ART 260 ADX - History of Art in North America

Minimum Credit(s) Awarded: 4
Maximum Credit(s) Awarded: 4

This course looks at the diversity of art produced in North America from the ancient times of pre-contact Native cultures to the present. Rather than attempting to consider all of the art produced over this long span of time, we will focus on particular aspects of American art, foremost among these the visual manifestations of the cross-cultural encounters between diverse peoples as central to the history of art of this continent. We will also consider the relationships between American art and European art, and visual art and material culture as the expressions of particularly “American” identities by American artists and craftspeople of various ethnicities. Our study will emphasize the historical and cultural contexts in which this diversity of art has been produced. Along with reading our course text, other scholarly publications, and artists’ writings that are critical to the field of American art history, throughout the semester students in this writing-enriched course will be expected to write informal responses to issues raised in this course, reflections on course readings and works of art considered in class, and a substantive formal research paper.