Global Arc

An analysis of the emergence of modern architecture from the late 19th century to World War II, in light of new methodologies. The course will focus not only on major monuments but also on issues of gender, class, and ethnicity to provide a more pluralistic perspective on the experience of modernity. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A survey of photography from its multiple inventions in the early 19th century to its omnipresence (and possible obsolescence) in the 21st. Themes will include photography's power to define the "real"; its emulation and eventual transformation of the traditional fine arts; and its role in the construction of personal and collective memories. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Listed by Forbes magazine as one of the World's Most Beautiful Campuses, Princeton has long been an architectural paragon, much-admired and copied. Its astonishingly varied buildings can help tell the story of American architectural history from the 1750s on. This course will examine Princeton's fascinating relationship to ever-changing architectural trends in America and Britain. Controversies will be emphasized, from nineteenth-century fights about Gothic Revival to current debates about Neo-modernist designs by world-famous architects. Walking tours and a field trip will enhance your understanding of America's fourth-oldest campus.

Art and science may appear to have nothing to do with one another, but history suggests otherwise. For centuries, artists and image-makers have incorporated the concepts and claims of scientific inquiry into their practices. Scientists, in turn, have relied on images as both sources of and evidence for scientific knowledge. By examining the interaction of art and science in Europe and America from the early modern period to the present day, this course will investigate the diverse and complex ways in which art and science have intersected as well as the manner in which image-making has been understood as a form of scientific practice.

In China, Japan, Islamic world, and other cultures, writing is ranked as highest of the visual arts, far above painting, sculpture, even architecture. Forms taken by beautiful writing are at least as diverse as the writing systems that underlie them: think of Egyptian writing, Chinese calligraphy, and Roman monumental inscriptions. This course introduces world's major calligraphic traditions and examine the functions of beautiful writing, reasons for its existence and prestige, and factors that shape styles of writing. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

This seminar examines the impact of the IMF's Structural Adjustment Program, military dictatorships, and political crises on artistic production in the 1980s, and the dramatic movement of African artists from the margins of the international art world to its very center since the 1990s. How familiar or different are the works and concerns of African artists? What are the consequences, in Africa and the West, of the international success of a few African artists? And what does the work of these Africans at home and in the West tell us about the sociopolitical conditions of our world today?

General survey of the indigenous civilizations of North America, Central America, and South America. The goals are to demonstrate methods and techniques employed by art historians working in this area to study the past, and to examine how art history, archaeology, and ethnohistory contribute to the interdisciplinary study of ancient peoples. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course explores the history, aesthetics and discourse framing the art of the Arab world, Iran and Turkey from the late twentieth century to the present. With a focus on building the skills of visual analysis, lectures and discussions will explore the intersection of media, technique, subject matter, artistic discourse and political and social conditions as codetermining factors in art objects. Representing many nations, each with a distinct political and cultural history, the Middle East is multi-ethnic, religious, and complexly interconnected place, whose influence in the art world has steadily grown throughout the last thirty years.

What is the role of photography in contemporary society? By looking at photographic forms, ranging from commercial portraits, ID cards, family albums, and fashion and advertising photography to newspaper and magazine illustrations, this course explores diverse ways that photographs have come to define and challenge the "real." Students will talk with professionals in fields of journalism and fashion, examine controversies over digital manipulation and politically charged photos, and consider historical sources of contemporary styles. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

From the toppling of a statue of King George in New York in 1776 to the super PAC "For Freedoms" founded by artists in 2016, art and politics in America have gone hand in hand, and understanding the history of American art requires a deep dive into the history of American politics. With the current political landscape as both backdrop and incitement, this course considers the history of intersections between art and politics in the United States, from the revolutionary era to the present, and examines how artists have engaged the political sphere and produced political art in order to express critique, accommodation, resistance, and rage.