This course explores the relationship between architecture and sexuality in the context of European modernism. It looks at the diverse ways Western sexuality and modern architecture have produced the conditions that define our age. The history of space-making has been saturated with sexual metaphors—the shaft, the high-rise, the closet—and sexual and gender identities have been shaped by architectural forms—the bathhouse, the kitchen, the hotel, the office, the secret garden, etc. Yet, the space of sexuality has been excluded from the history of architecture.
Art History is the study of the visual arts in civilization. It examines changing values in all fields of visual culture, including painting, sculpture, graphics, photography, architecture, film, the mass media, and forms of popular expression. Its interdisciplinary reach encompasses literature, history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, gender studies, critical theory, and cultural studies. Art History emphasizes visual as well as verbal and written literacy, providing more than the standard advantages to a liberal arts education.
Students majoring in Art History will engage with the wide-ranging opportunities its curriculum presents for learning and research. Studying Art History develops visual literacy, communication skills, critical/creative thinking and an understanding of diversity.
Professor Heghnar Watenpaugh will be speaking at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art on the Armenian genocide, Zeytun Gospels, and restitution in her lecture entitled “From Genocide to Justice: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript.” This lecture coincides with the release of her new book The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript from Genocide to Justicewhich will be available on February 2019.
James Housefield will speak as part of the Campus Community Book Project on “Design and the Play Instinct: Paul Rand and Joy in Modern Art.”
The talk will take place on January 30 in Cruess Hall, room 220. The event is free and open to the public.
The 2018-2019 book project features a year-long program around “The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World” by the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas Abrams. For a complete listing of events, visit ccbp.ucdavis.edu.
The relationship between art and the Enlightenment is polemical. Enlightenment philosophical ideals centered on precepts of reason, self, society, perfection and beauty, among others. Yet, study of painting of this period demonstrates that art was not only rational and orderly, but also wildly hubristic, overambitious, and even went as far as rejecting tenets of the Enlightenment.
