RISD Undergraduate Degrees - BFA: History of Art + Visual Culture

RISD distinguishes itself among art schools by emphasizing the value of liberal arts studies as a complement to studio work. A firm grounding in the liberal arts will give you, among others things, a confident grasp of historical, cultural and social contexts; a strong critical vocabulary; skill in creative research; and an improved ability to express yourself in speaking and writing.

To graduate, students are required to complete 14 three-credit courses in Liberal Arts: three courses in English (9 credits), four courses in the History of Art and Visual Culture (12 credits), three courses in History, Philosophy and the Social Sciences (9 credits), and four additional courses (12 credits) in any of the three departments or in special divisional electives that fall outside those departments.

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HISTORY OF ART + VISUAL CULTURE OVERVIEW

The History of Art and Visual Culture (HAVC) Department offers courses spanning a wide range of media, time periods and critical perspectives, covering topics as diverse as museum culture, landscape in American film, architecture and urbanism in Berlin, and African women artists. Courses run the gamut from the artistic traditions of the world to critical theory and visual culture, art historiography, aesthetics, and the histories of various media.

OPTIONAL CONCENTRATION IN HISTORY OF ART + VISUAL CULTURE

As an upperclass student, you may choose to pursue a Concentration in Art History (9 courses/27 credits), which takes advantage of the rich resources in the RISD Museum of Art and the Fleet Library at RISD.

Requirements

• 2 courses (6 credits):
– Introduction to Art History
– Topics in Art History

• 2 courses (6 credits) from any of the following:
– Contemporary Art History and Criticism
– Methodology and Historiography
– Philosophy of Art and/or Sociology of Art, Aesthetics

• 3 courses (9 credits) from any three of the following categories:
– Prehistory through Medieval
– Renaissance through 1800
– 19th and 20th centuries
– Asian, African, Islamic, or Indigenous Arts of the Americas

• 2 courses (6 credits) from any of the following categories:
– area courses or studio/art history team-taught courses
– museum studies, museum/art history team-taught courses
– two of the above categories

SELECTED COURSES

Egypt and the Aegean in the
Bronze Age
French Surrealism
The Gothic Cathedral
History of Design
Modern Exhibition Culture
The Myth of the City
Theories of Photography
Venetian Color
West Non-west:
Reorienting Modernism

African Arts and Culture
Architecture and City: The Pre-Modern
Muslim World
Architecture in the Baroque Age
The Art and Archeology of China
Art Conservation
Art Writing Workshop
Berlin: History in the Built Environment
Black Women Artists of the Diaspora
A Critical Art History of Cinema
Early Christian Art