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Spring 2007 Courses

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019. Questioning the Modern: Pamela Fletcher M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55 VAC-Picture Study; An examination of late modernity from 1800 to the present, focusing on the vexed relations between the shaping principles of modernity and several of the more violent undertakings with which it was historically conjoined: enslavement, the subjugation of women, and the Holocaust. How in the light of these matters do we understand modernity's chief concerns with freedom, autonomy, the self, scientific mastery, and historical progress. Authors and artists may include Kant, Goya, Marx, Manet, Freud, Woolf, Picasso, DuBois, and Nabokov.
110. Introduction to East Asian Art: Clifton Olds M 1:30 - 2:25, W 1:30 - 2:25, F 1:30 - 2:25 VAC-Beam Classroom; A chronological survey of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese art from prehistoric times to the present. Considers major examples of painting, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts in the context of historical developments and major religions of East Asia. Not open to students who have taken Art History 140 or Asian Studies 140 or Art History 103 or Asian Studies 103.
223. The Arts of Venice: Susan Wegner M 8:30 - 9:25, W 8:30 - 9:25, F 8:30 - 9:25 VAC-Beam Classroom; Venice is distinctive among Italian cities for its political structures, its geographical location, and its artistic production. This overview of Venetian art and architecture considers Venice's relationships to Byzantium and the Turkish east; Venetian colorism in dialogue with Tuscan-Roman disegno; and the impact of Venice on foreign artists such as Dürer, Rubens, and Velázquez. Also examines the role of women as artists, as patrons, and as subjects of art. Includes art by the Bellini family, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Tiepolo, Canaletto, Rosalba Carriera, and the architecture of Palladio.
224. Mannerism: Susan Wegner M 10:30 - 11:25, W 10:30 - 11:25, F 10:30 - 11:25 VAC-Beam Classroom; Mannerism in art and literature. Artists include Michelangelo, Pontormo, Rosso, Bronzino, El Greco. Themes include fantasy and imagination, ideal beauty (male and female), the erotic and grotesque, and the challenging of High Renaissance values. Readings include artists' biographies, scientific writings on the senses, formulas for ideal beauty, and description of court life and manners. Uses the Bowdoin College Museum of Art's collection of sixteenth-century drawings, prints, and medals.
226. Northern European Art of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: Stephen Perkinson T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25 VAC-Beam Classroom; Surveys the painting of the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Topics include the spread of the influential naturalistic style of Campin, van Eyck, and van der Weyden; the confrontation with the classical art of Italy in the work of Dürer and others; the continuance of a native tradition in the work of Bosch and Bruegel the Elder; the changing role of patronage; and the rise of specialties such as landscape and portrait painting.
254. Contemporary Art: Pamela Fletcher M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55 VAC-Beam Classroom; 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.
264. American Art from the Civil War to 1945: Linda Docherty T 8:30 - 9:55, TH 8:30 - 9:55 VAC-Beam Classroom; American architecture, sculpture, and painting between the Civil War and World War II. Issues considered include the expatriation of American painters after the Civil War, the introduction of European modernism to the United States, the pioneering achievements of American architects and photographers, and the continuing tension between native and cosmopolitan forms of cultural expression. Field trips to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
314. Picturing History in Late Medieval Europe: Stephen Perkinson T 6:30 - 9:25 VAC-Picture Study; Why did medieval artists tend to depict historical scenes as if they were contemporary events? Were they unaware of the difference between “history” and “myth?” Why did Renaissance artists begin to insert references to the archaeological remains of the past in their own pictures? Is this a sign of a new and improved understanding of “history”? If so, does it mark a passage from a medieval to a modern outlook? Or is the distinction we make between “history” and “myth” more complicated than might appear at first glance? Explores these and other questions by examining the representation of the past in medieval and Renaissance paintings, sculptures, and illuminated manuscripts.
364. Americans Abroad: Linda Docherty T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55 VAC-Picture Study; A study of the impact of foreign experience on American artists and the resulting contributions they made to the larger world of art. Considers artists who went abroad for training, who worked together in colonies, who traveled in search of history or scenery, and who expatriated from their native land. Focuses on Americans in Europe from the mid-eighteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, but also looks at the allure of South America, the Middle East, and Asia. Issues addressed include the desire for international recognition, the limits and freedoms of being an outsider, the perceived threat to national identity, and the quest for alternative modes of living and making art.