Research Methods in Art History

Catalog description

This is a lecture/discussion course in which students are introduced to the main methodologies of art historical research and learn to apply them to the analysis of artistic practice. Lectures and discussions focus on how works and styles of art are looked at and studied, rather than the meaning/significance of the works or styles of art themselves. Students become familiar with the contributions of the most important art historians who have shaped the discipline of art history. During the semester we examine traditional as well as postmodern methodologies including formalism, biography, iconology, Marxism and feminist deconstruction, psychoanalytic and semiotic approaches (including structuralism and post-structuralism).