Professor Sandra Cheng
Office Hours:Tues/Thurs 9-10 am
Office: Namm 602B
Email: scheng@citytech.cuny.edu
Phone: 718-260-5003
Class Time/Location: Tues/Thurs 11:30 am-12:45 pm, Atrium 631 (3 credits)
Course Description: Art is the creation of its creator as well as the cultural, political, economic, and social forces that shaped that artist. This course will connect art to those histories, and will introduce students to the visual language of Western art from ancient to modern times, in order to increase the recognition and understanding of references in advertisements and posters, on clothing, and in film and other media. The course introduces a wide variety of methodologies and topics of current debate in the field of art history, including: style, technique, patronage, iconography (subject matter), social context, historiography (writings about art and how they shaped our concepts), gender, psychoanalysis, and art theory.
Required Textbook: Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner’s Art Through The Ages, A Concise Western History, 2nd Edition, Wadsworth, 2010 (previous edition is OK, copies are on reserve in the library)
Learning Outcomes: Students will,
- enhance their visual literacy and critical thinking skills,
- become familiar with key works of Western art, their artists, styles, materials and working methods,
- become knowledgeable about the major works of art linked to historical events, intellectual history, and scientific and cultural trends,
- acquire a working knowledge of the specialized vocabulary used in art history,
- and learn the analytical techniques used by art historians.
Grading:
Blog and In-Class Assignments 15%
Exam 1 20%
Exam 2 20%
Museum Paper 20%
Narrative Art (4 Icon Challenge) Assignment 5%
FINAL Exam 20%
PLEASE NOTE: Failure to turn in the paper or submit an exam will result in a zero (0), not F for the assignment.
Important Dates:
October 6, Thursday Exam 1
November 3, Thursday Museum Paper due
November 15, Tuesday Exam 2
December 20, Tuesday Final Exam, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm
no incomplete work accepted after this date
Exams: Exams consist of slide identifications (artist name, title of works, stylistic period, approximate dates, location if in situ, significance of work), short answer questions, essays, and vocabulary. Make-up exams will only be given for reasons of documented emergency.
Museum Paper: Information on the required paper will be given in a separate handout. The paper is an exhibition review (4 pages). You will be given a list of approved exhibitions in New York City. Choose one exhibition to visit. Write a review based on your interpretation and analysis. The objective of this review will be to determine the goal of the curator in putting the exhibition together and then to evaluate the extent to which the curator was successful in achieving this goal. Please submit your paper on time, late papers will drop a letter grade per day after the deadline.
Extra Credit: Over the course of the semester, you will be given an option to do several extra credit projects worth 1-2 points each. The projects have specific due dates. These are short written assignments of approx. 500 words. If you complete all the projects well, it is possible to increase your final grade average by 10 points. You will find extra credit assignments posted online.
Attendance: Students are expected to attend all classes. More than 3 absences will result in course failure. Excessive lateness will affect your grade. Three late marks equal one absence.
Decorum: Please turn off your cell phones, beepers, alarms, etc. and no sleeping, internet surfing, txt msgs while in lecture.
