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COURSES SPRING 2009

Histart 11

INTRODUCTION TO WESTERN ART, RENAISSANCE - PRESENT (4 units) Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-3:30 102 Hearst Annex (PFA), CCN: 05424 Darcy Grigsby

This course is a chronological survey of the major works of European and American art from 1400 through the modern era. We will characterize eras -- for example, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern -- and artistic movements -- Classicism, Realism, Impressionism, Cubism, Expressionism, among others. Artists studied will include Van Eyck, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Manet, Picasso and Pollock, to name a few. The course will focus closely on particular works and specific artists, in each case with an emphasis on art’s relationship to the world of its production. This will lead us to consider issues such as the status of the artist, the role of gender in representation and in artistic production, the role of art and artists in establishing and maintaining political authority, and the subversive possibilities of works of art. In the end, we will be thinking of the ways in which art is, at its best moments, both the product of intense skill and an important actor in the social world around it.

 

 

 

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