WS 252 AQX - Hist of Women Artists: Eur & N Amer

4 Credit(s)

This course offers an introduction to the lives and work of women in the visual arts in Europe and North America from the Renaissance to the present, with a focus on issues of gender, power, ideology, and representation that underlie the study of women artists and their work. We will look at the work of specific European and North American women artists with attention to the historical circumstances in which they produced their art, ideologies of gender and art at these particular historical moments, and artists’ writings. This course will also address themes explored by many women artists: the relationship between art and craft; spirituality; self-portraiture; the female body; motherhood; and heritage and identity. Along with reading scholarly texts about women artists and various writings by historic and contemporary women artists, 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. Cross-listed WS 252 AQX.

Prerequisite(s): ENG 110 or W cornerstone.