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Arts of the Islamic World (200 level lecture)
This lecture course studies the history of art and architecture in the Islamic world, from the rise of the early Islamic caliphates in the seventh century, to contemporary religious and secular art and architecture in the Islamic world. Islam spread quickly after its emergence in what is now Saudi Arabia, covering lands that had been home to the great civilizations of antiquity. As the Islamic dynasties grew, they absorbed the cultural influences of pre-existing and neighboring civilizations. Through comparative perspectives, we will look at cultural transfer between various Islamic dynasties and other world civilizations. The Muslim world is still home to a tremendous diversity of ethnic and religious identity and cultural practice. The monuments that have been built in these regions serve as a testament to centuries of cross cultural encounter. Our objects of study will demonstrate how visual form communicates the tenets of the Islamic faith, and how it has been used to express power and cultural identity. |
Mona Hatoum, Performance Still (1985-95)
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Modern and Contemporary Art of MENA and South Asia (grad/undergrad seminar)
This combined graduate/undergraduate seminar examines how artistic practices from the Islamic world have come into contact with the European and colonial worlds to influence the work of modern and contemporary artists from the greater Middle East and South Asia. The first half of the semester is devoted to a study of Western colonialism and the rise of the post-colonial nation state. We will look at how artists merged European modernist trends with indigenous traditions and Islamic visual motifs to forge new national cultural identities and regional modernisms. Arts and culture carried symbolic significance in efforts at self-determination, forging national identities, and in locating shared cultural heritage. The second portion of the semester focuses on the globalized perspectives of contemporary artists with cultural ties to the Islamic world who shed light on current zones of conflict. Claiming more than one national and cultural identity, many of these artists examine local histories and geopolitical concerns through transnational, comparative perspectives. |
Rojbîn Ekinci, A Day at the Museum of Modern Art, 2024, Acrylic on canvas
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Global Modernisms (grad/undergrad seminar)
This course aims to pluralize aesthetic modernism, expand its definition and decentralize its perceived origins in the West by looking at how modernist styles and practices found expression within the cultural centers of the Global South. Modernism’s genealogy is tied to networks of exchange between the colonial and colonized world. Yet the unequal distribution of power of the colonial encounter produced different temporalities, and non-Western modernisms emerged in different parts of the globe from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Examining art, architecture and design practices within the context of their site-based histories, we will move beyond questions of artistic autonomy to see how these practices reflected a quest for self-determination, cultural identity and political change in the post-colonial world. |
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Aims and Methods in Art History (400-level seminar)
This is an upper-level seminar for art history majors. It provides an overview of the methodologies and theoretical frameworks used by art historians to study art and visual culture from the Renaissance study of linear perspective to the present. Through the close study of texts and objects, we will identify major art historical approaches and their associated theorists, including iconography, the social histories of art, semiotics, structuralism, post-structuralism, psychoanalytic theory, post-colonial studies, race, gender and sexuality studies. Aims of the course:
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