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 Katharine Burnett, founding director of the Global Tea
Institute at UC Davis, will present a talk on ”The
Marvelously Extraordinary, Inventively Original Late Ming Teapot”
at the annual Global Tea Institute Colloquium.
Professor Katharine Burnett was invited to speak
on “Branding GTI at the University of California, Davis,
Branding Japanese Green Tea to the US Market” at the World O-CHA
Tea Festival.
Professor Michael Yonan and Dr. Amy Freund (Kleinheinz Endowment
for the Arts and Education Endowed Chair in art history at
Southern Methodist University) gave a talk on Oct. 23 at the
Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA. “Visualizing the Feline in
Art” asked “what is it with cats and artists?” Yonan and Freund
examined the ubiquitousness of cats in depictions of
artists’ studios and in artworks that serve as manifestos of
their makers’ techniques of visual representation.
Visiting scholar Qianhe Man, associate professor in Beijing
Institute of Technology, will give a public lecture on how Zen
philosophy has impacted tea ceremonies in “Zen and Tea in
One Taste: Contemporary Aesthetic Reconstruction in
Cross-Cultural Context.”
The intersection between climate change and art history opens new
pathways for understanding how visual and material culture
mediates human relationships to the natural
world. Historical and contemporary depictions of nature
illuminate how aesthetic practices register environmental
knowledge and respond to ecological stress. Far from being a
luxury of elite culture, art history is an essential tool for
imagining alternative ecological futures.
