Art Department

An introduction to new ways of thinking about the visual arts, including examinations of the visual elements and artistic media, particularly as they contribute to the development of visual literacy. Includes analysis of Western and non-Western traditions in the visual arts within a social and historical context.

History of Western art from Prehistory through Early Christianity. An introductory survey examining images, objects, and architecture produced from the Paleolithic era to the end of the Roman Empire. We will discuss Prehistoric, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Early Christian and Early Byzantine culture. 

History of Western art from ca. 600 through ca. 1600. This course examines the Middle Ages and the Renaissance using images, objects, and architecture to develop a comprehensive understanding of the social, political, and religious forces that shaped this period.

History of Western art from ca. 1600 to the 21st century. An introductory survey examining images, objects, and architecture produced from the Baroque to contemporary world. 

A chronological and thematic examination of arts produced by a selection of societies from Africa, Oceania, and Native North America. Includes the influences of these diverse non-Western arts on American art and society. Art objects will be analyzed within the relevant social and historical context and as part of a larger matrix of myth, ritual, religious belief, politics, and worldview. Includes an examination of art from West Africa (e.g. Nigeria: Ife, Benin, Yoruba, Igbo, etc.), Melanesia (e.g. New Guinea), Polynesia (e.g. Hawaii, Rapu Nui, New Zealand), and Native North America (Woodlands, Southwest, Plains, Northwest Coast, Arctic and Subarctic, etc.) 

A chronological, thematic, and cross-cultural examination of artworks and gender issues concerning women artists from the early Middle Ages to the 21st Century. Includes the influences in art produced by women of such issues as race, gender, socio-economic and political conditions. 

An introduction to the art of India, China, and Japan from the Neolithic Age to the present, covering painting, sculpture, architecture, and ceramics. This course emphasizes the cultural, social, and historical meaning of art and tracs the changes in style, meaning, and use of art within the broader context of the great religious traditions of China, Japan, and India 

This course is a comprehensive overview of the visual culture from the Islamic world from the 7th through the 21st centuries. We will examine painting, objects, and architecture to better understand the rich cultural heritage of this world religion. 

History of the culturally diverse arts produced in North America (specifically the United States) from prehistory to the present. American art is considered thematically and chronologically, focusing on the important influences on art of nature, landscape, urbanization, gender, race religion, ethnicity, socio-economic and political reforms, and civil and international wars. 

A study of art and architecture from Post-Impressionism to the present day, emphasizing the importance of social, economic, and political influences on the art produced during this period. We will study painting, sculpture, conceptual art, environmental art, and modern digital media from across the world.