Introduction to Art

Overview

This course provides an introduction to art from prehistoric times to the present. Classroom presentations are supplemented by gallery and museum visits. While examining the role that the visual arts have played in the development of the cultures of the world, the student is exposed to a wide variety of artistic media.

Three hours lecture and slide presentation per week, plus fifteen minutes per week in the art gallery.

Topics

1. Art Principles
   1. Introduction
      1. The Impulse for Art
      2. What do Artists do?
      3. Creativity
      4. Looking at Art
      5. Studying Art
   2. What is Art?
      1. Art and the Artist
      2. Art and Beauty
      3. Representational, Abstract, and Non-Representational Art
      4. Immediacy vs. Meaning
      5. Style, Form, Iconography
   3. Themes and Purposes
      1. Art and Daily Life
      2. Art and the Sacred
      3. Art and the Social Order
      4. Art and Nature
   4. Visual Elements
      1. Line; Shape; Color; Texture; Pattern;
      2. Plane; Space; Mass; Time and Motion
   5. Principles of Design in Art
      1. Unity and Variety
      2. Balance
      3. Emphasis and Subordination
      4. Scale and Proportion
      5. Rhythm
2. Art Mediums
   1. Drawing
      1. Purposes of Drawing
      2. Dry Media
      3. Wet Media
   2. Painting
      1. Encaustic; Fresco; Tempera; Oil; Watercolor, Synthetic Mediums;
      2. Painting Related Techniques: Collage, Mosaics
   3. Printmaking
      1. Relief: Woodcut, Wood Engraving, Linocut
      2. Intaglio: Engraving, Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint
      3. Lithography
      4. Screenprinting
      5. Monotype
      6. Photo-Mechanical processes
   4. Photography
      1. Photography as Science and as Art
      2. Photographic genres
      3. Photojournalism
      4. Straight vs. Manipulated
   5. Graphic Design
      1. Signs and Symbols
      2. Typography and Layout
      3. Illustration
      4. Digital Realms
   6. Sculpture
      1. Methods and Materials
      2. Sculpture and the Human Figure
      3. Sculpture and the Environment
   7. Functional Art
      1. Clay
      2. Glass
      3. Wood
      4. Fiber
   8. Architecture
      1. Structural Systems
      2. Purposes of Architecture
      3. Environmental Design
   9. Time Arts
      1. Performance
      2. Installation
      3. Film and Video
   10. New Media
       1. Digital imaging: natural media simulation vs. algorithmic generation
       2. Digital 3D: simulated, realized, and virtually realized
       3. Network communications: telepresence and virtual identities
       4. Active and interactive works: artificial intelligence
       5. Impact on art consumption: no originals or copies, only instances
3. World Art through Time
   1. Origins of the Impulse for Art
      1. The Oldest Art
      2. Prehistoric Art
   2. Ancient Mediterranean Worlds
      1. Mesopotamia
      2. Egypt
      3. The Aegean
      4. Greece and Rome
   3. Christian Art in Europe
      1. Rise of Christianity
      2. Byzantium
      3. The Middle Ages
   4. The Renaissance
      1. Early and High Renaissance
      2. The Renaissance in the North
      3. Late Renaissance in Italy
   5. The 17th and 18th Centuries
      1. Baroque Style in Europe
      2. The 18th Century
      3. Revolution
   6. Arts of Islam and of Africa
      1. Architecture: Mosques and Palaces
      2. Book Arts
      3. Decorative Arts
      4. Arts of Africa
   7. Arts of East Asia
      1. India
      2. China
      3. Japan
   8. America and the Pacific
      1. Pacific Cultures
      2. The Americas
   9. The Modern World: 1800-1945
      1. Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism
      2. Impressionism, Post-Impressionism
      3. Into the 20th Century: the Avant-garde; Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism
      4. World War I and After: Dada and Surrealism
   10. Art Since 1945
       1. The New York School
       2. Sixties and Seventies Experimentation: Pop, Minimal, Earth, Conceptual, Feminist
   11. Art Since the Eighties: the Post-Modern World
       1. Painterly Image
       2. Issues and Identities

Outcomes

Students successful in this class will:

• Identify common themes and purposes that underlie the art of all cultures.
• Distinguish between representational, abstract, and non-representational art.
• Analyze formal elements in a work of art and explain how they function.
• Identify techniques and materials used to create various art forms.
• Identify styles of selected masterworks within the history of art.

This page is Bobby Section 508 Approved, accessible to the disabled.

This page qualifies as valid HTML 4.01 strict.

This page qualifies as valid CSS 2.

Created: 2005-02-04. Last Updated: 2005-03-08 This document originally at <http://www.sanedraw.com/ED/CURRICLM/INTROART.HTM> Copyright 2005 by | Sandro Corsi |