Course Listings

HISTORY OF ART and ARCHITECTURE COURSE OFFERINGS

SPRING 2024 

Note that courses are arranged by Subject Area:  Introductory survey courses, First-Year Seminars, 1000W courses, then courses in Global, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque, and Modern Art, followed by Elective courses and Advanced Seminars.

 

HART 1105: History of Western Art: Renaissance to Modern Art. 
An introductory survey of Western art history from the Renaissance to the Modern period, considering primarily painting, sculpture, and architecture. Please note that the chronological and thematic range of material covered will vary somewhat depending on the instructor. HART 1105 is intended to provide a historical understanding of the major artistic movements within the Western visual tradition, and to encourage students to develop a literate and critical eye. Attention is given to works of specific artists, as well as cultural factors that affect the visual arts from production to reception. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: HCA). 

 

HART 1121: History of Western Architecture I. 
From prehistoric Europe and Western Asia to Renaissance Italy and the Ottoman Golden Age. Form and function; historical, social, spatial contexts; architects and patrons. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Betsey Robinson. (AXLE: HCA). 

 

HART 1220: History of Asian Architecture: Tradition and Transformation.  
An exploration of the cultural traditions of Asia from the 1st millennium BCE to the 19th century through their architecture. Cities, temples, and domestic architecture of China, Japan, Korea, South Asia (India and Pakistan), and Southeast Asia will all be discussed. Questions considered during the course are: Does the architecture of Asia embody unique qualities? How did building materials, climatic conditions, ideology and religious beliefs affect the form and development of these structures?
What impact did increased commercial exchange with the West have on the architecture of Asia during the 18th and 19th centuries? We will also be learning a basic vocabulary of architectural terminology by which to discuss the building traditions of Asia as they relate to architecture across the globe. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Tracy Miller. (AXLE: INT).

 

HART 1300: Monuments and Masterpieces.
The Athenian Parthenon, the Pantheon in Rome, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling, the Hall of Gold in Japan; and the U.S. Capitol are among the major Global monuments and masterpieces through which we will explore the ways in which objects of all kinds both contribute to the shaping of the human experience and provide evidence of political, social, religious, economic, and other transformations throughout history. The instructor, as well as many guest lecturers from the Dept. of History of Art and Architecture, will unravel the multiple meanings that these objects possess, in the process demonstrating how historians analyze works for their immediate qualities, but also use them to answer questions that go far beyond the things themselves. Although the course will not be a comprehensive survey, we will see how and why many cultures made and used works of art, and gain new insights on how material objects were the medium through which social and personal relationships were negotiated, and historical change was navigated. Counts toward HART Major, Minor, and ARCH Major, Minor as a 1000-level course. [3] Matthew Worsnick with HART department faculty as weekly guest lecturers, each in their field of specialty. (AXLE: INT). 

 

HART 1111-21: When L.A. Glowed: The Sub/Urban Built Environment. First-Year Writing Seminar. 
How does a landscape like that of Los Angeles, CA appear differently to people with a variety of embodied vantage points? Said perspectives are not only geographic but also rooted in social class, racial grouping, gender expression, sexual orientation, citizenship status, bodily ability, education level, professional network, and comparable valences of difference. We will consider these positionalities in relationship to the greater L.A. metropolitan area at its peak of demographic significance in the late 20th Century, when L.A. became an internationally known case study both for its high modernist urban planning and for the rise of a postmodern urban culture. Will count toward the HART Major or Minor or ARCH Major or Minor as an elective with departmental permission. [3] Peter Chesney. (AXLE: US). 

 

HART 2130: The Arts of Japan.
Artistic production from the Neolithic through Meiji periods in relation to religious and cultural contexts. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement for the HART Major, HART Minor; and ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2151: Architecture and Gardens in Imperial China.
This course is an introduction to the rich and complex architectural tradition of China during its imperial period (221 BCE – 1911). We will be exploring changes in the society, imperial institution, and intellectual traditions of China through its built environment. Topics to be discussed include: theories behind building and fengshui, imperial city planning, the creation of imperial temples to control the forces of nature, the impact of Buddhism on ritual architecture, the monastic and temple complexes of religious Daoism and Confucianism, the development of landscape art and its manifestation in Imperial and private contexts, and the encoding of patriarchy in the vernacular architecture of both north and south China. The course is structured chronologically, but within each time period emphasis will be placed on the cultural context of the works discussed, be it practical, political, or spiritual. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement for the HART Major, HART Minor; and toward the ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Tracy Miller. (AXLE: INT). 

 

HART 2165: Modern and Contemporary Asian Art.
What are modernity and contemporaneity in Asian art? How did art develop in relation to Asia’s dynamic histories, marked by colonial rule, revolution, warfare, postcolonial nation-building, the Cold War, dictatorship, democratic struggles, and globalization? This course explores the development of Art in Asia from the 19th century to the present, including East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The course looks at a wide variety of art forms, from traditional media of painting, sculpture, and architecture to recently emerged media such as installation, performance, photography, film, and video, and the social, political, and historical contexts in which these particular works were produced and circulated. Students will develop the vocabulary and visual reasoning necessary to analyze a wide variety of artworks and situate them within a historical and theoretical context. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement or the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major, HART Minor. [3] Boyoung Chang. (AXLE: INT).

 

HART 2810W: Museum Exhibition: Japanese Woodblock Prints. 
Culture of museums and exhibition. Object handling, storage, and display. Ethics of exhibition including of objects from various cultures. Contextual presentation of art. Culminates in plan for online or physical exhibition. Focus for Spring 24 is on Japanese Woodblock Prints. This course will count toward the “Global” area requirement for the HART Major, HART Minor. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: P).
 

 

HART 2285: Medieval Art. 
 
An introduction to the major and minor arts of later medieval Europe in the West from ca. 1000- ca. 1400 CE. Lectures will provide a chronological armature for the course, readings will suggest themes beyond the stylistic development of Romanesque and Gothic art, and primary sources will allow us a glimpse of the concerns of medieval people. The patronage of this period is overwhelmingly Christian, and our focus will be on Western Europe, but we will also consider the impact of the art of the Byzantine Church, and the art that emerged with the coming of Islam in the 7th century. This course will count toward the "Medieval" area requirement for the HART Major, HART Minor; ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Elizabeth Moodey. (AXLE: HCA).
 

HART 2362: Fifteenth-Century Northern European Art.   
A survey of the major developments in the painting and sculpture of Northern Europe, including the Netherlands and France, from the mid- to late fourteenth through the fifteenth century. Our focus will be on Netherlandish Painting, and key artists to be considered, time permitting, include the Limbourg Brothers, Claus Sluter, Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin (the Master of Flémalle), Rogier van der Weyden, Dieric Bouts, Petrus Christus, Hugo van der Goes, Geertgen tot sint Jans, Hans Memling, Gerard David, and Hieronymus Bosch. Our analysis of the period will progress roughly chronologically, as we consider specific artists and regional schools. In class lecture and discussion, there will be particular emphasis upon stylistic progression, iconographic interpretation and meaning, the role of patronage and audience, original physical and cultural context, the workshop tradition, and scientific analysis. This course will count toward the “Renaissance and Baroque” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Sheri Shaneyfelt. (AXLE: HCA).
 

HART 2662: Art and the Environment in the United States.
How are images used to convey environmental concerns, historically and today? In this course, we will discuss how art and the environment impacted each other in the United States from roughly 1800 to the present. While not a survey, we will thematically and chronologically chart movements including nature and the formation of US national identity and empire; the tradition of landscape painting; materials and ecology; the city and nature; land art/environment as medium; and photography and the visualization of disaster. We will study the ways in which art historians have interpreted these topics in recent scholarship, including eco-criticism and new materialism. Discussions will be situated with respect to concepts shaping the broader field of the environmental humanities, such as the Anthropocene (and its derivatives, like the Capitalocene, etc.), political ecology, traditional ecological knowledge/Indigenous approaches to the natural world, and multi-species ethnography. Guest speakers will share current interdisciplinary research in the field. Encounter with art objects and environmental settings will be prioritized, including visits to Nashville’s Parthenon museum collection, the Tennessee State Museum, and the Vanderbilt campus arboretum. This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor, ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Lee Ann Custer. (AXLE: US).

 

HART 2710: Twentieth-Century European Art. 

A survey of major movements and artists, with examples from painting, architecture, prints, sculpture, performance and conceptual art, music, and cinema. Emphasis is placed on a close examination of the stylistic elements of the artworks, with that analysis contextualized within the social, political, and economic dynamics of the time in which they were made. Instruction places a heavy emphasis on the ideological nature of art and on its role as a major indicator of its time and place. This course will count toward the "Modern" area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor. [3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: HCA).   

 

HART 2650: Nineteenth-Century Architecture, Theory and Practice. 

This course will survey architectural theory and production in Europe and North America from the French Revolution to the First World War. We will consider design issues, as well as the relationships between architecture and technology, between architectural practice and political regimes, between architecture and social formations, and between architectural design and conceptions of history. Some of the specific topics to be discussed include Neoclassicism, the École des Beaux-Arts, the Gothic Revival in France and England, Paris in the Second Empire, the Arts-and-Crafts Movement, and Commercial Architecture and the Art Nouveau.This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor, ARCH Major, ARCH Minor. [3] Kevin Murphy. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 3735: History of Photography.
Uses and meanings of photography from its invention in ca. 1839 to the present. Ways of thinking about the medium and its status as a separate discipline in relation to the history of art. This course will count toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART major, HART Minor. [3] Boyoung Chang. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 2808W: Contemporary Issues in Museums.
This course is a dive into contemporary controversies and challenges in museum work via three units. We will examine the shifting place of museums in societies today in light of their histories, practice, and the scholarly and public responses to them. We will look at a set of local Nashville institutions through a lens of the course content, which will address a series of core issues within each of the unit topics and some representative case studies in each. Discussion and writing will be core to working through the (often controversial) material in this class. Topics include: collecting and display, human remains in collections, restitution and repatriation, accessibility, colonial histories, DEI/EDI concerns and efforts, economics of cultural heritage, and more.The course will include guest speakers and visits to local museums. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major, HART Minor. [3] Susan Dine. (AXLE: P). 

 

CMA 2370: Film and Media Aesthetics - History of Sound Art.
Cinema, television, and digital media. Advanced historical, cultural, and textual analysis. Form, genre, movements, style, and technology. This course will count as an Elective for the HART Major, Minor. [3] Lutz Koepnick. (AXLE: HCA).

 

HART 3765W: Monuments and Memorials, 1900-present.
This course will critically examine monuments and memorials in the 20th and 21st centuries, approaching them through the substantial body of scholarship on them in multiple disciplines. We will consider memorialization practices globally, with a focus on their pervasive presence in Europe, North America, and post-colonial settings. Among topics are memorialization of the civil rights movement and the Holocaust, the U.S. Civil War, the Boer and Balkan Wars, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War. Thematic foci include counter-monuments, history and memory, and preservation. This course will count as an Advanced Seminar or toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major, and as an Advanced Seminar, course in Architectural History, or Elective for the ARCH Major; also counts toward HART and ARCH Minors. [3] Matthew Worsnick. (AXLE: HCA). 

 

HART 3767W: Neo-Dada and Pop Art.
Artistic movements at the end of modernism and beginning of postmodernism, 1955-1980. Intersection with music, consumer culture, advertising, and economics. Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein. Issues of gender and sexuality through construction of femininity and masculinity. This course will count as an Advanced Seminar or toward the “Modern” area requirement for the HART Major; HART Minor.[3] Jack Crawford. (AXLE: US).

 

10/9/2023