, and severe oppression? Each week, we will concentrate on a particular time and regime within the twentieth century across five continents. We will begin in Ancient Rome to explore the concept of the dictator perpetuo, and will explore one regime per week in the following countries: Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Soviet Union, Germany, Cuba, Cambodia, North Korea, China, and Sudan. Texts will primarily consist of primary sources, artist interviews, documentaries and art-historical articles and book chapters. Secondary texts include Mary Beard's 'Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern' (2021); Claudia Calirman's 'Brazilian Art Under Dictatorship: Antonio Manuel, Artur Barrio, and Cildo Meireles' (2012), and Douglas Gabriel's 'Over the Mountain: Realism Toward Unification in Cold War Korea, 1980-1994' (2019, diss.).
Assignments include one 5-page exhibition proposal and one final exam.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2263

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Art/Design and Politics, Gender and Sexuality

Location

MacLean 608

Description

Is it possible to have, or should we even want, an African American Art Historical canon?This class argues that the history of African American Art offers us, in practice and theory, resistant histories of 'high' and 'low' art, everyday objects, and ways of seeing. By conducting a chronological approach to African American Art, we will trace moments of historical continuity as well as emerging practices in order to better understand how the methods, materials, and meanings bracketed under the category of African American Art have been a site of innovation, experimentation, and avant-garde practice. We will spend this semester juxtaposing conventional approaches to art (painting, sculpting, line drawing, installation) with innovative approaches to visual culture (found objects, everyday materials, contemporary performance).

Artists of inquiry include Augusta Savage, Aaron Douglass, Hale Woodruff, Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Faith Ringgold, Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas, David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, Marlon Riggs, Arthur Jafa, Rashid Johnson, Sadie Barnette. We will also discuss author-less works, collectives, and collaborate projects.

Students are required to complete an annotated bibliography, weekly in-class assignments, and a 3 hour final examination.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1088

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality & Class

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course studies the medieval book in Europe and the visual arts crafted in medieval Paris as well as their connections to the global medieval world through exchange and gifting. The medieval cosmos in Islamic and European cultures, humans? relationship with the natural world, and artist?s practices of making will be studied as well as manuscripts, textiles, metal work, and more. Books in the medieval world include narratives of heroes, saints, love, magic, scientific knowledge, and documentation of artistic techniques. This course is Eurocentric however includes arts of Middle East and North Africa for a broader understanding of the medieval world.

Coursework includes field trips to view Chicago's medieval manuscript and art collections at the Newberry and the Art Institute. Readings include works by Sharon Farmer, ?Surviving Poverty in Paris,? Edson and Savage-Smith, ?Medieval Views of the Cosmos,? Michael Camille, ?Nature of Gothic,? Madeline Caviness, ?Patron or Matron?,? Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair, ?Islamic Penmen and Painters,? and more.

Coursework will vary but typically includes discussions, reading responses, in-class quizzes, short presentations and a research paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2158

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Books and Publishing

Location

MacLean 707

Description

If you could only be seen in one outfit for the rest of your life ? what would it be? How would you represent who you are through your choice of silhouette, color, pattern, and texture? In this course we will take a look at art?s ability to freeze moments, and garments, in time. What did the sitter (or the artist) chose to clothe the body? How did fashion and its power of communication function within the time the art work was made? What choices did the artist make to idealize or change their representation of the garments?

In statues from Ancient Greece fabrics flow around bodies like liquids, 18th century subjects were often painted in swathes of fabric meant to suggest ancient ideals through similar (impossible) textiles, and today Kara Walker uses those same floating fabrics on bodies to critique less than ideal idealists. To 19th century Impressionists the urgency of Modernity could only be represented by using contemporary garments, today Kehinde Wiley dresses a man on a horse in a hoodie. What clues tell us a figure is a warrior or a captive in work of the Nazca from ancient Peru? How can we read hairstyles in Ukiyo-e paintings from 17th century Japan? What do Jeffery Gibson and Nick Cave want us to see when they create coverings for bodies? And what was Amy Sherald trying to tell us about Michelle Obama?

We will utilize the collections of the Art Institute, The Field Museum, and others around the city to look closely, sketch, and research. Students will read, lead discussions, write daily reflections, explore through making, and develop skills in critical looking leading to two short research papers examining works of their choice.

In statues from Ancient Greece fabrics flow around bodies like liquids, 18th century subjects were often painted in swathes of fabric meant to suggest ancient ideals through similar (impossible) textiles, and today Kara Walker uses those same floating fabrics on bodies to critique less than ideal idealists. To 19th century Impressionists the urgency of Modernity could only be represented by using contemporary garments, today Kehinde Wiley dresses a man on a horse in a hoodie. What clues tell us a figure is a king in Incan pottery? How can we read hairstyles in Ukiyo-e paintings from Japan? What do Jeffery Gibson and Nick Cave want us to see when they create coverings for bodies? And what was Amy Sherald trying to tell us about Michelle Obama?

We will visit the collections of the Art Institute, The Field Museum, and other collections around the city to look closely, sketch, and research. Students will read, lead discussions, write daily reflections, and develop skills in critical looking leading to two short research papers examining works of their choice.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2278

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Costume Design, Museum Studies

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course surveys the history of architecture and design, including furnishings, decorative arts and interiors, from the earliest settlements of the Neolithic Era until the onset of Neoclassicism in the late Eighteenth Century. Special attention is given to the developments that have remained most influential within the architecture and design of today, with particular emphasis on ancient Greece and Rome, Early Christian, Byzantine and early Islam, the European Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo cultures.

Through extensive lectures and readings, special focus in this class is devoted to the art of the Greek temple, Roman civil engineering, the rise of monasticism in the early Middle Ages, early Byzantine and early Islamic religious design, pilgrimage and Romanesque church building, Gothic Europe and the age of cathedrals, Italian Renaissance architecture and the rise of Humanism, Baroque churches and papal patronage, French chateaux and absolute monarchy, and the origins of Modernism during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.

Students will complete a combination of in-class and take-home exams along with a final research paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1051

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 707

Description

This is an undergraduate survey of modernism and postmodernism in Latin America from the 1920s through the present. Topics will include national identity and 'anthropophagy' in the first wave of modernism in the region, debates over Surrealism and realism in the 1930s, the transition from 'concrete to 'neo-concrete' form and the link between architecture and developmentalism in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, conceptual art and politics in the 1960s and 1970s, and more recent sculptural, photographic, performance, and relational practices.

Specific topics include the cosmopolitan avant-garde that appeared in Mexico at the start of the 1920s, the theorization of anthropofagia in Brazil and indigenismo in Peru, Cuba?s Grupo Minorista, Mexican muralism and surrealism, Joaquin Torres-Garcia?s introduction of abstraction to Uruguay and Argentina, links between art and architecture in Venezuelan and Brazilian developmentalism, the rise of kinetic and participatory approaches in the 1950s and 1960s, conceptual art as a response to the dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s, Latinx and Chicanx actions and performance in the United States, the politics of memory in post-dictatorship/violence art in Chile and Colombia, persistent questions of borders and internationalism in contemporary approaches to ?relational aesthetics? in Central America and the Caribbean, and many other examples.

This course requires weekly reading responses, two papers, and a final exam.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1066

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course examines the emergence, growth and evolution of art by Asian Pacific Islander Americans throughout the twentieth century especially in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement that also spawned a genesis of Asian American identity, culture and activism to the late 1980?s during the apex of multiculturalism and the politics of representation to the transnationalism of the new millennium and beyond.

Through readings, field trips, and film screenings, our class will consider the ongoing debate of what constitutes Asian American art by looking at artists including Isamu Noguchi, Roger Shimomura, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Maya Lin, Tseng Kwong Chi and others within these historical, cultural and political contexts to discuss how questions related to stereotype, cultural difference, gender politics, and identity construction affected and shaped its development and meaning.

Course work will include in-class presentation, two research papers as well as a mid-term and final exam.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1081

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course introduces Korean visual culture by examining images and objects in their historical, social, religious, and philosophical contexts. It covers key examples of paintings, ceramics and Buddhist art from the Three Kingdoms period to the Choson dynasty, through Modern Korean art, This course helps students gain a comprehensive understanding of traditional Korean visual culture and its modern legacy.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1083

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course examines significant developments in European architecture, with regard to structure, function, and style, from the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century through the outbreak of World War I. Major architects and their works are dealt with in the context of pertinent practical, theoretical, and social issues, to assess the overall prominence of architecture in the period of emergent modernism in Europe.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1052

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course is a chronological history of human dress from pre-history to the 20th century, and from archaeological remains of ancient cultures, through diverse global material technologies and markets influencing dress, through European monarchical and social class attire, to global exploration and colonialist effects upon worldwide human dress and ways of life. Portraiture, artistic dress and reform dress will be seen to evolve and transform long-standing gender binaries in human dress. Historic styles will be seen to continue to influence contemporary dress and fashions. The sartorial contributions of diverse historical and global human cultures also be appreciated for their innovations and ongoing influences. All students may become conversant with the anatomy, language and literature of dress.

Learning experiences include lectures, readings, library and museum visits, observational sketching and noting from documents of dress, film viewing and spoken illustrated presentations in class. Focus on primary, secondary and tertiary sources of clothing information will be essential. Historical accuracy, creative anachronisms and research of period clothing will be expressed in film viewing and Ryerson Library antique costume books. Visits to Art Institute curatorial departments to view period armor, textiles and garments will provide essential experiences of historic dress.

Assignments will include: self-introductory observations on a museum exhibition visit, a spoken presentation from a group of diverse Documents of Dress sketched and noted by each student on visits to about 6 libraries, museum installations and curatorial departments, and a final presentation/research paper of 10 pages on a Personification of Style, an individual whose attire and accomplishments made important cultural contribution in their time. Citations and bibliography are essential for credit. Knowing your sources is essential.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1053

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Costume Design

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

This course is designed to serve as an introduction to film analysis, in which students learn the basic concepts and vocabulary of film aesthetics and criticism. We examine different trajectories of film, studying mainstream film practices next to alternative ones. By studying the basics of film form and film style, through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres, students learn to analyze and write about films as both formal and cultural constructs. Along with questions of film technique and style, we study cinema's relationship to popular culture and fine art. The films discussed include works by Griffith, Eisenstein, Welles, Hitchcock, and Godard. This course does not assume any prior exposure to film studies.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1100

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

This course examines the photographs made in response to the shaping influences of 19th and 20th century global cultures. Our understanding of the issues guiding visual history has been sensitized by iconic as well as lesser known photographs and it is those meaningful images that are addressed across the semester. Because photography has been transformed across its history as technology altered practice and practice altered how the medium was conceptualized, the study of social and intellectual history along side the making of imagery is central if the larger purposes of photography are to be grasped and shared.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2167

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course discusses the development of photography as both an art and a tool, including its invention, the initial social reaction to the photograph, the careers of major photographers, movements, and commercial publishers. The interrelationships between photography, art, science, and society are emphasized.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1062

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This course offers an historical survey of music as a sonic art form from the Futurists to the present day. Emphasis is placed on works that tune the performance environment, explore sound as sculpture, interact with the listener/viewer, and employ intermedia. Class discussions include topics such as basic psycho-acoustics, sound manipulation, conceptual art, installation techniques, and constructivist aesthetics.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1091

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

This course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the history of video art from its emergence in the late 1960s through our present moment. Students will examine key works and the major historical, cultural, and aesthetic influences on the form.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1063

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Digital Communication

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

Exploring the art, fashion, music of the 'Jazz Age'this class reveals the enduring impact 1920's aesthetics has had on contemporary fashion, art and social customs. Starting with an exploration of the differing mind sets of Europeans versus Americans, this class then takes an in-depth look of the artists and lifestyles 1920's Paris that had been greatly impacted by the influx of Americans after the First World War. The class ends with the lasting legacy of the Jazz Age, which was seen particularly in the 1960's, but currently has resurfaced in contemporary issues of gender identity.

More specifically, this class examines using film and texts the two key Jazz Age couples; F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Gerald and Sara Murphy. The former couple establishing the persona of 'the flapper' and the latter couple establishing a major link between American in France and the Famous School of Paris artists particularly Picasso. Other key figures are examined such as the first major Chinese American actress Anna May Wong and the black performer Josephine Baker as well as fashion designer Coco Chanel and film star Clara Bow.

Course work revolves around two key texts as well as a reading the Great Gatsby. Reading questions accompany the 1st text and essay is required to explore the other text in relation to the Great Gatsby. There is also one final paper on one Jazz age artists of the student's choice.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1093

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 1608

Description

Archives are more than boxes of historical documents studied by historians. As this course demonstrates, archives are also sites of creative practices, interventions, and collaborations. Focusing on archival practices in contemporary art, this course examines how artists make work with preexisting archives and produce new collections of their own. We will investigate how artists have activated archival collections, countered exclusions in archives, critiqued colonial archives, and developed archives with and for marginalized communities. The course will provide an overview of key terms and major themes in critical archival studies, such as memory, ephemera, critical fabulation.
Readings will include texts by the following scholars, curators, and archivists: Sarah Callahan, Tina Campt, Michelle Caswell, Maria Eugenia Cotera, Ann Cvetkovich, Okwui Enwezor, Saidiya Hartman, Carolyn Steedman, and Diana Taylor. Along with these writings, we will learn about the art practices and archives of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC artists: William Camargo, Guadalupe Rosales, Wendy Red Star, Irene Antonia Diane Reece, Diana Solís, Stephanie Syjuco, and Fred Wilson. In addition to the Flaxman Library Special Collections, we will visit archives held in Chicago institutions, such as the Newberry Library, the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, and the Harold Washington Library Center. During these class trips, we will meet with archivists and librarians.
Coursework will include written reflections on assigned readings and field trips, a creative project based on an archival collection, and a final research paper and presentation on a self-selected topic.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2279

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Community & Social Engagement, Public Space, Site, Landscape

Location

MacLean 301

Description

This course explores the history of 20th century warfare through the lens of art and history, most especially photography. An upper-level undergraduate course, lectures and discussion likewise aim to introduce students to both the uncanny strangeness and implicit violence embedded in the photographic medium. In this way, the material of the class reaches beyond only explicit representations of war, and instead also considers how the medium of photography is today part and parcel with our modern, contemporary experience of witnessing violence. Chronologically structured, the course considers the ever-shifting ethos of representation and war with pictures beginning in 1898 and the American imperial projects across the Philippines.

However, with the American Civil War looming in the immediate background of democratic identity and pictorial practice, the 1865 war photographs from Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan unofficially commence our investigations. We then speedily arrive at the wars in the Pacific (1898) and slowly traverse through the long 20th century: WWI, the inter war years, WWII (Hiroshima; the death camps and Lee Miller's Hitler), Korea to Vietnam, Iraq and the 'Desert Storm' wars, 9/11, and Abu Ghraib--these are some of the historical markers structuring the material of the course.

As we often traverse beyond the edges of mere binary and literal representations of war, the course will as importantly incorporate art photography from some of the most consummate American masters of the last century: Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Eugene Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, Diane Lawson, Dawoud Bey, An My Le and others comprise this short list. The ways in which pictures are often obliquely and subtlety inscribed with a pathos of war are always fundamentally at stake.

Finally, the basement photography gallery at the Art Institute as well as rotating special exhibitions will offer the class firsthand opportunities to discuss photographic works of art in person. Moreover, their will be two film screenings across the term and students will be expected to attend the screenings and in turn contribute to related conversation.

Students will be asked to complete one short (2-3 pages) and one long (6-8) end of the term paper. Topics may vary but all students will be asked to discuss their final project with the professor; most pressing at stake is the writing process, one's own art historical temperament, and perhaps most fundamentally: how can we (students and artists) learn to put words to images, going beyond blithe captions and ironically glib, disinterested tropes.

Ideally there will also be a short final written exam (20% of the final grade): this will include two long essay questions; three short questions; and 15-20 works of photography to be identified.*I write this with hopes that a short exam, though challenging, will encourage students to truly engage with the material at hand--learning and memorizing and critically thinking that goes beyond rote knowledge.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1002

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Public Space, Site, Landscape, Art/Design and Politics

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

This course will survey a broad range of objects and settings, and attempt to familiarize students with relevant media and techniques, as well as important intellectual, social, and political developments that informed the production and reception of art in Italy from the 15th through the early 17th centuries. Students will gain exposure to original works through appropriate use of relevant collections. They will hone their skills in visual analysis and their ability to engage art and express positions and observations about art orally and in writing. The major assignments for the class will include a formal analysis paper, an object presentation, and an object response. Introductory context readings will be complemented by selected original readings (in translation) and exemplary art historical scholarship on the period. All readings will be available on Canvas.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1079

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course offers a survey of the history of manga (Japanese comics) from its premodern predecessors to the present. Beginning with narrative picture scrolls in the medieval period, it will touch on forms of humor and political cartooning in the 19th and early 20th centuries, before moving onto multi-page stories, serials, and standalone books within the serially paneled comics medium. Related developments in non-Japanese comics and media like film, animation, illustration, and painting will also be considered.

Among the major artists to be considered in this course are: Hokusai, Tagawa Suiho, Tezuka Osamu, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, Shirato Sanpei, Tsuge Yoshiharu, Hagio Moto, Otomo Katsuhiro, Takahashi Rumiko, and Tagame Gengoro.

Students will be required to complete weekly readings, including translated manga and historical/interpretive essays, in addition to occasional reading responses, a research paper, and a final exam.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1072

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Illustration, Comics and Graphic Novels, Books and Publishing

Location

Online

Description

This course investigates the international art movements of the 1920s and 1930s such as Constructivism, Purism, the Bauhaus, De Stijl, Neoplasticism, and other movements that favored a nonobjective mode. After its initial development before World War I, how did nonobjective art develop, justify itself, change, and find new roles in the troubled period of the Roaring Twenties and the Fascist Thirties? These questions are explored in lectures and discussion.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1084

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 301

Description

This course surveys the history of Japanese prints of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Beginning from the last phase of the ukiyo-e woodblock prints, we will examine the two major art movements, shin hanga and sosaku hanga, and also some contemporary prints. The variety of expressions were cultivated by artists reviving and renewing traditional prints, reflecting social cultural changes, individual interests and styles, as well as by refining printing techniques. Alongside gaining understanding of historical developments, the course considers the wide array of ideas on what the print medium can characteristically express.
The works we will examine range from the traditional print subjects such as landscapes or figures to completely abstract subjects such as emotions. Examples of the artists who might be studied include Hashiguchi Goyo, Ito Shinsui, Kawase Hasui, Kasamatsu Shiro, Yoshida Hiroshi, Yamamoto Kanae, Onchi Koshiro, Kawakami Sumio, Azechi Umetaro, Munakata Shiko, Hamaguchi Yozo, Saito Kiyoshi, Komai Tetsuro, Ikeda Masuo, and many others. Individuals, some artists' groups, and art magazines that were important to the development of the print history will be reviewed. There will be visits to the AIC to view the actual print examples of the artists we will study in the classes.
Course work will vary but typically includes weekly reading, two writing assignments, presentation, and one exam.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1099

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

In this course, we will explore the ways in which the idea of persistence might be said to characterize modern and contemporary Native American and Indigenous arts practices--including performance, film, video, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography, among others. The artists we will examine employ a range of tactics to engage social, cultural, economic, and political relationships as they occupy and articulate Indigenous worldviews and systems of knowledge that are often incommensurable with Settler structures and ideologies.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1074

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Economic Inequality & Class

Location

MacLean 707

Description

What counts as ?avant-garde?? Can a work of art be radically new and traditional at the same time? Can it incorporate Western art forms and techniques and still be considered Chinese art? These were questions that Chinese artists coming out of the Cultural Revolution grappled with as they sought to reconcile Chinese artistic traditions and historical realities with Western modern and contemporary art practices. This course takes its name from the seminal 1989 exhibition China/Avant-Garde, which sought to survey the most advanced practices of the day and stake a claim for Chinese avant-garde art in relation to the shifting categories of ?modern,? ?postmodern,? ?contemporary,? ?Eastern,? and ?Western? art. Considering this exhibition and other developments from the late 1970s to the present, we will chronologically study roughly four decades of art and exhibition practices during a period of unprecedented socio-economic, political, and spatial change. We will look at a wide variety of art forms (painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, performance, conceptual art, socially engaged practices); key exhibitions; and diverse artists including Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Lu Yang, Song Dong, Xu Bing, Zhang Dali, Zhang Huan, and Yin Xiuzhen, among others. Through weekly lectures, discussions, select readings, and museum visits, students will develop the vocabulary and visual reasoning necessary to analyze a wide variety of challenging artworks, situate them within a historic and theoretical context, and construct informed arguments about them.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2160

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 620

Description

This course surveys decorative and industrial arts and design in Europe and America from 1920 to 1949, in cities including Paris, London, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Budapest, Milan, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Styles ranging from Art Deco to Art Moderne are covered, with special focus on the impact of the Bauhaus and Cranbrook, as well as on the contributions of Mies van der Rohe, Gropius, Saarinen, Wright, and Loewy, et al. Textiles, furniture, ceramics, glass, interiors, and automobiles are among the topics discussed.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1077

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This class surveys the development of draftsmanship as the key element of workshop practice. This class exploring in-depth all the major drawing materials and their formulation; all of which are still used today. This class then looks at which major artists chose each of these media as an example to illuminate how students should also search for the proper drawing materials to express their own individual visions. Aspects of drawing such as history of caricature and self portrayal are also analyzed.

Major artists are explored from post medieval age i.e. Jan Van Eyck to Renaissance masters such as Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael especially in regards to drawing materials, techniques and anatomy. Contemporary artists as diverse as David Hockney, and Jim Dine, William Kentridge are also examined through documentary films and discussed in relation to former art techniques. This class making the student aware of the ongoing impulse of mankind to draw and yet also makes the student highly aware how the discipline of drawing is key to a whole range of artists from fine artists, to architects to animators.

There are weekly reading fromm a book on Old Master Drawings mostly in regards to materials, techniques and anatomy. But equally are many trips to the Art Institute museum to establish through discussions the learning of connoisseurship. Two papers: a mid-term and a final are written about specific drawing of a specific artist of the student's choice; one of which must be a class presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1054

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 111

Description

The documentary, once regarded a vehicle for the heroic confrontation of artist and society, has been questioned in recent years. This course studies readings and selected documentaries that illustrate certain key issues: 1) truth claims: Does the documentary seek to validate its claim to truth or does it problematize such claims? 2) the authority of the documentaries: By what right do the makers speak for the subject of the documentary? How are subjects allowed or made to speak for themselves? How is the authority of the maker of documentaries undercut? and, 3) construction of the audience: Do the documentaries or their subjects seek to address or ignore the beholder/audience? How does it try to move its audience to action or participation?

Recent feature-length works have included Yance Ford's 'Strong Island'; Kirsten Johnson's 'Cameraperson'; and works by Harvard University's Sensory-Ethnography Lab. Short works have included videos, photos and installations by Sky Hopinka, Beatriz Santiago-Mu?oz, Hito Steyerl, Kevin Lee, Shengze Tzu, Laura Huertas-Millan, Oli Rodriguez and Martine Syms. Student read large portions of Bill Nichols' 'Introduction to Documentary' in addition to a number of interviews with the artists to prepare for each class meeting.

In addition to completing preparatory readings and participating in discussions during classtime, students will be required to complete 3 essay-form take-home exams, each 3-5 pages in length, in response to prompts about the course materials. Students may also be asked to make revisions on the exams. Some students may get approval to complete a 10-12 page research paper in lieu of exams 2 and 3.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2147

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

In 2015, migration leapt into the headlines, becoming a topic of contemporary discussion like never before. From the plight of refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Western Europe to 'illegal immigration' as a campaign issue in the last U.S. elections, the world's attention is focused on people on the move, often in quite desperate situations. Yet migration has been with us for a long time-- some would say, for much of human history-- and it has not always been linked to crisis. Migrants have included intellectuals who have exported ideas from country to country, as well as today's nomadic artists who journey around the world to exhibit and develop their practices. Starting from the era of World War II, this course investigates connections between artistic practice and migration over time, integrating historical case studies with critical theory to evaluate how contemporary art might continue to engage this topic in the 21st century. We will consider and differentiate different types of subjects on the move, among them migrant, nomad, emigre, exile, refugee, tourist, expatriate, and guest worker, and consider the implicit hierarchies that can subject them to drastically different institutional responses. At the center of our discussions will be questions of the personal and the affective. How might we responsibly address migration as contemporary subject-matter, and how might our own migration stories be made relevant for others?

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1086

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity, Politics and Activisms

Location

MacLean 111

Description

These courses use case studies and themes as a context for examining the role of methodology and the practice of writing in the history of art. The topics of these writing-intensive seminar vary according to the instructor. These courses fulfill the Junior Proseminar requirement for the Bachelor of Arts in Art History.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Sophomore seminar course

Class Number

1075

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

If you take this course, you'll be able to answer this question: Which of the following actually exist? A. Mermaids D. Satyrs B. Centaurs E. Unicorns C. Cyclopes The course covers the history of proportions, sexual and ethnological prejudice in representation, and the history of beauty and monstrosity. Some lectures contain material that may offend sensitive viewers. Students may have their cranial capacities measured (this is optional). The drawing of Egyptian and Renaissance body types is included.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2156

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This course introduces the history of aesthetics through a spectrum of ideas about taste, beauty and value--and their place in art and design today. Choosing exemplars from the AIC collection, and reading a selection of texts from Plato to Wittgentsein--and beyond, students will research and discuss different approaches to 'good' in the realm of visual art and design. The aim of the course is to provide a wide and informed visual and literal vocabulary with which each student can begin to forge an individual aesthetic.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

2148

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

MacLean 920

Description

This course looks at America's perceptions of Asians through their portrayal in American mainstream media in contrast to those made in Asia by Asian filmmakers. By comparing films made by Asians and those produced by the American mainstream, we find major differences in their perspectives and approaches. In doing this, we investigate issues of representation and misrepresentation in mass culture stereotypes of Asians to show how they have been rooted in confusions surrounding cultural differences between Asians and Asian Americans. The course presents Hollywood films, mainstream Asian films, as well as independent works from both the Asian and Asian American communities.

Weekly readings and short journal. One Midterm and One final Paper

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement

Class Number

1057

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Class, Race, Ethnicity

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

This survey class of Modern and Contemporary Indian art from the 20th century to date examines the rich and complex art practices which emerged from pre-independent India to its transition as an independent nation in 1947. We will discuss the works of the most significant Indian artists and unpack the concepts of tradition/ modern, nationalism/internationalism and, globalization, to investigate the same through the writings of eminent postcolonial scholars such as Geeta Kapur, Homi Bhabha, Partha Mitter, Gayatri Spivak, and Saloni Mathur to name a few. The course gives a critical insight into India as a nation, the challenges it faces including the socio-political climate that is reflected in the artist's work and practices that make Indian art distinct.

The class examines Indian art from the early 20th century including the works of Raja Ravi Varma and Amrita Sher-Gil to the currently contemporary emerging avant-garde art practices today. This includes the work of the Progressive Artist Group; such as Maqbool Fida Husain, Syed Haider Raza, and Francis Newton Souza amongst others, to other prominent artists such as K. G. Subramanyan and Bhupen Khakhar. We will examine the first wave of the feminist artist's as Nalini Malani, Nilima Sheikh, Arpita Singh, and Madhvi Parikh, moving to the more contemporary art practices such as Subodh Gupta, Anita Dube, Bharti Kher, Jitish Kallat, Nikhil Chopra, Mithu Sen, and Shilpa Gupta to name a few.

The course work will include weekly readings a mid- term paper and a final paper. Class participation and discussion is encouraged.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1070

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Museum Studies, Exhibition and Curatorial Studies

Location

Online

Description

This course explores new possibilities for understanding the materiality and agency of media: its bodiliness, liveness, and performative interactions in/with space and time. Extending our investigation to the lived body, the course will embrace new corporealities, unconfined by normative limits of form, language, or social construct. We will investigate performative utterances and gestures through their technological recordings and playback to account for how various technologies convert/convey energy, power, breath, thought and action. Drawing upon texts in performance, dance, music, cinema and media studies, philosophy and science, with an emphasis on readings in phenomenology and new materialism, we will encounter big questions about our Being, in bodies, with others, in spaces and places, along with media ontologies and their shared entanglements with planetary forces and elements.
Readings will include texts by Lucretius, N. Katherine Hayles, Mark Hansen, Gilbert Simondon, Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Heidegger, José Gil, Vivian Sobchack, Walter Benjamin, Béla Balázs, Giuliana Bruno, Ara Osterweil, Laura Marks, Delinda Collier, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Tim Ingold, Donna Haraway, Karen Barad, Erin Manning, Brian Massumi, Michael Taussig, Luce Irigaray, Fred Moten, Gernot Böhme, Philip Auslander, and Erika Fischer-Lichte, among others. The course will include works by Eadweard Muybridge, Etienne-Jules Marey, Loie Fuller, Maya Deren, Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, OpenEndedGroup, Nam June Paik, John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, Halim El-Dabh, Onyx Ashanti, Patrick Clancy, Hollis Frampton, Anthony McCall, Chris Welsby, Ana Mendieta, David Rodowick, Leighton Pierce, Wu Tsang/boychild, Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman, William Kentridge, Ethan Osman, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Lynn Marie Kirby, Dawn Roe, Liz Deschenes, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, Carolee Schneemann, Aria Dean, and many more!
Course work will include weekly reading responses that may be experimental in nature, plus a final research paper including an abstract and annotated bibliography. Students will present their research to the class at the end of the semester.

Class Number

1097

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Digital Imaging, Gender and Sexuality, Art and Science

Location

Online

Description

This experimental 2000- or 4000-level course delves into the multifaceted concept, experience, and practice of 'Emptiness.' Students will explore this theme through the lenses of philosophy, the history of religions, technology, science, and artistic practices. The course examines how emptiness has been theorized, thematized, and experienced throughout history, as well as its historical and spiritual significance.
This course will explore a diverse range of scholars, artists, and artistic traditions. We will delve into Song-Yuan Flower and Bird Paintings and the Japanese Ink painting tradition, as well as modern and contemporary figures like Adolf Wölfli, Awa Tsireh, Pablita Velarde, Alberto Giacometti, John Cage, and Yves Klein. The course will also examine architectural visionaries such as Tadao Ando, and key contributors to Minimalist art, including Agnes Martin, James Turrell, and Robert Irwin. Further areas of focus include the Dansaekhwa movement, and the evolution of installation art, for instance as exemplified by the work of Danh Vo.
This experimental course combines studio visits with in-class presentations, merging practice and theory. Students will be asked to explore modes of visualizing emptiness through creative projects, while also working on papers that examine a specific art historical or theoretical aspect of the histories of emptiness.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2283

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Community & Social Engagement, Museum Studies, Exhibition and Curatorial Studies

Location

MacLean 608

Description

This 3-credit graduate seminar provides a framework for developing an exhibition at the Czok Foundation in Venice, Italy, by inviting graduate students from studio arts, design practices, art history, curatorial practices, arts administration, and other programs to work collaboratively and intensely. The artwork, curatorial approach, exhibition design, and accompanying texts and online materials will all be created during the seminar. Enrolled students are encouraged to commit to both the 15-week fall 2025 seminar and a 3-week study trip in Venice in winter interim 2025-26 to install and present the exhibition on site.
We will read and discuss texts on the history and theory of curating; the history of Venice, in particular its relation to art making and exhibiting (Biennale) and an expanded critical exploration of its ¿international¿ status vis-a-vis globalization, commerce, and colonialism; strategies for communal production; and the relationship between institutional settings and artistic practice. Depending on the interests of the students, we will add more reading material whenever useful. Preliminary reading list of texts on Venice: Cristina Baldacci, et.al (eds.), Venice and the Anthropocene: An Ecocritical Guide (Max Planck Institute, Berlin, 2023). Caroline Jones, ¿Biennial Culture¿, in The Biennial, ed. Elena Filipovic, Marieke van Hal, Solveig Øvstebo (Ostfildern: Hatje/Cantz, 2010), 66-87. Paul Kaplan and Shaul Bassi, eds, African Venice: A Guide to Art, Culture, and People (Wetlands, Venice, 2024). Giulia Foscari, Elements of Venice (Lars Müller Editions, 2014).
The participating students will create all of the content and the curatorial approach from their own practices. This may be a combination of individual, small group, or complete class contributions. If participating in the Venice study trip, they will work collaboratively on all aspects of the exhibition, its programming, its interface with the public, and its assessment.

Prerequisites

Must be a graduate student or receive instructor permission

Class Number

2276

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Community & Social Engagement, Art/Design and Politics, Exhibition and Curatorial Studies

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This 3-credit graduate seminar provides a framework for developing an exhibition at the Czok Foundation in Venice, Italy, by inviting graduate students from studio arts, design practices, art history, curatorial practices, arts administration, and other programs to work collaboratively and intensely. The artwork, curatorial approach, exhibition design, and accompanying texts and online materials will all be created during the seminar. Enrolled students are encouraged to commit to both the 15-week fall 2025 seminar and a 3-week study trip in Venice in winter interim 2025-26 to install and present the exhibition on site.
We will read and discuss texts on the history and theory of curating; the history of Venice, in particular its relation to art making and exhibiting (Biennale) and an expanded critical exploration of its ¿international¿ status vis-a-vis globalization, commerce, and colonialism; strategies for communal production; and the relationship between institutional settings and artistic practice. Depending on the interests of the students, we will add more reading material whenever useful. Preliminary reading list of texts on Venice: Cristina Baldacci, et.al (eds.), Venice and the Anthropocene: An Ecocritical Guide (Max Planck Institute, Berlin, 2023). Caroline Jones, ¿Biennial Culture¿, in The Biennial, ed. Elena Filipovic, Marieke van Hal, Solveig Øvstebo (Ostfildern: Hatje/Cantz, 2010), 66-87. Paul Kaplan and Shaul Bassi, eds, African Venice: A Guide to Art, Culture, and People (Wetlands, Venice, 2024). Giulia Foscari, Elements of Venice (Lars Müller Editions, 2014).
The participating students will create all of the content and the curatorial approach from their own practices. This may be a combination of individual, small group, or complete class contributions. If participating in the Venice study trip, they will work collaboratively on all aspects of the exhibition, its programming, its interface with the public, and its assessment.

Prerequisites

Must be a graduate student or receive instructor permission

Class Number

2276

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Community & Social Engagement, Art/Design and Politics, Exhibition and Curatorial Studies

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This course examines the impact of new technologies on the aesthetics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Issues explored in the course include the structure of synthetic pictorial spaces, creating art in a global scale, responding to images of pure light, the aesthetics of motion, behavior in virtual environments and the experience of interactive artworks. In some cases the emphasis is on a particular new medium and the multiple artistic approaches to it; in other cases, the emphasis is on particular artists and their experimental work.

Main lecture topics include: Moholy-Nagy's work, early radio and the impact of auditory images, kinetic art, robotic art, telecommunication art, computer art, digital photography, virtual reality, telepresence, holographic art, and bio art Readings include texts by featured artists and historians including Dieter Daniels, Rudolf Frieling, Philip Auslander, as well as original texts by the instructor.

Course work will include weekly reading assignments, in-class discussions, a midterm research proposal, a 15-page research paper, and a final presentation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1067

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Art and Science, Interaction and Participation

Location

Online

Description

This seminar considers past and present histories of 'visual culture' (a spectrum of representation including painting, photography, film, installation, performance, geological and geographical mapping, data processing, and journalism) which focus on the specific challenges posed by current political, ecological, and cultural crises. What new roles can art play in mapping and critically addressing the interconnectedness of the ever-so-fragile ecologies we inhabit? From the construction of posthuman identities through new and old media to the fragmentation of post-photography, the new reconfigurations of nature and culture, and the urgency posed by climate change and unprecedented diasporas, this seminar focuses on new conceptions of art as a political tool capable of outlining new trajectories in the absence of cultural certainties.

The course will focus on the key intersections of art and science from the 1700s through to today considering important philosophical traditions like Cartesianism and Kantian philosophy, thereafter moving on to explore issues of colonialism and decolonization of nature. The course focuses on the work of contemporary artists and scholars who have actively engaged in the definition of the anbthropocene and its new aesthetic models designed to reimagine our relationship with the non-human through new perspectives on gender, race, and interconnectedness. Coursework will involve weekly reading responses in the form of Canvas discussions that will be elaborated in class and a final major project.
Readings include: Haraway, D. J. (1984) `Teddy bear patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of
Eden, in Social Text, n. 11, Winter, pp.20-64

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1068

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Economic Inequality & Class, Community & Social Engagement, Art and Science

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This seminar explores questions of cinema and television in relation to the larger issues concerning visual representations and definitions of sexuality and gender. Themes and approaches include theories of spectatorship, in particular, feminist, postcolonial, and queer theories of looking as related to sexuality and gender; stereotypes and social roles; and the interplay between unconscious processes and forms of representation.

The course consists of weekly discussions based on screenings of moving image work, as well as critical and theoretical texts that, from a variety of perspectives, address these issues. Some of the scholars and artists we will study include Jose Mu?oz, B. Ruby Rich, Leotine Sagan, Jean Genet, Kenneth Anger, Shu Lea Cheang, Barbara Hammer, Frederic Moffet, Gregg Bordowitz, Cassils, David Getsy, Liz Rosenfeld, Marlon Riggs, Judith Butler, Vaginal Davis, Dee Rees, Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, Cheryl Dunye, Richard Fung, George Kuchar

Course work will include in-class discussions, screening/reading responses, a midterm critical response essay, and a final research paper

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

1055

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality, Theory

Location

MacLean 1307

Description

After the death of Mao, protests practices that came to define China's 'Peking Spring' in the late 1970s served not only to articulate everyday citizens' collective demands for new polity, but also to forge their emergent expressions of selfhood and society through art. This course interrogates the ways in which such aesthetic formations--exhibitions of art, societies of painting and photography, poetic performance, documentary and film production--arise from the spontaneity of collective action in the midst of civil unrest and cold war (Hong Kong), or in the aftermaths of revolution and global conflict (Korea, PRC). Examining the simultaneity and mutual constitutions of art and politics that come to define East Asian modernity at key moments throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the course will consider the contradictory and conflicted functions of new art as a medium of social and cultural transformation.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: Art History Survey Requirement OR Graduate Student

Class Number

2163

Credits

3

Department

Art History, Theory, and Criticism

Location

Lakeview - 205

Take the Next Step

Visit the graduate admissions website or contact the graduate admissions office at 312.629.6100, 800.232.7242 or gradmiss@saic.edu

 

Wide shot of a large, classical library

MA Dual Degree Graduate Brochure