Bowdoin College Art History Department

Art History offers courses that examine works of art in their historical, social, religious, and philosophical contexts. Students study not only the formal aesthetic values of these works, but also the ways in which works of art reflect the cultures and the personalities that produced them. Many of the courses are chronological surveys devoted to single periods of history such as the Middle Ages or the Italian Renaissance, while others deal with the art of entire cultures, as in the case of China and Japan. And many courses cut across temporal boundaries to consider subjects of universal or at least cross-cultural signifance, such as the interaction of art and science, or the societal role of portraiture.
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Medici Head from Bowdoin College Museum of Art

halley k harrisburg '90

Clif Olds' Japanese Gardens

Visiting Speaker to the Bowdoin Art History Department

Although most courses take the form of classroom lectures and discussions, the department places a good deal of emphasis on the study of original objects through visits to the Bowdoin Museum of Art - one of the richest collegiate art collections in America - and through field trips to the museums of Boston and other eastern cities. All of the courses and activities are aimed at providing students with an understanding of their own and other cultures through the study of art history, and at stimulating and nurturing an appreciation of the aesthetic values of works of art.


Contact

Department Coordinator: Dede Medlen
email: dmedlen@bowdoin.edu
telephone: (207) 725-3697

Curator of Visual Resources: Jennifer Edwards
email:jedwards@bowdoin.edu
telephone: (207) 725-3699

Art Librarian: Anne Haas
email: ahaas@bowdoin.edu
telephone: (207) 725-3690

Location: Visual Arts Center ( Campus Map » )

Mailing Address:
Department of Art
Bowdoin College
9300 College Station
Brunswick, ME 04011

Phone: (207)725-3697
Fax: (207)725-3996


Image Credits (left to right):
ARTIST UNKNOWN French
Head of a King, ca. 1220-1230
limestone
6 1/2 x 5 13/16 x 5 1/8 inches
Gift of Edward Perry Warren h'26 1915.100
Bowdoin College Museum of Art

MARSDEN HARTLEY American, 1877-1943
After the Storm, Vinalhaven, 1938-9
oil on academy board
22 1/16 x 28 1/16 inches
Gift of Mrs. Charles Philip Kuntz 1950.8
Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Gilbert Stuart, 1755-1828.
Detail of: Portrait of Mrs. Thomas C. Upham, neé Phebe Lord.
Oil on canvas.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Gift of Edward D. Jameson. ( learn more about the painting » )