On Painting

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

On Painting: Idea, Object, Interpretation Description: This seminar wonders why and how arrangements of pigment on a surface have been woven so intimately—and often urgently—into human experience and thought since antiquity. Rather than concentrating on any single period or style, we will examine the very phenomenon of painting as an idea, a cultural force, a physical fact, and more. Our tendency to treat paintings as one strand of the much larger history of art allows us to regard them too easily as examples of one thing or another—a style, a theme, a cultural movement, and so on. By isolating painting (provisionally) from other media, we are able to ponder some of its distinctive dimensions as an activity and a thought process for makers and observers. A wide scope of readings will introduce critical angles that can animate our thoughts about interpretation and criticism both within and beyond the history of art. The aim is to pursue questions about the very nature of painting—if, in fact, there is such a thing. We will also consider the place and prospects of painting in our own time. Can it still have a serious future? Structure: Each week introduces a single broad angle of approach, which we will pursue with close analysis of individual paintings and a variety of readings. Since our questions are not limited by geography or historical period, students will be able to develop term-paper research topics within any number of areas that allow concentration on specific means and ends of painting. Though we will dwell mainly on European and American work since c. 1300, students may develop topics in other periods and traditions. Several of our meetings will be in Washington museums.