This course focuses on the networks, the imaginaries and the lives inhabited by Black artists, makers, and subjects from the 18th through 19th centuries. It revolves around the Caribbean (particularly the Anglophone Caribbean), North America and Europe. We will reflect on how pre-twentieth century Black artists are written into history or written out of it. We will explore the aesthetic innovation of these artists and the visionary worlds they created, and examine their travels, their writings, along with the social worlds and communities they formed. The course incorporates lectures and readings and, if possible, museum visits.

As articulated by Thelma Golden, postblack refers to the work of African American artists who emerged in the 1990s with ambitious, irreverent, and sassy work. Postblack suggests the emergence of a generation of artists removed from the long tradition of Black affirmation of the Harlem Renaissance, Black empowerment of the Black Arts movement, and identity politics of the 1980s and early 90s. This seminar involves critical and theoretical readings on multiculturalism, race, identity, and contemporary art, and will provide an opportunity for a deep engagement with the work of African American artists of the past decade.

This course introduces a history of architectural theory by way of architectural production in the "western" world from antiquity through 20th century modernism. While we will examine an evolution of architectural thought through architectural developments that occurred primarily in Europe and the Americas, those architectures will be contextualized within a broader global history of built environment traditions and practices, and framed around recurring themes in the history of architectural production.

An overview of the major themes running through the various strands of architecture and environmental politics in the twentieth century. While overarching in scope, the seminar is based on a close reading of selected texts, drawings and research projects by prominent environmental engineers, designers and anthropologists. Special emphasis is given to the history of climate control, ventilation and theories of contamination as they manifest in built environments. During the course, we reflect on how these theories are rendered in the idealization of comfort and universal notions of well-being in modern architecture.

From secret laboratories to monumental infrastructures and the many landscapes of war, energy, and waste in between, nuclear power is at the core of a vast and radically understudied array of 20th c. architectures. Central to the most iconic architectural images of the post-war era while also rendered invisible in apparently unseen wastelands, atomic weapons, nuclear reactors, and atmospheric fallout eventually attracted intense architectural attention. Drawing on multiple literatures, the seminar explores how the nuclear penetrated beyond warscapes to enter even the private spaces of the domestic realm and the human body.

Buildings routinely simulate stability and immobility yet operate as porous membranes suspended within vast pulsating material, economic, social, energetic, bacteriological, and informational circuits. Architecture is an effect that is inseparable from what it represses, the vast networks trafficking between ever-increasing holes and mounds across the planet devoted to extraction and waste. This seminar pays attention to the strange entangled complexities of both architecture and extraction, and rethinks the ethics, psychopathologies, and beauties of architecture embedded in its relationships to extraction.

Introduction to the histories of art and the practice of art history. You will encounter a range of arts (including painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, prints) and artistic practices from diverse historical periods, regions, and cultures. Faculty members of the Department of Art and Archaeology lecture in their fields of expertise; precepts balance hands-on work, readings, and student projects.

The focus will be on the rise of complex societies and the attendant development of architectural and artistic forms that express the needs and aspirations of these societies. Occasional readings in original texts in translation will supplement the study of art and architecture.

A broad study of European painting and sculpture from the French Revolution to 1900 with special attention to social, political, and cultural shifts. Themes include art and political turmoil, imperial conquest, the rise of landscape painting, the politics of the nude, and the birth of modernism. Emphasis on major movements, including Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism, and artists including David, Canova, Goya, Vigée-Lebrun, Turner, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Degas, Rodin, Van Gogh, and Cézanne.

In this thematic introduction to the role of painting in Chinese cultural history, we will attend to the critical questions discussed within the field of Chinese painting in particular and art history in general. These questions, revolving around the dynamic between aesthetics and politics, include the influence of class, gender, political changes, and social behavior on painting; the formation of painting canons and lineages; and how local and global elements interacted in early modern, modern and contemporary Chinese painting. Students will have the opportunity to study Chinese painting first hand.

This course surveys the history of art-making in Japan, from prehistory to the present. We will explore a broad range of media, including paintings, sculpture, architecture, prints, ceramics, and photography by focusing on the life stories of individual things. Over the semester we will strengthen and refine our ability to translate what we see into a language of form, and to give form meaning through awareness of methods of making, and by interrogating historical and contemporary contexts. The course includes study of original works of art in campus collections.

This course focuses on key issues of 20th and 21st c. Latin American art. A thematic survey and general methodological introduction, we will treat emblematic works and movements, from Mexican muralism and Indigenism to experiments with abstraction, pop, conceptualism, and performance. Questions discussed include: What is Latin American art? What is modernism in Latin America? What is the legacy of colonialism? How do Latin American artists engage transnational networks of solidarity under conditions of repression? How can postcolonial, decolonial, and feminist theory illuminate the art and criticism produced in and about Latin America?

An introduction to African art and architecture from prehistory to the 20th century. Beginning with Paleolithic rock art of northern and southern Africa, we will cover ancient Nubia and Meroe; Neolithic cultures such as Nok, Djenne and Ife; African kingdoms, including Benin, Asante, Bamun, Kongo, Kuba, Great Zimbabwe, and the Zulu; Christian Ethiopia and the Islamic Swahili coast; and other societies, such as the Sherbro, Igbo, and the Maasai. By combining Africa's cultural history and developments in artistic forms we establish a long historical view of the stunning diversity of the continent's indigenous arts and architecture.

Vitruvius, the author of the only surviving architectural treatise from Antiquity has been called alternatively an architect or an engineer. Architects and engineers started to organize themselves as professions in the early modern period and to compete to secure commissions. This course addresses the story of how two professions came to define themselves against each other. Students will first review the different actors of the European early modern building world, before focusing on the fields of contest between architects and engineers and how this battle ultimately defined the nature of each profession, between art and science.

The class surveys connections in art of different cultures and continents throughout the world from the first civilizations to the present. Attention will be paid to distinctive and related forms of culture and their expression in art and architecture that includes trade, migration, gift exchanges, war and economics.

This course introduces the student to the art of the Byzantine Empire from ca. 800 to ca. 1200. Byzantine art has often been opposed to the traditions of western naturalism, and as such has been an undervalued or little-known adjunct to the story of medieval art. In order to develop a more sophisticated understanding of our visual evidence, this course will stress the function of this art within the broader setting of this society. Art theory, the notions of empire and holiness, the burdens of the past and the realities of contemporary praxis will be brought to bear upon our various analyses of material from all media.

The Junior Seminar is an introduction to the myriad subjects, methods, and strategies of art history. The course examines the different kinds of evidence and methodological tools that have been used to identify, explain, and contextualize works of art as well as other kinds of objects, artifacts, and cultural phenomena. In other words, this seminar considers what art historians do, and how and why they do it. In addition, majors will learn how to use resources such as the library and the museum, and how to undertake substantive written research projects. Students begin their Junior Independent Work in this seminar.

Archaeology is a visual discipline: it searches for material evidence of the human past and presents its discoveries with an array of graphic media. This hybrid studio/seminar combines training in drawing as an observational tool for excavation with critical analysis of visual media based on archaeological and art historical theory. Build your drawing portfolio with hands-on study of artifacts from the University's collections, delve into archives, and learn digital recording tools. What are the challenges of reconstructing fragmentary evidence? Do drawings shape our perception of the past?

The Song Dynasty has long been considered the high point of Chinese painting, representing a classical period to which later artists consistently looked back. This seminar will explore the artistic qualities and development of landscape, figure, and flower-and-bird painting and will consider main issues concerning these genres. Such issues include the relative importance of different genres, the relationship between the natural and the human world, the roles of the court and literati in producing art, and the materiality and visuality of Song painting.

This course examines the representation of the Cosmos and of Creation narratives in the arts of Late Antiquity. While its focus will be the illumination of manuscripts of the Book of Genesis, attention will also be paid to competing Late Antique cosmologies, particularly the revival of interest in Plato's Timaeus. In addition to considering the implications of the varied manners in which the Genesis narrative is visualized, the course will investigate how the Jewish-Christian definition of a created cosmos conditioned understanding of one's being in the world and the ethical life.

Before the suppression of non-Christians in Spain and Portugal after 1492, three vibrant medieval cultures inhabited the peninsula: Muslims based in Al-Andalus, Christians based in the northern Spanish kingdoms, and Sephardic Jews throughout both realms. Their coexistence transformed their visual culture in ways that resonated well beyond Iberian borders, from Atlantic colonialism to modern identity politics. This course asks how the contacts, conflicts and compromises provoked by "living with" each other shaped artistic traditions and cultural identity in a land both enriched and destabilized by its own diversity.

How and why was Impressionism invented in Paris in the early 1870s, and why does it still matter today? This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition, celebrated by a new exhibition, Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism at the Musée d' Orsay and the National Gallery of Art. A trip to see this show in Washington will ground our investigation into the social conditions, geographies, and ideologies that informed this radical new way of painting. Readings will include primary sources alongside brand new and classic scholarship on the Impressionist avant-garde.

"Alienation" is a primary concern of modern art and literature. This seminar explores some of its principal formulations by artists, writers, and philosophers over the last two centuries.

The World Picture investigates the global turn in contemporary art with a focus on international mega-exhibitions as a form of worldmaking. Case studies of key exhibitions and debates within the broader history, ranging from 19th century worlds fairs and the earliest biennales to the explosion of recurring mega-exhibitions in the 1990s and recent traveling biennales. How do such exhibitions both reproduce and resist the economic and political logic of globalization? What are the particular urgencies of constructing or negating a world picture from the perspective of "the global south"? Field trip to Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.

This course examines the relationship of art and medicine in the construction and production of race in the British Empire from the early modern period until the beginning of the twentieth century. We will analyze how image-making has been used in the development of medical knowledge and how scientific concepts of vision and natural history have been incorporated into art making. We will then examine how these intersections were deployed to visualize and, sometimes, challenge continually changing meanings about human and geographical difference across Britain and its colonies.

How have collecting practices shaped the perception of Indigenous cultures in the Americas? The recognition and reception of native art and architecture reflects the evolving intellectual preoccupations of collectors over 500 years. Charting this history, topics will include the role of archaeological illustrations; the invocation of national identities; issues of appropriation in modern and contemporary art; the faking and restoration of objects; the ethical considerations of museum display; the reconstruction of ruins into tourist destinations; and misrepresentations in New Age religiosity, conspiracy theories, and popular entertainment.

Rembrandt (1606-1669) is an artist we feel we know, perhaps because he painted, etched and drew so many self-portraits. His art is characterized by an intense intimacy and humanity. Even in his own day, he was lauded for his ability to depict emotions in his narrative scenes, which elicit our empathy. We will study all aspects of Rembrandt's art and examine firsthand some of his works held by the Princeton University Art Museum and museums in New York City in order to help us understand his universal appeal.

A course concerned both with the theoretical foundations of art history as a modern discipline and with the methodological innovations of the last few decades.

This course is intended to ensure a continuing breadth of exposure to contemporary art-historical discourse and practices. It requires attendance and participation in the department lecture/seminar series. Students must take the course sequentially in each of their first four semesters and take the appropriate letter version of the course (A,B,C,or D) based on their semester of study. The course is taken in addition to the normal load of three courses per semester and is for first- and second-year graduate students only. Topics discussed cover all fields of Art History and address current questions and practices.

This seminar considers the possibilities of global art history: theory, method, and practice. Issues are treated in relation to the historiography and geography of art.

This seminar explores various connections between modernist art and socialist politics from the 1848 revolutions to the present. How were these links forged, and why were they broken? What (if anything) can we deduce about the relationship between vanguard aesthetics and politics then and now?

What modes of thought does photography produce, reproduce, and make possible? In turn, what has been thought, speculated about, and contributed to photographic discourse since (before) its inception in 1839? This graduate seminar moves thematically and roughly chronologically through photography theory, with an emphasis on those texts most influential to an art historical canon/interpretation of the medium. Graduate students from all departments are welcome.

This course is designed for post-generals students in the Department of Art & Archaeology who are currently conducting research for their dissertation under the supervision of a dissertation adviser of record in the department. This course provides a platform for students who have been nominated for/awarded an internship that is relevant to the student's dissertation research topic from a research institute, private foundation, outside organization, or another university. Enrollment in this course requires written approval, in advance, from the dissertation adviser and the Director of Graduate Studies.

An interdisciplinary, diachronic, and critical study of the senses in the ancient world. Explores how a variety of senses might be recovered from the past and assesses the possibilities and limitations of sensory approaches. Surveys the types of primary evidence that might be used, weighs the possibilities for objective interpretation, and considers the reasons for regional and chronological variation. Senses examined in their social, political, and cultural contexts and with attention to conceptions of bodies, perception, and ontology. Strengths and weaknesses of the secondary literature on the topic evaluated.

In this class, students of literature, art, and music read deeply and broadly in peer-reviewed journals in their disciplines and fields as a way of learning current scholarly debates and placing their scholarship in relationship to them. Students report each week on the trends in the last five years of any journal of their choice, writing up the articles' arguments and debates, while also revising a paper in relationship to those debates and preparing it for publication. This course enables students to leap forward in their scholarly writing through a better understanding of their fields and the significance of their work to them.

This course examines the comic book as an expressive medium in Japan. Reading a range of works, classic and contemporary, in a variety of genres, we consider: How has the particular history of Japan shaped cartooning as an art form there? What critical approaches can help us think productively about comics (and other popular culture)? How can we translate the effects of a visual medium into written scholarly language? What do changes in media technology, literacy, and distribution mean for comics today? Coursework will combine readings, written analysis, and technical exercises. All readings in English. No fine arts experience required.

Can experiences of looking at works of art shape not only how we think and feel and see, but also what we understand ourselves to be, as human beings? Two great 20-c. writers, poet Rainer Maria Rilke and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, believed they could. How did Freud's inquiries into aesthetic experience and the ways artists perceive the world inform the development of psychoanalysis? What moved Rilke to transform his writing in light of what he saw in modern art? Course focuses on the significance of art, and of practices of writing about art, in lyric poetry, experimental prose, psychoanalytic theory, and cultural analysis.

This course investigates ancient architecture beyond the disciplinary boundaries of Art History and Civil Engineering. Students will master relevant elements of structural engineering to solve problems underlying the realization of large structures, including their design, materials, and construction. Students will also historically contextualize architecture, including the technological developments, sociological aspects, and aesthetic underlying these monuments. Course projects are based on collaborative group work. In fall 2024, this course will focus on the architecture of ancient Greece, including a planned trip to Athens.

This course focuses on documentation and the returns of the real in Latin American fiction, art, photography, theater, and film that seek to represent, record, or enact the real, social life,and/or the natural world in an accurate, truthful way, and that claim to embody some kind of epistemological or evidentiary truth. We cover a wide range of debates about representation and realism, from nineteenth century non-fiction and the real maravilloso to more recent developments in documentary photography, theater, and film. Readings include texts by Arias, Barthes, Borges, Brecht, Bellatin, Carpentier, Foster, Jaar, Cabrera Infante, and Coutinho.

A required seminar for Art and Archaeology Practice of Art majors and Program in Visual Arts Minor students emphasizing contemporary art practices and ideas. The course addresses current issues in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, photography, performance and installation. It includes readings and discussions of current contemporary art topics, a visiting artist lecture series, critiques of students' work, and an artist book project.