By means of intensive looking, thinking, reading, speaking, and writing, this course introduces the student to a series of problems and issues in the description and analysis of works of art. Each week we shall read, summarize in written form, and discuss a recent article from /American Art/ (a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal published by the Smithsonian Institution and dedicated to the history of American art), paying particular attention to research methods, argument, and matters of visual analysis and description. Additional writing assignments will include a visual analysis of a work of art in a local, Bay Area collection and a ten-page research paper that will be developed incrementally over the course of the semester.