arth-a540 american art to 1860

ARTH-A540 AMERICAN ART TO 1860
FALL 2016 | TR 1:00–2:15 | CLASS #32839 | PROFESSOR MELODY BARNETT DEUSNER | FINE ARTS 010
Look closely and you’ll find that some of the images and symbols associated most immediately with the United States of America—
from the gleaming white-columned Capitol to the engraved portrait of George Washington in your pocket—had their origins in the
years before the American Civil War. This course takes you even deeper into the complex visual history of this place, from the first
documented artifacts of European and Native American contact to photographs of the dead at Antietam. We will explore paintings,
architecture, furniture, prints, quilts, city plans, and more through the words of their makers, scholarly essays, and museum catalogues. These resources will help you develop your critical looking and reading skills and produce a written research project of your
own. Take-home exams will enable you to reflect upon what you are learning about themes such as “Colonial Commerce,” “Imagining
a Nation,” “Making a Home,” and “Death, Faith, and Memory.” Join us as we visit libraries and museums that will bring us face to face
with this history as we try to see the past with fresh eyes. Previous experience in American art not required; curiosity a must.