ARTH 201-A Perspectives of Art History

• Tuesdays,11:45 am-2:30 pm
• Instructor: Dr. Steven Stowell

This course is the first of two courses (ARTH 201 and ARTH 202) which will introduce students to the broad sweep of art history; ARTH 201 will cover from the Paleolithic era to the beginning of the Early Modern period (approximately 1400 CE), explored in roughly chronological order. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with works of visual art from across different cultures and time periods, while helping them to develop foundational skills of art-historical analysis, for instance: visual and comparative analysis; contextual analysis and the use of primary sources.

The overall structure of the course is derived from the canonical tradition of art history as it has been constructed in the West from the eighteenth century onwards – a tradition which chronologically orders bodies of work said to exemplify developments through time, while making certain assumptions about what constitutes "art," and about which periods, places, and people are most worthy of study. However, lectures will also question the supremacy of this canonical perspective and its approach to organizing knowledge. This course will also integrate content from areas of the globe that have typically been excluded from the Western art-historical canon, for instance: the arts of Asia. Students will thus have the opportunity to learn from the canon and to develop an understanding of the objects it celebrates, while developing an awareness of its limitations. The course, in which tutorials play a vital role, is taught with art history majors in mind as it is a core component of the art history undergraduate degree and provides a knowledge base that enables further study in the field.