ARTHI 4335: American Art and Architecture

This course provides a comprehensive survey of American art and architecture from the Colonial period to the present. Students will explore the development of distinctly American artistic and architectural styles as they emerged from European influences and evolved to reflect the nation's changing cultural, social, and political landscape. The course will cover major movements and periods including: Colonial art and architecture (17th-18th centuries); Federal and Greek Revival styles (late 18th-early 19th centuries); Hudson River School and American landscape painting, Victorian era and Gilded Age aesthetics, American Impressionism and Realism, Early Modernism and the Ashcan School, Art Deco and Depression-era art, Abstract Expressionism and Post-War Modernism, Pop Art and Minimalism, and Postmodernism and Contemporary movements. The course utilizes the American Art collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Menil Collection, the Houston Museum of African American Culture, and the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.