U.C. Berkeley History of Art

Histart 100

THEORIES AND METHODS IN ART HISTORY (4 units)

This course introduces the methods and theoretical frameworks that havebeen specific to the discipline of the history of art since its professional consolidation in Germany in the 1830s. Rather than introducing "isms" that have shaped modern artistic, intellectual, academic, and political culture broadly speaking (e.g., Marxism,structuralism, feminism), it focuses on particular conceptions of thehistorical field of art and visual culture (e.g., in Kunstwissenschaft or the "science of art," in connoisseurship, in iconography and iconology, in the "structural" study of form, and in "image anthropology"). The presentation of the material will generally be chronological (from Baroque art theory and Enlightenment historical aesthetics to late twentieth-century studies of imaging and visuality), emphasizing the writing of major art historians, critics, and theorists that we will study in selections from essential primary texts (in translation where needed). But two animating themes throughout the course will be (1) the intersection between art history as a professional discipline and formal philosophies of art, representation, visual culture, and imaging (e.g., Kantian and Hegelian aesthetics, late 19th century psychophysiology, existential phenomenology in the early 20th century, and cybernetics, information theory, and computationalism in the later 20th century) and(2) the continuing crucial importance of premodern and non-Western arts in the formulation of art historical theory, even when devoted to the study of modern art in the Western tradition. The course is most suitable for majors in History of Art and students who have already taken lower-division courses in History of Art or closely cognate fields, and especially for students who are considering further study (e.g., in graduate school or the artworld) in the history of the visual arts.

(Mo)

Letters in bold following individual upper division course descriptions cite the History of Art major breadth requirement fulfilled by the course. (As=Asian, An=Ancient, Me=Medieval, R=Renaissance, B=Baroque, Mo=Modern.)