Ideas of Realism

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar explores shifting means and ends of naturalistic representation, with an emphasis on work produced in Europe and the United States between the Renaissance and the present. Rises, falls, detours, and re-imaginings of "realism" across the centuries have been regarded in surprisingly few and often conventional ways. Through case studies of specific works and discussion of primary and secondary texts, we will try to recover some of the strange energies of an impulse whose ambitions and strategies (in art, literature, theater, film, etc.) are too often taken for granted. Our class will make at least two visits to local collections. For more information about this and other courses in the Department of Art and Art History, please visit https://art.georgetown.edu This course is not available to audit.