Art History

An understanding of the visual arts through study of their basic principles of design, aesthetics and role in society. Examples of all media are examined are drawn from diverse historical periods, places, and world cultures.

Special Topic

This interdisciplinary course examines Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, innovative artistic movements that emerged in the late 19th century. Through a unique fusion of visual art and music, students will gain a deep understanding of the Impressionist era's cultural, social, and historical contexts, exploring how artists and composers reshaped the way their viewers and listeners perceived and interpreted reality.

History of art in the Western tradition from 20,000 BC. to the fourth century AD, from the emergence of human beings in the Paleolithic Age to the developments of civilization in the Near East, Egypt, and the Aegean; the flowering of the classical age in Greece; and the rise of the Roman Empire to the flourishing of Christianity under the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD. The course includes the close study of the Arts of the Ancient World in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Menil Collection.

An introduction to the arts of the Christian Middle Ages in the Greek East and Latin West ca. 200-1400 AD. Covers architecture, monumental sculpture, painting, mosaics, stained glass, ivory and metalwork, and panel painting in their historical, religious, political, and social contexts. Topics include the creation of a vocabulary of Christian symbols, imagery, and architectural forms; medieval patrons, artists, and audiences; arts of pilgrimage, monastery, and cathedral; and the roles and functions of images. The course includes the close study of the Arts of the Middle Ages and Byzantium in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Menil Collection.

An introduction to art and architecture, 1400-1750, against the context of historical, cultural, religious, technological, and social change. Topics include the emergence of humanism and its engagement with the ancient past; the development of transformative new techniques and technologies for making art; the function of art in religious, public, and domestic settings; the role of the patron; the impact of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations on art and society; and the proliferation of new genres. The course includes a close study of Renaissance and Baroque artworks in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Art in the Western world from the late 18th century to the present. Content includes neoclassicism and romanticism, realism, the impressionists, parallel developments in architecture, the new sculptural tradition of Rodin, postimpressionism to fauvism, expressionism, futurism, cubism, geometric abstraction in sculpture and painting, modernism in architecture in the 20th century, and Dadaism and surrealism. Also covers developments since 1945, such as action painting, pop art, minimal art, and postmodernism. The course includes a close study of the Modern Art collections in Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Menil Collection, and the Contemporary Arts Museum.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of the diverse visual and material cultures of Asia, spanning ancient to contemporary times. Students will examine major artistic traditions across regions including South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia, focusing on art forms such as sculpture, painting, architecture, ceramics, textiles, and digital media. Through thematic studies, students will investigate the cultural, religious, and historical contexts that shaped these works, including the impact of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Confucianism on artistic production. The course includes a close study of the Arts of Asia collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Asia Society Texas Center.

The traditional art of sub-Saharan Africa—its diversity and cultural contexts, as well as its universal aspects. African art is studied in relation to its meaning and function in traditional societies, wherein art has socialized and reinforced religious beliefs, reflected male and female roles, and validated systems of leadership. Covers architecture, sculpture, textiles, paintings, jewelry, and ceramics. The course includes the close study of the Africa collections in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Menil Collection.

This course offers an introduction to the rich and diverse visual culture of the Islamic world from the 7th century to the present. It explores the development of Islamic art and architecture across key regions, including the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Central Asia, and South Asia, examining how cultural, religious, and political influences shaped the aesthetic forms and practices of Islamic societies. The course includes a close study of the Art of the Islamic Worlds collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of the art of Indigenous peoples from North, Central, and South America, examining artistic expressions from pre-colonial times to the present. Students will study a range of media, including sculpture, textiles, pottery, painting, and architecture, as they trace the cultural, spiritual, and social significance embedded in these works. Through a combination of lectures, visual analysis, and discussions, the course delves into the unique aesthetics, symbolism, and worldviews that characterize Indigenous art across diverse regions and cultures. Students make a close study of the Arts of the Americas and Pacific Northwest Collection at the Menil and the Ancient American Art and Indigenous North American Art Collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

This course offers students the opportunity to experience firsthand the art, architecture, and cultural landmarks of a cities and regions abroad, providing an unparalleled learning experience beyond the traditional classroom setting. Students must apply and received approval from the Art History faculty to enroll in this course.

Begins by considering how impressionism refined and redirected the artistic aims of 19th-century realism, then follows the development of progressive art to the brink of cubism and pure abstraction in the first years of the 20th century. Following impressionism and post-impressionism, close attention is paid to symbolism, aestheticism, art nouveau, the Arts and Crafts movement, fauvism, and expressionism. The aesthetic aims of these movements are analyzed in tandem with the social and cultural conditions that generated them. The course utilizes the extensive impressionist

After analyzing the invention of cubism by Picasso and Braque, this course examines its international reverberations, including Italian futurism, the later phases of German expressionism, constructivism in revolutionary Russia, Art Nouveau and the Dadaism. It addresses the tensions in the multiple currents of surrealism: metamorphic, academic, and abject, and then analyzes painting after World War II, from Pollock to Dubuffet, as an extension and transformation of prewar trends. The course utilizes the contemporary arts collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Menil Collection, and the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.

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.

An introduction to the symbolic language and modes of expression in Christianity from the Early Christian period to the present. It explores approaches to understand the meaning within images as recorded in scriptural and literary texts as well as local oral tradition.

Chronicles the history of photography's complex and symbiotic relationship to painting, sculpture, architecture, installation, and performance. Beginning with the medium's invention and the early fights of its practitioners to establish themselves as fine artists, describes photographers' unique attempts to negotiate their relationships with both artistic movements and the media culture of which they are a part. Assesses the impact of art movements, cultural attitudes, and new technologies on photographers across the history of the medium. The course also addresses popular forms of photographic imagery, such as advertising, fashion, travel photography, family portraits and snapshots, scientific documents, documentary reform, and photojournalism, and describes the medium's relationship to Western (and global) social history during the modern era. The course utilizes the photography collections at the Houston Center for Photography, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Menil Collection, and the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.

Art History Special Topic

Art History Special Topic

The Senior Thesis is a 30-40-page original research paper or project on an advanced topic in Art History or a synthesis of previous coursework, written in close consultation with a faculty advisor. Students may utilize the extensive recourses of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Menil Collection, The Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the many other Museum in the Houston Museum District. Writing a senior thesis provides valuable training in research, organization, and self-expression, which are skills that will be equally useful to students planning careers in journalism, law, business, medicine, or education.

An understanding of the visual arts through study of their basic principles of design, aesthetics and role in society. Examples of all media are examined are drawn from diverse historical periods, places, and world cultures.

This course considers concepts and histories of art. Students explore core issues in the discipline of art history: What is art? What is art history? What is a masterpiece? The course addresses cultural factors that shape canons of art history, including notions of originality, genius, skill, inspiration, complexity, beauty, and taste, as well as the roles of art professionals and institutions. Attention is paid to: patronage and the art market, the academy and the museum, and the development of modernism. Beyond engaging with central questions in art history, students learn to analyze the formal aspects of works of art and to interpret them within the historical contexts in which they were made.

A survey of the technological and thematic developments in art and architecture in the late Antique, Early Christian, Byzantine, Carolingian and Ottonian periods. Images are viewed through their religious, political, and cultural contexts.

A survey of Romanesque and Gothic art from the eleventh through the fourteenth century. Included are French pilgrimage churches and cathedrals, sculpture, stained glass windows, manuscripts, and decorative arts as well as medieval civic and religious art in Venice, Sicily, Pisa and Siena.

On–the–job experience under the guidance of practicing specialists in the art history field. To be supervised individually by a department faculty member with the approval of the program chair.

Student research on a selected problem in art history pursued under the guidance of an assigned member of the faculty. To be presented as a formal written paper. Repeatable course. Prerequisite: permission of program chair and instructor.

On–the–job experience under the guidance of practicing specialists in the art history field. To be supervised individually by a department faculty member with the approval of the program chair.

Student research on a selected problem in art history pursued under the guidance of an assigned member of the faculty. To be presented as a formal written paper. Repeatable course. Prerequisite: permission of program chair and instructor.

Upper–division treatment of selected topics of mutual interest to the faculty member and students. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. When offered, see Website course schedule for topic.

An introduction to the symbolic language and modes of expression in Christianity from the Early Christian period to the present. It explores approaches to understand the meaning within images as recorded in scriptural and literary texts as well as local oral tradition.

Painting in Spain under the Habsburg and Bourbon monarchies from late 16th c. Mannerism through 17th c. Baroque into 18th & 19th c. Romanticism. El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya are studied in depth as well as others masters of the "Golden Age".

The sculpture, architecture, and painting of the 17th-century master who made Rome a great Baroque city through his exuberant statues, portraits, churches, chapels, papal tombs, fountains, and extensive architecture and decorations for St. Peter’s.

On–the–job experience under the guidance of practicing specialists in the art history field. To be supervised individually by a department faculty member with the approval of the program chair.

Upper–division treatment of selected topics of mutual interest to the faculty member and students. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. When offered, see Website course schedule for topic.

The sculpture, painting, and architecture of the great Renaissance master centered in Florence and Rome, including in–depth study of his David, Moses, Pietas, Medici Chapel, Deposition, designs for St. Peter’s and for Rome’s Capitol, and Pauline and Sistine Chapel frescoes.

Student research on a selected problem in art history pursued under the guidance of an assigned member of the faculty. To be presented as a formal written paper. Repeatable course. Prerequisite: permission of program chair and instructor.

Upper–division treatment of selected topics of mutual interest to the faculty member and students. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. When offered, see Website course schedule for topic.