Art History 291 - COLQ:TOPICS IN ART HISTORY

Topics course. This course seeks to unravel the critical, scholarly, commercial and curatorial trends that contributed to making Impressionism one of the most well-researched and revered movements in art history. Readings, class discussion and assignments juxtapose different, sometimes conflicting, interpretations of artworks, highlighting how these reflect intellectual and ethical assumptions about what matters most in art-and, by extension, society in general. From formal analysis to more recent art historical approaches, informed by gender and sexuality studies, our investigation brings us to consider the merits and limitations of studying the ``canon'' and what, if anything, remains to be said about Impressionism. Prerequisite: one 200-level ARH course; not open to first-year students

Topic: Why Impressionism? Autopsy of an Art Historical, Commercial and Curatorial Obsession.