This course traces the different paths of painting, sculpture, and photography in the U.S. and Western Europe between 1945 and 1989, between the end of World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall. We will follow the 'crisis of modernism,' the rise of post-modernism, and the effects of geopolitical tension on the visual arts.

This course examines the great ruptures in late 19th and early 20th century art that today we call modernist. It relates aspects of that art to the equally great transformations outside the studio: political revolution, the rise and consolidation of industrial capitalism, colonization and its discontents, and world war. It compares different kinds of modernisms, including those in Austria, France, Germany, Mexico, Spain and Russia.

This course covers the arts in Northern Europe during a time of upheaval. We will look at developments in panel painting, manuscript illumination, printmaking, and sculpture from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries--examining shifting patterns of patronage and production along with shifting styles, techniques, and media. We will consider major artists like Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Durer, and Pieter Bruegel, as well as seismic cultural shifts such as the print revolution, the emergence of the woman artist, the Reformation, and the origins of the art market.

This course surveys architecture from the ancient world to the present as both a functional response to human activity and as a medium that expresses cultural values. In the service of domestic life, religious ritual, political agendas, commerce, and leisure, architecture reflects and shapes the natural environment, technology, economics, and aesthetic taste. While the history of Western architecture constitutes the primary touchstone, we will pursue themes that include buildings, cities, and sites from around the world.

This course explores how artists, images, and objects have sparked revolution, defined identity, changed how people think and act, reflected and made history. We will examine moments of major change in the arts through close attention to specific themes, individuals, and works from the last seven centuries. The goal is not a fact-filled, comprehensive, strictly chronological overview, but rather an understanding of the ways in which the western visual legacy has profoundly shaped how we see the world around us.

In this course, students learn traditional practice and history of Japanese hand papermaking, while exploring contemporary applications of the method. Thin, translucent, resilient paper is great for drawing and printmaking, as well as for sculptural construction and paper casting. This fluidity of medium naturally encourages students to become interdisciplinary in their art making. The apparent fragility, structural strength, and surprising longevity of the material will be grounds for philosophical investigations into the nature of creativity.

Introduction to fundamental sculptural techniques and three-dimensional thinking. Various media are explored spanning traditional through digital approaches, with an emphasis on understanding the language of sculpture through concept and material.

This course introduces the basic principles and techniques of painting. Students will learn to use a variety of painting tools, to accurately see and mix colors, to analyze surface qualities, and to prepare supports. Working primarily from direct observation, they will strive to articulate form, to capture spatial relationships, to create purposeful compositions, and to make meaningful images. Subjects will include still life, figure, interiors, and the landscape.

This hands-on interdisciplinary introduction to the tools and practices of 2D, 3D, and 4D art will encompass multiple approaches including drawing, sculptural construction, site-specificity, and video. Students will undertake conceptual exploration in conjunction with formal and technical skill-building and interdisciplinary dialogue, including a studio-based exploration of museum objects in a post-colonial context. Studio work will be supplemented with critiques, discussion, collaboration, and research, as well as study of relevant contemporary and historical artists.

This intensive drawing course will challenge students' assumptions about the world around them. The course will begin from the beginning, using an embodied connection to the tools of drawing to explore foundational elements of space, line, plane, surface, and tone. This course is grounded in hands-on methods where students will work with a variety of drawing media to tap into both the analytic and expressive capacities of the medium.