Seminar (SEM)

• COLL INTENSIVE WRITING SECTION

• Above class open to undergraduates only
• Please contact arthist@indiana.edu for authorization to enroll in this course
• Above class COLL Intensive Writing section
• Above class open to Art History majors and minors
• Topic: The Art of the Question

Topic: Art and history of art history

This seminar is an introduction to the history and theory of the history of art. We will be looking at critical writings that have shaped our discipline, from early works on connoisseurship and iconology to more recent forays into technical art history, digital humanities, race relationships and memory culture, to name just a few. The syllabus is built on the premise that scholarship (like all thinking) has been¿and always will be¿historically motivated by different aims and values, which, in turn, yield different kinds of information about the objects under investigation. It is the goal of this class to deepen the awareness of this fact. To that end, foundational texts dating back as far as the Renaissance are paired with modern and contemporary texts reacting to the challenges of our discipline¿s origins, while addressing the ways in which our work¿regardless of focus¿is always informed by the present and, hopefully, contributes to addressing today¿s needs. This programmatic pairing of related texts from various time periods embodies the core idea of this class as a historical enterprise: The readings aim to foster not only greater nimbleness on your part when it comes to the interpretation of artifacts. It also aims to deepen your awareness of the intellectual history of methods themselves and thus of their ideological underpinnings. Moreover, as there is an inseparable link between methodological trends and canon formation, the thorny issue of canonicity will remain a focal point throughout the class as will the examination what a revisionist rethinking of ¿the canon¿ might entail. Key questions to be considered thus include: Why and how was art history ¿invented?¿ What was at stake? Who benefited? How did the discipline become institutionalized? How has it changed over time? What are the current issues in the field? Is art history still a single discipline with a set group of objects and methods? Covering a wide range of time periods and media, we will encounter a rich field of disciplines¿from philosophy to literary criticism¿and look at the relationship of art history to these other disciplines. Students are encouraged to share insights from their own areas of expertise and to engage the methods of non-Western art in their final projects, if they so choose. Indeed, I emphatically encourage designing your research project along your own needs with the goal in mind to further progress on your own scholarship as much as possible (be it a Senior Thesis, a M.A. or a Ph.D. thesis, or an essay you are about to publish).