AHST 2331: Understanding Art

Professor Britten LaRue

Spring 2011
Email: [email protected] (preferred), Phone: 214.478.1921 (no calls after 7 p.m.)
Office Hours: immediately following class or by appointment at our mutual convenience
Location: JO 4.102

Course Description
An investigation into the nature of the visual arts with an emphasis on the issues and ideas that artists
explore through their work and how these ideas translate into the artwork. Attention will be given to
the interpretation or reading of the artwork and how it may relate to society. Discussion, interaction,
and vibrant engagement are expected.

Required Texts
Henry M. Sayre, A World of Art, 6th edition, Prentice Hall
John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Penguin

The following readings (which are subject to change) are available online and through library course
reserves:

-Susan Vogel, “Always True to the Object in Our Fashion,” in Karp and Lavine, Exhibiting Cultures.
-Carol Duncan, “The Art Museum as Ritual,” in McEnroe and Pokinski, Critical Perspectives on Art
History.
-Excerpts from Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art.
-Henri Zerner, “Classicism as Power,” in Critical Perspectives on Art History.
-Kenneth Clark, “The Naked and the Nude,” in Critical Perspectives on Art History.
-Excerpt from Rudolf Wittkower, Born under Saturn: The Character and the Content of Artists
-Excerpt from Meyer Schapiro, Romanesque Art
-Excerpt from Wu Hung, The Double Screen: Medium and Representation in Chinese Painting.
-Excerpts from Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy.
-Excerpt from Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Male Trouble: A Crisis in Representation.
-Linda Nochlin, “The Imaginary Orient,” in Schwartz and Przyblyski, The Nineteenth-Century
Visual Culture Reader.
- Stephen Eisenman, “The Intransigent Artist, or How the Impressionists Got Their Name” in Mary
Tompkins Lewis, Critical Readings in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.
-Debora Silverman, “At the Threshold of Symbolism: Van Gogh’s Sower and Gauguin’s Vision after
the Sermon,” in Critical Readings in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.
-Kenneth Silver, “Modes of Disclosure: The Construction of Gay Identity and the Rise of Pop” in De
Salvo, Schimmel, and Ferguson, eds., Hand-Painted Pop: American Art in Transition: 1955-1962.
-Tom Finkelpearl, “Introduction: The City as Site,” in Dialogues in Public Art.
-Judith F. Baca, “Whose Monument Where? Public Art in a Many Cultured Society,” in Mapping the
Terrain: New Genre Public Art.
-Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in The Nineteenth-
Century Visual Culture Reader.
-Balsamo, Anne. (1992). "On the Cutting Edge: Cosmetic Surgery and the Technological Production
of the Gendered Body" in Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Visual Culture Reader.
-Diana Nyad, “The Rise of the Buff Bunny,” in The New York Times. August 15, 2004. (web)
-Excerpts from Sander L. Gilman, Making the Body Beautiful, Princeton.
-Andrew Ross, “The Gangsta and the Diva,” in The Visual Culture Reader.
-Pountain and Robins, “What is Cool?” from Cool Rules: Anatomy of An Attitude.
-David Brooks, “Nonconformity is Skin Deep,” New York Times. August 27, 2006 (web)
-Guy Trebay, “When the Going Gets Tough the Tough Put on Suits,” The New York Times, August
18, 2002. (web)
-“What is the Canon?” in Critical Perspectives on Art History.
-Lynda Nead, “The Female Nude: Pornography, Art and Sexuality,” in Critical Perspectives on Art
History.

Objectives
1. To increase students’ knowledge of the makers, objects, processes, reception, social bases,
and historical contexts of art, Western and non-Western, past and present.
2. To acquire the basic vocabulary and skills essential to visual analysis.
3. To build confidence discussing art in a group.
4. To learn about the different career fields in the art world.
5. To practice critical reading, writing, and discussion skills based on the reading of primary,
scholarly, theoretical and/or critical texts.
6. To distinguish between the ways a work of art communicated at the time it was created
and the ways it communicates to us now.
7. To develop insight into the profound and often hidden impact of commercial and
institutional culture.
8. To be more observant of life and to be more careful lookers at the images around us in the
world.

Grading
Quizzes 20%
Two short papers 20% (10% each)
Career presentation 20%
Journal entries 20%
Bound Journal 20%
THERE WILL BE NO EXAMS. However, there will be an average of 4-5 hours a week of reading,
writing, and/or group work outside of the classroom. In addition, you will need to leave campus at
least twice to complete some of the larger assignments. Also note that regular and authentic
participation and engagement in class discussion will help your final grade.

Quizzes (20%)
Many classes will begin with a short quiz of one or two questions from the Sayre reading.
Since there is no midterm or final exam in this course, these quizzes are one of the most
important ways I evaluate the development of your art vocabulary, critical thinking, and
understanding of concepts, histories, and processes. NOTE: vocabulary terms are defined in the
glossary of A World of Art, and on the textbook website, but they will also be familiar to you
from lectures, videos, and class discussions.
Save your quizzes and include them in your bound art journal at the end of the semester.
Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped.

Two Short Papers (20%, or 10% each)

Paper #1 – DMA paper/project (due February 24)
The Dallas Museum of Art is located at 1717 North Harwood in the Dallas Arts District downtown.
See website www.dallasmuseumofart.org for map, hours, and other information. Remember that they
are closed on Mondays.

To prepare for your visit: Review Sayre p. xx Dos-and-Don’ts Guide to Visiting Museums.
The day of your visit: Plan to spend at least one hour and 15 minutes at the DMA. Bring a friend or
family member if it would be more fun!
Bring $10 for parking or take the DART and bring $5 for admission with valid student ID.
Bring a camera and create a photo-diary of your visit - at least 4 photographs. Get someone to take
your picture inside the museum. You must include at least one photograph with you in it that is not
outside and not the lobby. You can ask the receptionist where photographs are permitted, which
should be the gift shop and the permanent collection galleries.
Pick up exhibition brochures and a museum map in the lobby to turn in with your photographs and
paper.
Stroll through all the galleries. On the museum map, write down the title of your favorite artwork in
each gallery, the name of the artist, and the year the work was made. You may write the information
on a separate sheet with numbers corresponding to the rooms on the map.
Draw a 15-minute sketch of your favorite painting. Write down the artist’s name, title, dimensions,
and medium of the artwork. This information is on the wall label.
Sit down in front of the painting and fill in Sayre’s “Worksheet Companion to Painting, Drawing, and
Printmaking” (handout in class).
At home: Using your museum notes, our practice in lecture, and the reading from A Short Guide to
Writing about Art, write a 2-page (600 words, double-spaced, 12 font, 1” margins) formal analysis.
Begin with a heading that includes the artist’s name, birth and death dates, title of the work, its date
and dimensions. Then imagine how you would describe this work to someone who cannot see.
Determine how the composition has been organized and how it can most lucidly be characterized.
Among the elements you will consider are scale, composition, attitude toward the human body, if
relevant (idealized, distorted, etc.), depiction of space, color, surface texture and brushwork, light and
shadow, patterns of repeated color and shape, subject type, and the relationship between the work
and its viewer. The point of the exercise is to learn to use your own eyeballs, to learn to look!, so
please do not do any research for this paper.

In terms of writing style, please avoid hyperbole and cliché, like “this is a masterpiece,” “the painting
is beautiful,” and “the artist is a genius.” Your organization should be logical, and your language
should be specific rather than general. There should be no typos, spelling errors, or grammatically
awkward phrases. The best essays are those written and rewritten several times.

Conclusion: write two paragraphs about the DMA from a critical perspective that characterizes the
collection and how the artwork is displayed.

You will turn in your museum map and exhibition brochures, 4+ photographs, sketch, worksheet,
formal analysis and conclusion.

Paper #2 – Dallas Public Art paper/project (due April 19)

To prepare for your project: Visit www.dallasculture.org and read about Dallas’s Office of Cultural
Affairs.
Write a one-page paper describing the organization and answering the following questions: what
kinds of projects does the Office support? Who makes up the committee? How are artists chosen for
the works they commission?
Then choose one sculpture or installation to visit from the list of works on the website.

The day of your visit: Photograph and/or draw your work of art from three points of view.
Survey two people nearby on their opinion of the work. Get their full names and quote them in your
journal. Ask them if they know who owns the artwork, what they think of it, and if they support
public art in general.
Write a description of your impression of the work and its relationship to its site. Is it site-specific?
Who commissioned it? Who owns it?

At home and at the library:

Do some research to find out the artist’s intentions for the artwork. Be sure to give full citations of
your sources. If you cannot find information about the particular work you are writing about,
extrapolate about the artist’s intentions from other works by the artist.
Conclude with speculations about what the work means and what public role the artist intends it to
play.
Visit www.dallasculture.org/publicArtContact.asp. Print and fill out the Public Art Feedback Form.
Turn in one copy with your project and send in the other to the Office of Cultural Affairs via mail,
email or fax.

You will turn in your one-page preparation paper, your photographs and/or drawings, your
description of the work, your survey information, your researched artistic intentions, your feedback
form and your conclusions.

Both papers will be turned in at the beginning of class and will be considered late after lecture. If you
do not have your paper on the due date, you may turn it in electronically. For each 24-hour period
the paper is late, 10 points will be deducted. That 24-hour period begins at 8:30 a.m. from the start of
class. So a paper turned in electronically at 8:31 a.m. on the due date is LATE. No exceptions.

Please note that the Writing Lab offers one-to-one assistance with writing assignments and general
writing skills.

Careers in Art Presentations (20%)

A curator, an art historian, an art appraiser and consultant, an elementary school visual arts teacher,
an artist, a museum director of art education, a gallery owner, a developer and marketer for a major
collection, a studio art professor, and an art critic. You will choose a contact (prearranged by me)
from one of these professions and work with a group of 4 other students to interview that person and
then present an oral and written report about your interview.

Each person in your group will need to be responsible for some area of the overall project:
communication with the contact, taking photographs and/or video of the interviewee as well as his or
her working environment with their permission, preparing a PowerPoint or video and/or handouts
for the presentation, composing the body of the written report, and proofing and editing the final
products.

Before the interview, you will need to meet as a group at least once to prepare what you would like to
discuss with your contact. You will only get one chance to ask your questions so make sure you have
thought of everything! You want to find out as much as you can about their profession, their day on
the job, what they like about their work, what they don’t like, how they got into their line of work,
what education they had to prepare them, what they love about art, future goals they may have, what
advice they would give to someone interested in their field, etc. Your team goal is to give as much
information about that particular field as possible to your classmates in a manner that is lucid,
entertaining and relevant.

Deadlines: You need to establish email or phone contact with your representative by the end of
January. Your interview needs to take place at least one month before your assigned presentation
date.

Presentations are limited to 15 minutes so they need to be straightforward and well-organized. There
will be 5 minutes for questions from your classmates. Feel free to be as creative as you would like
with the form of your presentation and report.

You will each submit your own written report! The first part will be a one-page summary written by
you that describes your group dynamic, your working process, how the roles were delegated, and
what you might have done differently if you could do it again. This is not an opportunity to vent, but
a chance to process the experience in a positive and constructive manner. The larger part of the
report will be the “body” of the report that will be the same for everyone in the group. This is where
you lay down the information you discuss in your presentation. You will each then write your own
one-page conclusion concerning your individual response to the interview and to the field of your
contact.

Reading Journal entries (20%)

Throughout the syllabus you will notice various reading assignments that begin with “journal.” These
refer to readings for which you will respond with a journal entry. Each entry should be a 2-3 page
(double-space, 12 font, 1” margins) response to the assigned readings listed on the schedule.
On the occasions when I collect them, I will return them to you as soon as I can with a grade of A
(100), B (85), C (75), D (65) or F (50).
Each of your responses is due as a hard copy at the end of the class for which it is assigned. They are
the basis of group discussion, so you will need them during the class.
Electronic and/or late responses will not be accepted. If you fail to turn in a response you will earn a
ZERO, which is significantly worse than an F. No exceptions!
You will need to save all of your original journal entries, whether I collected them or not.
Your lowest journal grade will be dropped.

List your name, the date, the name of the author(s), and the full title(s) of the reading(s) at the top of
the first page. Write 2-4 pages (600 words minimum and 1200 maximum, double-space, 12 font).
This includes all readings assigned together, no matter how many there are.
At the end of the semester you will bind your entries, so leave the left margin free for binding and
the right margin free for commentary.
Make your own hard copy of the articles on the website so that you can write on them. Read the
author’s entire essay slowly all the way through, underlining important passages as you read. Bring
the reading to class to aid discussion. You can look something up if there are various interpretations.
Go back through all the readings and reread the passages you underlined.

The responses need to do the following: a) identify the author’s thesis in quotes, b) examine how the
author structures his or her argument, using examples such as quotes and images, and c) respond to
the reading by taking a stance supporting or refuting the author’s case. If there is more than one
reading assigned for a class, conclude the journal entry with a one-paragraph summary of all the
readings. Why were they assigned together?
Throughout the response, you must quote or paraphrase the most interesting of the sentences you
underlined from the entire reading: beginning, middle, and end. Show that you’ve read it all. Give
parenthetical citations after each quote with the page number. About a third to a half the journal
entry should be what the author says.
Respond to the author with confidence and respect. Agree, disagree, question, but first listen to him
or her fairly before you answer. The quality of your response depends upon the effort you make to
understand the author’s point. You must question the author’s point of view, but you should
presuppose his or her expertise and good will. Good critical thinking is open to new insights; it is
skeptical and analytical, but not cynical.

Bound Understanding Art Journal (20%)

For a letter grade, at the end of the semester, bind all your journal entries, 2 short papers, quizzes,
career report, and class notes.
Carefully re-read all your writings. Underline the most salient ideas to use in your introduction.
Create a cover page for the bound journal with identifying information.
Write a 2-page introduction. (600 words, typed double-spaced, 12 font). The introduction format: 1)
brief (one paragraph) summary of the overall content and 2) at least three points you underlined in
your writings, 3) conclusion paragraph about what you learned from the course readings. Which
were the best assignments and readings and why?
Paginate the journal and create a descriptive table of contents that gives titles and authors of every
entry: readings, subjects of quizzes, titles of papers, and so on.
Have the journal bound with front and back covers at a copy center like Kinkos, or bind it yourself if
you’d like.
For the cover, make a collage of art-related materials you have picked up at art museums and galleries
this semester, plus photographs, clippings from magazines, etc. that relate to what you learned in
AHST 2331.

Dropping Policy: Remember that the deadline to drop the course without a “W” is January 26. Please
refer to the university drop policy.
Extra Credit
For extra credit, you can submit up to five projects from http://www.prenhall.com/sayre/. Each
chapter has a link titled “Projects” on the left-hand side. The quality of your work will determine the
amount of extra credit you earn.

Attendance, Lateness, and Policy on Make-Ups

Roll will be taken every lecture. In this way, I can learn your names and track your involvement in
the class. If you are late, the only way for me to note your attendance is for you to see me after class.
Students are given three excused absences over the course of the semester. These absences are for
illness, court dates, family obligations, and other exceptional and/or understandable circumstances.
Students who miss more than three classes will be asked to meet with me in my office to discuss the
problem (or be dropped from the class). There is no formal penalty for attendance and lateness issues.
However, know that your grades will suffer for missed quizzes and papers or journal entries I cannot
accept.

The quizzes will begin promptly at the beginning of class. Students who are late will NOT be given
the opportunity to make up lost time. No exceptions.

There are no make-up quizzes unless you are a student participating in an officially sanctioned,
scheduled University extracurricular activity, for which I will need documentation. In such instances,
it is the responsibility of the student to make arrangements with the instructor prior to any missed
quiz or other missed assignment for making up the work.

Religiously observant students wishing to be absent on holidays that require missing class should
notify me in writing by January 26, and should discuss with me, in advance, acceptable ways of
making up any work missed because of the absence.

Students with Disabilities

Students needing academic accommodations for a disability must first contact the Disability Services
Coordinator, Kerry Tate at 972-883-2098. If you will need extended time for the exams, you must
provide the appropriate documentation by January 26.

Academic Integrity
It is the philosophy of UTD that academic dishonesty is a completely unacceptable mode of conduct
and will not be tolerated in any form. Please study the information on scholastic dishonesty on the
UTD website: http://www.utdallas.edu/judicialaffairs/UTDJudicialAffairs-HOPV.html.
Student Grievances
Students with grievances should first contact the faculty member in writing (not email) to set up a
meeting. The department can help with this step. If after the meeting the problem is not resolved,
both faculty and student can attend a meeting with the department chair together to resolve the
issue. Please consult the catalog online to review policies and procedures.
http://www.utdallas.edu/judicialaffairs/UTDJudicialAffairs-Grievances.html.

E-Culture Policy
Students are responsible for checking email regularly. Please know that I may need to contact you via
your utdallas.edu email for this class.
Due to the high volume of email our faculty and the art history office receive an important message
may be missed or response to your email may take time. If your email has not been responded to
within two days please contact me or stop by the office in person. In addition, weekend email
messages may not be received until Monday or Tuesday.

Classroom Etiquette
We all agree to respect one another’s ability to focus, learn and participate. Toward that end: we will
not bring laptops to class; we will turn and leave off our cell phones; and we will refrain from
walking in and out of the room during class unless it is an emergency .

I ask that students refrain from eating fresh, fragrant foods during class-time.

Upcoming Schedule
January 11 Introductions, syllabus…
Assignment: Read the Student Tool Kit and chapter 1 in Sayre. Prepare for the
first quiz.
Bring a photocopy of your favorite work of art.
Decide your first, second, and third choices for the presentations.

January 13 A World of Art, break into presentation groups

Assignment: Sayre chapter 2

January 18 Developing Visual Literacy

Assignment: Sayre chapter 4 & 5

January 20 Line and Space

Assignment: Take pictures of examples of the terms given in class, email them
to me by 8 p.m. on the 23rd. Sayre, chapter 6. Bring in a photocopy of your
face and wear clothes that can get dirty.
January 25 Light. Drawing Yourself exercise (keep for your journal)
Assignment: Value-scale collage exercise (counts as a journal assignment).
Check out the Color Matters website www.colormatters.com that explores
color and how it affects our mind, our behavior, our visual experience, and
life in general. Go to links at upper left – How Color Affects Us – write brief
descriptions of four things that surprised you. Be prepared to present them to
the class. Attach the value scale collage and web assignment together to turn
in at the end of next class.

January 27 Color. Collage display and discussion of colormatters.com. Groups.

Assignment: Sayre chapters 7 & 8 and reading from A Short Guide to Writing
about Art

February 1 Other Formal Elements and the Principles of Design

Assignment: Sayre chapters 9-11, 13-14

February 3 Traditional Media (in-class, open-book quiz for 2 quiz grades)

Assignment: Sayre chapter 12

February 8 Photography and Time-Based Media

Assignment: Sayre chapters 15-16

February 10 No class (visit the DMA)

February 15 Architecture and the Design Profession

Assignment: Sayre chapter 3

February 17 Seeing the Value in Art

Assignment: journal readings online

February 22 Museums
Assignment: Sayre chapter 17

February 24 DMA paper/project due. Art History: The Ancient World

Assignment: Sayre chapter 18

March 1 Art History: The Age of Faith

Assignment: Sayre chapter 19
March 3 Art History: The Renaissance through the Baroque
Assignment: journal readings online

March 8 Discussion of readings

Assignment: Sayre chapter 20

March 10 Art History: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Assignment: Sayre chapter 21

March 15-17 spring break

March 22 Art History: From 1900 to the Present

Assignment: journal readings online

March 24 Discussion of readings

March 29 3 Careers in Art presentations

March 31 3 Careers in Art presentations

April 5 3 Careers in Art presentations

Assignment: journal readings online

April 7 No class (visit your public art work)

April 12 1 Career Presentation. Public Art discussion

Assignment: journal reading online

April 14 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Assignment: journal Ways of Seeing

April 19 Dallas Public Art Walk paper/project due

Ways of Seeing
Assignment: journal readings on Identity and Stereotype

April 21 Identity and Stereotype

Assignment: Identity and Stereotype collage and critical commentary
(considered a journal entry)
April 28 Presentation of gender stereotype collages and discussion
Assignment: journal readings online

April 30 Aesthetic Standards of Cool, Good Taste, and Aesthetics

Thursday, May 5 Last day to turn in Understanding Art Journals. Due by 5 p.m.

Tuesday, May 10 8:00-10:45 a.m. Final exam period: journals will be available for pick-up in the
classroom during this time. If you do not pick up your journal, you will have 5 points deducted from
your final grade. If you would like to prearrange a time before this date to pick up your journal,
please let me know by April 19. You will be asked to turn in your journal four days before the date
you would like to pick up your journal.
 Course Awareness Form
AHST 2331
Prof. LaRue
Spring 2011

I have read and understand the syllabus for this class. Any questions I have regarding
this syllabus have been presented to and answered by the professor teaching this
course. I understand that the Department of Art History adheres to university policies
and I have read and understand university policies. It is the responsibility of the
student to obtain and read this information.

Name (print): _________________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________________

Date: ___________________________________