World Art: 1400 To Now

 This course is an introduction to the visual arts in a global context over the period from the early 1400s to the present.  The content of the class varies according to the expertise of the instructors but will introduce students to selected and significant moments in artistic production in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres.  Offering a broad historical overview of key techniques, movements, and artists, this course will cover aspects of art production around the world during an era of increasing economic exchange, colonization, and industrialization.  Looking at painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints, as well as new media such as photography and film, the course will respond to the following questions: How does artistic practice change in this period?  Who owns art?  What is the role of the artist in society, and where is art made, exhibited, and consumed?  Other topics to be covered are art's crucial role in the period's political debates and social transformations, including modernization and technological advances, as well as art criticism's import in forming public opinion.  An introduction to art history, this course offers a wholly new perspective on the arts and cultures in this era of artistic innovation.  This course fulfills Sector III: Arts and  Letters and counts towards the History of Art major and minor requirements.