AH - Art History
AH 1000 Introduction to Art Cr. 3
Satisfies General Education Requirement: Cultural Inquiry, Visual Performing Arts
An introductory survey of art and culture designed to equip students to look purposefully, critically, and contextually at images and events, mindful of the ways that meaning is produced and perceived. Offered Every Term.
AH 1110 Survey of Art History: Ancient through Medieval Cr. 3-4
Satisfies General Education Requirement: Cultural Inquiry, Visual Performing Arts
Survey of traditions and major developments in visual expression in the West, prehistory through Medieval period. Art studied in context of its cultures; techniques of visual analysis. Offered for four credits only to Honors students. Offered Every Term.
AH 1120 Survey of Art History: Renaissance through Modern Cr. 3-4
Satisfies General Education Requirement: Cultural Inquiry, Visual Performing Arts
Traditions and developments in visual expression in the West, Renaissance through twentieth century. Art in context of its cultures; techniques of visual analysis. Offered for four credits only to Honors students. Offered Every Term.
AH 1130 Encounters with the Arts of Global Africa Cr. 3
Satisfies General Education Requirement: Cultural Inquiry, Global Learning Inquiry, Visual Performing Arts
Introductory survey of the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora, focusing on the visual culture of cross-cultural contact within Africa and beyond. Offered Fall, Winter.
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
AH 3070 Art and Archeology of Ancient Egypt Cr. 3
An introduction to the history and development of Egyptian artistic style in architecture, sculpture, painting and the applied arts; historical, social and religious background. Offered Intermittently.
AH 3150 The Arts of Africa: Local and Global Visions Cr. 3
Traditional, modern and contemporary arts of Africa, as well as the impact of African culture on the Americas. Emphasis on global politics of intercultural contact between Africa and the West. Offered Fall.
Prerequisites: AH 1110 and AH 1120
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
AH 3240 Mythology in Greek Art Cr. 3
The myths of the Greeks as they appeared on painted vases, and the strategies of visual storytelling employed. Offered Intermittently.
AH 3410 Medieval Art and Architecture Cr. 3
Monasticism as a driving force in medieval culture; art and architecture produced by and for Christian religious communities, A.D. 300-1400. Offered Intermittently.
Prerequisites: AH 1110
AH 3470 Islamic Art and Architecture Cr. 3
Satisfies General Education Requirement: Global Learning Inquiry
Survey of art and architecture of Islam from its origins in the seventh century to the Ottoman Empire. Offered Intermittently.
AH 3560 Special Topics Cr. 3
Students examine specific issues related to art history. Offered Intermittently.
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
Repeatable for 12 Credits
AH 3650 Nineteenth-Century European Art and Architecture Cr. 3
Introduction to European art and architecture from 1780 to 1900; survey of major developments in 19th century painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography. Offered Fall, Winter.
AH 3700 Contemporary Art Cr. 3
Introduction for studio art majors: ideas and styles of modern art. The gap between those who make art and those who write about it. Access to the discipline of art history through tracing the origins of a variety of contemporary art practices. Offered Yearly.
Prerequisites: AH 1000-1999
AH 3750 African American Art Cr. 3
Satisfies General Education Requirement: Diversity Equity Incl Inquiry
Historical inquiry of African American art from the eighteenth century to today. Offered Yearly.
Equivalent: AFS 3750
AH 3760 Art of the African Diaspora Cr. 3
Examines art of the African Diaspora and how this history of dissemination affected art making in various geographical, cultural, and sociopolitical paradigms. Offered Fall.
AH 5210 Hellenistic Art Cr. 3
Sculpture, painting and architecture of the Greek world from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. Offered Intermittently.
AH 5250 Ancient Rome Cr. 3
Development of Rome into an imperial capital. Design, function and political significance of public monuments in the city. Offered Intermittently.
AH 5260 Classical Greek Art Cr. 3
Greek painting, sculpture and architecture of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. Emphasis on decorative programs of temples and cult statues. Offered Intermittently.
AH 5270 Roman Painting and Sculpture Cr. 3
Painting and sculpture of the Roman Republic and Empire, and their cultural context. Offered Yearly.
AH 5310 The Ancient City of Athens Cr. 3
The history of Athens as an urban center in antiquity. Public monuments, buildings and landscape as reflecting the city's aspirations and fortunes. Offered Intermittently.
AH 5450 Art and Architecture in the High Middle Ages Cr. 3
Art and architecture in western Europe, 1050-1250. Development of Romanesque and Gothic styles in architecture, painting, and sculpture. Offered Intermittently.
AH 5500 Early Renaissance in Italy Cr. 3
Art and architecture from Giotto to Botticelli; transformation of late medieval art prior to Black Death, classical revival in Florence; North Italian artists such as the Bellinis and Mantegna. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5510 High Renaissance and Mannerism in Italy Cr. 3
The art of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and their contemporaries. Offered Intermittently.
AH 5520 Art of Renaissance Venice Cr. 3
Art of fifteenth and sixteenth century Venice considered in its socio-political milieu. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5540 Art of the 1960s Cr. 3
This course examines the art created by artists of color who were typically marginalized by the American art world during this historical moment. First, we will consider the artistic tendencies of the mainstream artworld, and then delve into the creative and political pursuits of non-white artists of this time period. One of the principle aims of this course is to consider the political, social, and cultural context that impacted the creation of their art as well as the ways in which the creative endeavors of these artists of color intersected with the goals of movements like the Black Power Movement, the Chicano Movement, and the Women’s Liberation Movement. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5545 Black Women in Contemporary Art Cr. 3
This course will explore contemporary visual and performance art created by women of the Black Diaspora. Critical race, gender, sexuality and multiculturalism theory will be utilized to strengthen the visual analysis of artworks. For the duration of the semester, students will examine artists who defined art of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as art reflective of the multiculturalism and identity politics of the 1980s and the early 1990s and will then consider the audacious yet ambitious art of the post-black era. This course embraces the subjectivities of cisgendered and transgendered people of the feminine experience, femmes, and nonbinary people. Keeping intersectionality in mind, this course also considers Black women artists who confront gender inequality, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and systemic racism. Offered Fall.
Prerequisites: AH 3700
AH 5560 Special Topics Cr. 3
Students examine specific issues related to art history. Offered for undergraduate credit only. Offered Intermittently.
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
Repeatable for 12 Credits
AH 5570 Performance Art of the Americas Cr. 3
Explores Performance Art created in North, Central, and South America, as well as in the Caribbean. Performance Art is a Western visual art movement in which the artist's body is the primary medium of expression, and this art form's evolution will be examined from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Offered Fall.
AH 5695 Art of Revolutionary Europe Cr. 3
This course explores European paintings, prints, photography, fashion, architecture and interior design from 1789-1851, including the art of David, Delacroix, Turner, Friedrich, Goya, and Courbet and the styles of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, the Regency, Napoleon, and Realism. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5705 Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Cr. 3
This course explores French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the context of social and technological change, fashion, the growth of Paris, the birth of the suburbs, and questions of gender, race, sexuality, and the environment. Artists include Manet, Monet, Cassatt, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and many others. Offered Intermittently.
AH 5710 Trends in Nineteenth Century Art Cr. 3
Topics to be announced in Schedule of Classes. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5715 Modernism: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Cr. 3
Origins of Modernism in the mid-nineteenth century; avant-garde art in Europe and the U.S. from 1850 to 1950; theories of Modernism in the visual arts. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5720 Twentieth Century Art Cr. 3
European and American paintings, sculpture, and new media surveyed from 1900 to present. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5735 Art 1900-1945 Cr. 3
European and American avant-garde art, Dada and Surrealism, the interwar period, and Abstract Expressionism. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5755 Gender and Race in Visual Culture Cr. 3
This course will interrogate the ways in which gendered and racialized bodies are epitomized in the myriad of form that comprise visual culture. Offered Fall.
AH 5780 Topics in Twentieth-Century Art Cr. 3
Topics to be announced in Schedule of Classes. Offered Yearly.
Prerequisites: AH 1110 and AH 1120
Repeatable for 12 Credits
AH 5855 Museum Practicum Cr. 3
Cooperative arrangement between the art history program and the Detroit Institute of Arts, in which the student applies art historical training to a current project or exhibition in the museum. Offered Every Other Year.
AH 5990 Directed Study Cr. 1-3
Supervised advanced reading and research in the history of art. Offered Fall, Winter.
Restriction(s): Enrollment limited to students in a Bachelor of Arts or Master of Arts degrees; enrollment is limited to students in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.
Repeatable for 6 Credits
AH 5997 Seminar Cr. 3
Readings, discussion, and research paper on special topics in art history; topics to be announced in Schedule of Classes. Graduate students undertake research paper in addition to other assignments. Offered Yearly.
Prerequisites: AH 1110 and AH 1120
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to students in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.
Repeatable for 9 Credits
AH 5998 Honors Thesis Cr. 3
Students write a substantial research paper on subject determined by the student in collaboration with his/her professor. Offered for undergraduate credit only. Offered Intermittently.
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Art History Honors; enrollment is limited to Undergraduate level students.
AH 7200 Seminar in Greek and Roman Art Cr. 3-6
Topics to be announced in Schedule of Classes . Offered Every Other Year.
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students; enrollment limited to students in a Master of Arts degree; enrollment is limited to students in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.
Repeatable for 9 Credits
AH 7500 Seminar in Renaissance Art Cr. 3-6
Topics to be announced in Schedule of Classes. Offered Intermittently.
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to students with a major in Art History; enrollment is limited to Graduate level students; enrollment limited to students in a Master of Arts degree.
Repeatable for 9 Credits
AH 7700 Seminar in Modern Art Cr. 3
Topics to be announced in Schedule of Classes . Offered Fall, Winter.
Restriction(s): Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students; enrollment limited to students in a Master of Arts degree; enrollment is limited to students in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.
Repeatable for 6 Credits
AH 7999 Master's Essay Direction Cr. 1-3
Offered Fall, Winter.
Restriction(s): Enrollment limited to students with a class of Candidate Masters; enrollment is limited to students with a major in Art History; enrollment is limited to Graduate level students; enrollment limited to students in a Master of Arts degree.
AH 8999 Master's Thesis Research and Direction Cr. 1-8
Offered Fall, Winter.
Restriction(s): Enrollment limited to students with a class of Candidate Masters; enrollment is limited to students with a major in Art History; enrollment is limited to Graduate level students; enrollment limited to students in a Master of Arts degree.
Repeatable for 8 Credits