THAD Courses
THAD H441-02
HISTORY OF DRAWING
SECTION DESCRIPTION
As a stimulus to the imagination, method of investigation, or as a basic means of communication, drawing is a fundamental process of human thought. This class will examine various kinds of drawings from the history of art and visual culture moving chronologically from the medieval to the post-modern. Our studies will have a hands-on approach, meeting behind the scenes in the collections of the RISD Museum. Working from objects directly will be supplemented by readings and writing assignments as well as active classroom discussion. This seminar is recommended for THAD concentrators and students especially interested in drawing.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H445-01
CRITICAL DISCOURSE ON THE BLACK FEMALE BODY
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This seminar focuses on the history, discourses and transformations of the black female body as contested site of sexuality, resistance, representation, agency and identity in American visual culture. Organized thematically, with examples drawn from painting, sculpture, photography, film, popular culture and mixed media installations, we examine how the deployment, manipulations and construction of the signification of the asexualized mammy complex is juxtaposed against the jezebel vixen in a shifting terrain from the antebellum era through the post-racial decade of the 21st century.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H447-01
VISUAL CULTURE IN FREUD'S VIENNA
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course will examine the visual culture pertinent to Sigmund Freud and his contemporaries in turn-of-the-century Vienna. We shall look at the modernist art of Austrian painters such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, as well as the minor arts of illustration, photography, scientific imaging, and film in light of Freud's psychoanalytic ideas. Classes will be devoted to topics such as avant-garde postcard design, ethnographic photography, and scientific images including x-rays and surgical films. The silent erotic "Saturn" films that were screened in Vienna from 1904-1910 will also be considered. Requirements include mid-term and final exams, two essays, and interest in the subject (no past experience needed).
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H462-01
THE RENAISSANCE EMBODIED
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Renaissance depictions of the body range from muscular, idealized nudes to decaying, but ambulatory, corpses. In Europe, artists dissected human cadavers and, for the first time since antiquity, reflected the use of living models in their workshops and studios. In this course, we examine works that embodied early modern ideas about power and dependence, race and class, gender and sexuality, death and disease, the divine and demonic, the marginalized and the fantastic. Focusing on the artist's studio and early modern practice, we consider a diverse set of bodies as they were represented in paintings, sculpture, drawings, decorative arts, books and prints in relation to contemporary spiritual, political, and social concerns. We also consider the role of the artist in `documenting' travel, conquest, and empire from approximately 1450-1700.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H476-01
CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course focuses on contemporary art in and out of Africa, with specific reference to Nigeria. Our objective is to situate Contemporary Nigerian Art within the dialectics of modernism and postmodernism beginning first with the colonial implantation of the modernist trend in Africa. We examine the impact on the artistic vision and direction of the major artists in Africa, while highlighting the careers of their counterparts operating outside the continent within the postmodernist currents of Paris, New York, London, Berlin, etc.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H504-01
ART AND RELIGION ON THE SILK ROAD - PART A
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course will focus on the cultural and artistic activities which came into being as a result of contacts between the civilizations of Europe and Asia (China in particular). Among the topics explored will be: the ancient world, the Silk Route and Buddhism, the nomads of Eurasia as agents of cultural exchange, early European travelers to China (Marco Polo), the Jesuits at the court of the Chinese emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and finally the Western colonial experience.
Elective
THAD H509-01
EGYPT & THE AEGEAN IN THE BRONZE AGE
SECTION DESCRIPTION
The Bronze Age saw the development of several advanced civilizations in the Mediterranean basin. Perhaps the best-known among these is the civilization of Pharaonic Egypt. This course will focus on the art and architecture of Egypt and their neighbors to the north: the Aegean civilizations known as Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean. While art historical study of these cultures will be emphasized, evidence for trade and other cultural interchange between them will also be discussed. The course will cover such topics as the Pyramids of Giza, the Tomb of Tutankhamun, and the Palace of Knossos.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H583-01
AFRICAN AMERICAN ART
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course explores the diversity of form, style, and narrative content of works created by African American artists from the antebellum period to the present. Specific attention will be devoted to several underlining issues including but not limited to identity, race, class, ethnicity, representation, sexuality and aesthetic sensibilities.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H604-01
ART AND RELIGION ON THE SILK ROAD - PART B
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This corequisite course (Art and Religion on the Silk Road - Part B) is a required supplement to Art and Religion on the Silk Road - Part A. The course is designed as an additional workshop consisting of museum and library visits and hands on work on materials in those collections which relate to the topics explored in Part A. Readings will assigned ahead of these visits to gain an understanding of the material seen. Written responses to the readings and the visits are due weekly. In addition, to the RISD Museum collections (Asian Art, Costume and Textiles, Decorative Arts, Classical Antiquities) and the Fleet Library special collections, we will tentatively visit the John Carter Brown Library, the Hay Library and the Haffereffer Museum at Brown University. Provided funds will be available, we may visit the Boston Museum of Fine arts, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem MA, and the Harvard Art Museum.
Elective
THAD H607-01
PHOENIX AND THE DRAGON: CHINESE ART, MYTH AND RELIGION
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course will introduce the arts of China through the lens of native and imported religious and philosophical traditions, exploring different approaches to representation and belief. After an introduction to the anthropological study of religion, we will cover four main periods: the pre-historic (Paleolithic - Neolithic), the early dynastic (ca. 2000 - 221 BCE), the imperial (221 BCE - 1911), and the modern-contemporary (post 1911). We will focus on elite and folk approaches to representation and belief with an emphasis on mythology and symbolism. Topics to be explored include: the dragon and the phoenix as symbols, the Han search for immortality, Buddhist cave temples, Taoist landscape painting, the Confucian scholar tradition, ritual garments, the influence of European culture and Christianity, and Communist personality cult.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students..
Elective
THAD H608-01
THAD MUSEUM FELLOWSHIP
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Registration by application only. Application is restricted to concentrators in The Theory & History of Art & Design. A call for applications will be sent to all THAD concentrators.
Please contact the instructor for permission to register; registration is not available in Workday.
Elective
THAD H608-01
THAD MUSEUM FELLOWSHIP
SECTION DESCRIPTION
Registration by application only. Application is restricted to concentrators in The Theory & History of Art & Design. A call for applications will be sent to all THAD concentrators.
Please contact the instructor for permission to register; registration is not available in Workday.
Elective
THAD H623-01
BLACK WOMEN ARTISTS IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course examines the artistic images of black women artists in the African Diaspora. We will investigate how race, gender, sexuality and ethnicity have shaped and continues to shape black female identity and artistic productions particularly in the USA, Europe, Britain, Brazil and the Caribbean.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H653-01
INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURE OF THE AMERICAS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course will explore the architectural traditions of the Indigenous cultures of North America, Mesoamerica, and South America in historic perspective. Examinations will focus on the critical cultural and environmental circumstances which led to the development of distinctive architectural styles throughout the Americas. Approached from an anthropological/archaeological perspective, specific topics of discussion will include the following: construction methods and material choices, spatial arrangements and use areas, the relationship between physical and social community structure, and architectural manifestation of cultural belief systems. Emphasis will also be placed on manipulations of the landscape in response to social and climatic needs. Architectural culture discussed in this course will range widely in scale, dispersal and geography - from the igloo of a small Inuit hunting party to the entire Mayan city of Chichen Itza, to the terrace and irrigation systems of the Inca.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H705-01
YORUBA ART & AESTHETICS
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course provides an art historical survey and thematic exploration of 9 centuries of Yoruba Art and Aesthetics and its intercession with history (including but not limited to colonialism and postcolonial impact, interventions, and discourses), religion, philosophy, and the socio-political beliefs of one of Africa's most ancient civilizations, and a visible presence in the African Diaspora.
Open to Sophomore, Junior or Senior Undergraduate Students.
Elective
THAD H728-01
ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This lecture course offers a broad introduction to the architecture, pictorial arts, and visual and material culture of the Middle Ages in the Latin West, Greek-speaking East, and across the transcultural Mediterranean c. 300–1450 CE. It provides an overview of the concepts, developments, and vocabulary necessary for analyzing and understanding the arts of the medieval period in light of the historical, religious, social, cultural, conceptual, and esthetic contexts and of their production and reception. Topics to be examined include the creation of a vocabulary of medieval imagery and architectural forms; uses of and attitudes toward the classical tradition; art and its makers, patrons, and audiences; materials and techniques of medieval art-making; the arts of religious and devotional practice; the relationships of word and image; the imaginative, multisensory, and performative dimensions of medieval art and architecture; medieval cultural exchange and colonization; art and ideologies; the relationship between art and nature; and the functions of and controversies concerning images in the medieval world. Museum visits will provide the opportunity to discuss objects firsthand.
Elective
THAD H729-01
THE ARTIST FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE RENAISSANCE
SECTION DESCRIPTION
One of the most influential art historians of the past decades, Hans Belting, argued that images made in Europe before the Renaissance constituted an “era before art.” Belting established an authoritative binary between the beautiful and aesthetic Artworks of the Renaissance (with their illusionary space and market value) and the functional cult images of the Middle Ages and Antiquity. Built into this binary is the perceived paucity of the pre-modern artist. This has, since the Renaissance, given rise to often wild and stubbornly-lodged views of pre-modern makers as servile, anonymous, theology-bound men who barely rose above artisanship. But was that really the case? As we find ourselves struggling with artistic identity today in the face of AI, NFTs, and pseudonymous celebrity artists, this seminar offers an opportunity to seek insight from ancient and medieval theories of art, creation, gender, and aesthetics. We will consider artists’ handbooks and contracts; literary and historical sources; and a range of depictions of artists at work, including self-portraits.
THAD H741-01
EARLY 20TH CENTURY ART
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course offers students an introduction to Western modern art, covering movements in Europe and Northern America from about 1900 to 1950, such as Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Futurism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. Contextualizing the artistic developments of the -isms with social and historical agendas of their respective times will support our understanding not only of change of formal elements, but also change in political landscapes. Special focus will be put on artists and groups such as the bridge, the blue rider, Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Malevich, Duchamp, Douglas, Rivera, O'Keefe, Pollock. Participation, in-class presentations, and a final paper are required for this course.
Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD H750-01
SEM: OPEN SEMINAR IN THAD
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This experimental seminar is a space for students to explore issues in the history of art and visual culture. You may work, independent-study style, on any topic that specially interests you. Research will be done in dialogue with fellow students and a faculty facilitator. On the first day of class we will discuss topics of common interest, and develop a provisional semester plan and a list of readings. As the conversation develops over subsequent weeks, our plan may be adjusted or even completely revised. Coursework will be tailored to the needs of individual participants. This class is recommended for THAD Concentrators. Graduate students interested in the Theory & History of Art & Design are invited to join this seminar.
Open to Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.
Elective
THAD W149-101
TEA, COFFEE OR CHOCOLATE? THE VISUAL AND MATERIAL CULTURE OF EXOTIC DRINKS IN PRE-INDUSTRIAL EUROPE
SECTION DESCRIPTION
We are so familiar with these three hot drinks but they became commodities and part of our everyday only recently. This course explores what values were attached to these plants before the era of industrialized production, i.e. before ca. 1800. We will survey how Westerners adopted these beverages by looking at medical theories, the issue of morality, and the expansion of sugar production. We will also study how the craving for these products reinforced or even spurred slavery in French, Dutch, and English colonies. Special attention is dedicated to how ritual behavior affects design in terms of the sociability around these beverages, required manners, and the tableware crafted for them. The methodology is based on the analysis of images, discussions of assigned readings, written responses, visits to museums (RISD and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston), and touring the facility of a chocolate artisan.
Elective