Art History and Visual Culture

How and why are objects defined as Art? How do these definitions vary across cultures and time periods? Studying different approaches to writing art history and considering a wide range of media from photography to printmaking and installation arts.

Key concepts in art history, including intention, meaning, style, materiality, identity, production, reception, gender, visuality, and history. Students will explore critical questions such as whether and how to read artist's biographies into their art. This course helps students understand the discipline and develops critical thinking and research skills required in advanced courses.

The centrality of photographic practice to African cultures and histories from the period of European imperialism, the rise of modernist "primitivism" and the birth of ethnology and anthropology to contemporary African artists living on the continent and abroad.

The origins of European artistic traditions in the early Christian, Mediterranean world; how these traditions were influenced by classical, Byzantine, Moslem and pagan forms; how they developed in an entirely new form of artistic expression in the high Middle Ages; and how they led on to the Renaissance.

A study of nineteenth and twentieth-century arts and visual media, across genres and cultures. What did modernity mean in different cultural contexts? How is 'modern' art or 'modernism' defined? How did the dynamic cultural, economic, and socio-political shifts of the globalizing and industrializing modern world affect the visual ars and their framing?

Shifts in theory and practice in art of the past fifty years. Studying selected artists' works from around the world, we explore how notions of modern art gave way to new ideas about media, patterns of practice, and the relations of art and artists to the public, to their institutional contexts, and to globalized cultures.

This course is an introduction to art and visual culture produced in Italy ca. 1350-1550. Students will explore new artistic media and techniques, along with critical issues of social, cultural, intellectual, theoretical and religious contexts that shaped the form and function of art made during this era.

This course introduces the art and culture of 17th century Europe and its colonies. Art of the Baroque era offers rich opportunities for investigations of human exploration in geographic, spiritual, intellectual and political realms. We will also consider the development of the artist and new specializations in subject and media.

This course explores the relationship between visuality and practices of everyday life. It looks at the interaction of the political, economic and aesthetic aspects of mass media with the realm of "fine" arts across history and cultures. We will explore notions of the public, the mass, and the simulacrum.

A survey of the art of China, Japan, Korean, India, and Southeast Asia. We will examine a wide range of artistic production, including ritual objects, painting, calligraphy, architectural monuments, textile, and prints. Special attention will be given to social contexts, belief systems, and interregional exchanges.
Same as GASB73H3

This course explores the rich visual culture produced in northern and central Europe 1400-1600. Topics such as the rise of print culture, religious conflict, artistic identity, contacts with other cultures and the development of the art market will be explored in conjunction with new artistic techniques, styles and materials.

An introduction to modern Asian art through domestic, regional, and international exhibitions. Students will study the multilayered new developments of art and art institutions in China, Japan, Korea, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as explore key issues such as colonial modernity, translingual practices, and multiple modernism.
Same as GASB77H3

Local arts institutions are often taken for granted but understanding how and why collections are formed, why they are significant, and how they relate to larger art historical contexts provides important object-based learning opportunities. Students will explore these issues using a focused collection in the Royal Ontario Museum, the Aga Khan Museum or the Textile Museum.

Local arts institutions are often taken for granted but understanding how and why collections are formed, why they are significant, and how they relate to larger art historical contexts provides important object-based learning opportunities. Students will explore these using a focused collection in the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Major artistic and architectural monuments of Europe from the Carolingian renaissance to the renaissance of the twelfth century, considered in relation to geographical context, to monasticism and pilgrimage, to artistic developments of the contemporary Mediterranean world, and to the art and architecture of the later Roman Empire, Byzantium and Armenia, Islam and the art of the invasion period.

Current scholarship is expanding and challenging how we decide "what is Gothic?" We will examine a variety of artworks, considering artistic culture, social, cultural, and physical contexts as well. Style, techniques, patronage, location in time and space, and importance of decoration (sculpture, stained glass, painting, tapestry) will be among topics discussed.

Special topics in twentieth-century painting and sculpture. The subject will change from time to time. After introductory sessions outlining the subject and ways of getting information about it, seminar members will research and present topics of their choice.

The class will read selected recent cultural theory and art theory and consider its implications for a variety of works of art, and will investigate selected exhibition critiques and the critical discourse surrounding the oeuvres of individual artists.

This course uses a focus on material history and visual culture to explore Ethiopia from the fourth through the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on the Christian Church, the monarchy, links with both the Mediterranean world and the Indian subcontinent, and the relationship of individuals to their social, economic, artistic and geographic environments.
Same as AFSC52H3 and HISC52H3

The Silk Routes were a lacing of highways connecting Central, South and East Asia and Europe. Utilizing the Royal Ontario Museum's collections, classes held at the Museum and U of T Scarborough will focus on the art produced along the Silk Routes in 7th to 9th century Afghanistan, India, China and the Taklamakhan regions.
Same as GASC53H3

Art criticism as a complex set of practices performed not only by critics, art historians, curators and the like, but also by artists (and collectors). The traditional role of art critics in the shaping of an art world, and the parallel roles played by other forms of writing about art and culture (from anthropology, sociology, film studies).

This seminar-format course will offer students the opportunity to investigate critical theories and methodologies of the early modern period (roughly 1400-1700). Focusing on such topics as a single artist, artwork or theme, students will become immersed in an interdisciplinary study that draws on impressive local materials from public museum and library collections.

This course looks at the global city as a hub for the creation of visual, performing arts and architecture. How have cyberspace and increased transnational flows of art and artists changed the dynamic surrounding urban arts? What are the differences between the arts within the modern and global contemporary city?

Art and the settings in which it is seen in cities today. Some mandatory classes to be held in Toronto museums and galleries, giving direct insight into current exhibition practices and their effects on viewer's experiences of art; students must be prepared to attend these classes.
Same as CRTC72H3

The interplay among visual, performing and literary arts and experience of exile, diaspora, displacement and placemaking: how the nomadic, transitional nature of today's world influences contemporary artists' practices. Readings from art history, visual anthropology, cultural studies, ethnic studies and literary criticism. Considerations of memory, autobiography, community and liminality in relation to experiences of local Canadian artists.

An introduction to Chinese contemporary art focusing on three cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Increasing globalization and China's persistent self-renovation has brought radical changes to cities, a subject of fascination for contemporary artists. The art works will be analyzed in relation to critical issues such as globalization and urban change.
Same as GASC74H3

This course focuses on the ideas, career and œuvre of a single artist. Exploration and comparison of works across and within the context of the artist’s output provides substantial opportunities for deeper levels of interpretation, understanding and assessment. Students will utilize and develop research skills and critical methodologies appropriate to biographical investigation.

A course offering the opportunity for advanced investigation of an area of interest; for students who are nearing completion of art history programs and who have already acquired independent research skills. Students must locate a willing supervisor and topics must be identified and approved by the end of the previous term.

What is art history and visual culture? What do we know, and need to know, about how we study the visual world? This capstone course for senior students will examine the ambiguities, challenges, methods and theories of the discipline. Students will practice methodological and theoretical tenets, and follow independent research agendas.