FALL 2016 COURSE OFFERINGS
Registration Overview:
All Institute of Fine Arts seminar and colloquium courses require instructor permission before enrolling in the course
(unless otherwise noted). If you register without receiving permission from the instructor, you will be dropped from the
course.
Course interviews for Fall 2016 courses will be held August 30 - September 2, 2016. Professors will have specific
two-to-three hour time-slots available. Contact Hope Spence for specific dates/times. Make course interview
appointments by emailing ifa.program@nyu.edu.
No instructor permission is required to register for lecture courses. For PhD students who are not funded through an IFA fellowship, please register for Maintenance and Matriculation
each semester to main active student status:
●
MAINT-GA4747.004 (#1366)
For PhD students who are funded through an IFA fellowship, the Academic Office will register you for maintenance
and matriculation.
Direct any art history-related registration inquiries to the Academic Department (ifa.program@nyu.edu). For any Conservation-related inquiries, please contact Academic Advisor Kevin Martin
(conservation.program@nyu.edu).
IMPORTANT DATES:
Monday, August 29 IFA New Student Orientation
TH
Tuesday, August 30 - Friday, September 2 Course Interviews For Seminar/Colloquium Courses, Dates And Times Vary
TH
ND
Thursday, September 1 AT 10am and 12pm
Language Reading Proficiency Exams administered in Italian, French and German
ST
Tuesday, September 6
First Day Of Classes
TH
Updated August 17, 2016 Subject to Change
REQUIRED COURSES
FOUNDATIONS I FOR MA STUDENTS: PRACTICES IN ART HISTORY
FINH-GA 2046.001 (#1762)
(Lecture)
Kent Minturn
Wednesdays, 9:00am – 12:00pm
This course provides an advanced introduction to the discipline of art history. Led by a Coordinator, and team-taught
by members of the Institute faculty, it provides a systematic historiographic introduction to the history of the discipline,
followed by case studies in art historical method. The class will meet weekly for three hours, with a lecture by a
faculty member during the first hour followed by two hours of organized discussion led by the Coordinator. Incoming
M.A. students are required to take the course for credit in their first semester. Ph.D. students may audit the lecture
component of the class.
Students will be expected to write 2 short papers of 5-6 pages, one due at mid-term and the other at the end of the
course. The first assignment will have a historiographic focus, and the second a methodological one. In each case,
the student will have a choice of three topics established by the Coordinator. Students will meet individually with the
Coordinator and, if needed, other relevant members of the faculty to discuss their paper topics. The course will be
graded on the basis of: participation in class discussion (one-third), first paper (one-third), second paper (one-third).
All incoming MA students must take this course in the first semester.
TOWARD AN ART HISTORY OF ATTITUDE (PROSEMINAR FOR INCOMING PHD STUDENTS ONLY)
FINH-GA 3040.001 (#1864)
(Seminar)
Jonathan Hay
Wednesdays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
Attitude, a concept borrowed from social psychology, is an orientation toward the world. In art practice, artists define
attitudes visually, materially, and conceptually at the intersection of sensibility, rhetoric, and social action. Yet attitude
has rarely attracted the interest of art historians or other cultural historians as an interpretative focus. When attitude is
discussed at all, it is usually as a feature of the work of an individual artist that is specific to him or her; biographical
interpretation is usual. This seminar will take a very different approach. We will explore how artists in a given time and
place contribute to the creation of particular possibilities of attitude for art practice, which subsequently demonstrate
historical staying power as shared and evolving resources for later artists. We will pay particular attention to the way
in which attitudes can function as “platforms” for artistic intervention in the social space of independent opinion and
societal debate. Since attitude is a useful interpretative tool in many different cultural contexts, participants in the
seminar will be encouraged to define research projects in their own fields.
All new incoming PhD students must take this course in the first semester.
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PRE-MODERN ASIA
THE XUANHE HUAPU INVENTORY: MATCHING SURVIVING VISUAL EVIDENCE TO THE TEXTUAL RECORD
FINH-GA 3005.001 (#1683)
(Seminar)
Jonathan Hay
Fridays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
In the early twelfth century, China’s Emperor Huizong commissioned three catalogues of his personal collection of art
works: one for archaic bronze vessels, a second for calligraphies, and a third for paintings. His selection of antique
and modern paintings for his personal collection, although small in number compared to the vast quantity owned by
the state, was still extensive: a few thousand works attributed to 321 artists. And though the selection was
idiosyncratic, omitting dozens of the most important artists, the few surviving works from the collection testify to its
high quality. The Xuanhe huapu painting catalogue is essentially an inventory list with accompanying commentaries.
The inventory classifies the works initially by genre (introducing each genre with a short commentary. Within each
genre, it categorizes the works by artist (introducing each artist with a short biography and critical assessment); the
artists are presented in roughly chronological order. Under each artist’s name is a list of painting titles; a number
immediately follows each title in order to the number of scrolls comprising the overall composition of the work in
question. All the paintings in the collection were remounted as scrolls, no matter what their original format had been;
in fact, a high proportion had once been mounted on screens of various types. The organization of the inventory
made sense for the palace, but it does not lend itself to modern art historical research. In a recent research project, I have reorganized the information in the Xuanhe huapu in order to create an alternative,
analytic version of the inventory to suit the needs of modern researchers. Our seminar will use this analytic inventory
as the starting point for identifying extant versions of the pictorial themes that the titles record. For religious themes,
pre-12th century examples survive in large numbers, especially in the Dunhuang corpus of banners, manuscripts,
and cave chapel mural paintings. Secular themes present a more thorny problem, both because the titles currently
attached to extant paintings may not be original to the work and because extant versions of pre-12th century pictorial
themes are most often later copies. The collaborative work of the seminar will contribute to an eventual online version
of the analytic inventory with hyperlinks to reproductions of relevant extant paintings. Each participant in the seminar
will research the surviving visual evidence for a specific pictorial theme or themes. Reading knowledge of Chinese is
necessary to take this course.
Students must have the permission of the professor to enroll in this course.
A HISTORY OF CHINESE ART IN 100 OBJECTS
FINH-GA 2504.001
Colloquium [writing workshop]
Hsueh-Man Shen
Thursdays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
What are the key characteristics of Chinese art? How were they formed over time? What defines the “Chinese-ness”
in and of an artwork? Is there a distinctively Chinese approach to art and the history of art? This course explores the
history of Chinese art through in-depth study of a selection of 100 objects, many of which are in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art’s collection where several class meetings will be held. We will travel back in time, and across the
landmass known as China, to see how the things we now call art were made, designed, used and perceived in the
past. We will consider a wide variety of materials, ranging from jade discs, bronze vessels, silk painting, wooden
sculpture, stone stelae, ivory carvings, to reliquaries and palace buildings.
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The course takes the form of a writing workshop, which means enrolled students will write about objects assigned to
them and build the class discussions around their writings as well the objects themselves. It caters to those students
who are especially interested in improving their skills for writing about art and the history of art in China. No interview is required, but interested students must contact Prof. Shen (hms10@nyu.edu) indicating their interest
and how the course fits in their studies.
TOMB ART IN PRE-MODERN CHINA
FINH-GA 3004.003 (#25490)
Seminar
Hsueh-Man Shen
Wednesdays, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
This seminar will examine how the deceased were treated in their tombs and how the world of the dead was
imagined by those living in pre-modern China. Archaeologically documented tombs will be used as examples to
highlight key concepts dominating the design and building of tombs, such as the continued existence of the
deceased, travel of the soul to paradise, and post-mortem immortality. Attention is also paid to theoretical issues,
especially those concerning the use of texts and images/substitutes in tombs. A reading knowledge of Chinese is
preferable but not a prerequisite.
Students must have the permission of the professor to enroll in this course.
PAINTING OF THE JIAQING REIGN (1796-1820): A PRELIMINARY VIEW
FINH-GA 3004.002 (#21962) Seminar Michele Matteini Mondays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
The period between the 1790s and the 1820s-1830s is a regrettable lacuna in the history of Chinese painting: what
happened between the experimental high tide of mid eighteenth century and the rise of Shanghai is usually quite
hastily described as stagnant or in decline. Yet, new research in social and cultural history or literature is showing that
it was in this period of seeming inwardness and uncertainty that much of what we associate to ‘modern’ China first
took shape. Wary of an art history of accelerations and deceleration, this seminar will pause to consider what is known about
these troubled four decades and develop a framework for understanding, among other things, the brilliant palettes of
Jiaqing court painting, the merging of fact and fiction in portraiture and figure painting (Fei Danxu, Gai Qi), the
relationship between brush arts, seal carving, and object design (Chen Hongshou, Xi Gang), the aesthetic
dimensions of scholarship (Ruan Yuan, Huang Yi), the optical experimentations of Zhenjiang painters, the goals and
structure of Molin jinhua and other chronicles of modern painting, or the artistic and intellectual exchanges with Korea
and Japan. Due to the experimental, hands-on nature of the seminar, our weekly meetings will be structured around short inclass presentations of individual research and group study sessions of early nineteenth-century paintings in local
collections. Previous knowledge of Chinese language is not mandatory but preferable; some experience with Chinese
painting and culture of the late imperial period is required.
Students must have the permission of the instructor to enroll in this course.
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PRE-MODERN AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
ARTS OF ISLAMIC PILGRIMAGE: AMULETS, RELICS, SHRINES AND TOKENS
FINH-GA 3015.001 (#17834)
(Seminar)
Finbarr Barry Flood Tuesdays, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
The institution of pilgrimage is ubiquitous and long established in the Islamic world. The paradigm is the hajj, the
pilgrimage to Mecca that is incumbent on all those with the financial and physical means to make the journey once in
a lifetime. The hajj takes place in the last month of the Muslim calendar, highlighting intersections between sacred
geography and temporality that are common to many rites of pilgrimage. In the medieval and early modern periods,
pilgrims frequently expanded their itineraries to include the mosque and tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina,
the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and other shrines located across a wide swath of territory from Palestine to Iraq.
Such itineraries connected the focal shrines of Islam with a wide network of more popular shrines and tombs that
spanned the Islamic world from the Atlantic to Central Asia and China. The tradition of pilgrimage had significant implications for art and architecture and for material culture more generally.
For example, first-hand knowledge of the richly-endowed sacred sites in Arabia, was sometimes carried over long
distance by pilgrims, who may have acted as vectors in the dissemination of architectural knowledge. Equally, the
presence of pilgrims stimulated the development of extensive souvenir industries dedicated to providing mementoes
and tokens for pilgrims to carry home. These ranged from spectacular painted scrolls depicting the holy sites through
tokens fashioned from the earth of sacred sites whose images they bore, to indexical images of relics traced directly
from prototypes enshrined in Arabia and Syria, and even bowls intended for use in rites of healing. Many of these
objects were believed to mediate the aura of the sacred sites that they depicted or whose materials they were made
from; they thus oscillated between the states of being commodities and mediators of sacrality in their own right. The history of these pilgrimage industries, their products, and indeed of the relics and shrines whose veneration they
promoted has yet to be written. This seminar offers an introduction to the topic designed to coincide with Every People Under Heaven: Jerusalem,
1000–1400, an exhibition that will take place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Fall 2016. Although focused on the
art and architecture of pilgrimage in the Islamic world, the themes to be explored resonate more broadly with current
art historical concerns. These include histories and modes of architectural representation, the function of copies,
replicas or surrogates in devotional practice, the mobility of sacred artifacts or sites and the associated tension
between site-specificity and portability, and the role of indexicality in producing efficacious artifacts or images. Our
theoretical approach to these topics will be informed by recent developments in the disciplines of anthropology and
art history, including renewed concerns with questions of aura and efficacy, and with the agency, presence, and
ontological status of crafted artifacts and images. Long neglected, the material culture and practices of Islamic
pilgrimage offer an ideal lens through which to consider some of these contemporary developments Interview:
Students should contact the Academic Office to schedule an interview with Professor Flood: ifa.program@nyu.edu
Seminar Requirements:
● Weekly readings. One participant to lead discussion on the readings each week (10 minutes with points for
further discussion in the seminar).
● Participation in weekly discussions.
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A one-page written response to the readings each week. This can take the form of a critique, an
engagement with a single theme that runs through the readings, or an analysis of the significance of the
readings for the topics of the seminar.
A 4-6 page proposal for a seminar paper, with bibliography, on a topic to be decided in consultation. Due by
mid. semester.
A significant (20-25-page) seminar paper based on the proposal.
Illustrated seminar presentation on the research topic (30-40 minutes) followed by 15-20-minute discussion).
THE ARTS OF MEDIEVAL JERUSALEM FROM BYZANTINE AND EASTERN CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES
FINH-GA 2525.001(#19532)
(Colloquium)
Thelma Thomas
Wednesdays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
In September 2016 the exhibition, “Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People under Heaven,” will open at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition will serve as a launching pad for explorations of the diverse artistic
traditions of this contested city, taking up perspectives across the interconnected cultural spheres of the Byzantine
Empire and the Eastern Christian cultures of Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and Armenia.
Students must have the permission of the professor before registering for this course.
THE FUNERARY ARTS OF LATE ANTIQUITY
FINH-GA 3026.001 (#19535)
(Seminar)
Thelma Thomas
Thursdays, 10:00am - 12:00pm
The seminar will begin with close readings of recent research on changing beliefs, practices and arts of death across
the disciplines of history, archaeology, and the history of art. Following this assessment of prior scholarship, students
will undertake research projects that may address a wide category of subjects (with good quality archaeological
documentation) from grave assemblages and ad sanctos burials to funerary portraits and monumental tombs.
Students must have the permission of the instructor before registering for this course.
As of August 18, 2016
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THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST, INCLUDING EGYPT
GREEK ART AND ARCHITECTURE I: THE ARCHAIC PERIOD
FINH-GA 2023.001 (#21343)
(Lecture) Clemente Marconi
Mondays, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
This lecture course is an introduction to the urbanism, architecture, and visual arts of the Greek world from the
Protogeometric (1050 BCE) down to the end of the Archaic period (480 BCE). While providing a solid background in
the art and architecture of this period, this course explores critical aspects of ancient Greek Art, such as the origins of
monumental architecture and temple decoration, the birth and early development of mythological narrative on painted
vases, and the meanings and functions of statues.
SELINUNTE
FINH-GA 3023.001 (#21345)
(Seminar)
Clemente Marconi
Mondays, 10:00am - 12:00pm
This seminar is entirely devoted to Selinunte, the Greek colony in Western Sicily which is being investigated by a
mission of the Institute of Fine Arts. After exploring the history of the city, the seminar, which has a strong contextual
approach, will focus on its urbanism, architecture, and visual arts from the Archaic down to the Hellenistic period.
Students must have the permission of the professor before registering for this course.
CITY OF ROME: REPUBLIC TO EMPIRE
FINH-GA 3024.001 (23624)
(Seminar)
Katherine Welch
Thursdays, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
The Roman Empire lasted nearly one thousand years in its pagan form, whist other religions flourished during the
same period under its rule. How did this happen? This course will explore the imperial "drive" that Rome began and
achieved in earnest from the 4th c. BCE in Rome until the later 2nd/early 3rd c. CE. in the Mediterranean basin.
After a series of introductions, each student will choose a topic and will report on it in detail. The class will participate
in a discussion on the topic, which I will officiate, we all having read students' suggested readings one week in
advance (which readings one can discuss with me in my office hours, previously). The possibilities for topics for this seminar are endless and exhilarating. An architectural monument (any), an ancient
Roman neighborhood, a statue group, a series of wall paintings. I will help you to choose, if you like. We shall visit the Metropolitan Museum's Greek and Roman Galleries, as well as some private collections in the city.
We shall also discuss the many new exhibitions of ancient Roman materials that are on display in Rome itself.
Beyond these things, ancient Roman ideals constitute a pertinent subject right now in our own contemporary world
situation.
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NB: Students who wish to report on the aftermath of Rome under the Popes (for example re-positioning of obelisks)
and other influences that the ruins had (Piranesi, etc.) are welcome and encouraged to apply!
Permission of faculty required to enroll in class.
POMPEII AND THE CITIES OF VESUVIUS
FINH-GA 2524.001 (#23625)
(Colloquium)
Katherine Welch
Mondays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
This is an extremely rich topic, and students may choose to report on many artifactual/architectural topics. Roman
ruins on the Bay of Naples, particularly at Pompeii, are a kind of "snap shot" onto Roman life in the 1st c. CE. At
Pompeii, and Herculaneum, we have more evidence for actual life at that time than in any other municipality, in Italy
or the Latin-speaking West of the Roman Empire -- buildings, portraits (identified with excellent contexts), cult
statues, decorative arts, wall painting. We also have plentiful evidence for villas around Pompeii and on the Bay of
Naples (Stabia, Puteoli, Miseno). Roman wall painting of the late republican/ early imperial periods is best
documented at these sites. We have portraits and buildings with inscriptional evidence attesting as to exactly who
paid for them.
There are serious conservation issues facing the whole area. We should address these issues vehemently.
The course will involve at least one trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and hopefully to a famed private art
collection in New York City.
NB: In this course, I would gladly accept students who are interested in the rediscovery of Pompeii and other
Vesuvian cities in the Early Modern Era and the impact that this discovery may have had on then contemporary and
later art.
Permission of faculty required to enroll in class.
As of August 18, 2016
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PRE-MODERN EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS
ADVANCED STUDY: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT EPOCHAL SHIFTS
FINH-GA 2540.001 (#19528)
(Colloquium)
Alexander Nagel
Mondays, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Beginnings and endings have gone out of fashion in Art History and across the Humanities. Few scholars or curators
go out of their way, these days, to draw period lines or define zones and styles of art production. And yet this does
seem to make ours an identifiable period, academically speaking. We live in an academic culture of gray areas and
contingencies, allergic to labels and generalizations. An embrace of multiplicity, mixing, and mobility is the order of
the day. It is enough to raise some concerns—namely, that all this leaves the old narratives in place; that it makes it
difficult to have a meaningful field-wide debate; that the air of détente can only confirm gathering opinion that the
Humanities are weak and irrelevant.
This course is for people who can’t quite rid themselves of the idea that important changes happen in the history of
art, sometimes suddenly. It is for people who suspect the material they are studying is involved in just such changes,
and are not sure how to go about saying so. It is for anyone who wants to understand better how artworks could have
anything to do with such historical abstractions as periods and styles. Closet Hegelians are of course welcome. This colloquium is an advanced study that starts with a paper and aims to put it through intensive work in a repeated
round-robin of presentations and discussion, sustained by common readings. The professor will be participating with
a paper of his own. To be admitted to this course, students should submit a paper at least ten pages long on a
relevant topic. This course is open to students of any level, from dissertation-writers to incoming MA students, who
are invited to work something up over the summer.
A piece of writing involving the relevant issues (not a proposal) of at least ten pages must be submitted to the
instructor by 5PM on Wednesday, August 31. Projects in any field welcome. Course can be taken for seminar credit.
Course can satisfy different distribution areas, according to paper topics.
PRINT CULTURE: OBJECTS AND MEANING
FINH-GA 3041.001 (#17823)
(Seminar)
Patricia Rubin and Mark McDonald (Curator of Prints, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Thursdays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Over the past thirty years prints have assumed a prominent role in the study of art history. Questions relating to their
meaning and use are often addressed under the umbrella of ‘print culture’, which is broadly understood as embodying
all printed forms of visual communication. This course will concentrate on the agency of prints as images. Each
session will revolve around a major print and sometimes a small group of related works to focus attention on matters
relating to making and meaning. The material ranges from the late fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century
(broadly defined as Renaissance to Early Modern) but the classes will not necessarily proceed chronologically. The
course will provide students unique access to view, handle and discuss the prints with the aim of understanding them
as objects that intersect with many different issues. All classes will be held in the Study Room of the Department of
Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Faculty permission required to enroll in the course. Please
review the following documents prior to the interview: http://bit.ly/2bbcmEp
As of August 18, 2016
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THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE
FINH-GA 2033 (#17815)
(Lecture)
Mia Mochizuki Thursdays, 10:00am - 12:00pm
What distinguished the major artistic achievements of the Dutch Golden Age, roughly from the outbreak of
widespread iconoclasm (“beeldenstorm”) in 1566 to the “disaster year” (“rampjaar”) of 1672 with the onset of the
Franco-Dutch war and the resulting economic crisis ? This graduate lecture survey will provide an advanced
introduction to a period that laid the foundation for many of the same issues of artistic enterprise (methods of artistic
production, modes of interpretation, choice of subject matter, and cultures of collecting) that we continue to wrestle
with today. We will study the major masters (Rembrandt, Vermeer and Frans Hals), the birth of innovative genre
(history painting, portraiture, landscape, marine, architectural painting and still life) and the reception of Dutch realism
in the Americas, Africa and Asia via the East and West India Companies. Themes will include canvas painting and
connoisseurship, notions of realism, printmaking and personal identity, the theater of everyday life, issues of display,
the limits of illusionism, naturalism and nationalism, religious art in a multi-confessional society, the art market and
economies of value, the symbiotic relationship between art and science, cartography and the utopian search for other
worlds, and the history of taste in Nieuw Amsterdam (New York). Visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art are
planned. No previous knowledge required. Evaluation by active class participation, an in-class powerpoint
presentation, an on-site oral presentation and a final examination.
EYCKIAN ISSUES: RECENTLY REVEALED, TOO LONG UNKNOWN
FINH-GA 3033.001 (#21383)
(Seminar)
Colin Eisler
Wednesdays, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Never in art’s history have so many major areas of painterly achievement been quite so drastically re-cast as in the
last five or so years. With the extensive Getty-sponsored conservation of the Ghent Altar now almost complete, and
Maryan Ainsworth’s Metropolitan Museum recent, novel research dealing with the Museum’s Eyckian Diptych, studies
have taken a radically new turn. Completely novel revelations concerning almost every aspect of works by Hubert
and jan van Eyck have reversed previous views, leaving many issues open to novel interpretation and radical
revision. Two new van Eyck websites are now available for individual research: the Getty’s for the Ghent Altar and
the European VERONA for the total Eyckian oeuvre and that of their followers. These resources place independent
research on a new, autonomous plane, with all visual documentation instantly available on any computer. Though an
avalanche of important recent technical material has been brought to light, much of it is far from fully assimilated,
making it tempting to restrict all current research to its understanding. Yet an entirely different area of “art historical
Eyckian consciousness” now requires raising. Just how did these artists of new vision and reality envision
themselves? What reactions and re-evaluations did such paintings arouse in their patrons and early viewers? How
do works that we have only recently begun to see in and with so many different senses enable us to gain insight into
the Eyckian self-image?
Students must have the permission of the professor before registering for this course.
As of August 18, 2016
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THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR
FINH-GA 2525.002 (#25368)
(Colloquium)
Colin Eisler
Fridays, 10:00am - 12:00pm
We will examine this key devotional structure from its origins to the 19th and 20th centuries, with works of Friedrich,
Sutherland and Matisse. Altars of the Latin and Greek church will be considered. Reliquary altars, portable altars,
diptychs, triptychs and polyptychs and the iconostasis and reredos are to be studied. These will be explored in
museums and churches, whether locked in display cases or free to function in an ecclesiastical context. Gothic and
renaissance altars North and South of the Alps are to be viewed, with special attention to those including sculpture or
complex predelle. Students must have the permission of the professor before registering for this course.
THE WALTER COOK ARCHIVE
FINH-GA 3027.001 (#1686)
(Seminar)
Robert Maxwell
Tuesdays, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Walter Cook (1888-1962) was the founding director of the Institute of Fine Arts. He holds a distinguished place in
history for his active recruitment of emigrees fleeing Nazi Europe—bringing to the Institute such figures as Panofsky,
Firedlander, Goldschmidt, Lehmann, Aubert, Focillon, among others. He was also an American pioneer in the study
of Spanish art, particularly medieval painting. Cook’s personal papers, correspondence, study photographs, and
more, constitute a small but compelling archive of his scholarly activities. In this course, we will study Cook’s legacy
but will will particular delve into his archive. Our goal for the end of the term is to produce short essays on Cook for
the Institute’s historiography project and produce a searchable database of the archival material.
Permission of faculty required to register for the course.
FAKE: AN AESTHETIC APPROACH
FINH-GA3031.001 (#21416)
(Seminar)
Jacqueline Lichtenstein
Tuesdays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
Art forgery has a long history, almost as long as the history of art itself. This history is full of tasty anecdotes. There
are fakes made by artists who became forgers occasionally, like Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto, Luca Gordano; and
fakes made by forgers who were not recognized as artists, the most famous being the Dutch forger of Vermeer, Van
Meegeren. If the increasing production of forgeries is linked to the art market, as is evidenced by recent scandals, a
vogue for forgeries has been criticized long before now, notably in ancien régime France by authors like Roger de
Piles, Du Bos, the count of Caylus, or Voltaire. They all denounced the confusion between copies and originals.
Fakes and copies belong to the same class of objects, including pastiches and replicas. They all refer to the main
concept of western theory of art since the Renaissance: the concept of imitation. That is why the status of forgery,
considered as an illegitimate practice, has always been linked through history to the status of the legitimate practice
of copying. But the boundaries differentiating those practices have always been unstable. Leaving aside problems of
attribution and connoisseurship, through forgery we will address some fundamental question in aesthetics and As of August 18, 2016
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philosophy of art. The first question concerns the definition of art and of aesthetic values, as forgers – and some
contemporary artists – put into question categories such as originality, uniqueness, and authenticity. Forgery also
raises the problem of the criteria of aesthetic judgment—how we judge a work of art. Last but not least, forgery
questions the nature of visual experience: what do we see when we see a work we know is a fake? Field trips to examine cases available in New York will be organized on the basis of directions taken by the members
of the class.
Students will be graded on the basis of their participation in the course, which includes oral presentations, as well as
on the basis of a 20-25 page research paper. Papers for the course may focus on forgery problems in different
fields—indeed, potentially any of the 8 distribution areas could be addressed by a paper for this course, depending on
how it is framed. The area of research pursued in the paper will determine to which area this course applies in
satisfying breadth requirements. Students interested in the course should submit a one-two page statement of interest in the course before Tuesday,
Aug. 30th by 5pm or schedule an in-person interview: ifa.program@nyu.edu
THE ART OF PSALMS IN MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN CULTURE
FINH-GA 3026.002 (#21430) same course as MEDI-GA 2200.001
(Seminar)
Andrew Romig, Kathryn A. Smith
Thursdays, 3:30pm - 6:10pm
The Art of the Psalms in Medieval European Culture” is a team-taught graduate seminar designed to introduce
students, including doctoral candidates, master’s students, and BA/MA students across a range of departments and
programs to the study of the Old Testament Book of Psalms, with particular interest in its collection, dissemination,
interpretation, and illustration in medieval Christian manuscripts from roughly the fifth through fifteenth centuries CE.
Taught by Kathryn Smith (Department of Art History) and Andrew Romig (Gallatin School of Individualized Study), the
course takes a multi- and inter-disciplinary approach to medieval cultural study. We will regard the Book of Psalms
as a text that was used and reused for multi-layered purposes throughout the European Middle Ages. We will
consider the ways in which the Book of Psalms served as an object of and vehicle for veneration, commemoration,
and pictorial innovation. We will explore how it both facilitated the expression of cultural identity and served as a
means of intercultural connection between contemporary communities and their collective pasts. Finally, we will
define “Psalm Art” as broadly as possible, so as to include not only the calligraphic presentation and pictorial
illustration of the Psalms, but also the poetics of the Psalms themselves, the arts of translation and exegetical
interpretation, and the devotional practices that placed the Psalms at the center of spiritual life for professional and
lay Christians alike for more than a millennium. While the course has its foundations in the fields of literature, history,
and art history, as well as the study of medieval manuscripts as material artifacts, readings will invite students to use
the Psalms as a case study for a wide range of methodological and theoretical pursuits – the history of emotions,
gender studies, literary theory, theology, and philosophy, to name just a few. Students will have the opportunity to
examine manuscripts in local collections (the Morgan Library, the Columbia University Rare Book Room) and to
examine works in both digital and paper facsimile. Thanks to a team-teaching grant from the NYU Humanities center,
the course meetings also will be enriched by visits from guest speakers working in a range of disciplines in medieval
studies, including musicology, art history, history, or literature. No interview is required, but interested students should contact Professors Romig (ajr6@nyu.edu) and Smith
(kathryn.smith@nyu.edu) indicating their interest and how the course fits their studies.
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POST-1750 GLOBAL
FRANK GEHRY’S ARCHITECTURE, FROM LOS ANGELES TO THE WORLD, AND BACK
FINH-GA 2043.001 (#1765)
(Lecture)
Jean-Louis Cohen
Mondays, 10:00am - 12:00pm
Frank Gehry has emerged in the last decades as one of the world’s most productive and original architects. The
course will undertake a close analysis of his projects, from the earliest ones designed beginning in 1959, to the latest,
using a wide range of media, and focusing on the drawings he has systematically used to develop his ideas, even in
the age of computer-aided design, of which he has been a pioneer. Gehry’s path-breaking concepts will be
interpreted as a response to the urban condition of Los Angeles, but also in other situations, and as they engage
issues in contemporary art, and technology. The buildings he has conceived for cultural institutions will be given a
particular attention, and will be considered in their broader urban and political context, from Southern California to
Europe and Asia. The genesis of the designs will be documented step by step, on the base of thousands of drawings and hundreds of
models kept in the office’s warehouse.
This course may also fulfill the Architectural History distribution area.
ART AND LITERATURE IN 20TH CENTURY FRANCE
FINH-GA 3036.002 (#21419)
(Seminar)
Kent Minturn
Thursdays, 12:30pm - 2:30pm
This seminar will examine crucial intersections between art and literature in France from the early 20th century to the
postmodern era. Beginning with Cubism and the so-called Cubist Poets we will move on to consider Surrealism and
La Collège de Sociologie in the pre-war period, and then art and literature during the Occupation and the postwar
épuration, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism’s engagement with the arts, and finally, the rise of the New Art
History and the aesthetics of the New Novel. We will consider works by Picasso, Dubuffet, Wols, Artaud, and key
texts by Apollinaire, Bataille, Paulhan, Sartre, Barthes, Lévi-Strauss, Derrida, Damisch, Claude Simon, among others.
Permission of the faculty required prior to enrolling in the course.
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THEORIES OF THE NEO-AVANT-GARDE IN POST-WAR EUROPE, 1950-1970
FINH-GA 3036.001 (#1766) Same as ITAL-GA 1981 Topics in Italian Culture: Theories of Neo Avant Garde Ara Merjian (NYU Italian Studies)
Tuesdays, 10:00am - 12:00pm
This course will address the question of the neo-avant-garde, both as it developed in post-war Europe and as it gave
rise to subsequent theorizations in art historical discourse. The first part of the course will examine competing
arguments about the neo-avant-garde adduced over the last several decades. We will follow this theoretical and
historiographic overview with a series of case studies in historical context, including Neo-dada/Nouveau Réalisme,
Situationism (and related practices), and Arte Povera. The historical and intellectual boundaries of these phenomena
are (rightly) contested; we will examine their particular manifestations, but also probe their rapport with Cold War
politics, the historical avant-gardes, specific formal and conceptual strategies, and the question of postmodernism.
Readings will include work by Renato Poggioli, Perry Anderson, Fredric Jameson, Hal Foster, Hubert Van Den Berg,
Benjamin Buchloh, Umberto Eco, Peter Bürger, Guy Debord, Boris Groys, Alan Kaprow, Piero Manzoni, Clement
Greenberg, Pierre Restany. Students will develop and present case studies of their own choosing, leading to a final
research project and paper. No interview required.
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ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
METHODS OF INTERPRETATION IN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
FINH-GA 2543.001 (Colloquium)
Jean-Louis Cohen and Marvin Trachtenberg
Tuesdays, 5:30pm - 7:30pm
A critical introduction to the practice of architectural history.
The colloquium surveys archeological, morphological, typological, technological, spatial, contextual, ideological,
political and other methods through selected readings and class discussion. Following an introductory analysis of
certain key problematics of the field, most of the course will focus on seminal historians who strongly influenced the
evolution of architectural discourse, such as John Ruskin, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Gottfried Semper,
Geoffrey Scott, Aloïs Riegl, Heinrich Wölfflin, Paul Frankl, Henri Focillon, Erwin Panofsky, Richard Krautheimer, Jean
Bony, Sigfried Giedion, Bruno Zevi, Manfredo Tafuri, Giulio Carlo Argan, Rudolf Wittkower, James Ackerman, Vincent
Scully, Reyner Banham and Joseph Rykwert. In each session, a group of students will argue in favor of a given
method, stressing its productivity and its results, and a second team will argue against it, underlining its limits and its
biases.
This course may also fulfill different distribution areas depending on the topic of your final paper. Permission of the
faculty required prior to enrolling in the course.
MUSEUM AND CURATORIAL STUDIES
ARS BREVIS: THE VULNERABILITY OF ART AND THE INSTABILITY OF MEANING
FINH-GA 2042.001
(Lecture)
Philippe de Montebello
Tuesdays, 10:00am - 12:00pm
Constructed around a number of case studies, the class will focus on how the changing contexts of works of art and
their physical transformation over time and space affect their meaning. A basic premise is that no work appears to us
as it was originally conceived, nor necessarily where intended to be seen; that it undergoes many changes in the
course of its existence, from displacement, to deliberate alteration, to natural degradation, and that the viewer’s
response is necessarily variable and contingent. Since the museum features prominently in the shifting contextual
history of many works, a number of its functions will be considered, notably acquisition, conservation, and installation.
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CONSERVATION COURSES FOR ART HISTORIANS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS
The following three (3) courses fulfill the Foundations II requirement OR a Technical Studies of Works of Art
distribution area for art history students. *One course cannot fulfill both Foundations II and the Technical Studies of Works of Art distribution area. However, if
you take two conservation courses, one can fulfill Foundations II and the other can fulfill the distribution area. THE TECHNICAL CONNOISSEURSHIP OF WORKS OF ART ON PAPER
(Seminar, 3 points) FINH-GA.2303.001 [#2245]
(Independent Study, 1 point) FINH-GA.3545.001 [#1792]
Margaret Holben Ellis
Tuesdays, 10:00am – 12:00pm
The physical and chemical properties of works of art on paper will be considered as an inherent aspect of art
historical connoisseurship. Concurrent with the close study of both traditional and modern media and techniques,
students will carry out complete technical examinations of one print and one drawing for final presentation to the
class. Emphasis will be placed on the correlation of physical evidence as it relates to authenticity, original function,
artist’s intent and present-day aesthetics.
The course is open to all art history, archaeology, and conservation students; enrollment is limited to 12 students.
This course may be taken in fulfillment of the Foundations II requirement for art historians. Art history MA and PhD
students must also register for FINH-GA.3545.001 for one additional point. Students must have the permission of the
instructor before registering for this course.
CULTURAL HERITAGE IN TIMES OF ARMED CONFLICT
(Colloquium, 3 points) FINH-GA.2320.001 [#22013]
(Independent Study, 1 point) FINH-GA.3545.002 [#1973]
Dr. Norbert S. Baer
Tuesdays, 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Armed conflict, in its extreme case, war, remains a fundamental aspect of human behavior. While the central focus of
the colloquium with be the preservation of cultural property, both movable and immovable, the historical record and
modern writings examining the theory of war, conventions regarding the prosecution of war will provide background
and context for the discussion of case studies involving individual conflicts, cities and monuments. An essential model
to be considered is that of preparation, response and recovery as demonstrated in societal engagement with natural
and environmental disasters. When considering the post-war recovery effort, the role of reparations, rebuilding and
restitution after recent conflicts will be evaluated in response to modern conservation theory.
The course is open to all art history, archaeology, and conservation students; enrollment is limited to 10 students.
This course may be taken in fulfillment of the Foundations II requirement for art historians. Art history MA and PhD
students must also register for FINH-GA.3545.002 for one additional point. Students must have the permission of the
instructor before registering for this course.
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TOPICS IN TIME-BASED MEDIA CONSERVATION
(Lecture, 3 points) FINH-GA.2321.001 [#22014]
(Independent Study, 1 point) FINH-GA.3545.003 [#21725]
Conservation Center faculty and consultants
Coordinator: Christine Frohnert
Mondays, 3:00pm – 5:00pm
The course will examine one of the newest and fastest emerging fields in art conservation in both theory and practice:
time-based media art. Technology-based artworks are referred to as time-based media (TBM) works, and are
characterized by having a durational element, such as sound, slide, film, video, software, performance, light,
movement, or internet, that unfolds to the viewer over time. Other terms commonly used for this new discipline are
technology-based art, electronic media art, or media art. The conservation of TBM artworks is of increasing concern
to the profession, not only because of the preservation challenges of rapidly obsolescing components, but also
because of the artworks' very specific relationships to time, space, and concept. Conservators and curators must
implement new conservation knowledge, examination techniques and strategies to preserve these artworks as well
as their respective materials and technologies. An historical overview of the development of TBM art will set the basis
for a closer look at the conservation challenges of media such as film, slide, video, light, sound, kinetic, interactive
installations, as well as digitally-born, computer-based, and Internet art. The significant set of issues posed by the
examination and the conservation of TBM, as well as issues that arise during the acquisition phase, will be discussed
through case studies. Emphasis will be put on the decision-making processes based on ethical standards in
conservation. The main resources and research projects worldwide that focus on TBM art conservation will be
introduced.
The course will take advantage of the exceptional expertise in TBM art conservation by inviting 10 local and
international scholars to present their area of research during a semester-long public lecture series. The course will
meet twice a week, once during the scheduled class time and again for larger public lectures to be held on Monday
evenings, from 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM. These events will allow input and to open a dialogue with a larger professional
audience of TBM conservators, curators, archivists, computer scientists, artists and engineers from the greater New
York City area.
The course is open to all art history, archaeology, and conservation students. This course may be taken in fulfillment
of the Foundations II requirement for art historians. Art history MA and PhD students must also register for FINHGA.3545.003 for one additional point.
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