Susan Musich

Examine how portraits reflect society, culture, and individual identity as you explore works from across periods, styles, and mediums in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago museum. Uncover intricate narratives as you analyze subtle visual cues, symbols, and compositional elements to decode what they reveal about the subject and artist.

This course fulfills the Art History requirement for the Drawing and Painting certificates.

This hybrid course will use collections generally not available to the public to study a variety of art forms: painting, photography, artists¿ books, video, prints, and drawings. Online sessions before each special collection visit will provide history and context.

Sample Schedule
Week One: Introduction to the course, Drawings and Prints I (remote)
Week Two: Prints II and III, Artists¿ Books (remote)
Week Three: Jean and Steven Goldman Study Collection of Prints and Drawings (in-person)
Weeks Four: Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection (in-person)
Week Five: Introduction to Photography, Modern Photography
Week Six: Contemporary Photography
Week Seven: Museum of Contemporary Photography (in-person)
Week Eight: Chicago Imagists and Video
Week Nine: Roger Brown Study Collection (in-person)
Week Ten: Video Data Bank. Summary of the Course (remote)

The visit to the Jean and Steven Goldman Study Collection of Prints and Drawings is scheduled outside the regular class meeting time.

Inspired by the exhibition Georgia O'Keeffe: 'My New Yorks,' this course will explore the artists' urban-themed paintings, drawings, and pastels. Gain insight into O'Keeffe's unique approach to capturing the city, experimenting with scale, subject matter, form, and perspective. This course will also address works by other artists depicting cityscapes in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection.

During her short life, Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) charted her path in a bold style that foreshadowed Expressionism. Today, she is a posthumous feminist icon, and her place in art history is being recognized. The course will consider her figurative work, self-portraits, landscapes, and still lives in the context of her biography and art history. Sessions will take place in the exhibition and the Art Institute's modern galleries.

From cave paintings to contemporary art, this speed-date with a complex discipline will consider the history of art and its missing narratives. The course will also try to answer the age-old question about an artwork: 'What does it mean?'

Week 1: Thinking globally, looking locally
Week 2: Why is it called The Canon?
Week 3: How we discuss race, class, and gender - and how we don't
Week 4: Modernism and Contemporary Art
Week 5: Your Art History

While contemporary art reflects the current moment, its concepts and processes often merit further examination. This course will consider the differences between modern and contemporary art and discuss the impact of works made in the recent past, as well as those being made today.

SAIC Continuing Studies¿ ¿Art History from the Ground Up¿ can provide a foundation for some of the issues raised in this class, but is not required.