History of Art 101, 102, 103 and 108, while covering different areas, are all considered equivalent introductions to the discipline of art history. These four introductory survey courses consider not only art objects as aesthetic experiences but also the interactions among art, the artist, and society. The lecture and discussion sections explore the connections between the style and content of works of art and the historical, social, religious, and intellectual phenomena of the time. Attention is also given to the creative act and to the problems of vision and perception which both the artist and his/her public must face.
Although it would be logical to move from History of Art 101 to History of Art 102, this is not required. One course in European/American art (101 or 102) and one course in Asian or African art (103 or 108) serve as a satisfactory introduction to the history of art for non-concentrators (concentrators should see the department's handbook for more information on requirements). The introductory courses are directed toward students interested in the general history of culture and are especially valuable cognates for students in the fields of history, philosophy, literature, and musicology as well as the creative arts.
Course requirements and texts vary with individual instructors, but an effort is always made to introduce students to works of art in the collections of the university as well as in the museums of Detroit and Toledo. Photographic material is available for study in the Image Study Gallery, G026 Tisch Hall. Examinations usually include short essays and slides which are to be identified, compared, and discussed.
Open to All Undergraduates; Not Open to Graduate Students.
102. Western Art from the
End of the Middle Ages to the Present. No credit
granted to those who have completed 104 and 105, or 150. Two credits
granted to those who have completed one of 104 or 105. (4). (HU).
A chronological survey of major achievements in Western painting, sculpture, and architecture from the 14th Century to the present, this course proposes both to reveal the uniqueness of great creative
personalities (how, through the manipulation of their art forms, they gave expression to profound feelings) and to place these
masters within their sociocultural contexts (with their shifting
conceptions of human relationships to the physical and spiritual
worlds). Along the way, a variety of art-historical methodologies
will be pressed into action. What we will study gives visual form
to human thought and aspirations of seven centuries, and in challenging, stirring, and teaching us will reveal to us hitherto hidden truths.
Except for commitment – a willingness to become intellectually
and emotionally involved – there is no prerequisite. Course materials
include a textbook, a set of study prints, and a syllabus. Students
will be evaluated by way of midterm and final examinations, informed
participation in discussion sections, and a short museum paper.
Cost:2 WL:4 (Bissell)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
103. Arts of Asia. (4).
(HU).
This course will take a topical approach to the arts of Asia
rather than attempt a broad survey. One segment will trace the
transmission of Buddhist arts (particularly architecture, painting, and sculpture) across northern Asia from the tradition's origins
in India across China and into Japan. The Ming/Qing capital of
Beijing and the Tokugawa capital of Edo (modern Tokyo) will be
analyzed as symbols of political power. The course will also examine the social values inscribed in secular painting and graphic arts
such as Chinese landscape painting, Indian miniatures, and Japanese
wood block prints. Course work will include two short essays, a midterm and a final examination. No prerequisites. First- and second-year students especially welcome. Cost:2
WL:4 (Reynolds)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
113/Art 113. Introduction
to the Visual Arts. This course is for non-art majors
only. (3). (Excl).
Visual arts are a part of the human experience in all cultures
and all time periods. The ability to appreciate, to understand, and to assess the quality of visual art can enrich a person's
life and broaden one's thinking. This course will introduce students
having no formal art or art historical background to the major
forms of visual expression through human history from the Stone
Age to the present. We will examine works of art in various media
such as painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, architecture, graphics, and industrial design. Students will learn
how artists use the language of form to communicate information, to express emotion, to explore the world of nature and the world
of the mind. Students will learn the basic techniques of the various
media. Students will learn how the art of a time and place defines
and expands the boundaries of that culture. Assigned readings
and visits to museums and galleries will help students become
critical consumers of the visual culture as they learn to see, appreciate, and assess art forms. Requirements include periodic
quizzes, a final exam, and a term paper. Students will also make
some ungraded drawings and paintings as analytical tools. (Kapetan)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
151. Art and Ideas East
and West. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($15) required.
In this course a comparative study is made of eastern and western cultural forms, ideas and values as these are reflected
in examples of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as
in poetry, music, and other forms of creative expression. This
course also compares western and eastern attitudes toward significant
cultural themes such as time, nature, death, God, love, and action.
WL:4 (Spink)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
194(210). First Year Seminar.
(3). (HU).
Section 001 – Zen Icons? Zen Art?. This seminar will explore the arts associated with medieval and early modern Zen Buddhism
in China and Japan. Students will be introduced to an established
canon of landscape and figure paintings, works of calligraphy, sculptures, buildings, gardens, and Japanese tea ceremony arts that have been termed "Zen" by modern scholars and asked
to explore the theoretical underpinnings of the field of "Zen
art." Why are these works associated with Zen Buddhism and not others? Is there a spiritual core to "the art of Zen"?
What does it mean to talk about spirituality and art? We will then explore the setting of the Zen monastery and direct our attention
to religious objects such as painted and sculpted icons often
ignored by modern writers because they are not easily subsumed
under the modern category of "Zen art." Course requirements
include weekly readings and short written assignments, class participation, and a final paper. Cost:3
WL:4 (Sharf)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
212/Architecture 212. Understanding
Architecture. Not open to students enrolled in Architecture.
(3). (Excl).
This three-credit course, "Understanding Architecture,"
is the principal introductory survey course in architecture. Using
historical and contemporary examples, it examines the architect's
role in society and the role of architecture and urban design
in shaping the built environment. Upon completion of the course the student is expected to be able (1) to identify and distinguish
buildings constructed in different times, places, and societies;
(2) to discuss how architecture is and has been viewed and interpreted
by various individuals and cultures; (3) to analyze urban forms
and spaces in relation to the buildings which make them up and the people who use them; and (4) to develop and describe a personal
attitude toward and understanding of the man-made environment.
The format consists of two one-hour lectures per week. Several
design-related exercises requiring the student to experience, analyze, interpret, and report on aspects of the built environment
will be required. The course is enhanced by weekly recitation
sections, which are run by graduate student instructors. Recitation
sections focus on improving the student's ability to venture into
and sustain architectural discourse. Cost:1
WL:4 (Marzolf)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
222/Class. Arch. 222. Introduction
to Roman Archaeology. (4). (HU).
See Classical Archaeology
222. (Alcock)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
272. Arts of the Twentieth
Century. (4). (HU).
Section 001 – The Problem of Meaning. In this course we will
explore, more or less chronologically, the work of major 20th-century
European and American artists. Two fundamental issues will dominate the survey. The first concerns the way in which avant-garde artists, beginning with Picasso's influential attack on traditional pictorial
conventions in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), have
repeatedly, in their artistic practice over the course of the
past ninety years, interrogated the nature of signification itself
(in other words, how form produces meaning). Relatedly, the second
issue that we will consider is the avant-garde's ambitious but theoretically highly controversial relationship to revolutionary
politics. The course is designed so as to help you develop the
vocabulary, the analytical and visual tools, that are necessary
in order to come to grips with the great diversity of works and critical debates that constitute the history of 20th-century art.
Course requirements: attendance at lectures and sections, midterm
and final exams (both in-class), and two 5-8 page papers. Cost:2 WL:4 (Gough)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
350/CAAS 370. Special Topics
in African American Art. Hist. of Art 108 and 214.
(3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Contemporary African-American Art, 1963-95.
This lecture course will chronologically survey and examine various themes and topics pertaining to African-American art. Beginning
with the civil rights movements in the 1960s, students will learn
how art reflects particular political and social views about the
positioning of black Americans in American society and culture.
Painting, sculpture, and photography will be the focus of the
course. Course requirements are two exams and one modest research
paper. Students will be assigned readings from either a course
pack or reserved holdings in Shapiro Library. (Patton)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
360/CAAS 380. Special Topics
in African Art. Hist. of Art 108 or 214. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Modern African Art. This course reviews the
history of African art in the last hundred years. Drawing on race theory and postcolonial perspectives, we will examine the work
of major artists working in many different media and will emphasize the interrelationship between political developments – particularly
apartheid and other forms of institutionalized racism – and artistic
productions. Our approach will be thematic and historical, critically
exploring artistic transformations – imagery, movements, guilds, technology, and materials – through the lens of such issues as
individualism, racism, and identity politics. We will discuss the critical influence of nineteenth-century constructions of
race and racial theory as justification for the European colonial
enterprise in Africa, and we will examine manifestations of racial
differentiation and bigotry that surface in the so-called documentary
or historical photographs as well as on cinematographic and postcard
imagery produced during the early colonial period. We will also
consider contemporary African art as a global phenomenon which
is influenced by Western cultures as well as African ones. (Quarcoopome)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
376. Dada and Surrealism.
(3). (Excl).
This course examines the international movements of dada
and surrealism within the context of European culture and history
between 1916 and 1939. These artistic movements, which were influenced
by the formal experiments of early twentieth-century art and literature, redirected the formal radicalism of their artistic predecessors
in new directions; namely, toward (1) bridging the gap between
art and life, (2) defining and criticizing the modern world, and (3) suggesting new forms of individual and collective subjectivity
commensurate with modern life. This course will explore these
developments in depth and link dada and surrealist art to parallel
tendencies in literature and film. Cost:2
WL:4 (Biro)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
393. Junior Proseminar.
History of Art concentrators. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Dada and Surrealism. For Winter Term, 1998, this section is offered jointly with History of Art 376. Students
will be required to attend all HA 376 lectures as well as to complete
all the required readings for that course. In addition, by means
of supplementary readings, students will be guided in a research
project of their own devising relating to either dada or surrealist
art. Through timely completion of a research proposal, a bibliography, a rough draft, and a final paper, students will be introduced
to the skills and methods needed to write a 15-20 page research
paper. This course will introduce students to a broad range of
material necessary for the production of an original work of art
historical research, including primary sources, art historical
texts, and works of theory/methodology. Cost:2
WL:4 (Biro)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
394. Special Topics. (3).
(Excl). May be elected for credit more than once.
Section 001 – Science, Art, and Spirituality. This course
will explore how artists interweave elements of science and art
to express the spiritual dimension in human life – that connected
with what Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary describes
as "an animating or vital principal held to give life to
physical organisms" and also "the activating or essential
principle influencing a person." These interrelationships
have assumed increased importance for may creative people as we
approach the end of the second millennium in a world shaped by
rapidly changing technologies, shifting political powers, and expanded awareness of diverse cultures. Although the course will
center on a cross-section of contemporary artists within the context
of earlier art that links science, art, and spirituality in various
cultures, our readings and discussion will include materials written
from the perspective of the scientist, the spiritual researcher, and the artist. Readings and class materials will be enriched
by video clips, and by selected visitors. The teaching team pairs
art historian Diane Kirkpatrick (whose research has centered on
artists whose work expresses something of the complexity and wholeness
of life by adapting new technologies to artistic ends) and sculptor
Michael Kapetan (whose own works in both figurative and abstract
modes all combine elements of science, art, and the spiritual.)
Cost:1 WL:4 (Kirkpatrick/Kapetan)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
Open to Juniors, Seniors, and Graduate Students. Sophomores by special permission.
403/NR&E
403. History of Western Landscape Architecture. (3).
(Excl).
This course will survey the design and management human settlements
and their surrounding landscapes throughout history. The discussions
will focus on urban patterns, regional patterns of settlement, functional landscapes, gardens and recreational landscapes, both those which were formally designed and those which emerged from
vernacular influences. The range of examples and sites will be
viewed within the context of the cultural, political, social, and environmental forces which shaped them, and also their lingering
effect on 20th century perceptions of the landscape. The course
will consist of slide-illustrated lectures by the instructor during
which questions and discussions are encouraged. Grading will be
in the form of a midterm, a final exam, and a class paper. (Brabec)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
411. Interpretations of
Landscape. Hist. of Art 102 or 103. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Eccentricity and Dissent in 17th-Century Chinese
Painting. This course focuses on an exceptionally interesting
period in the history of Chinese painting: the century of violent
transition between the Ming and the Qing dynasties, with imperial
power passing from a Chinese ruling family to the hands of Manchu
conquerors. The seventeenth century was also a time of dramatic
changes in economic and social life: urbanization, commerce, the
development of regional identity, redistribution of wealth, the
commodification of high culture. The response of seventeenth-century
painters to the political, personal, and moral stresses of their
times will be the subject of our study. The course will begin
with a consideration of the background and general issues in the
painting and culture of seventeenth-century China, including a
review of modes of subversion and political dissent in earlier
pictorial art. We will then go on to examine a selection of painters
representing different social, regional, political, and personal
circumstances and affiliations. Lectures will alternate with discussions
based on assigned readings for each of these artists. Assignments:
two texts and a research paper. Participation in class discussion
is expected throughout. There is no final exam. (Nelson)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
434/Class. Arch. 434. Archaic
Greek Art. (3). (HU).
See Classical Archaeology
434. (Pedley)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
445/MARC 445. Medieval Architecture.
Hist. of Art 101. (3). (HU).
This course aims to integrate the history of medieval architecture
with some of the major themes in medieval history: the Christianization
of time and space, the place and function of monasticism in medieval
society, the institutionalization of violence, the Reform movement
and the Crusades to the Holy Land (ca. 1100-1200), the growth
of cities in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, popular heresies
and the Apostolic Orders, and the impact of the profit economy
on high medieval society. In the process, it explores the succession
of medieval architectural styles (Romanesque, Gothic, etc.), the origins and development of medieval building types (abbey
churches, cathedrals, town halls, castles, etc.) and the organizational and technological methods medieval builders
employed in the realization of a major architectural project.
Two papers, a midterm, and a final examination. (Gillerman)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
450. Topics in Early Renaissance
Art in Italy. Hist. of Art 101 or 250. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – The Age of Giotto. This course focuses on painting
in central Italy in the period ca. 1275-1325. Major projects -
like the decoration of the church of San Francesco in Assisi, the Arena Chapel in Padua and the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena -
and major artists – such as Giotto, Duccio and Simone Martini
- will be the main topics. Attention will also be devoted to a
range of other issues: materials and techniques of the Italian
medieval painters, the interplay between painting and other media, and the meaning of "style" in the Italian communes.
Two papers, a midterm, and a final examination. (Gillerman)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
471. Investigations of Recent
Art. Hist. of Art 272. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – The Fragment in Modern and Postmodern Culture.
For Winter Term, 1998, this section is offered jointly with Humanities Institute 411.001.
(Grigely)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
487/Chinese 475/Asian Studies
475/RC Hums. 475/Phil. 475. The Arts and Letters of China. (4).
(HU).
See Chinese 475. (Feuerwerker)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
525. Graphic Arts from 1660
to the Present. Hist. of Art 102 and permission of
instructor. (3). (Excl).
This course, designed primarily for graduate students in the History of Art department and the Art School, will deal with
developments in the last few centuries, emphasizing connoisseurship
as much as history. In this class students will examine prints
with museum curators, dealers, and collectors; will be shown the
fundamentals of lithography, etching, and other processes; and will be introduced to the problems and techniques of conservation, and to aspects of collecting. Assignments will consist of reading, short papers and reports on prints in nearby collections. Because
so much work will be done with actual prints, the enrollment will
be limited. (Spink)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
531/Class. Arch. 531/Anthro.
587. Aegean Art and Archaeology. Hist. of Art 221
or 222. (3). (Excl).
See Classical Archaeology
531. (Fotiadis)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
542. Byzantine Art. Hist.
of Art 101. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 – Middle Byzantine Art and Architecture: Byzantium's
"Second Golden Age." From the ninth through the
mid-thirteenth century, Byzantine Art and Architecture, as we think of them today, were defined. During this period, which followed
iconoclasm (the seventh- through eighth-century ban on images)
Byzantium experienced what is often called its "Second Golden
Age." Icons were restored, a new repertoire of architectural
forms was developed, novel concepts in church decoration were
formulated, and there was a resurgence of classical learning that
reverberated in monumental painting, manuscript illumination and the decorative arts. This lecture class focuses on the images
and forms created in these centuries – on their origins, their
various manifestations, and their psychological and theological
implications. The diffusion of Byzantine art and its impact on
Western Europe also will be considered. Cost:2
WL:4 (Pevny)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
596. Japanese Architecture
Mid-19th Century to the Present. Hist. of Art 103, 495, or 591. (3). (Excl).
Japanese architecture and urban planning from the mid-19th
century to the present. Topics include the establishment of a
western-style architectural profession in the late 19th century, the emergence of a modernist movement in the 1920's and 1930's, biological metaphors and the romanticization of technology in the theories and designs of the Metabolist Group, the special
implications of postmodernism in the Japanese context, and the
shifting significance of certain Japanese architectural traditions
for modern architects. There will be an emphasis on the complex
relationship between architectural practice and broader political
and social change in Japan. (Reynolds)
Check
Times, Location, and Availability
University of Michigan | College of LS&A | Student Academic Affairs | LS&A Bulletin Index
This page maintained by LS&A Academic Information and Publications, 1228 Angell Hall
The Regents
of the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA +1 734 764-1817
Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose.