The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the way in which art history developed from the late 19th through the late 20th century, and to allow them to frame art history’s current practices with that development in mind. We will proceed chronologically, reading critical texts and also historicizing them, thinking about what concerns were formulated and addressed at what historical moments, how the writing of art history is always of its moment in a way we may (or may not) want to describe as “political.” I have tried to select readings that are both fundamental to the shaping of our discipline and in some way “typical” of their time, although certain texts really fall only into one or the other category. By the end of the semester, students should be able to think critically about art history writing and, eventually, about their own place in the field. Authors we read may include Hildebrand, Berenson, Wölfflin, Riegl, Warburg, Freud, Panofsky, Fry, Sedlmayr, Benjamin, Greenberg, Schapiro, Van Gulik, Gombrich, Kubler, Fried, Venturi, Clark, Baxandall, Damisch, Nochlin, Mulvey, Kristeva, Pollock, Barthes, Alpers, Koerner, Clunas, Gruzinski. (Not all of them!) 

Please contact the instructor if you are planning to take this course, as there will be an assignment for the first week of class:elizahonig@yahoo.com