Global Arc

This course explores the ancient culture known today as Olmec, which flourished from 1500-600 B.C. Renowned for its monumental sculpture, fine pottery, and delicate jade carvings, many aspects of the Olmec remain enigmatic. In this course, we will delve deeply into what is and is not known about the Olmec, with a heavy focus on visual culture both as explanans and as explanandum. The course will include intensive study of original works of art, both in the collections at Princeton and in other area collections. Issues of authenticity, quality, and provenance related to these works will also be considered.

Detailed examination of the Pre-Columbian arts of the indigenous civilizations of Mexico. The first part of the course will examine the architecture, monumental art, and craft art of the Aztecs and their contemporaries, the Huaztecs, Tarascans, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Mayas. The rest of the course is designed as a survey of the major Mexican art traditions that preceded them. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The medieval history of the land now called Spain and its Muslim, Christian, and Jewish inhabitants is often oversimplified, whether as a model of cultural tolerance, a precursor to colonialism, or a justification of modern antagonisms. This course examines the history of the Iberian Peninsula through the visual traditions of the medieval peoples whose cultures laid the foundations of modern Spain. Highlighting such key issues as the interplay of foreign and local traditions, the expression of religious and ethnic identity, and the reuse of artistic forms and objects, it pursues a more forthright understanding of the Iberian past.

This course is an introduction to American museums as modern institutions and to the challenges that they currently face. Through readings, field trips, meetings with museum staff, and practical exercises, students will explore how museums use objects to construct narratives; how they grapple with changing audiences and funding sources; and how they are touchstones for debates over societal values and collective memories. Although the focus will be on art museums, we will examine museums of natural history, material culture, and ethnography to better understand the collecting practices and displays of art museums.

In China, denizens of the imperial court--emperors and entertainers, mighty and low-class, and the ministers who administered the realm in the middle--populated the court praxis of the arts. This course studies the courtly arts, from the rule of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang to the Empress Dowager Cixi in the early 20th century. It will show how these artworks were made and used in changing historical contexts and became an important legacy of Chinese culture. It particularly emphasizes the archaeology of early imperial tombs.

An introduction to the history of art in the United States from the colonial period to 1900. Works of art will be examined in terms of their cultural, social, intellectual, and historical contexts. Students will consider artistic practices as they intersect with other fields, including science and literature. Topics include the visual culture of natural history, fashioning the self, race and representation, landscape and nation, art and the Civil War, gender politics, art and medicine, and realism and deception. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Introduction to the history of American art, 1900 to present. Artists and works of art are examined in terms of cultural, social, intellectual, and historical contexts. Students will consider artistic practices as they intersect with other fields, including science and literature. Topics include modern metropolis, art and social reform, Harlem Renaissance, early film, identity politics, abstract art, machine age, post-modernism, and globalization. Visits to the Princeton University Art Museum are an integral part of the course. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An introduction to the history of African American art and visual culture from the colonial period to the present. Artists and works of art will be considered in terms of their social, intellectual, and historical contexts. Students will consider artistic practices as they intersect with other cultural spheres, including science, politics, religion, and literature. Topics and readings will be drawn from the field of art history as well as from cultural studies, critical race theory, and the history of the Atlantic world. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course examines the role and status of photography in different phases of Africa's political, cultural and art historical experience since 1945. We explore how African photographers used the photographic medium in the service of the state, society and their own artistic visions during the colonial and post-independence eras. Photography's relationship with art and its social function in Africa will underlie our discussion.

This course investigates the art and the aesthetics of the age of Reagan and Reaganism with an eye toward the present. How did supply-side economics transform the art world and art itself during the 1980s? How did certain period styles propagate Reaganism? Drawing on artworks from the PU Art Museum, art criticism, cultural criticism, political journalism, and an emerging history, we study critically sanctioned as well as controversial artistic movements of the period, including Neo-Expressionism, Graffiti Art, and Commodity Art, asking what this art can teach us about the age, in which an entertainer-turned-politician was elected president.