These have included the toppling of monuments that celebrate the colonial history, to addressing the imbalances in representation in museum and gallery collections which have until recently overwhelmingly excluded both women artists and artists of color. Art History itself has played a role in shaping who and what is visible and who has cultural and political authority.
This course is an introduction to some of the key topics and themes around race and gender and how they play out across the visual arts and the arts industries. We will take a revised look at the "story" of art history as a narrative that has excluded certain groups and privileged others and engages with debates around the ways in which collections and curatorial efforts continue to respond to these issues.
This course will explore the ways in which women and people of color have historically been depicted in art images, exploring terms such as "orientalism," "objectification," "misogynoir," as well as considering the overlooked contribution of women and artists of color. Topics will span from rethinking key movements and stylistic categories such as the ‘Renaissance’ or ‘Classical Antiquity’ to exploring how artists have engaged with fixed prejudices about race and gender as a form of political activism, from the work of the second wave women’s movement in Europe and the US to Kara Walker’s recent works of public sculpture.
We will think about what blackness/whiteness, man/woman, male/female have meant in images.
Crucially we will also consider how art history connects with popular culture to reflect these issues beyond the spaces of the museum, such as in fashion’s recent fascination with feminist art history and how Beyonce’s self-crafted images draw on the cultural history of feminism and race.
This Intensive Course consists of live-streamed lectures and discussions. Recordings of the live sessions are accessible anytime during the course via our online learning platform, Canvas.
Students will learn:
- Understand key terms: Feminism, orientalism, misogynoir, post-colonialism, intersectionality, Afrocentrism
- Introduction to the work of under-recognized artists
- Critical skills for thinking about institutions and their work critically
- Debates around representation and agency in museum and exhibition programming