Idea of Black Art

4 units · Graduate courses (200-299)

Seminar, three hours. What is Black about Black art and Black aesthetics? Study of how the intellectual histories of Black art and aesthetics, and their permutations across mediums and geographies, have developed and changed since the turn of the 20th century. By analyzing texts, art objects, and exhibitions that reflect the global scope of Black expressive culture in the past and present, examination of how and when Black art and Black aesthetics emerged as political ideals and modes of thought, as practices of making and writing, and as a methodological basis for interdisciplinary research over time. Interrogation of the potential that visual analysis holds for constructing nuanced understandings of Blackness and vision. Consideration of how Black art and Black aesthetics are understood within art history and Black study disciplines, how individual and collective understandings of these phrases changed over time and place, the future of Black art, and other questions. S/U or letter grading.