The Art History department is excited to offer the following courses for the Easter 2021 semester. Browse the sampling of courses below and contact our amazing professors with specific questions. For other general questions, please contact our department chair Dr. Jeffrey Thompson
ARTH 375: Fashioning the Self: Chinese Portraits
Dr. Najung Kim
In this course, we will explore developments in the functions and significance of Chinese portraiture from 200 CE to the present day. Beyond the conventional definition of portraiture that is firmly tied to the idea of likeness, we will be encouraged to look at portraiture from several perspectives. Does a portrait always require likeness? Can an image of a stalk of bamboo or an emaciated horse be a portrait? What is the self and how is it formed? Questions like these will help students to analyze how Chinese portraits have achieved a compelling presence of the sitter through various mediums, devices and artistic style and to understand how Chinese portraits served as the sites where the sitter could construct, negotiate, and publicize his/her identity.
ARTH 374: Passable Boundaries: Korean Art and Culture
Dr. Najung Kim
Korea, located in East Asia, has developed a sophisticated, unique artistic tradition through ongoing interactions with its East Asian neighbors-China and Japan. In this course, we will explore the visual culture of Korea from its beginnings through the twentieth century based on analyses of important monuments of calligraphy, painting, architecture, sculpture, metalwork, lacquer-ware, and ceramics, as well as works in contemporary media. Relying on various art historical methodologies such as formal analysis, iconographical analysis, and critical theory, we will examine how art reflects the evolution of artistic styles and techniques, religious ideals, social and cultural values, and how cultural identity is constructed from new elements adopted from the world outside as well as experiences from inherited cultures.
