* HSAR 0016b / EAST 0401b, Chinese Painting and Culture  Quincy Ngan

This course focuses on important works of Chinese painting and major painters from the fourth century CE to the twentieth century. Through close readings of the pictorial contents and production contexts of such works of art, this course investigates the works’ formats, meanings, and innovations from social, historical, and art-historical perspectives. In this course, students become familiar with the traditional Chinese world and acquire the knowledge necessary to be an informed viewer of Chinese painting. Discussions of religion, folkloric beliefs, literature, relationships between men and women, the worship of mountains, the laments of scholars, and the tastes of emperors and wealthy merchants also allow students to understand the cultural roots of contemporary China.  Enrollment limited to first-year students.   HU
MW 2:35pm-3:50pm

* HSAR 0019a, Matters of Color/Color Matters  Jae Rossman and Cynthia Roman

Color is a powerful element of visual representation. It can convey symbolic meaning, descriptive content, aesthetic values, and cultural connotations. This seminar seeks to explore practical, aesthetic, and conceptual facets of “color.” A series of weekly modules are structured around the strengths of the rich special collections at Yale libraries and museums. Students are introduced to Yale librarians, curators, and conservators whose expertise will be an invaluable resource throughout their undergraduate years. The course incorporates hands-on sessions in keeping with making as a learning tool.  Enrollment limited to first-year students.   HU
MW 2:35pm-3:50pm

HSAR 1110a / ARCG 1110a, Introduction to the History of Art: Global Decorative Arts  Edward Cooke

Global history of the decorative arts from antiquity to the present. The materials and techniques of ceramics, textiles, metals, furniture, and glass. Consideration of forms, imagery, decoration, and workmanship. Themes linking geography and time, such as trade and exchange, simulation, identity, and symbolic value.  HU  0 Course cr
HTBA

HSAR 3219a / AMST 1197a / ARCH 2600a / HIST 1125a / URBN 1101a, American Architecture and Urbanism  Staff

An introduction to the field of American architecture and urbanism: the study of buildings, architects, designs, styles, and urban landscapes, viewed in economic, political, social, and cultural contexts. Organized chronologically, from pre-Colonial times to the present, as well as thematically, the course studies the formation and meaning of the built environment in America. The many topics encountered along the way include the public and private investment in the built environment; history of housing in America; transportation and infrastructure; architectural practice; and the social and political nature of city building and urban change. Attention also paid to the transnational nature of American architecture—the role of colonialism, the global exchange of architectural ideas, and the international careers of some architects. We will take advantage of our local setting, New Haven, as a cross-section of American architectural and urban history and a storehouse of key examples of building types, urban landscapes, and architectural styles. Upon completion, students should be expected to grasp the basic periods, trends, and processes in American architectural history and their connection to urban patterns. This course aims to give students the tools to appreciate and interpret the built environments that surround them, from impressive monuments to ordinary structures  HU  0 Course cr
TTh 11:35am-12:25pm

HSAR 3220b, Introduction to Contemporary Art  Pamela Lee

Introduction of the pivotal figures, tendencies, and criticism of the art of the last three decades, exploring questions of material, form, media, process, and aesthetics relative to social, political, and economic issues. Popular media depict contemporary art as luxury goods for celebrities, oligarchs, and elites. This class provides a historical and theoretically nuanced picture of recent art and its critical reception.  Some art history recommended but not required.  HU  0 Course cr
MW 11:35am-12:25pm

HSAR 3247a / ARCG 1161a / CLCV 1711a, Art and Myth in Greek Antiquity  Milette Gaifman

Visual exploration of Greek mythology through the study of ancient Greek art and architecture. Greek gods, heroes, and mythological scenes foundational to Western culture; the complex nature of Greek mythology; how art and architecture rendered myths ever present in ancient Greek daily experience; ways in which visual representations can articulate stories. Use of collections in the Yale University Art Gallery.  HU  0 Course cr
MW 10:30am-11:20am

HSAR 3286b, Renaissance Architecture: A Global History  Morgan Ng

The period known as the Renaissance (1400–1600) witnessed the rise and spread of ambitious new forms of architecture. During this era, builders pushed an earlier tradition of gothic design toward unprecedented heights of structural daring and ornamental expression. At the same time, they found inspiration in ancient pagan and non-European monuments, which offered alternative models of technical virtuosity, material splendor, and magnificence. Engineers invented fortifications of colossal scale to combat powerful gunpowder weapons, while new media such as print transmitted architectural designs across the globe. This course explores such developments across Europe and its cultural and colonial networks in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It surveys a wide range of Renaissance building types, from palaces and gardens to churches, civic buildings, and urban infrastructure. Lectures consider how buildings and cities were reshaped by urban elites, absolutist monarchs, religious warfare, paper and print, and global expansion. Along the way, the course equips students with critical visual-technical skills and language to describe and interpret the built environment. Majors and non-majors of all years are welcome. Graduate students may register with advanced coursework.  HU  0 Course cr
MW 1:30pm-2:20pm

HSAR 3305b / EAST 2403b, Time in Chinese Art  Quincy Ngan

This class explores the theme of “time” in Chinese art from the traditional to the contemporary period. Drawing upon scholarship on Chinese philosophical understanding of time and clockworks, this course explores how art made manifest notions of the future, past, and present, the passage of time, ksana, aeons, eternity and deadlines. This class also investigates manipulations of time—how the unique format, artistic ideas and medium and materials of Chinese art helped to pause, rewind, compress and shorten time. Observing such temporalities, we analyze narrative murals and handscrolls, “this life” v. afterlife in funeral art, paintings of immortality, the significance of bronze corrosion in antiquarianism, uses of the past in traditional Chinese painting and contemporary art, the future and agelessness in movies and digital art, the materiality and nostalgia of old photography and time-based artworks, as well as the history of People’s Republic of China as presented at the Tian’anmen Square.  HU  0 Course cr
MW 10:30am-11:20am

HSAR 3312b / ARCH 2003b / HUMS 3050b, Modern Architecture in a Global Context, 1750-present  Craig Buckley

Architects, movements, and buildings central to the development of modern architecture from the mid eighteenth century through to the present. Common threads and differing conceptions of modern architecture around the globe. The relationship of architecture to urban transformation; the formulation of new typologies; architects' responses to new technologies and materials; changes in regimes of representation and media. Architects include Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, John Soane, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Lina Bo Bardi, Louis Kahn, and Kenzo Tange.   HU  0 Course cr
HTBA

HSAR 3326a / ARCH 2001a, Architecture Before Modernity  Staff

Introduction to the history of architecture from antiquity to the dawn of the Enlightenment and beyond, focusing on narratives that continue to inform the present. The course begins in Africa and Mesopotamia, follows routes from the Mediterranean into Asia and back to Rome, Byzantium, and the Middle East, and then circulates back to mediaeval Europe, before juxtaposing the indigenous structures of Africa and America with the increasingly global fabrications of the Renaissance and Baroque. Emphasis on challenging preconceptions, developing visual intelligence, and learning to read architecture as a story that can both register and transcend place and time, embodying ideas within material structures that survive across the centuries in often unexpected ways.  HU  0 Course cr
HTBA

* HSAR 4355a / HSAR 355 / HUMS 4167a / ITAL 1321a / TDPS 3021a, Futurism: Reconstructing the Universe  Pierpaolo Antonello

This course explores Italian Futurism, one of the most dynamic and controversial avant-garde movements of the early 20th century. Launched in 1909 by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Futurism was not only an artistic and literary movement but also a radical cultural and political project. Futurists celebrated modernity, technology, speed, and violence, often rejecting traditional art and values in favor of innovation and disruption. Futurism called for a radical revitalization of aesthetic expression through “movement and aggression.”  Futurist painters, poets, writers, and musicians rejected Italy’s cultural heritage in favor of new technologies, media, and metaphors, celebrating the speed and exhilarating risks of the machine age. While Futurism borrowed stylistically from Cubism—using collage, painting, and sculpture to match its revolutionary fervor—it went beyond mere formal experimentation. Unlike other avant-garde movements, which focused on transforming artistic form, Futurism aimed to break down the boundaries between art and everyday life.  HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* HSAR 4357a / MMES 2940a / NELC 2940a / OTTM 2940a, Motifs, Patterns, and Painting Techniques in Traditional Turkish Arts  Ozgen Felek

This painting class focuses on classical motifs and patterns in traditional Turkish arts in an Ottoman context.  While learning motifs and patterns, students will learn not only the manuscript culture, but also non-manuscript items produced in the Ottoman Empire. Students will practice drawing and painting stylized flowers (such as “panch” and “khatayi”), animals, and abstract patterns used in Turkish manuscript paintings, miniatures, calligraphy, rugs, kilims, stonework, tiles and ceramics, pottery, metal and leather work, and architecture. Materials used in traditional Turkish arts will be studied in detail as well. Students also create their own compositions incorporating traditional Turkish artistic principles. In addition to developing painting skills through individualized attention and support in class, a scheduled visit to the Beinecke Library enhances applied learning by encouraging students to examine artistic aspects in Turkish manuscripts.  HU
Th 4pm-5:55pm

* HSAR 4358b / HIST 2248b / HUMS 3937b / JDST 3237b, Antisemitic Visual Culture since the Middle Ages  Staff

This course examines the stereotyped, mythologized, and much-maligned figure of the Jew in visual culture throughout history, from the medieval period to the present day. How has this antisemitic archetype shaped the world we see around us, and how has it in turn been shaped by that same world? During the course, we will explore the shifting contributions of visual culture to the creation and dissemination of antisemitic tropes, including forms like cartography, architecture, political cartoons, theater, and film. The course will be primarily discussion-based and include significant in-class use of primary source material, as well as opportunities for students to critically investigate areas of personal interest.
TTh 4pm-5:15pm

* HSAR 4360a, Materiality in Aztec Art  Allison Caplan

The art of the Aztec Empire (1428–1521 CE) embraced a wide range of materials, from massive basalt boulders to translucent obsidian to delicate, radiant feathers. In this class, we approach the art of the Aztec Empire through the lens of materiality, described by scholar Ann-Sophie Lehmann as understanding “materials as active components in the conception, production, and interpretation of artworks.” Focusing each week on a different art material in conversation with theoretical and methodological readings on materiality, we ask how artists of the Aztec Empire engaged with the sensorial and ontological dimensions of their materials and how we can understand the materials themselves as active contributors to artworks and their meaning. The course incorporates the analysis of artworks, archaeological contexts, and historical texts (read in English translation) and includes visits to Yale collections to study artworks in person. Prerequisite: Intro-level course in History of Art.  HU
HTBA

* HSAR 4372b / AFAM 3372b, Post Black Art and Beyond  Nana Adusei-Poku

In 2001, “Freestyle”, a survey exhibition curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum in Harlem, introduced a young generation of artists of African descent and the ambitious yet knowingly opaque term post-black to a pre-9-11 pre-Obama world. This seminar utilizes the term post-black as a starting point to investigate the different ways Black Artists identified themselves through the lens of their historical contexts, writings, and politics while engaging with key debates around Black Aesthetics in exhibitions and theory. Consequently, we discuss changes in artistic styles and Black identity discourses from the beginning of the 20th century into the present. Post-black stirred much controversy 22 years ago because it was used by a generation of artists who seemed to distance themselves from previous generations, who utilized the term Black to define their practices as a form of political resistance. However, the claims that the post-black generation made, and the influence of their work is part of an ongoing debate in African Diasporic Art, which has refreshed and posed new questions for art-historical research as well as curation. Topics include Representation, Black Exhibition Histories, Black Aesthetics, Afrotropes, Afro-politanism, Abstraction vs. Figuration, Curation as an Art-Historical tool, The Black Radical Tradition and Racial Uplift, post-race vs. post-black and historical consistencies. Knowledge in the fields of History of Art and African American Studies is desirable.  HU
M 1:30pm-3:25pm

* HSAR 4375b / HIST 3197b / HSHM 4410b, Museums: Power and Politics  Elaine Ayers

Museums are in a state of crisis. From calls for decolonization and repatriation to protests over human remains collections and unethical donor policies, museums and related cultural institutions find themselves at a crossroads, reckoning with their violent colonial histories while handling ongoing concerns about workers’ rights, systemic inequality, and their role in shaping knowledge in the public sphere. Whether addressing climate change policy, Black Lives Matter protests, fights for unionization, or Indigenous representation, it’s clear that museums are rich sites for critique in the history of science and beyond. How did we get here, and where do we go from here? Beginning with early modern cabinets of curiosity and moving through nineteenth century encyclopedic museums, controversial anatomical collections, and more recent natural history institutions, we investigate how museum politics and power produce knowledge, from the depths of their archives to sensationalized exhibits while questioning what an ethical, holistic museum might look like in the future. Amidst ongoing debates over controversial collections like the Benin Bronzes, human remains stored in universities across the United States, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2023 admission of looting practices, and the American Museum of Natural History’s shallow apology for its eugenic past, the role of museums has expanded beyond the bounds of the academy, stoking universal struggles around human rights, international repatriation policies, and the politics of preservation, display, and loss. We bridge the classroom and the collection, visiting institutions around New Haven, practicing skills like provenance research and ethical handling of difficult objects while working towards a practice-based final project that suggests ways forward for museums and collections.  WR, HU
F 4pm-5:55pm

* HSAR 4401a or b, Critical Approaches to Art History  Staff

A wide-ranging introduction to the methods of the art historian and the history of the discipline. Themes include connoisseurship, iconography, formalism, and selected methodologies informed by contemporary theory.  WR, HU
HTBA

* HSAR 4404a / AFAM 3344 / BLST 3344a, Black Exhibition Histories  Nana Adusei-Poku

What makes an exhibition? What makes a Black exhibition? Since when do “ Black Exhibitions” exist? What is the role of museums in the History of Black Diasporic Artists? What is the role of the curator and what are curatorial limits? What is the relationship between the cultures of display emerging out of colonial expansion and racial capitalism and the display of artworks? What is the relationship between socio-political developments, identity politics, the fight for equity, art-historical discourse, and artistic self-determinacy? There is no better site to look at in the History of Art than Exhibitions. Those sites of public display are particularly charged when it comes to Black Artists. Not only is Black Exhibition Histories an emerging field in the field of Exhibition Histories itself it is also a missing piece in understanding the complexities of Black Art. This seminar explores how Black Artists have been exhibited, organized exhibitions, and created their own spaces as well as the ways in which the discourses around Blackness have shifted over time in tandem with the ways in which Black Artists works have been framed. When we look at the history of Black exhibitions, we look at more than just the intricacies of artistic display and inclusion or exclusion. The reason why Black art exhibitions are a tremendously rich resource to understand artistic movements, political shifts and aesthetic developments is that Black exhibitions tell cultural histories and allow for revelatory debates to emerge about our current moment and potentially moments to come.   HU
T 9:25am-11:20am

* HSAR 4405a / HUMS 3386a / ITAL 3386a, The Dark Side of The Italian Renaissance: Sex, Scandals, and Secrets  Simona Lorenzini

The course explores the more controversial, hidden, and overlooked aspects of the Italian Renaissance. While this period is celebrated for its artistic, cultural, and intellectual achievements, it also had its fair share of intrigue, corruption, and moral complexities. Through love poems, secret letters, intricate networks, and political conspiracies, the course paints a vivid picture of the social and cultural landscape of Renaissance and early modern Italy. We look at the complex figure of Michelangelo, both as an artist and poet, focusing on his queer relationship with Tommaso de’ Cavalieri and his friendship with Vittoria Colonna. We then discuss how Renaissance art, often commissioned by powerful individuals–such as Isabella D’Este’s patronage of Leonardo da Vinci–was used to promote political or social agendas. We examine the alliances, betrayals, and murders that took place in Renaissance courts and how they shaped the political arena. Topics include the assassination of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s brother, Caterina de’ Medici’s agency, and Borgia’s rise to power as well as the use of poison as a political instrument in power struggles and schemes to eliminate rivals. The course highlights radical and sharp-witted women writers, such as Moderata Fonte and Arcangela Tarabotti, who protested against a patriarchal society, and gave voice to those who challenged gender norms. By uncovering these compelling narratives through the intersection of literature, religion, history, art, and sexuality, the course offers a more nuanced and critical view on this acclaimed era. This course counts as language across the curriculum (LxC).  HU
MW 1:05pm-2:20pm

* HSAR 4457a, Japanese Gardens  Mimi Yiengpruksawan

Arts and theory of the Japanese garden with emphasis on the role of the anthropogenic landscape from aesthetics to environmental precarity, including the concept of refugium. Case studies of influential Kyoto gardens from the 11th through 15th centuries, and their significance as cultural productions with ecological implications.  HU
W 1:30pm-3:25pm

* HSAR 4476a, Energy Cultures of Modern Architecture  Craig Buckley

It is estimated that the construction and operation of buildings accounts for nearly 40% of carbon emissions globally. If a radical decarbonization of architectural practice stands as the discipline’s central challenge today, this calls not only for new solutions, but for different engagement with architecture’s history. This discussion seminar reinterprets histories of modern architecture through the concept of “energy cultures.” An energy culture (Sheller, 2014; Szeemann and Diamanti, 2019) can be defined as the specific assemblage of fuel, matter, practice, labor, and meaning that have informed architecture’s conceptualization and construction. In contrast to approaches that stress quantitative, technical, and instrumental approaches to energy accounting and energy efficiency, this course looks at how different representations, concepts, and behaviors emerged in response to historic shifts in energy production and consumption. The first portion of the course surveys a range of historical approaches to concepts of energy and environmental justice within and adjacent to architecture. The bulk of the course then turns to case studies, examining particular buildings and projects in order to develop new interpretations and questions about these monuments based on an energy cultures approach.  HU
W 9:25am-11:20am

* HSAR 4477b / EALL 2050b / EAST 3204b / EVST 2205 / HUMS 1810b, The Culture of Landscape in China  Pauline Lin

An introduction to Chinese philosophical, poetic, and visual explorations of landscape and the changing relationship between human beings and nature. Through texts, archaeological materials, visual and material culture, and garden designs from the 2nd c. BCE to modern times, we learn about the Chinese conception of the world, relationship to and experiences in nature, and shaping of the land through agriculture, imperial parks, and garden designs. We conclude with contemporary environmental issues confronting China, and how contemporary parks can help regenerate our ecosystem.  HU
F 1:30pm-3:25pm