Art and Art History

ARTS 102: Foundation Two-Dimensional Media

This foundation-level studio course introduces the aesthetic, conceptual, and technical foundations of two-dimensional art-making and the ways drawing informs the creation and understanding of art in cultural contexts. Students explore color, value, form, and space through a wide variety of materials. The course emphasizes strategies for idea generation and visual problem solving. Students engage in spirited investigation, critiques, and thoughtful creative expression. Materials fee. Offered each semester.

ARTS 103: Foundation Three-Dimensional Media

This foundation-level studio course introduces the aesthetic, conceptual, and technical foundations of three-dimensional art-making and the ways three-dimensional media inform the creation and understanding of art in many contexts. Students explore sculpture and its intersection with other media and art forms through a variety of materials and experiments. The course emphasizes idea generation. Students engage in spirited investigation, creative expression, and play. Materials fee. Offered each semester.

ARTS 104: Foundation New Media

This foundation-level studio course introduces the aesthetic, conceptual, and technical foundations of new media art making. New media is a broad category that includes a variety of art practices. Areas of focus may include video art, filmmaking, sound art, animation, performance and other digital, time-based, and/or interactive processes. Idea generation and creative development is central to the course, with an emphasis on experimentation and divergent thinking. Students engage in demonstrations, exercises, group work, reflection, and creative projects. Offered each semester.

ARTS 205: Photography

This course introduces students to digital photographic processes as a means for creating works of art. Students learn terminology and critical approaches to photography. The course includes presentations on concepts and photographers' works, discussions of articles, and regular critiques. Students are introduced to the history of the medium through presentations and readings. Students develop critical skills and the ability to analyze and interpret photographic work. Materials fee. Offered each semester.

ARTS 207: Ceramics

This course introduces students to the ceramic processes of wheel throwing and hand building as means for creating works of art. Students learn terminology and critical approaches to ceramics. Students develop critical skills and the ability to analyze and interpret ceramic artwork. The course emphasizes creative approaches to solving visual problems through ceramic work. Slide presentations on contemporary and historical ceramics provide background for assignments and highlight the role of ceramics in various cultural contexts. Materials fee. Offered each semester.

ARTS 221: Oil/Acrylic Painting

This course develops and stimulates research into the emotional/expressive properties of painting. By investigating thematic, compositional, and technical problems, students develop a personalized approach to ideas and content. Students learn the importance of process, flexibility, alternatives, and the recognition that a painting has a life of its own. Materials fee. Offered annually.
Prerequisite: ARTS 102.

ARTS 223: Sculpture/Metal Casting

This sculpture course introduces lost wax bronze casting, an art and industrial process that changed the course of human civilization. Students learn to cast, finish, and present cast metal work. The course makes use of hands-on instruction, readings, slide talks, and discussion. Materials fee. Offered annually in the fall semester.

ARTS 224: Sculpture/Direct Metal

This sculpture course introduces students to metal forming, shaping, fastening and brazing, and welding. Both majors and non-majors discover an art and industrial process that has great artistic and practical application. The course makes use of hands-on instruction, readings, slide talks, and discussion. Course does not cover metal casting. Materials fee. Offered annually.
Prerequisite: ARTS 103.

ARTS 225: Architectural Design I

Through a sequence of architectural design projects, students learn drawing (hand drafting and computer-aided drawing and design) and architectural design processes that require the integration of social, artistic, technical, and environmental issues typical of real projects. Visiting architects are involved. Field trips to experience spaces/places augment the studio work. Materials fee. Offered alternate years.
Prerequisite: ARTS 102 or ARTS 103 or ARTS 104 or permission of instructor.

ARTS 226: Printmaking: Relief and Lithography

Emphasizing individual concepts, personal expression and strong composition, this course explores relief and lithography. Using large-scale, multicolor moveable block, collagraph, wood, or lino block techniques and lithography stones or aluminum plates in both black and white and color. Students produce multiple images on one of the department's three presses. Students become familiar with the heritage of old masters as well as contemporary artists in printmaking. Materials fee. Offered annually.
Prerequisite: ARTS 102.

ARTS 227: Printmaking: Intaglio and Monoprints

This course provides a strong foundation in the array of copper plate processes of etching, aquatint, lift ground, soft ground, and polymer plate printmaking processes as well as in painterly monoprinting techniques. Students address personal sources of ideas, experimentation, drawing skills, and compositional concerns and draw upon examples of master printmakers to discuss how images reflect culture. Critical thinking skills are necessary in discussion and critiques. Materials fee. Offered annually.
Prerequisite: ARTS 102.

ARTS 228: Animated Art

This course focuses on the creative use of animation techniques. Students study the principles of animation and produce projects utilizing a variety of techniques including flipbooks, stop motion photography, animated GIFs, and 2D and 3D computer-generated animation software. Students regularly screen, analyze, and discuss contemporary and historic animations. Materials fee. Offered alternate years.
Prerequisite: ARTS 104 or permission of the instructor.

ARTS 229: Digital Filmmaking

This course focuses on the creative use of digital video as a tool to generate experimental films and video art. Students study all aspects of production from concept to screening, including idea generation, pre-production planning, storyboarding, lighting, shooting, editing, and sound design. Students regularly screen, analyze, and discuss contemporary and historic examples of time-based media. During the semester students produce a variety of short videos and films, exploring experimental, narrative, and documentary approaches. Materials fee. Offered alternate years.
Prerequisite: ARTS 104 or permission of instructor.

ARTS 232: Figure Drawing

Drawing the human form from life has been a mainstay in the training of artists since the Renaissance because of its unparalleled discipline in the training of the eye. Along with becoming better observers, students reach a personal understanding of the figure and an appreciation of its art-historical uses. Various media and techniques are explored as a means to understand the expressive possibilities of the figure. Materials fee. Offered alternate years.
Prerequisite: ARTS 102.

ARTS 234: Intermediate Ceramics

This intermediate-level course assumes students have a substantial understanding of ceramic processes, plus a good awareness of their own interests in the realm of ceramic expression. The instructor helps students focus their efforts by proposing specific areas of investigation. Materials fee. Offered annually.
Prerequisite: ARTS 207 or permission of instructor.

ARTS 236: Graphic Design

This course introduces students to the medium of graphic design as a method of enhanced communication. The course explores the design communication process including conceptualization, creative processes, terminology, and technology. Assignments introduce computer applications used in the graphic design profession as well as graphic design elements of typography, production, color theory, digital printing processes, and basic web design. Offered periodically.
Prerequisite: ARTS 104 or permission of the instructor.

ARTS 238: Intermediate Photography

In this intermediate photography course, students explore a variety of techniques and topics. Techniques include historic processes such as cyanotype and salted paper printing, digital photography, large-scale color printing, and traditional black and white photography. Students investigate experimental approaches and non-traditional forms for presentation, and they investigate photography from broad historical, aesthetic, and social perspectives. This course includes field trips, readings, discussion, and visual presentations. Materials fee. Offered annually.
Prerequisite: ARTS 205 or permission of instructor.

ARTS 240: Topics in the Fine Arts

The department periodically offers special topics courses. The specific title of the course is listed in the class and lab schedule when it is offered.

ARTS 246: New York Art January Term (study away)

This course provides intensive exposure to career opportunities in architecture, painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, photography, illustration, video, digital media, and design of all kinds (from toys to exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Working five to seven hours a day, students interview over 25 artist professionals during the month, visit more than 100 galleries and museums, and write extensively about artists and artwork. Offered during January Term in alternate years. Apply through Smith Center for Global Engagement.
Prerequisite: none but completion of both ARTH 253 (preferred) and ARTH 280 are highly recommended.

ARTS 294: Academic Internship

ARTS 298: Independent Study

Prerequisites: (for studio art) four foundation courses and two upper-division courses in area of study.
Prerequisites: (for art history) two upper-division courses in area of study.

ARTS 343: Senior Studies in Studio Art

This capstone course in the studio art program consists of advanced studio work, a visiting artist series, weekly critiques, and discussions with faculty and peers. Each student's independent work with a faculty advisor culminates in a senior exhibition at Flaten Art Museum. Weekly sessions also cover such topics as preparing a resume, documenting one's work, framing, and producing exhibition announcements and posters. Offered annually.
Prerequisites: (for non-studio majors) ARTS 102, ARTS 103, ARTS 104, two upper-level (200-300) courses, one art history course, and permission of chair.

ARTS 394: Academic Internship

ARTS 398: Independent Research

Prerequisites: (for studio art) four foundation courses and three courses in area of study.
Prerequisites: (for art history) three courses in area of study.

ARTH 153: Introduction to Art History

This course introduces students to the working methods of Art History. Students learn to analyze works of art visually, to understand the relationships between works of art and their cultural contexts, to consider the practices and politics of museum display, and to think critically about the role of art in their own lives and in society. Offered each semester.

ARTH 161: History of World Architecture

This course examines architectural monuments and their symbolic forms combined with evidence of earthly and divine concepts. From cave dwellings to geodesic domes, from Eastern to Western systems, students review sacred and profane structures from a variety of cultures. Each student investigates a living reality of space, function, and form found in human-built environments. Offered alternate years.

ARTH 253: Art Since 1945

This course is an introduction to modern and postmodern art and thought after World War II through a survey of painting, sculpture, and new-media arts. Students learn about celebrated art and artists, major values such as issues of identity informing their work, and ways of analyzing and making sense of newer art. Offered annually.
Prerequisite: none, but at least one college art history or studio art course is recommended.

ARTH 254: Italian Renaissance Art

This course explores painting, sculpture, architecture, and urban development in Italy from c. 1300 to c. 1600. The course focuses on the major urban centers of the period: Florence, Rome, and Venice. Students address the ways in which art functioned in its original Renaissance context and explore issues of artistic identity and the importance of patronage in the period. Offered periodically.

ARTH 255: Italian Art in Context (study abroad)

What kinds of stories do historians, writers, and artists tell about the cities in which they live? How are these stories reflected in the architecture and urban fabric of the cities themselves? And how do the geography and environment of Italy shape both the lore about a city and its actual built environment? To answer these questions, students explore the representations of Italian cities in literature and visual arts and the documented and architectural realities of urban development. The majority of the course focuses on a study of the city of Florence; students make shorter visits to other Italian cities and study the facts and fictions about each city's urban history.
Prerequisite: At least one Art or Art History course at St Olaf College.

ARTH 256: A History of Photography

Since its invention, photography has shaped our ways of seeing, our social history, and our identities. Photography is also a compelling form of artistic expression. This course is an introduction to the history of photography from its origins to the present, including the role of photography in society and in the fine arts. Students learn the skills of formal visual analysis and critical thinking about the power of the photographic image in our lives. Offered periodically.

ARTH 257: The Expanding Renaissance

This course examines visual art created in Europe between 1300 and 1650, a time when Europe's colonial and economic power in the world was growing. The course considers how Europeans visualized the people and geographies of their world, how religious belief and conflict shaped visual traditions, and how works of art reflect conceptions of sex and gender. Offered alternate years in fall semester.

ARTH 259: The Arts of China

This course is intended as an introduction to the history of Chinese art, offering a survey of major artistic developments from neolithic times to the present. Among the topics considered: ritual bronzes, funerary remains of the Qin and Han, Buddhist sculpture, and the evolution of landscape painting. Important issues discussed include production and patronage, function, and borrowing and influence in the evolution of artistic works across time and space. Offered annually.

ARTH 260: The Arts of Japan

This course introduces the history of Japanese art, offering a survey of major artistic developments from neolithic times to the present. Among the topics considered: funerary remains of the neolithic through Kofun eras; Indigenous as well as imported religious traditions and their imagery, and the secular arts. Issues discussed include production and patronage, function, and borrowing and influence in the evolution of artistic works. Offered annually.

ARTH 261: O'Keeffe and Arts of New Mexico (study away)

Inspired by revered painter Georgia O'Keeffe's love of the New Mexican landscape, our group will explore the arts, nature, and culture of "The Land of Enchantment." Beginning in Albuquerque, we will journey to Ghost Ranch for a week in O'Keeffe's meditative and artistic space, then head to Taos, a longstanding artists' colony in the Southernmost Rocky Mountains, and the Taos Pueblo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States. Our trip culminates in the thriving arts hub of Santa Fe, visiting its galleries and museums. Offered alternate years during January term.

ARTH 264: Race and Difference in Medieval Art

Were the Middle Ages white? This seminar is an introduction to the ways that conceptions of race and difference were active in the visual culture of the later Middle Ages (ca. 1000-1500) in Europe, a period that is often mistakenly racialized as white in popular culture. The course also examines how European colonialism shapes our ideas about medieval art and how medieval art has been used to support racist and white supremacist ideologies. Offered alternate years.

ARTH 265: African American Art

This course is a survey of African American art, from folk and decorative arts of the 19th century, to Modernist painting and sculpture in the 20th, to the multi-media productions of today. Issues of race and identity are explored through examinations of the visual productions of African American artists. The course is discussion-based. Working in groups, students learn to closely examine artworks and related texts. Individual research and writing projects deepen students' engagement with the material. Offered periodically.

ARTH 268: Early Medieval Art and Identity

In this seminar, students explore the early medieval period, a time of dynamic transformation. Migrating and conquering cultures brought new approaches to art and architecture that forever changed the visual landscape of the early medieval world. Students examine the art of the Christian empires of the Mediterranean, the monastic traditions of Egypt and Nubia, Germanic cultures (the barbarians), the Islamic caliphate in Spain, and the Carolingians and Ottonians in northern Europe.

ARTH 274: Sacred Sites of Asia

Students will encounter and interpret a variety of religious sites in Asia past and present. By considering the sacred from a variety of theoretical perspectives, students come to understand how the sacred reflects religious and cultural beliefs and can serve as a marker of identity. Offered periodically during the fall semester.

ARTH 275: Topics in Art History

This seminar-style course focuses on a specific art-historical topic, and students learn how to pursue art-historical practice beyond the introductory level. Topics change with each offering. Offered periodically.

ARTH 278: Topics:

This seminar-style course focuses on a specific art-historical topic, and students learn how to pursue art-historical practice beyond the introductory level. Topics change with each offering. Offered periodically.

ARTH 280: Art Now: Critical Issues in Contemporary Art

This course explores in depth the issues most crucial to artists working today in an increasingly globalized art scene. Students investigate the complexities of new media, new methods of production and exhibition, and theoretical models through readings and a required field trip to a contemporary art museum. Students analyze both journalistic criticism and theoretical texts, encompassing a wide variety of perspectives, and respond through short writing assignments and classroom discussion. Fee for field trip may be required. Offered periodically.

ARTH 282: Topics in Museum Studies

What is a museum? Is it an impartial space to display and store valued objects that objectively reflect culture, or is it a more complicated organization that evolves and responds to the emerging needs and challenges of individuals and communities? In this course, students explore these questions, consider how museums can be understood as systems of power, and become acquainted with the various roles people play within them. Specific topic varies by instructor. May be repeated if topics differ. Offered alternate years.

ARTH 294: Academic Internship

ARTH 298: Independent Study

Prerequisites: (for studio art) four foundation courses and two upper-division courses in area of study. (for art history) two upper-division courses in area of study.

ARTH 350: The Methods of Art History

This seminar explores methods by which art historians and curators analyze works of art. Students develop an advanced understanding of these methods by application of various methods to works of art, by examining historical factors surrounding principle movements in the study of art history and by engaging in lively class debates about them. Readings, discussions, and presentations culminate in an independent research project that allows each student to find their own place in the discipline. Offered annually.
Prerequisite: art history major or permission of the instructor.

ARTH 394: Academic Internship

ARTH 396: Research

This course provides a comprehensive research opportunity, including an introduction to relevant background material, technical instruction, identification of a meaningful project, and data collection. The topic is determined by the faculty member in charge of the course and may relate to his/her research interests. Offered based on department decision. May be offered as a 1.00 credit course or .50 credit course.
Prerequisite: determined by individual instructor.

ARTH 398: Independent Research

Prerequisites: (for studio art) four foundation courses and three courses in area of study. (for art history) three courses in area of study.