Art History: American Art 1850-present

Intermediate courses or seminars on topics beyond the scope of existing departmental offerings. See Schedule of Courses for specific titles.

Prereqs: ARTH 1410 or ARTH 1420. Special Topics courses cannot carry CC designations. PACE students with permission and override.

This course explores the development of American art from 1850 to the present, examining painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, and new media within their cultural and historical contexts. Beginning with the rise of landscape painting and the visual construction of national identity, we will trace how artists have responded to industrialization, urbanization, war, and social change. Students will engage with a diverse range of artistic voices, including Indigenous, African American, Latinx, Asian American, and feminist perspectives, to consider how American art has reflected and challenged ideas of nationhood, belonging, and representation. Topics include realism and the Gilded Age, the Harlem Renaissance, postwar abstraction, conceptualism, and contemporary practices that address environment, memory, and identity in a global context. This class will also consider how American artists have responded to shifting definitions of “America” itself—its myths, contradictions, and global entanglements—through close visual analysis, discussion, and critical readings. Emphasis is placed on how art both reflects and challenges the nation’s narratives, from Manifest Destiny to Black Lives Matter.

Writing assignments and a final project