Overview

This course is designed for those who are new to the discipline of art history, as well as students who have previously studied the history of art at undergraduate level. We will examine the discipline of ‘art history’ in the broadest sense, looking at a wide range of different methodological, theoretical and historical approaches to the study of art, architecture and visual culture. We will think about what art historians ‘do’ and how the discipline has been practiced in different historical and geographical contexts. In each seminar, we will examine a set of ‘approaches’ or ‘theories’ or ‘methodologies’ through set texts and case-studies. This course does not provide a chronological history of the discipline, but students will gain a historiographical knowledge of art historical methodologies. Each week, we will consider some of the most important past, present and future critical debates and theories in the field of art history. This course is designed to intersect with the core ‘Skills’ MA module and the other postgraduate research training offered by the department. This module aims to develop the independent and critical research, writing and presentation skills needed for postgraduate study in the History of Art Department.

Aims

 By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

• A historiographical understanding of the development of art historical study
• An ability to identify and critically engage with important art-historical methodologies, theories and practices.
• An understanding of a range of major scholarly debates influencing the practice of art history today
• A broader understanding of the skills needed to study and research the history of art at postgraduate level
• Written and spoken capabilities for discussing different approaches to art, architecture and visual culture

Outline

Possible seminar outline: 

• ‘History of Art’ at MA level: methods, theories and practices
• Art History Today: current critical issues
• Births and beginnings
• Art History’s ‘objects’
• The archive: different approaches to research
• Preparing for the assessed presentation
• Change and activism: radical positions
• Institutional contexts: museums, galleries and art history
• Global contexts: visual culture in and of the world
• Assessed presentations