Looking at major developments in painting and architecture from Romanticism to Post-modernism (with some attention to sculpture, city planning, design, and photography), this course addresses art and its social context over the last two and a half centuries in what is now the United States. Issues include patronage, audience, technology, and the education of the artist as well as style, cultural expression, and the relationship of "high" art to vernacular and popular art. We will focus on the ways in which visual culture incorporates and responds to narratives of personal, community, and national identity. Field trips.
This course fulfills the following Major requirements: Geographical areas (C), and Chronological period (III).