Skip to Content
Home » Courses » History of Art and Architecture

History of Art and Architecture

Courselist

  • HARC E-177 Whistler and Sargent: Painting and Expatriatism (Spring)
  • HARC E-178 Designing the American City: Civic Aspirations and Urban Form (Spring)
  • HARC E-181 Inventing and Reinventing the Museum of Fine Arts (Fall)
  • HARC E-190 Art Since 1940 (Spring)
HARC E-177 Whistler and Sargent: Painting and Expatriatism
Spring term (23579)
Mary Crawford-Volk, PhD
Tuesdays beginning Jan. 24, 5:30-7:30 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit $650, undergraduate credit $975, graduate credit $1,900.
Syllabus Printable version
Conspicuously successful and, at times, controversial, the overlapping careers of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) established American painting as competitive with European achievement for the first time. Cosmopolitan, well-traveled, supremely talented, and technically innovative, these artists produced work that challenged prevailing norms and attracted international attention. This course addresses major areas of their achievement, including portraiture, exotic subjects, and urban imagery, and also explores related areas like exhibition strategies, artistic celebrity, and responses to critical adversity. Prerequisite: introductory art history course, or a course on the history of painting from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. (4 credits)
HARC E-178 Designing the American City: Civic Aspirations and Urban Form
Spring term (23594)
Alex Krieger, MCPUD, Professor in Practice of Urban Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Course tuition: noncredit $1,025, undergraduate credit $1,025, graduate credit $1,950.
Online only, beginning Jan. 25. Optional sections to be arranged. Lecture 1 video.
Website Printable version
This course is an interpretive look at the American city in terms of changing attitudes toward urban life. City and suburb are experienced as the product of design and planning decisions informed by cultural and economic forces, and in relationship to utopian and pragmatic efforts to reinterpret urban traditions in search of American alternatives. Topics include persistent ideals such as the single-family home, attitudes toward public and private space, the rise of suburbs and suburban sprawl, cycles of disinvestment and renewed interest in urban centers, and impacts of mobility and technology on settlement patterns. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course United States in the World 29. (4 credits)
HARC E-181 Inventing and Reinventing the Museum of Fine Arts
Fall term (13763)
Mary Crawford-Volk, PhD
Mondays beginning Aug. 29, 5:30-7:30 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit $650, undergraduate credit $975, graduate credit $1,900.
Website Printable version
With continually evolving identities, art museums have come to play dynamic roles in contemporary American culture. This course focuses on the history and character of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts as an important example of this phenomenon, from its founding in 1870 up to the present. We look at the museum's original mission, its revision at later points in its history, and the important recent expansion with the Art of Americas wing. Development of the permanent collections, major patrons and staff members, key exhibitions, efforts at public programming, and changing ideas regarding display, interpretation, and audience response to works of art are all considered. Other museums that played roles in the MFA's development are introduced, and predictions considered about the museum's future. Students may not count both HARC E- 181 and MUSE E-140 (previously offered) for degree credit. (4 credits)
HARC E-190 Art Since 1940
Spring term (23580)
Cynthia A. Fowler, PhD, Associate Professor of Art, Emmanuel College.
Mondays beginning Jan. 23, 5:30-7:30 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit $650, undergraduate credit $975, graduate credit $1,900.
Website Printable version
This course is an examination of art production and art theory from 1940 to the present. Covering the transition from modernism to postmodernism, a highly significant movement in the history of art, the course pays close attention to the theoretical repositioning that yielded this transformation and the changing role of the art object that resulted. The course examines new types of media used by artists and the artist's role as cultural critic during the modern and postmodern periods. (4 credits)

Browse courses by subject