ENROLL

Elizabeth McKinsey

The history of American culture has always been shaped by a dialectic between the local and the universal, the regional and the national. The particular geography and history of the Midwest (the prairie, the plains, the old Northwest, Native Americans and white adventurers, settlers and immigrants) have shaped its livelihoods, its identities, its meanings. Focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this course will explore literature, art history, and the social and cultural history of the Midwest.

Extra Time Required

Ross K Elfline, Jessica F Keating

An introduction to the art and architecture of various geographical areas around the world from the fifteenth century through the present. The course will provide foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It will focus on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the way that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, humanist and Reformation redefinitions of art in the Italian and Northern Renaissance, realism, modernity and tradition, the tension between self-expression and the art market, and the use of art for political purposes.

Baird E Jarman

Concentration on painting of the colonial period (especially portraiture) and nineteenth century (especially landscape and scenes of everyday life) with an introduction to the modernism of the early twentieth century. The course will include analysis of the ways art shapes and reflects cultural attitudes such as those concerning race and gender.

Ross K Elfline

This course is a survey of major artistic movements after 1945 as well as an introduction to significant tendencies in current art and craft production. The goal of this course is to develop a familiarity with the important debates, discussions, and critical issues facing artists today. By the end of the course, students will be able to relate their own work as cultural producers to these significant contemporary artistic developments. Students will read, write about, and discuss primary sources, artist statements, and theoretical essays covering a wide range of media with the ultimate goal of articulating their own artistic project.

Prerequisite: Any two studio art courses or permission from the instructor. Not open to students who have previously taken Art History 240

Extra Time Required

David H Lefkowitz

Required for the studio major, and strongly recommended for the junior year, this seminar is for student artists considering lives as producers of visual culture. At the core of the course are activities that help build students’ identities as practicing artists. These include the selection and installation of artwork for the Junior Show, a presentation about their own artistic development, and studio projects in media determined by each student that serve as a bridge between media-specific studio art courses and the independent creative work they will undertake as Seniors in Comps. The course will also include reading and discussion about what it means to be an artist today, encounters with visiting artists and trips to exhibition venues in the Twin Cities.

Extra Time Required