ARHT320

This course will survey paintings, sculpture, photography, graphic arts, and early film from the Colonial Period until 1900 in the United States. The course will trace a wide range artistic and visual from the Federal and Antebellum periods, through the Civil War and Reconstruction and Gilded Age. Along with the study of art emerging out of a European tradition, we will simultaneously be studying Native North American Art traditions, and paying attention to the interactions between native and immigrant visual cultures. Some classes will focus on an in-depth analysis of one or two artists while others will trace a broader picture. Among the topics considered will be the role of the fine arts and of the broader visual culture in constructing American Identities, and in defining the meanings of race, class, and gender. Artists discussed include painters such as Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Cole, Robert Duncanson, Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakings, James McNeil Whistler and Mary Cassatt; sculptors include Harriet Powers, Hiram Powers, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens; photographers including Matthew Brady's Daguerreotypes, Alexander Gardner's Civil War photography, and Timothy O'Sullivan's and Carlton Watkins' landscapes. Classes will combine lecture and discussion, and students will also work in groups on homework assignments focused on challenging readings. A research paper, mid-term and final are required, as well as 6 long homework assignments to be completed in teams.