GRADUATE CURRICULUM
Current Courses,
FALL 2012, Spring 2013
FALL 2012 SEMESTER
ARTH 500(F) Clark Visiting Professor Seminar: The Shapes of Utopia (Same as ARTH 400[F]) d.c. 4
This seminar takes as its subject the architectural articulations of utopia in the early modern period. Setting the stage for our discussions will be some of the Classical philosophical models—from polis to metropolis—as interpreted by urban historian Lewis Mumford among others. We will grapple with the medieval monastery as organizing principle of communal life (the Plan of St. Gall). We will then turn to the image of the city-state and the connections between microcosm and macrocosm it articulated. The word “utopia” denotes simultaneously “no-place” and “happy place”—a double meaning exploited in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), the novel that defined the genre. We will treat More’s city of Amaurote as well as Ambrosius Holbein’s memento mori map in the context of the Age of Discovery. Ultimately ours will be a selective as opposed to comprehensive approach to the theme, including such examples as: the Ideal City panels of Piero della Francesca’s circle, Filarete’s city of Sforzinda, the geometric configurations of the fortified city (orthogonal, circular and radial), and the myth of Arcadia and its legacy (from the Pastoral Concert attributed to Titian or Giorgione to Nicolas Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego). We will conclude with Enlightenment experiments such as Boullée’s visionary architectural drawings and Ledoux’s ideal city of Chaux.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on reading responses, an oral presentation, and a seminar paper (15-20 pp.).
Enrollment limit: 16, with places for 8 undergraduate [ARTH 400] and 8 graduate students [ARTH 500] assured. Preference given to senior Art History majors and Graduate Program students.
Hour: 1:10-3:50 R NAGINSKI
ARTH 504(F) Methods of Art History and Critical Theory
This is a seminar in the intellectual history of the history of art, with some concentration on the ways in which this disciplinary tradition has been challenged by recent critical theory. It will begin its study with the “founders” of the field and end with issues and problems that generated the “new art history” and “visual studies” in the last couple of decades. Topics to be covered include: style, iconography/iconology, semiotics, identity politics, formalism, deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, feminism, Marxism, gender studies, postcolonialism, and thing theory. Resident Clark Fellows will occasionally talk to us on perspectives of their choice.
Format: seminar. Each student will write one short midterm paper and a longer concluding essay, as well as present a couple of the readings to the class.
Limited to and required of first-year students in the Graduate Program in the History of Art.
Hour: 1:10-3:50 T HOLLY
ARTH 505(F) The Artist and the Studio: Representations of Representation, Then and Now
This thematically based course explores depictions of the artist and the studio from (roughly) Velázquez into the present. Such representations often constitute a privileged arena for the development of reflexive concerns—concerns by artists about the nature and terms of the artistic enterprise. Precisely for this reason, that arena has also attracted a substantial body of ambitious art historical writing. Accordingly, much of the class will be devoted to exploring problems of interpretation raised by such “representations of representation,” along with the art historical literature they have spawned. Artists include (but are not limited to) Velázquez, Vermeer, Delacroix, Courbet, Matisse, and Picasso; readings by Michel Foucault, Michael Fried, Svetlana Alpers, Daniel Arasse, and Leo Steinberg, among others. We might also read Balzac’s Unknown Masterpiece and other works of art fiction.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on class participation, presentation of research, and a term paper of 20-25 pages.
Enrollment limit: 14. Preference given to Graduate Program students and then to senior Art History majors.
Hour: 10:00-12:40 R GOTLIEB
ARTH 534(F) Renaissance Time d.c. 4
“Once upon a time,” noted the historian, Randolph Starn, “the Renaissance set its clocks and calendars to keep modern time.” So what time is kept in today’s Renaissance? This thematic course proposes an investigation of the subject of temporality and Renaissance art. Our focus will include, but certainly not be limited to, issues of periodization and the role of the Renaissance in historical narratives. We will consider the historical construction of the High Renaissance, for example, but we will also investigate the relationship between early 16th-century conceptions of time (typological, millenarian, etc.) and the visual world. And in addition to thinking about time as internal to works of art, we will consider the temporal implications of the experience of objects. Specific topics will range from the perennial question of the Renaissance individual to newer concerns such as Renaissance anachronism and the emergent global history of the 16th century.
Format: seminar. Student’s responsibilities will include: preparations for and engaged participation in class discussion, oral reports (and peer responses), and a written term paper of approximately 20 pages.
Enrollment limit: 14. Preference given to Graduate Program students and then to undergraduate Art History majors.
Hour: 10:00-12:40 F SOLUM
ARTH 553(F) Thomas Eakins d.c. 5
In this seminar we will consider the life and art of Thomas Eakins (1844-1916). With the most rigorous academic training available, employment at the strongest art schools in the country, and an adherence to the traditional genres of portraiture and subject painting, Eakins yet managed to lead one of the most thwarted of professional careers. He wrote with justice in 1894: “My honors are misunderstanding, persecution & neglect, enhanced because unsought.” The critical tide turned after his death, although much recent scholarship has sought to complicate that mid-20th-century tale. Consideration of his career will encourage us to think about questions of biography, regionalism, portraiture, and the relationship of painting to photography.
Format: seminar. Students’ responsibilities will include class discussion, weekly summaries of readings, two short papers, an oral presentation (and response to someone else’s), and a final research paper (20-25 pages). A field trip to Philadelphia and New York is likely.
Enrollment limit: 14. Preference given to Graduate Program students and then to senior Art History majors.
Hour: 1:10-3:50 F SIMPSON
ARTH 558(F) Reading Impressionism d.c. 5
In this seminar we study the rich and often provocative critical literature focused on the French Impressionist movement, from its emergence in Paris in the 1870s up to the present day. Our focus will be on essays, books, and exhibition catalogues that address Impressionism as a whole, rather than studies of the work of individual artists. We will address a variety of critical and historical issues: How do we define Impressionism? Which artists can be included under the term “Impressionist?” What were the first critical responses to Impressionism in the 1870s? Is Impressionism a matter of technique or subject? How has our understanding of Impressionism changed along with the discipline of art history? Readings will draw upon early critical reviews of the eight Impressionist group shows held between 1874 and 1886; formalist critiques of the first half of the twentieth century (and later); biographical approaches; studies of technique and artistic practice; and social histories of art. We will pay special attention to the role played by exhibitions and exhibition catalogues in our evolving understanding of Impressionism.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on class participation, weekly summaries of readings, reading reports (distributed in advance and discussed in class) and one short, end-of-semester paper of 10-15 pages based on a work of art. Reading knowledge of French is helpful. A field trip to New York is likely.
Enrollment limit: 14. Preference given to Graduate Program students and then to senior Art History majors.
Hour: 1:10-3:50 M RAND
ARTH 595(F) Private Tutorial
Students may petition to take a private tutorial by arrangement with the instructor and with permission of the Graduate Program Director.
ARTH 597(F) Undergraduate Lecture Course Taken for Graduate Credit
LANGUAGE COURSES
GERM 511(F) Reading German for Beginners (Same as German 111[F])
This course is for students who have had no previous study of German.
Hour: 9:00-9:50 MWF TBD
GERM 513(F) Readings in German Art History and Criticism
This is an advanced course in German reading, focused on the literature of art history. Texts are selected from fundamental works of art history and criticism and from the writings related to concurrent seminars in the Graduate Program. The course includes a grammar review.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on written homework, quizzes, tests, and class participation.
Prerequisites: German 511-512 or equivalent preparation (a score of 500 or higher on SAT II German Reading Test).
Enrollment open to Graduate Program students; others by permission of the instructor.
Hour: 9:00-9:50 MWF E. KIEFFER
RLFR 511(F) Intensive French Grammar and Translation
Emphasis will be on a thorough and systematic review of French sentence structures and grammar. Through this intensive study, students will learn to decipher the subtleties of the written language, and as they become more confident they will start translating a variety of short excerpts. Students are also expected to learn and develop a wide lexical range centered on art history and criticism, but not limited to it. Format: Classes are conducted in English. Evaluation will be based on class participation, papers, a midterm, and a final examination.
Prerequisites: none beyond a resolute interest in learning how to read French.
Enrollment is open for Graduate Program students; others by permission of the instructor.
Hour: 8:30-9:45 TR DESROSIERS
SPRING 2013 SEMESTER
ARTH 500(S) Clark Visiting Professor Seminar: The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns (Same as ARTH 400[S]) d.c. 4
The establishment of the French Royal Academies of Art and Architecture in the late 17th century unfolded as part of one of the most dramatic confrontations marking the history of Western aesthetics: the so-called Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. Battle lines were drawn between those who heralded the achievements of the ancients and those who celebrated modern progress and superiority. To anyone championing the emulation of classical poetics, French author Charles Perrault retorted: “Learned antiquity in all its duration was never enlightened to equal our time.” More than merely a literary debate, the skirmish instigated dialectical fireworks in the context of foundational theories—across media—of composition, expression and architectonics. Poussinists raged against Rubenists, proponents of line rejected advocates of color, painters railed against sculptors, and theorists of the ideal body dismissed the sensual evocation of flesh. The director of the Academy of Architecture François Blondel posited the universal status of the Classical orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) and the eternal principles of harmonic ratio. Meanwhile, Charles Perrault’s brother, Claude (an anatomist, architectural theorist and designer of the Louvre colonnade), held that beauty was determined by habit and convention. We will consider these polemics through objects, primary texts and the secondary literature (Puttfarken, Lichtenstein, Gerbino among others).
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on reading responses, an oral presentation, and a seminar paper (15-20 pp.).
Enrollment limit: 16, with places for 8 undergraduate [ARTH 400] and 8 graduate students [ARTH 500] assured. Preference given to senior Art History majors and Graduate Program students.
Hour: 1:10-3:50 R NAGINSKI
ARTH 501(S) Museums: History and Practice
This course will examine the history of museums in Europe and America, focusing on historical traditions and current expectations affecting institutional operations today. Historical tradition and current practice as they relate to museum governance and administration, architecture and installation, acquisitions and collections, and cultural property issues as well as the many roles of exhibitions in museum programming will be addressed, along with museums’ social responsibility as scholarly and public institutions in an increasingly market-driven, nonprofit environment.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on oral presentations as well as two research papers.
Enrollment limit: 14. Preference given to Graduate Program students and then to senior Art History majors.
Hour: 2:10-4:50 T CONFORTI
ARTH 506(S) An Expository Writing Workshop
A common and depressing consequence of too much education is how our writing tends to devolve, as the task of saying what we mean is complicated by new anxieties: trying to impress our potential employers, intimidate our competition, and claim our place in an intellectual community. In many professions, bad prose tends to proliferate as scholars, trying above all to avoid mistakes, become tentative, obscurantist, and addicted to jargon. In this course we will try to relearn the basic skills of effective communication and adapt them to new and complicated purposes. In class we will go over weekly or bi-weekly writing assignments, but we will also look at the essays you are writing for your other courses, to give them an outward form that will best display their inner braininess. Among other things, I am a fiction writer, and part of my intention is to borrow the techniques of storytelling to dramatize your ideas successfully.
Limited to and required of first-year students in the Graduate Program in the History of Art.
Hour: 1:10-3:50 M PARK
ARTH 508(S) Art and Conservation: An Inquiry into History, Methods, and Materials
This course is designed to acquaint students with observation and examination techniques for works of art, artifacts, and decorative arts objects; give them an understanding of the history of artist materials and methods; and familiarize them with the ethics and procedures of conservation. This is not a conservation-training course but is structured to provide a broader awareness for those who are planning careers involving work with cultural objects.
Classes are held at the WACC in the Stone Hill Center on the Clark campus. Field trips this semester will include the Governor A. Nelson Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, New York, and two others to be announced. Students receive a syllabus with session outlines and required reading lists. Required reading is mainly from books on reserve at the Clark Library. No book purchases are required.
Format: slide presentations, lectures, gallery talks, hands-on opportunities, technical examinations, and group discussions.
Attendance is required at all sessions. The course grade is based on exams given throughout the semester; there is no final exam.
Enrollment limit: 14. Preference given to Graduate Program students and then to senior Art History majors.
Hour: 6:30-8:30 MR
BRANCHICK and WACC staff
ARTH 509(S) Graduate Symposium
This course is designed to assist qualified fourth-semester graduate students in preparing a scholarly paper to be presented at the annual Graduate Symposium. Working closely with a student and faculty ad hoc advisory committee, each student will prepare a twenty-minute presentation based on the Qualifying Paper. Special emphasis is placed on the development of effective oral presentation skills.
Requirements: each student will present three dry runs and a final oral presentation at the symposium.
Prerequisites: successful completion and acceptance of the Qualifying Paper.
Limited to and required of second-year students in the Graduate Program in the History of Art.
Hour: bi-weekly meetings TBD, in addition to dry runs. GOTLIEB
ARTH 562(S) German Expressionism: Art, Market, and Theory d.c. 5
The art of Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter has been the subject of critical and scholarly engagement and reconsideration from its inception to today. Exploring the primary documents of the German Expressionist movement, both artist- and critic-generated, the course will question how these formative texts conflict with current definitions and perceptions. The seminar will consider recent scholarship that has documented and investigated market and exhibition practices. Both Brücke and Blaue Reiter artists worked collectively. How did these communal artistic projects succeed or fail? This seminar will address the multi-faceted production of German Expressionism, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, architecture, film, and literature. The course will use the collections at the Clark and the Williams College Museum of Art.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on involved class participation, several short presentations, and a term paper of 20 pages.
Enrollment limit: 14. Preference given to Graduate Program students and then to senior Art History majors.
Hour: 1:30-4:10 W CLARKE
ARTH 564(S) Photography in/of the Middle East d.c. 5
Since its inception, photography has been globally disseminated but locally inflected, serving myriad documentary and expressive purposes in diverse visual cultures. This is nowhere more true than in the Middle East, where the powers and pleasures of the medium have been valued by colonial forces, indigenous populations, photojournalists, and artists. The resulting images manifest, extend, and contest complex traditions of representation that vary from place to place, with Constantinople, the Holy Land, Egypt, and Persia each sustaining different tropes and modes of production. We will proceed accordingly, concentrating on individual photographers and centers of image-making, working across the spectrum of visuality from creation to reception. Along the way, we will address the burdens and risks of image-making: What work do photographs do and how do they perform this labor? Who resists and who benefits? Students will track photography in/of particular locales over time to appreciate diverse renderings of the “Middle East” as aspects of global visual culture.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on class participation, presentation of research, and a term paper of 20-25 pages.
Enrollment limit: 14. Preference given to Graduate Program students and then to senior Art History majors.
Hour: 10:00-12:40 R EDWARDS
ARTH 596(S) Private Tutorial
Students may petition to take a private tutorial by arrangement with the instructor and with permission of the Graduate Program Director.
ARTH 598(S) Undergraduate Lecture Course Taken for Graduate Credit
LANGUAGE COURSES
GERM 512(S) Reading German for Beginners (Same as German 112[S])
Continuation of GERM 511.
Hour: 9:00-9:50 MWF TBD
RLFR 512(S) Readings in French Art History and Criticism
This course will provide Graduate Program students and interested others with knowledge of French acquired through translation and interpretation. The core of this course is based on the reading and translating of a variety of critical works covering different periods and genres in the field of art history. The material read (excerpts from museum catalogues; the Gazette des Beaux-Arts; Salons by Diderot, Baudelaire, or Thoré; and such authors as Francastel, Valéry, Focillon, Derrida—to name a few) will be analyzed in form and content, translated or summarized, in order to develop the skills and understand the techniques necessary for reading French accurately. Grammar will be reviewed in context.
Format: seminar. Evaluation is based on class participation, papers, a midterm, and a final examination.
Prerequisite: RLFR 511 or permission of the instructor.
Hour: 8:30-9:45 TR DESROSIERS