ARTH 205(S) Picturing Race: From Early Modern Europe to Now (Same as Africana Studies 205)*
This historically wide-ranging course surveys visual representations of race in three different periods-early modern Europe, the 19th-20th centuries, and the contemporary-in order to ask questions about how art establishes conventions for racial imagery and about how art may challenge and revise these conventions. The course begins with the black servant motif in Renaissance portraits of white patrons by, for example, Anthony van Dyck, both to identify standard visual elements in the repertoire of poses for black attendants and, equally, to note departures from the norm. The second section considers Winslow Homer's Caribbean paintings (with subsequent transformations in the subject by Romare Bearden and Derek Walcott), as well as works by African-American artists such as Henry O. Tanner and Jacob Lawrence. The course concludes with discussion of Glenn Ligon, Fred Wilson, Kara Walker, and other contemporary artists who engage in re-visionary explorations of identity. Throughout, analysis of race includes "whiteness" as a racial category. Time will be spent at the Williams College Museum of Art viewing works from the collection.
Format: lecture and discussion. Evaluation based on participation in class discussions; midterm; final; short paper.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 20 (expected: 20). Preference given to Art majors and Africana Studies concentrators.
Hour: ERICKSON