Art History


Program Director: Until June 30- E. Webster Email: webster@utsc.utoronto.ca From July 1- L. Carney Email: carney@utsc.utoronto.ca


Art History at UTSC focuses on the global and contemporary and also gives you a solid grounding in approaches to visual materials produced across time, cultures, classes, gender, and geography. You will learn to look, read and write critically about the visual, not only in the classroom, but also through real-world learning experience in galleries and museums and in other urban situations. You will understand how and why histories are written, how representations are formed, and how artists, critics, curators, dealers, and art historians (in other words, art world players) enter a shared discourse. The courses reveal the multiplicity of perspectives with which art may be approached and appreciated. Using recent methodologies that works of art in the specific visual cultures of their day and in the social, political, and economic contexts in which the artists lived and worked.

Note that (VPAC47H3), (VPAC48H3), and VPAC89H3 are interdisciplinary courses that count toward the art history Major and Minor programs.

Guidelines for first year course selection
Students who intend to complete an Art History program should include HUMA01H3 and an A-level Art History course in their first year course selection.
The Art History Study Guide is available at: www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~humdiv/prg_ah.html

MAJOR PROGRAM IN ART HISTORY (ARTS)



Undergraduate Advisor Email: art-history-program-supervisor@utsc.utoronto.ca

Program Requirements
Students must complete 7.5 full credits as follows:
  1. HUMA01H3 plus one-half credit at the A-level in Art History.
  2. VPHB39H3
  3. 3.5 full credits at the B-level in Art History VPAB05H3 & (VPAB06H3) may be used towards this requirement).
  4. 2.5 full credits in Art History at the C-/D-level (which may include (VPAC47H3), (VPAC48H3), VPAC89H3, and/or HISC52H3).
  5. Requirements #3 and #4 together must include at least one full credit dealing with periods prior to 1800 and one full credit dealing with periods after 1800, and at least one half credit on the art of Africa and Asia.
Students interested in curatorial studies should include in their programs VPHB71H3, VPHB72H3, VPHC54H3, VPHC72H3, VPHD43H3, and VPHD44H3.

MINOR PROGRAM IN ART HISTORY (ARTS)


Undergraduate Advisor Email: art-history-program-supervisor@utsc.utoronto.ca

Program Requirements
Students must complete 4.0 full credits from the courses below as follows:
  1. HUMA01H3 plus one half credit at the A-level in Art History.
  2. VPHB39H3
  3. 1.0 full credit at the B-level in Art History.
  4. 1.5 full credits in Art History at the C- or D-level (which may include (VPAC47H3), (VPAC48H3), VPAC89H3, and/or HISC52H3).



VPHA46H3 Ways of Seeing: Introduction to Art Histories
How and why are objects defined as Art? How do these definitions vary across cultures and time periods? Studying different approaches to writing art history and considering a wide range of media from photography to printmaking and installation arts.
Exclusion: (FAH100Y), FAH101H
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB39H3 Ten Key Words in Art History: Unpacking Methodology
Key concepts in art history, including intention, meaning, style, materiality, identity, production, reception, gender, visuality, and history. Students will explore critical questions such as whether and how to read artist's biographies into their art. This course helps students understand the discipline and develops critical thinking and research skills required in advanced courses.
Exclusion: FAH102H
Recommended Preparation: VPAA46H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB41H3 The Human Figure in Greek Art (8th - 4th Centuries B.C.)
A study of representations of men and women in sculpture and vase painting, two of the richest media in Greek art. This study reveals narratives of myth and legend, reflections of everyday life in Greece, and social values such as the perception of gender.
Corequisite: Any course in art history or VPAA05H3 or HUMA01H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB42H3 Carolingian and Romanesque Art and Architecture
Major artistic and architectural monuments of Europe from the Carolingian renaissance to the renaissance of the twelfth century, considered in relation to geographical context, to monasticism and pilgrimage, to artistic developments of the contemporary Mediterranean world, and to the art and architecture of the later Roman Empire, Byzantium and Armenia, Islam and the art of the invasion period.
Exclusion: FAH215H
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB46H3 Paris: The Capital of the 19th Century: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Impressionist painting as a turning point in Western art, based in the rapidly expanding modernized city of Paris, "the capital of the nineteenth century," but ultimately turning to landscape as a major source of inspiration.
Exclusion: FAH346H, (FAH378H)
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB50H3 Africa Through the Photographic Lens
The centrality of photographic practice to African cultures and histories from the period of European imperialism, the rise of modernist "primitivism" and the birth of ethnology and anthropology to contemporary African artists living on the continent and abroad.
Prerequisite: None. Visual art studio students are encouraged to enrol.
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB52H3 Ancient Art and Architecture (ca. 900 B.C. - 300 A.D.)
The artistic achievements of Greece and Rome. This course examines Greek architectural design with its concerns for ideal proportion and balance; Roman technical innovations; and Classical painting and sculpture and their enormously influential techniques for creating illusions of the real world.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3 recommended
Exclusion: (FAH205H), FAH207H
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB53H3 Medieval Art
The origins of European artistic traditions in the early Christian, Mediterranean world; how these traditions were influenced by classical, Byzantine, Moslem and pagan forms; how they developed in an entirely new form of artistic expression in the high Middle Ages; and how they led on to the Renaissance.
Exclusion: FAH216H, (FAH261H)
Recommended Preparation: VPHA46H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB57H3 Women in the Arts: Hot Mamas, Amazons, and Madonnas
Women artists of the last 150 years, their relationships to "mainstream" art, and the influences of feminism on the production and reception of art.
Prerequisite: [WSTA01H3 & [WSTA03H3 or (WSTA02H3)] or VPHA46H3.
Exclusion: VIS209H
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB58H3 Modern Art and Culture
Nineteenth and twentieth century art in relation to the modern world. What 'modern' means when used to describe art, and how art is affected by the dynamic cultural, economic, social, and political contexts of the modern world.
Exclusion: FAH246H, (FAH287H), (FAH288H)
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB59H3 Current Art Practices
Shifts in theory and practice in art of the past fifty years. Studying selected artists' works from around the world, we explore how notions of modern art gave way to new ideas about media, patterns of practice, and the relations of art and artists to the public, to their institutional contexts, and to globalized cultures.
Exclusion: (FAH289H)
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB60H3 Canadian Visual Art
What Canadian artists have made in the country's diverse cultural contexts, from 18th century churches of Québéc, designed and decorated by talented family studios, to First Nations art and major twentieth century Anglo-Canadian and Québécois painters.
Exclusion: FAH248H, (VPHB47H3)
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB61H3 Space, Place and the Arts
Artist David Hockney has said that the way we define space has a lot to do with how we behave in it. Here we examine different ideas and assumptions about space and place and perspective in painting, performance, installation and other arts, and what these may communicate to us.
Exclusion: FAH390H, FAH390Y
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB63H3 Fame, Glory and Spectacle: 14th-16th Century Art in Italy
This course is an introduction to art and visual culture produced in Italy ca. 1350-1550. Students will explore new artistic media and techniques, along with critical issues of social, cultural, intellectual, theoretical and religious contexts that shaped the form and function of art made during this era.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3
Exclusion: FAH230H, FAH274H
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB64H3 Baroque Visions
This course introduces the art and culture of 17th century Europe and its colonies. Art of the Baroque era offers rich opportunities for investigations of human exploration in geographic, spiritual, intellectual and political realms. We will also consider the development of the artist and new specializations in subject and media.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3
Exclusion: FAH231H, FAH279H
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB65H3 Exhibiting Africa: Spectacle and the Politics of Representation
Students will read critical texts on the politics of representation, postcolonialism, museology, and institutional critique to apply to the histories of exhibition and reproduction of African arts, in particular, and the arts of non-Western cultures in general.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3 or AFSA01H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB67H3 Religion in the Arts: Buddhist Arts and Cultures
This course will serve as an introduction to the field of Buddhist art historiography, with an emphasis on the relationships between visual arts, Buddhist philosophy and religion, and the cultural manifestations of the faith and its arts across the world. The classes will take advantage of collections at the ROM.
Same as GASB67H3.
Exclusion: GASB67H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB68H3 Art and the Everyday: Mass Culture and the Visual Arts
This course explores the relationship between visuality and practices of everyday life. It looks at the interaction of the political, economic and aesthetic aspects of mass media with the realm of "fine" arts across history and cultures. We will explore notions of the public, the mass, and the simulacrum.
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB70H3 Images of Women: East Asian Visual Culture
Images of women in East Asia both provoked and became products of changing ideas of tradition, history and nation. Covering a wide variety of media, including painting, prints, photography, and film, this course examines the role of gender images in politics, the impact of imagery on daily experience, and the relationships among artist, image and viewer. Same as GASB70H3.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3, GASA01H3, or WSTA01H3
Exclusion: VCC302H, VCC304H, GASB70H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB71H3 Exhibiting Art
A critical look at ways of exhibiting art, from a variety of international, historical and contemporary perspectives with emphasis on today's displays in public and private institutions, and on beyond-the-gallery installation, performance, and virtual art practices.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB72H3 Museum and Curatorial Practice: Theoretical and Ethical
This course will introduce students to the theoretical contexts of museum practices and explore the ethics of curatorial practice. Students will investigate interpretations of sensitive material, including historical, cultural and religious artworks, and examine case studies of problematic challenges to curatorial responsibilities.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB73H3 Visualizing Asia
A survey of the art of China, Japan, Korean, India, and Southeast Asia. We will examine a wide range of artistic production, including ritual objects, painting, calligraphy, architectural monuments, textile, and prints. Special attention will be given to social contexts, belief systems, and interregional exchanges.
Same as GASB73H3.
Prerequisite: VPAA05H3, VPHA46H3 or GASA01H3
Exclusion: GASB73H3, FAH261H
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB74H3 Art in Early Modern Europe: Renaissances Outside of Italy
This course explores the rich visual culture produced in northern and central Europe 1400-1600. Topics such as the rise of print culture, religious conflict, artistic identity, contacts with other cultures and the development of the art market will be explored in conjunction with new artistic techniques, styles and materials.
Exclusion: FAH230H, FAH274H
Recommended Preparation: VPAA46H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB75H3 Religion in the Arts: Hinduism and Jainism
This course explores Eastern religions and artworks, with a specific focus on Hinduism and Jainism in art from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Investigation of context, use, and symbolism, paralleled with the examination of rituals, beliefs and performance. The classes will take advantage of collections at the ROM.
Same as GASB75H3.
Exclusion: (VPHB56H3), (VPHC55H3), GASB75H3
Recommended Preparation: VPHA46H3 or RLGA01H3 or RLGB02H3 or HISB57H3 or GASA01H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHB76H3 Religion in the Arts: The Judeo-Christian Traditions
This course will address how arts give expression to spiritual beliefs and reflect patronage and iconographic debates operating across the cultures of the Judeo-Christian worlds. Investigation of context, use, and symbolism, paralleled with the examination of rituals and beliefs. The classes will take advantage of collections at the ROM and the AGO.
Exclusion: (VPHB56H3), (VPHC56H3)
Recommended Preparation: VPHA46H3 or RLGA02H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC42H3 Gothic Architecture
Current scholarship is expanding and challenging how we decide "what is Gothic?" We will examine a variety of buildings, considering artistic culture, social, cultural, and physical contexts as well. Style, building techniques, patronage, location in time and space, and importance of decoration (sculpture, stained glass, painting, tapestry) will be among topics discussed.
Prerequisite: One credit in art history at the B-level.
Exclusion: FAH328H, FAH351H (UTM only), (FAH369H)
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC45H3 Seminar in Modern and Contemporary Art
Special topics in twentieth-century painting and sculpture. The subject will change from time to time. After introductory sessions outlining the subject and ways of getting information about it, seminar members will research and present topics of their choice.
Prerequisite: 1.0 credit in modern art history at the B-level.
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC46H3 Topics in Art of the Ancient World
A special topics course in ancient art and architecture. Concentrated study of a particular topic in ancient art, which will change from year to year.
Prerequisite: VPHB52H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC49H3 Advanced Studies in Art Theory
The class will read selected recent cultural theory and art theory and consider its implications for a variety of works of art, and will investigate selected exhibition critiques and the critical discourse surrounding the oeuvres of individual artists.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3 & [VPAB05H3 or (VPAB06H3)]
Corequisite: 2.0 credits at the B-level in art history and/or studio.
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC51H3 Word and Image
The interface between modern and contemporary arts and the communicative power of language, the written word and graphic systems. By examining the long-standing, cross cultural links between the verbal and the visual, we will consider how artists combine narrative content and graphic designs of letters, words and conventional and invented inscriptions.
Prerequisite: One B-level course in art history.
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC53H3 The Silk Routes
The Silk Routes were a lacing of highways connecting Central, South and East Asia and Europe. Utilizing the Royal Ontario Museum's collections, classes held at the Museum and U of T Scarborough will focus on the art produced along the Silk Routes in 7th to 9th century Afghanistan, India, China and the Taklamakhan regions. The same as GASC53H3.
Prerequisite: 1.0 credit in art history or in Asian or medieval European history.
Exclusion: GASC53H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC54H3 Art Writing
Art criticism as a complex set of practices performed not only by critics, art historians, curators and the like, but also by artists (and collectors). The traditional role of art critics in the shaping of an art world, and the parallel roles played by other forms of writing about art and culture (from anthropology, sociology, film studies).
Prerequisite: 2.0 full credits at the B-level from VPA, VPH, and/or VPS
Enrolment Limits: 25
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC63H3 Explorations in Early Modern Art
This seminar-format course will offer students the opportunity to investigate critical theories and methodologies of the early modern period (roughly 1400-1700). Focusing on such topics as a single artist, artwork or theme, students will become immersed in an interdisciplinary study that draws on impressive local materials from public museum and library collections.
Prerequisite: VPHA46H3 & [one of VPHB63H3 or VPHB64H3 or VPHB74H3].
Enrolment Limits: 15
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC68H3 Art in Global Cities
This course looks at the global city as a hub for the creation of visual, performing arts and architecture. How have cyberspace and increased transnational flows of art and artists changed the dynamic surrounding urban arts? What are the differences between the arts within the modern and global contemporary city?
Prerequisite: VPHB58H3 or VPHB59H3
Exclusion: (VPHC52H3)
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC72H3 Art, the Museum, and the Gallery
Art and the settings in which it is seen in cities today. Some mandatory classes to be held in Toronto museums and galleries, giving direct insight into current exhibition practices and their effects on viewer's experiences of art; students must be prepared to attend these classes.
Prerequisite: VPHB71H3 & VPHB72H3
Enrolment Limits: 20
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHC73H3 Home, Away and In Between: Artists, Art, and Identity
The interplay among visual, performing and literary arts and experience of exile, diaspora, displacement and placemaking: how the nomadic, transitional nature of today's world influences contemporary artists' practices. Readings from art history, visual anthropology, cultural studies, ethnic studies and literary criticism. Considerations of memory, autobiography, community and liminality in relation to experiences of local Canadian artists.
Exclusion: (VPAB09H3)
Breadth Requirement: Social & Behavioural Sciences

VPHC74H3 A Tale of Three Cities: Introduction to Contemporary Art in China
An introduction to Chinese contemporary art focusing on three cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Increasing globalization and China's persistent self-renovation has brought radical changes to cities, a subject of fascination for contemporary artists. The art works will be analyzed in relation to critical issues such as globalization and urban change.
Same as GASC74H3.
Prerequisite: 2 full credits at the B-level in Art History, Asian History, and/or Global Asia Studies, including at least one of VPHB39H3, VPHB73H3, HISB58H3, GASB31H3, GASB33H3, or GASB35H3.
Exclusion: GASC74H3
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHD41H3
VPHD42Y3 Supervised Reading in Art History
A course offering the opportunity for advanced investigation of an area of interest; for students who are nearing completion of art history programs and who have already acquired independent research skills. Students must locate a willing supervisor and topics must be identified and approved by the end of the previous term.
Prerequisite: 1.0 credit at the C-level in art history. Students are advised that they must obtain consent from the supervising instructor before registering for these courses

VPHD43H3 Curating Contemporary Art
Curatorial practice and the responsibilities of the curator, such as the intellectual and practical tasks of producing a contemporary art exhibition, researching Canadian contemporary art and artists, building a permanent collection, and administrating a public art competition, and critical writing about works of visual art in their various contexts. Studio and/or gallery visits required.
Prerequisite: 11.0 credits including VPHB39H3, VPHB71H3 & VPHB72H3
Enrolment Limits: 20
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHD44H3 Curating Historical Art
Time and history bring different factors to our understanding and interpretation of artworks. Students will explore both intellectual and practical factors concerning curating historical art, from conservation, research, and handling issues to importance of provenance, collecting, and display, through workshops, critical writing and discussion, field trips, and guest speakers.
Prerequisite: 11.0 credits including VPHB39H3 & VPHB71H3 & VPHB72H3
Enrolment Limits: 20
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

VPHD45H3 Seminar in Art and Anthropology
This seminar will address the entanglement of art, historical, and anthropological approaches to objects, images, creativity, and interpretation. Looking at the power of images within societies, we will consider the role of the artist/maker, the identity of the audience/viewer, and the challenges of interpreting through cross cultural, transhistorical frameworks.
Prerequisite: Any 11.0 credits including VPHA46H3 & VPHB39H3

VPHD46H3 Visual Encounter: The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art
This course explores the cultural construction of vision with a particular focus on the encounters between two cultural systems: Euro-American and East Asian. The collision of West and East yielded dramatic results in the realm of visual culture, altering the ways of seeing.
Same as GASD46H3.
Prerequisite: 11.0 credits, including at least one of VPHB39H3, VPHB73H3, HISB58H3, GASB31H3, GASB33H3, or GASB35H3 & a further 1.5 full credits at the B- or C-level in Art History, Asian History, and/or Global Asia Studies.
Exclusion: GASD46H3, FAH368H
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language