Art History
Overview
Ideas about what counts as art vary across different times and places, and even within particular cultures. While only some forms of human activity are (or have been) viewed as art, human beings are united by the desire to respond to and represent their existence in creative ways that transcend strictly utilitarian purposes. Art history offers a range of tools and lenses for analyzing the varied forms and functions of this creative drive, and therefore for understanding the global, interconnected cultures in which we live. Art history is no longer limited to its traditional focus on the fine arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, and now encompasses other artifacts of material culture, such as ceramics, textiles, or advertisements, as well as postmodern and contemporary artworks that are more about concepts or relationships than material objects. Art historians study the ways in which these artworks and artifacts shape and were shaped by their historical context(s). By looking at how cultures in different time periods have defined, experienced, and participated in artistic activity, art history students develop an informed understanding of human creativity and diversity, while sharpening their skills in visual and verbal analysis. They are encouraged to develop and pursue their own intellectual interests, formulating their own critical approaches to the material and arriving at their own definitions of what constitutes “art.”
With these goals in mind, New College's Area of Concentration (AOC) in Art History emphasizes:
- Coursework that, grounded in the study of specific time periods (whether within the Premodern, Early Modern, Modern, or Contemporary periods), promotes historical awareness and some chronological breadth of knowledge;
- Coursework with a thematic, global, or studio art focus;
- A theory and method course that introduces students to a variety of critical frameworks central to art history (including, but not limited to, social history, semiotics, feminist and gender theory, critical race and post-colonial theory, and globalization);
- Foreign language study; and
- The application of art historical knowledge in the context of an internship.
Direct contact with artworks and artifacts and applied, hands-on learning are an essential component of the program. The Ringling Museum of Art, adjacent to New College, is a particularly rich source of these kinds of experiences, but students also benefit from opportunities at institutions like the Sarasota Art Museum and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Students can deepen their engagement with museums even further by combining a concentration in Art History with a secondary field in Museum Studies. Students are also encouraged to pursue opportunities for study and travel abroad or off-campus. In addition to serving as relevant preparation for various forms of museum and gallery work, the study of art history can lead to careers in education, arts administration, library and information science, law, business, and the foreign service.
Students considering the Art History AOC are encouraged to contact the Art History faculty as soon as possible. Students who wish to select Art History as either a single, programmatic AOC or as part of a combined AOC must prepare the Art History AOC Requirements Checklist and (in the case of a joint or double AOC) the Survey of Additional Coursework, Experiences, and Interests for submission to the Art History faculty early in their 5th term. The checklist and survey can be found in this document.
Faculty in Art History
Katherine Brion, Associate Professor of Art History
Magdalena Carrasco, Professor of Art History
Requirements for the AOC in Art History
A minimum of ten (10) academic units.
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| Period Courses | |
| Select no fewer than four period courses, one in each of the following categories: Premodern (prior to 1490 C.E.), Early Modern (1490 to 1789), Modern (1789-1960), and Contemporary (after 1960): | |
| Monuments & Methods: Classical Antiquity Revisited* | |
| Masterpieces: Medieval/Renaissance/Baroque* | |
| Saints and Sinners: Image, Gender, and Spirituality in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras* | |
| Caravaggio (1571-1610): Renaissance and Baroque at the Ringling Museum | |
| Pleasure and Power: Art in the 18th Century* | |
| Revolution, Empire, Modernity: Art in Nineteenth-Century Europe and the United States* | |
| Modernism in the Visual Arts: 1900-1940 | |
| Art Since 1945: Modernity, Postmodernity, and Contemporaneity* | |
| Thematic Focus Course | |
| Select one course organized around a thematic rather than chronological focus; examples include: 1 | |
| Motherhood: Image and Experience* | |
| Public Art and Its Public(s) in the United States | |
| Worlds of Wonder: A History of Museums | |
| Image and Identity: Portraits and Self-Portraits of the Artist* | |
| Art and Gender* | |
| “Global” Course with a Primary or Predominant Focus on Art that is Not European or Euro-American 1 | |
| Global Perspectives in Art History, 1300 to the Present | |
| Writing-Intensive Seminar for Advanced Students with a Focus on Critical Theory and Methods of Art History | |
| Ways of Seeing: Theory and Methods in Art History (offered in alternate years) | |
| Art History Unit | |
| Select an additional full-term unit in Art History | |
| Credit-Bearing Internship | |
| Select an art-related, full-term unit internship sponsored by one of the Art History faculty | |
| Art Course | |
| Select one course in Art (i.e. Studio or Fine Art); examples include: | |
| Principles of Painting: Color and Form | |
| Making Art in the Age of Social Media* | |
| 3D Design: Tools & Techniques: An Intro to Materials, Processes, & History of 3D Artistic Practice | |
| Perceptual Drawing Methods | |
| Foreign Language Requirement | |
| Three semesters of college-level coursework or an equivalent level of proficiency in a single language is required; a fourth semester of college-level coursework is recommended | |
| Additional Requirements | |
| Senior Thesis or Project in Art History and a Baccalaureate Examination 2 | |
- 1
This requirement may be fulfilled by completing a global-focused course in another discipline, or at a Cross College Alliance institution such as the Ringling College of Art and Design, or through study abroad programs, among other options. To receive credit, students should be sure to obtain approval from a member of the Art History faculty. In general, no more than one semester of an introductory Art History survey course and one semester of studio art taken at another institution will be accepted for the purpose of fulfilling AOC requirements.
- 2
Completion of the thesis or project involves enrollment in two consecutive group and/or individual tutorials during the student’s final year of study.
Requirements for the Joint AOC in Art History
A minimum of eight (8) academic units.
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| Period Courses | |
| Select no fewer than four period courses, one in each of the following categories: Premodern (prior to 1490 C.E.), Early Modern (1490 to 1789), Modern (1789-1960), and Contemporary (after 1960): | |
| Monuments & Methods: Classical Antiquity Revisited* | |
| Masterpieces: Medieval/Renaissance/Baroque* | |
| Saints and Sinners: Image, Gender, and Spirituality in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras* | |
| Caravaggio (1571-1610): Renaissance and Baroque at the Ringling Museum | |
| Pleasure and Power: Art in the 18th Century* | |
| Revolution, Empire, Modernity: Art in Nineteenth-Century Europe and the United States* | |
| Modernism in the Visual Arts: 1900-1940 | |
| Art Since 1945: Modernity, Postmodernity, and Contemporaneity* | |
| Thematic Focus Course | |
| Select one course organized around a thematic rather than chronological focus: | |
| Motherhood: Image and Experience* | |
| Public Art and Its Public(s) in the United States | |
| Worlds of Wonder: A History of Museums | |
| Image and Identity: Portraits and Self-Portraits of the Artist* | |
| Art and Gender* | |
| “Global” Course with a Primary or Predominant Focus on Art that is Not European or Euro-American 1 | |
| Global Perspectives in Art History, 1300 to the Present | |
| Writing-Intensive Seminar for Advanced Students with a Focus on Critical Theory and Methods of Art History | |
| Ways of Seeing: Theory and Methods in Art History (offered in alternate years) | |
| Art History Unit or Credit-Bearing Internship | |
| Select an additional full-term unit in Art History or an art-related, full-term unit internship sponsored by one of the Art History faculty | |
| Additional Requirements | |
| Senior Thesis or Project, and Baccalaureate Examination (reflecting the transdisciplinary character of the combined concentrations) 2 | |
- 1
This requirement may be fulfilled by completing a global-focused course in another discipline, or at a Cross College Alliance institution such as the Ringling College of Art and Design, or through study abroad programs, among other options. To receive credit, students should be sure to obtain approval from a member of the Art History faculty. In general, no more than one semester of an introductory Art History survey course and one semester of studio art taken at another institution will be accepted for the purpose of fulfilling AOC requirements.
- 2
Completion of the thesis or project may involve enrollment in one or two consecutive group and/or individual tutorials during the student’s final year of study. The endorsement and baccalaureate participation of at least one member of the Art History faculty is required.
Requirements for a Secondary Field in Art History
A minimum of six (6) academic units.
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| Period, Thematic, or Global Courses | |
| Select six courses with a chronological, thematic, or global focus (see list of courses under Art History AOC for examples) | |
| Credit-Bearing Internship | |
| An art-related, full-term unit internship sponsored by one of the Art History faculty can be used to fulfill one unit of the six unit requirement | |
Representative Senior Theses in Art History
- Milk, Blood, and Tears: Maternal Images of the Virgin in Art of the 14th and 15th Centuries
- Just Being: The Drag King Book and Negotiated Meaning
- From the Kitchen to the Dining Room: Domestic Labor in the Second-Wave Feminist Installations Womanhouse and A Woman’s Place
- Poikilos, Polish, the Perception of Color, and Polychromy in Ancient Greek Sculpture
- Fashioning the New Woman: Elsa Schiaparelli and the Illusion and Agency of Feminine Performance
- Performance Art and the Disruption of Colonialism in Museums
- Reconstructed Femininity, Self-Constructed Subjectivity: Little Magazines, Anti-Fashion, and the Mechanomorphic Female Engineers of New York Dada
- Store Windows as Public Art: Lucy Lippard and Printed Matter, 1976-1986
- The Singing Tower of Florida: Materializing the Progressive Era at Bok Tower Gardens
- Staging Sadomasochism: Images of Bondage in Man Ray’s Surrealist Photography, 1929-1932
- The Visual and Material Culture of the Cult of Saint Thomas Becket
- Reconstructing Greek Identity and Exploring the Self: The Early Works of Yiannis Tsarouchis (1910-1989)
- More than Just Looking: An Analysis of Institutional Critique in the Works of Kara Walker
- On the Edge of the Volcano: Science and the Sublime in Joseph Wright of Derby’s Views of Mount Vesuvius
- Käthe Kollwitz’s Experiments in Printmaking: Intensifying the Expression of Maternal Loss