Courses

Courses

Spring 2009

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012. Picasso and Matisse
Pamela Fletcher T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
Examines the painting of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, in the context of modern painting, philosophy, and history. Particular attention is paid to the creative exchanges and rivalries between the two artists, as well as their role in the popular understanding of modern art and the role of the artist in society.

021. Art and Globalization
Lauren Kroiz M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
Explores the intersection of contemporary art with globalization by framing our contemporary period within a larger modern history of cultural and mercantile exchange. Introduces vocabulary, techniques, and methods of art history to explore how artists and artworks enforce and destabilize the shifting boundaries between nations, cultures, religions, and peoples. Considers, for example, the recent rise of international art biennials and global museum expansions as evidence contemporary visual art can bridge national differences, alongside riots over cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that challenge the unifying role of visual representation in an era of globalization.

130. Introduction to the Arts of Ancient Mexico and Peru
Susan Wegner M 8:30 - 9:25, W 8:30 - 9:25, F 8:30 - 9:25
A chronological survey of the arts created by major cultures of ancient Mexico and Peru. Mesoamerican cultures studied include the Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Maya, and the Aztec up through the arrival of the Europeans. South American cultures such as Chavin, Naca, and Inca are examined. Painting, sculpture, and architecture are considered in the context of religion and society. Readings in translation include Mayan myth and chronicles of the conquest.

211. The Arts of China
De-nin Lee T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
A chronological survey of ritual objects, sculpture, architecture, painting, and decorative arts in China from the Neolithic to the modern period. Topics include ritual practices and mortuary art, technologies of art and the role of trade, the impact of Buddhism, courtly and scholarly modes of painting, and popular and avant-garde art.

213. Art of Three Faiths: Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Art and Architecture, from the 3rd to the 12th C
Stephen Perkinson T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25
Examines ways images, objects, and buildings shaped the experiences and expressed the beliefs of members of three major religious traditions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) in Europe and the Mediterranean region. Deals with artworks spanning the third century through the twelfth century from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Byzantine Empire. Many of the sessions will be thematic, dealing with issues that cut across geographic and chronological boundaries. Topics examined include the embrace or rejection of a classical artistic heritage; the sponsorship of religious art by powerful figures; the use of images and architecture to define community, and to reject those defined as outsiders; forms of iconoclasm and criticism of the use of images among the three religions; theological justifications for the use of images; and the role of images in efforts to convert or conquer members of another faith.

244. Photographic Invention
Lauren Kroiz M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55
Examines the history of photography through case studies tracing the intersection of technological and artistic invention. Traces the shifting status of the photograph from Henry Fox Talbot’s “photogenic drawing” in the 1830s to recent advances in digital image processing. Considers debates about vision, truth, and artifice in modernism and post-modernist accounts of photography as scientific experiment, mechanical product, artistic expression, and social document. Reading of primary sources by art critics and photographers, as well as more recent theorists: authors include William Henry Fox Talbot, Peter Henry Emerson, Alfred Stieglitz, Bernice Abbott, Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, Guy Debord, Jean Baudrillard, and others. Incorporates study of the extensive collection of photography at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

254. Contemporary Art
Pamela Fletcher T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55
Art of Europe and the Americas since World War II, with emphasis on the New York school. Introductory overview of modernism. Detailed examination of abstract expressionism and minimalist developments; pop, conceptual, and environmental art; and European abstraction. Concludes with an examination of the international consequences of modernist and contemporary developments, the impact of new electronic and technological media, and the critical debate surrounding the subject of postmodernism.

317. The Origins of "Easel Painting" in Northern Europe c. 1350-1450
Stephen Perkinson T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25
Investigates one of the most momentous innovations in the history of western art: the decision to begin producing large-scale paintings on cloth or wooden panels. Such paintings are central to what we think of today when we speak of “art,” but scholars still debate precisely when, where, and why this crucial medium developed. Who made the decision to begin painting on sheets of cloth or panels? Why did they choose to do so? What role did the artists play in this transformation? What was the role of patrons? How was this new medium connected to established artistic traditions, such as manuscript illumination or metalwork? Each meeting focuses on a single painting or a small group of related works.

323. Topics in Chinese Painting
De-nin Lee T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55
Examines key developments in painting during the Song dynasty (960–1127), including theories that relate painting to sister arts of calligraphy and poetry, painting of the scholar-official class, painting for the imperial court, and painting related to Chan (Zen) Buddhism. No prior knowledge of Chinese history and culture is required.

333. Studies in Seventeenth-Century Art: Caravaggio and Artemesia Gentileschi
Susan Wegner M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
Contrasts two artists—one male, one female—whose powerful, naturalistic styles transformed European painting in the seventeenth century. Starting with a close examination of the artists’ biographies (in translation), focuses on questions of the artists’ education, artistic theory, style as a reflection of character, and myths and legends of the artists’ lives. Also examines the meanings of seventeenth-century images of heroic women, such as Esther, Judith, and Lucretia, in light of social and cultural attitudes of the times.