Why does film seem obsessed with the figure of the artist? How are art histories told through such biopics? Why do such films have such popular effect? What do these representations have to do with longstanding myths about artistic production and artists? What is the cultural role of such tellings of "making"? And, most importantly, how do these films reproduce, or maybe subvert, the colonial, patriarchal, and racialist figurations of the artist that dominate Western culture still? What happens when film, history, myth, and art intersect? This course examines the intermediality of film, historical narrative and the arts through a selection of artist biopics from feature film and documentary. Centered around questions of the representation of artistic myths (of "genius" or "bohemian suffering," for example) in relation to the construction of popular art histories, this course will ask what happens when film attempts to "tell" the story of art, how audiences receive such stories, how cinema obsesses upon the relationship of film to other media, and how these constructions of artistic "culture" tend to subvert or reproduce gendered, classist, and neo-colonial assumptions of artists, artistic process, and history itself. Various theoretical approaches on the subject will also be studied, from Panofsky to Berger (Doris and John) to theorists of historical film and theorists of popular culture and the intersection between the visual and literary arts (visual cultural theorists like WJT Mitchell and Nicholas Mirzhoeff). We'll focus upon ten films in our journey through these questions, from three films about Van Gogh (Minelli, Schnabel, Kurasawa), to the 90s Hollywood productions like Pollock and Basquiat and documentary responses to them (Hans Namuth on Pollock) to the issue of gender in the genre of artistic biopic (Seraphine, Artemesia, Camille Claudel, Frida), to the "querying" of these lines in queer artist biopics like CARRAVAGGIO (Derek Jarman), to a final decolonizing analysis of films about Gauguin and Turner. Students will explore these questions through weekly short essays and a longer final essay (10-12 pages) that asks them to explore one film from outside the syllabus (from a list provided).

Offered as THAD-C708 and LAS-C708.

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into the designated section(s).

Major Requirement | BFA

Why does film seem obsessed with the figure of the artist? How are art histories told through such biopics? Why do such films have such popular effect? What do these representations have to do with longstanding myths about artistic production and artists? What is the cultural role of such tellings of "making"? And, most importantly, how do these films reproduce, or maybe subvert, the colonial, patriarchal, and racialist figurations of the artist that dominate Western culture still? What happens when film, history, myth, and art intersect? This course examines the intermediality of film, historical narrative and the arts through a selection of artist biopics from feature film and documentary. Centered around questions of the representation of artistic myths (of "genius" or "bohemian suffering," for example) in relation to the construction of popular art histories, this course will ask what happens when film attempts to "tell" the story of art, how audiences receive such stories, how cinema obsesses upon the relationship of film to other media, and how these constructions of artistic "culture" tend to subvert or reproduce gendered, classist, and neo-colonial assumptions of artists, artistic process, and history itself. Various theoretical approaches on the subject will also be studied, from Panofsky to Berger (Doris and John) to theorists of historical film and theorists of popular culture and the intersection between the visual and literary arts (visual cultural theorists like WJT Mitchell and Nicholas Mirzhoeff). We'll focus upon ten films in our journey through these questions, from three films about Van Gogh (Minelli, Schnabel, Kurasawa), to the 90s Hollywood productions like Pollock and Basquiat and documentary responses to them (Hans Namuth on Pollock) to the issue of gender in the genre of artistic biopic (Seraphine, Artemesia, Camille Claudel, Frida), to the "querying" of these lines in queer artist biopics like CARRAVAGGIO (Derek Jarman), to a final decolonizing analysis of films about Gauguin and Turner. Students will explore these questions through weekly short essays and a longer final essay (10-12 pages) that asks them to explore one film from outside the syllabus (from a list provided).

Offered as THAD-C708 and LAS-C708.

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

This is a required course for all first year and transfer students to introduce them to global modern and contemporary art, architecture and design in the period between 1750 and the present. The course addresses modernism as a global project, presenting several case studies from across the world that unfold to show how multiple kinds of modernism developed in different times and distant places. By presenting alternate, sometimes contradictory stories about modern and contemporary art and design, along with a set of critical terms specific to these times and places, the class aims to foster a rich, complex understanding of the many narratives that works of art and design can tell. With this grounding, students will be well positioned to pursue their interests in specialized courses in subsequent semesters. 
 
Registration process: First-year students are registered into sections by the Liberal Arts Division.
Transfer and sophomore and above students should register into the evening section offered in the fall. 
 
For schedule conflicts during lecture times, please contact the Academic Programs Coordinator in the Liberal Arts Division office. For issues with registration, contact the Registrar's office for assistance. 
 

Major Requirement | BFA

This is a required course for all first year and transfer students to introduce them to global modern and contemporary art, architecture and design in the period between 1750 and the present. The course addresses modernism as a global project, presenting several case studies from across the world that unfold to show how multiple kinds of modernism developed in different times and distant places. By presenting alternate, sometimes contradictory stories about modern and contemporary art and design, along with a set of critical terms specific to these times and places, the class aims to foster a rich, complex understanding of the many narratives that works of art and design can tell. With this grounding, students will be well positioned to pursue their interests in specialized courses in subsequent semesters. 
 
Registration process: First-year students are registered into sections by the Liberal Arts Division.
Transfer and sophomore and above students should register into the evening section offered in the fall. 
 
For schedule conflicts during lecture times, please contact the Academic Programs Coordinator in the Liberal Arts Division office. For issues with registration, contact the Registrar's office for assistance. 
 

Major Requirement | BFA

Continuing from critical frameworks established in H101: Global Modernisms, the second semester of the introduction to art history turns to designed, built, and crafted objects and environments. The course does not present a conventional history of the modern movement, but rather engages with a broad range of materials, makers, traditions, sites, and periods in the history of architecture and design. Global in scope, spanning from the ancient world to the present, and organized thematically, the lectures explicitly challenge Western-modernist hierarchies and question myths of race, gender, labor, technology, capitalism, and colonialism. The course is intended to provide students with critical tools for interrogating the past as well as imagining possible futures for architecture and design. 
Required for graduation for all undergraduates. 
 
First year students are registered into sections by the Liberal Arts Division. Transfer and sophomore and above students should register into the evening section offered in the spring.

For schedule conflicts during lecture times, please contact the Academic Programs Coordinator in the Liberal Arts Division office. For issues with registration, contact the Registrar's office for assistance.
 

Major Requirement | BFA

Continuing from critical frameworks established in H101: Global Modernisms, the second semester of the introduction to art history turns to designed, built, and crafted objects and environments. The course does not present a conventional history of the modern movement, but rather engages with a broad range of materials, makers, traditions, sites, and periods in the history of architecture and design. Global in scope, spanning from the ancient world to the present, and organized thematically, the lectures explicitly challenge Western-modernist hierarchies and question myths of race, gender, labor, technology, capitalism, and colonialism. The course is intended to provide students with critical tools for interrogating the past as well as imagining possible futures for architecture and design. 
Required for graduation for all undergraduates. 
 
First year students are registered into sections by the Liberal Arts Division. Transfer and sophomore and above students should register into the evening section offered in the spring.

For schedule conflicts during lecture times, please contact the Academic Programs Coordinator in the Liberal Arts Division office. For issues with registration, contact the Registrar's office for assistance.
 

Major Requirement | BFA