ART 234-01, American Art, Fall 2012

Abstract

The objectives of the course are as follows: (1) to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the major works, artists, and movements of American art from the colonial period to the mid-twentieth century; (2) to integrate these works of art within the broader social and intellectual history of the period; and (3) to help students develop their skills in visual analysis, image identification, and historical interpretation. Among the issues we will examine are the following: the development of indigenous styles of architecture, the debt to European conventions in painting and sculpture, the place of the visual arts within a democracy, the attempt to define the experience of America through painting and sculpture, and the periodic attempt to break free of European precedent.