An Introduction to Art History

Be introduced to art history. From Neanderthal drawing until now. Gain an overarching "big picture" schema for how art has defined societies and culture.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

COURSE OUTLINE

• Session 1: Without Towns and Cities – the Origins of Art and First Nations Image Making; Art and the Earliest Cities – The Fertile Crescent and the Indus Valley Civilisation; The Art of Classical Greece – Applied mathematical harmony meets observed naturalism; The Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara
• Session 2: Byzantine Art – the Roman Empire post classicism?; The Umayyad Caliphate and the rise of Islamic art; The Art of Europe in the Early and Late Middle Ages – from the Lindisfarne Gospels to the Cathedral City; The Italian Renaissance artist - from workshop craftsman to aspiring gentleman; Early-modern women artists
• Session 3: The art of baroque Europe and the “end” of the Renaissance; French Rococo hedonism; Neoclassicism and the Enlightenment; The Realist movement in art and “authenticity”; French Impressionism; From the French Avant Garde to Formalist Abstraction; From 1920s Dadaism to 1960s Neo Dadaism and the art world hegemony of a “contemporary” art

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Recognise key periods in art history and their defining characteristics.
2. Critically engage with artworks through informed observation and analysis.
3. Understand the social, political, and cultural contexts that influenced art movements.