Writing About Art

3 units

This colloquium will engage the possibilities and pitfalls involved in writing about art, including the difficulty of translating visual responses into verbal or written media and distinguishing between history, theory and criticism. Readings will investigate a broad range of methodologies employed by art historians, including connoisseurship;iconology, semiotics; patronage studies; and gender, class and race politics. Students will compose a sequence of short papers that will be closely scrutinized in an effort to improve writing skills. The assignments will cover different genres of art writing, such as the visual analysis, the museum label, the catologue entry, and the comparative essay, all bearing in mind the respective appropriate audience(s). PREREQUISITES: OPEN TO JUNIOR AND SENIOR UNDERGRADUATES ONLY, OR BY PERMISSION OF INSTRUCTOR.