Academic Bulletin Art - 2011-12

Currently viewing 2011-12 bulletin

Faculty: D. Calisch (chair), E. Morton, S. Rossi

The Curriculum. Course work takes place on three levels: Foundations (100 level), Intermediate (200 level), and Advanced (300 and 400 level). On all three levels, the student is asked to develop his ability to understand, and to assign ideas and emotions visual form. This progress is realized through improving technical control of particular media or deepening his understanding of visual expression. Both in studio courses and art history offerings, the art student studies the work of other artists, past and present, in order to understand the significance of visual culture. Whether doing studio work or art historical research, students are expected to widen their understanding of the visual world.

The purposes of art history courses are to develop a greater understanding of human creativity as manifested in the visual imagery of all societies across time. The student develops analytical, research, writing, and verbal skills as well as a descriptive vocabulary as he investigates the artistic achievements of diverse societies, historical periods and styles, and critical theories and methodologies. Art history courses support the studio by offering the student a wide range of creative solutions to the various technical and intellectual problems that are presented in the studio. Studio courses, in turn, support the work in art history by providing the student with the opportunity to experience the creative process first hand and to become personally aware of the potential and the limitations of art making.

Goals of the Department. By the end of the senior year, the student majoring in art has pursued those discoveries, made first in the foundations and intermediate-level courses that seem most important to him. He has discovered for himself what it is to work in a disciplined way as an artist and/or art historian. He has realized that art making or art historical study is an individual process, which usually involves testing new areas of thought, methods, and/or materials. He has developed a critical engagement with the past, especially with historical questions and experiments, and he has begun to evaluate the present. Benefiting from discourse with colleagues and faculty, the student has also begun to set his own problems and his own path for finding possible solutions to them. He also has accepted responsibility for evaluating these solutions. He is expected to have sufficient control of his chosen field and to be sufficiently able to arrive at insights that can be expressed through it, so that he can produce work worthy to be included in a capstone course taken by all senior majors. (For studio students this would be an exhibition of their work and for art history students this would be a semester-long research project.) In the case of the best student, this experience is also able to challenge all of us to think and see differently.

Students will have the choice within the art major of focusing in either Studio or Art History. Both “tracks” require students to select from a group of entry-level courses, taking a minimum of four, creating a common early experience for all art majors. In addition, all majors will take 20th Century Art History. The two tracks have specific requirements above these common courses that build a focused experience for either the art history student or the studio art student. Although the two tracks move students in different directions, art majors (from either track) continue to share additional experiences through the exhibition program, shared field trips, and a small “tight” department. The written comprehensive exam is structured to allow the student a choice of questions that best test their “track” within the major.

Requirements for a MAJOR: Studio Track

Foundation Level Courses:
Take two courses (120 and one course from 121 or 123).
   120 2-D Art, one course credit.
   121 3-D Art, one course credit.
   123 Ceramics, one course credit.

Intermediate Level Courses:
Take both courses.
   227 Sculpture, one course credit.
   228 Painting, one course credit.

Advanced Level Courses:
Take one course credit.
   330 and/or 331 Advanced Studio, one-half or one course credit, each semester.

Senior Studio:
Take one course credit.
   432 and/or 433 Senior Studio, one-half or one course credit, each semester.

In addition, a student taking a studio track must take two Art History course credits including:
   209 20th Century Art History, one course credit.
   One additional course credit from 103, 104, 105, 207, 208, 210, 311, and 312

Recommended courses: Students considering graduate school in art should meet early and often with departmental faculty to discuss future goals and course selection. Students anticipating graduate school should plan to take an eleven-course major including Art 120, 121, 122 and 312.

Requirements for a MAJOR: Art History Track

Seven courses from Art History offerings as follows:

Take three courses from the following:
Art 101 and at least one course must be taken in Classical or Non-Western Art History (ART 103, 104, 105).
   101 History of Western Art, one course credit.
   103 Greek Art and Archaeology [Same as CLA 103], one course credit.
   104 Roman Art and Archaeology [Same as CLA 104], one course credit.
   105 The Spirit Visualized: Ritual Objects and Native American Cultures, one course credit.
   207 Renaissance and Baroque, one course credit.
   208 19th Century Art, one course credit.

Take three course credits (all):
   209 20th Century Art, one course credit.
   210 Special Topics in Art History, one course credit.
   311 Art Theory and Criticism, one-half course credit.
   312 Post Modern Art and Culture, one-half course credit.

Take one course credit:
   434/435. Senior Project in Art History, one course credit.

In addition students will select two course credits from the following list of studio courses.
   120 2-D Design, one course credit.
   121 3-D Design, one course credit.
   122 Life Drawing, one-half course credit.
   123 Ceramics, one course credit.
   124 Photography, one course credit.
   225 Special Topics in Studio, one-half or one course credit.

All students considering the art history track of the art major are required to meet with their advisor, in order to construct a program that is a logical extension of the student’s interests. With a wide selection of possible allied courses (History, Classics, Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Language) it is important that students take advantage of building a broader cultural context for their major. Students considering graduate school in art history should meet with departmental faculty to discuss future goals and course selection. Students anticipating graduate school should plan to take an eleven-course major and should also consider taking more than the recommended two years of foreign language. Minoring in a foreign language is excellent preparation.

Requirements for an ART MINOR:
Note: An Art Minor will consist of the following three required courses: any Art History (excluding 101), 120, and 121 or 123, and two additional art courses, one of which must be at the 200 or 300 level.