A year-long introduction to a history of some European and North American art, this course concentrates on three-dimensional media in the fall (architecture and sculpture) and two-dimensional media in the spring (painting, drawing, prints and photography). Even though the course focuses on Western art, it also explores interchanges among other cultures and the west, particularly in more recent times.
Both semesters cover the same chronological span, from Ancient Greeks to computer geeks. We organize the course in this unusual way not only to give students the grasp of history but also to heighten their ability to understand visual objects by coming to grips with only one artistic medium at a time. To train students to look carefully at art, we use the wealth of art resources in Williamstown: the Clark Art Institute, the Williams College Museum of Art and the Chapin Rare Book Library. Students spend time with, and sometimes even hold, original works of art. For the study of architecture we have a unique set of "Virtual Buildings" made expressly for this course, that approximate the experience of being in structures thousands of miles away.