Catalog

Academics > Catalog > 2008-2009 > Courses of Instruction > AVC

Art and Visual Culture

The department offers courses in studio practice and in the study of the intersecting categories of art, architecture, visual culture, and material culture, from the distant past to the present. This study also provides insights into the intellectual currents, religious doctrines and practices, and social institutions of the past, with attention to issues of class, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. A concentration in studio art involves the integration of traditional disciplines and methods with contemporary practices and the study of visual culture.

The major combines work in both studies in art and visual culture and studio art. Students intending to study abroad must discuss fulfillment of major requirements with their advisor and the department chair in advance. Students planning graduate study in architecture, landscape architecture, or design are advised to confer with the department chair early in their college careers in order to plan appropriate undergraduate programs.

More information on the Department of Art and Visual Culture is available on the Web site (www.bates.edu/AVC.xml).

Major Requirements for Studio Art

Prospective majors should meet with the art and visual culture faculty as first-year students. Majors emphasizing studio art must take a minimum of three courses in the history of art and visual culture distributed across a variety of cultures and time periods, including one course in recent art and visual culture. Studio majors are encouraged to enroll in at least one studio course each semester, and are required to take a minimum of five studio courses and one Short Term studio unit. The preponderance of studio major requirements should be completed prior to beginning a studio thesis. Where available, studio majors must complete at least two sequential courses in one medium (for example, Photography I and II) before their senior year. Studio majors are required to take either Art and Visual Culture 350 (Visual Meaning I) or Art and Visual Culture s34A (Building a Studio Practice). Visual Meaning must be taken before or during the senior thesis. Students are encouraged to take Building a Studio Practice before the senior thesis. Studio majors are required to take Art and Visual Culture 457A and 458A (Senior Thesis) consecutively in the fall and winter semesters of their senior year, for a mimimum total of eleven courses. Studio majors intending to study abroad must consult with the department well in advance. In most cases, the department advises students who wish to study abroad to do so for only one semester. Students may apply one studio course and one course in the history of art and visual culture taken abroad toward the major requirements. Studio courses taken abroad in fulfillment of major requirements should correspond to the studio curriculum offered at Bates. (Students may take some courses for a second time with permission of the instructor by enrolling in the B/II section of a course with the same number, for example, Art and Visual Culture 205B [Drawing and Sculpting the Figure II] or Art and Visual Culture 214B [Painting: Pictorial Structure II]).

The Third-Level Writing Requirement for the Classes of 2011 and 2012: Though in most disciplines, the senior thesis fulfills the third-level [W3] writing requirement for General Education, the senior thesis for the studio track in art and visual culture does not fulfill this requirement. Majors in the studio track fulfill their [W3] requirement by completing a [W2] course in any department or program during their senior year, including one of the three art history and criticism courses required for the studio major. Most studio majors who double major fulfill the [W3] requirement by completing the senior thesis in the second major.

Major Requirements for the History and Criticism of Art and Visual Culture

Majors emphasizing the history and criticism of art and visual culture must take one studio course (any studio course or Short Term unit in studio is acceptable; students are advised to take their studio course before their senior year); Art and Visual Culture 374 (history and criticism majors are advised to take 374 by the end of junior year if possible); and eight additional courses in history and criticism of art and visual culture for a total of at least ten courses. The courses must be distributed across a variety of both cultures and time periods. Adequate distribution is determined in conjunction with the student's departmental advisor, who must approve the student's course of study. The department advises students who wish to study abroad to do so for only one semester. Generally only two courses taken abroad can be applied toward fulfilling the requirements for the major. Some designated Short Term units in the history and criticism of art and visual culture may be counted among these ten courses with the permission of the department. In addition, students are required to write a senior thesis (457B or 458B). Topics for theses are subject to departmental approval. The opportunity to undertake an honors thesis is completely at the discretion of the departmental faculty. Students who wish to continue in the history and criticism of art and/or visual culture studies at the graduate level should obtain a reading knowledge of French and German, and are strongly advised to enroll in upper-level seminars such as 375, 376, 377, 380, or 390. Upon petition to the department, First-Year Seminar 135, 177, and 266 and courses taught in other departments and programs may be counted toward the major in art and visual culture.

Pass/Fail Grading Option

Pass/fail grading may be elected for courses applied toward the major except for Art and Visual Culture 360, 361, 374, 457, and 458.

General Education Information for the Classes of 2009 and 2010

Any one art and visual culture Short Term unit may serve as an option for the fifth humanities course. First-Year Seminar 135, 177, and 266 may count toward the humanities requirement. Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or A-Level credit awarded by the department may not be used toward fulfillment of any General Education requirements.

Courses

AVC 202A. Painting: Color and Design I.

An examination of color theory and its application to the art of painting. Prerequisite(s): any drawing course including Art and Visual Culture 205A, 212A, 213A, 312A, or 366A. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 202 or Art and Visual Culture 202. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 10. Normally offered every year. P. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 202B. Painting: Color and Design II.

Continued exploration and practice of the color theory and design introduced in Art and Visual Culture 202A. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 202A. Open to first-year students. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. P. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 203. Ceramic Design and Techniques.

Designing and sculpting of objects in clay, using such traditional techniques as slab construction, casting, and throwing on the potter's wheel. Students work with clay, plaster, paper, and found objects to solve problems in figurative and abstract design. Drawing is part of some assignments. The course serves as an introduction to ceramics, and is a prerequisite for Studio Pottery (Art and Visual Culture 217). Not open to students who have received credit for Art 203. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15 per section. Normally offered every year. P. Heroux.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Visible Ideas: 2D and 3D Design (C029)

AVC 205A. Drawing and Sculpting the Figure I.

A study of the figure through the understanding of anatomy and the use of a model. Reliefs, fully dimensional heads, and other figurative works of sculpture in clay are based on preliminary drawings. The special problems of firing ceramic sculpture are covered. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 205 or Art and Visual Culture 205. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every year. P. Heroux.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 205B. Drawing and Sculpting the Figure II.

Continued study of the problems of sculpting and drawing the figure based on an understanding of anatomy. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 205A. Open to first-year students. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. P. Heroux.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 212A. Drawing: From Still-Life to the Model I.

This course is a study of drawing through process and analysis. Emphasis is placed on drawing from observation and the subject matter that is addressed progresses from still-life to the model. Strongly recommended for beginning students with no studio background, yet the subjects and ideas studied offer enough complexity for more advanced students. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 212 or Art and Visual Culture 212. Enrollment limited to 18. Normally offered every year. R. Feintuch, P. Johnson, J. Nicoletti, P. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 212B. Drawing: Still-Life to the Model II.

Continued study of drawing through process and analysis. Emphasis is placed on drawing from observation, and the subject matter that is addressed progresses from still-life to the model. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 212A. Open to first-year students. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. R. Feintuch, P. Johnson, J. Nicoletti, P. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 213A. Drawing: From Realism to Abstraction I.

This course is a study of drawing through process and analysis. Emphasis is placed on drawing from observation, with a gradual progression to abstraction. Strongly recommended for beginning students with no studio background, yet subjects and ideas studied offer enough complexity for more advanced students. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 18. Normally offered every year. P. Johnson.

AVC 213B. Drawing: From Realism to Abstraction II.

Continued study of drawing through process and analysis. Emphasis is placed on drawing from observation, with a gradual progression to abstraction. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 213A. Open to first-year students. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. P. Johnson.

AVC 214A. Painting: Pictorial Structure I.

Problems in representation and pictorial structure. The student learns about painting by concentrated study of the works of painters from the past and present and by painting from nature. Prerequisite(s): any drawing course including Art and Visual Culture 205A, 212A, 213A, 312A, or 366A. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 214 or Art and Visual Culture 214. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 8. Normally offered every year. J. Nicoletti, P. Jones.

AVC 214B. Painting: Pictorial Structure II.

Continued study of the problems of representation and pictorial structure introduced in Art and Visual Culture 214A. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 214A. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. J. Nicoletti, P. Jones.

AVC 215A. Painting: Nature and Abstraction I.

This course is a study of abstract painting methods, which develop from perceptual observation. Working from subjects found in nature, students learn how to manipulate explicit appearance in order to express implicit potential. Prerequisiste(s): any drawing course including Art and Visual Culture 205A, 212A, 213A, 312A, or 366A. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 12. Normally offered every other year. P. Johnson.

AVC 215B. Painting: Nature and Abstraction II.

Continued study of abstract painting methods. Prerequisiste(s): Art and Visual Culture 215A. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every other year. P. Johnson.

AVC 217. Studio Pottery.

An introduction to the ceramic process covering the nature of clay, application of glazes, firing procedures, wheel- and hand-formed work, design, and aspects of the history of pottery. There is a laboratory fee. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 203 or s21. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 217. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 12. Normally offered every year. P. Heroux.

AVC 218. Photography I: The Analog Image.

A study of photographic imagemaking. This introductory course covers concepts and techniques of black-and-white photography. Working with film-based cameras and darkroom techniques, the course offers improvement in perceptual awareness and a study of the medium's expressive possibilities. There is a laboratory fee. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 218. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 12 per section. Normally offered every year. E. Morris.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 219. Photography I: The Digital Image.

A study of photographic imagemaking using digital technology. This introductory course covers concepts and techniques of photography and the use of basic image-editing software (e.g., Adobe Photoshop). The course offers improvement in perceptual awareness and the study of expressive possibilities, especially as they pertain to digital manipulation. There is a laboratory fee. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 219. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 12. Normally offered every other year. E. Morris.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/CM 232. Pyramid and Ziggurat.

A survey of the art and architecture of the ancient worlds of Egypt and the Near East, with attention given to topics including women in ancient Egypt, the Kingdom of Kush, and current developments in archeology. Not open to students who have received credit for Art and Visual Culture/Classical and Medieval Studies s23. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/CM 232 or AV/CM s23. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. Offered with varying frequency. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The City in History: Urbanism and Constructed Spaces (C057)

AV/AS 234. Chinese Visual Culture.

This course introduces Chinese visual cultures, from the Neolithic period to the present day, focusing on a period of particular cultural significance from the Han to Qing Dynasty. The course reveals interrelationships among Chinese art, literature, religious philosophy, and politics. Topics discussed include artists' places within specific social groups, theories of arts, questions of patronage, and the relation of traditional indigenous art forms to the evolving social and cultural orders from which they draw life. Principal objects include ritual objects, bronze vessels, ceramics, porcelain, lacquer ware, sculptures, rock-cut temples, gardens, painting, calligraphy, and wood-block prints. Recommended background: Asian Studies/History 171, Asian Studies/Religious Studies 208, and Chinese 261. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/CM 241. The Art of Islam.

Art of the Islamic world from its roots in the ancient Near East to the flowering of Safavid Persia and Mughal India in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Developments are traced through architecture, painting, ceramics, textiles, and metalwork. Consideration is given to the continuity of the Near Eastern artistic tradition and Islamic art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/CM 241. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. [W2] Normally offered every other year. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/AS 243. Buddhist Visual Worlds.

The course examines the history of Buddhist visual cultures. It provides a basic introduction to a broad spectrum of Buddhist art, beginning with the emergence of early Buddhist sculpture in India and ending with modern Buddhist visual works. It examines selected works of architecture, sculpture, and paintings in their religious, social, and cultural contexts. It also briefly surveys regional Buddhism and its arts. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/AS 243. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/RE 244. Visual Narratives in South and Southeast Asia.

This course examines the narrative art of South and Southeast Asian traditions and the important artistic tradition of narrative paintings, bas-reliefs, and stone carvings. The course focuses on Buddhist and Hindu legends, stories, and folklore. Philosophically, it deals from the visual perspective with religious and popular concepts of reincarnation, rebirth, cause and effect, meritorious accumulation, wisdom perfection, and the ultimate enlightenment. The course explores different contexts in which the works of art were produced. Topics include narrative theory, text-image relationships, Jataka stories (the Buddha's previous lives), a youthful Sudhana's long search for wisdom and enlightenment, and the Ramayana epic. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/RE 244. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 45. Normally offered every other year. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/AS 245. Architectural Monuments of Southeast Asia.

This course examines the arts of Southeast Asia by focusing on significant monuments of the countries in the region. It examines the architecture, sculpture, and relief carvings on the ancient monuments and their relations to religious, cultural, political, and social contexts. Sites covered include Borobudur, Angkor, Pagan, Sukkhothai, and My-Son. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/AS 245. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/AS 246. Visual Narratives: Storytelling in East Asian Art.

This course examines the important artistic tradition of narrative painting in China and Japan. Through study of visually narrative presentations of religious, historical, and popular stories, the course explores different contexts in which the works—tomb, wall, and scroll paintings—were produced. The course introduces various modes of visual analysis and art-historical contexts. Topics include narrative theory, text-image relationships, elite patronage, and gender representation. Recommended background: Asian Studies/History 171, 172, and Asian Studies/Japanese 125. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/AS 247. The Art of Zen Buddhism.

The art of Zen (Chan) as the unique and unbounded expression of the liberated mind has attracted Westerners since the mid-twentieth century. But what is Zen, its art, and its culture? This course considers the historical development of Zen art and its use in several genres within monastic and lay settings. It also examines the underlying Buddhist concepts of Zen art. The course aims to help students understand the basic teachings of Zen and their expression in architecture, gardens, sculpture, painting, poetry, and calligraphy. Recommended background: Art and Visual Culture/Asian Studies 243, Asian Studies/Religious Studies 208, 209, 250, or 309. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/AS 247. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Normally offered every other year. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 248. Rock-Cut Temples in Asia.

This course explores the art of early Buddhist rock-cut temples. These temples appeared in India during the third century B.C.E., then spread along the ancient trade routes from India to eastern Asia. The rock caves not only chart artistic development, expressed through breathtaking architecture, sculpture, reliefs, and mural paintings depicting legends and stories, they also reveal the religious practice along the trade route, as well as international and local cultures. Recommended background: Art and Visual Culture/Asian Studies 243. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 248. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every other year. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/CM 251. The Age of the Cathedrals.

An investigation of medieval architecture from the Early Christian era to the end of the Gothic period in Europe, including Russia and the Byzantine East. Emphasis is placed on the development of Christian architecture and the emergence of the Gothic cathedral in the context of European political and social history before 1500. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/CM 251. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 49. [W2] Normally offered every other year. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/CM 252. Art of the Middle Ages.

In Europe from the Early Christian era to the end of the Gothic age, from 300 to 1450 C.E., precious objects, manuscripts, wall paintings, and stained glass were produced in great quantities. The course traces the development of these and other media, including tapestry and sculpture. Emphasis is placed on the changing images of men and women in medieval art. The roles of liturgy, theology, and technological and social changes are stressed. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/CM 252. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. [W2] Normally offered every other year. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/CM 265. Florence to Bruges: The Early Renaissance in Europe.

This course investigates the art and architecture of Northern and Southern Europe between 1250 and 1450. Students analyze the impact of theology, liturgy, social change, urbanism, gender, and social class on visual culture. Artists considered include Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto, Fra Angelico, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Jan van Eyck, and Rogier van der Weyden. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/CM 265. Open to first-year students. [W2] Normally offered every other year. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 266. Michelangelo to Sofonisba: The High Renaissance and Mannerism.

This course concerns the art and architecture of Northern and Southern Europe between 1450 and 1600, with emphasis on art in the court and the city. Students study several methods of analysis as they investigate the impact of religion, technology, urbanism, gender, sexual orientation, social class, and national identity on the visual arts. Artists discussed include Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Bronzino, Giovanni Bologna, Titian, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Palladio, Dürer, Grünewald, Holbein, Brueghel, and Bosch. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 266 or Art and Visual Culture s18. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 271. Italian Baroque Art.

A survey of painting, sculpture, landscape and urban design, and architecture in Italy during the seventeenth century. Artists studied include Caravaggio, the Carracci, Guercino, Bernini, and Borromini. Recommended background: Art and Visual Culture 266. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 271. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every other year. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 272. Northern Baroque Art.

A survey of painting, landscape design, and architecture in France and the Low Countries during the seventeenth century. Artists and places studied include Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Poussin, Lorrain, Vaux-le-Vicomte, and Versailles. Recommended background: Art and Visual Culture 271. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Early Modern World (C066)

AVC 279. Abstract Expressionism.

The ideas, forms, and practices that are the basis of abstract expressionism evolved clearly from earlier movements in twentieth-century art such as Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism. It is also a movement essentially intertwined with the broader culture of its time, from politics to psychoanalysis. The course examines the emergence of abstract expressionism and its subsequent influence over the art of the 1950s and 1960s. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 279. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every other year. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 280. Rococo and Romanticism.

A study of European artistic culture from 1700 to 1850. Artists studied include Watteau, Boucher, Hogarth, David, Ingres, Goya, Gericault, Delacroix, Constable, Turner, and Friedrich. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Early Modern World (C066)

AVC 281. Realism and Impressionism.

An intensive investigation of British and French painting from 1850 to 1900. Artists and movements studied include the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Whistler, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Degas, and Renoir. The course concludes with a brief consideration of Post-Impressionism. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 281. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. Normally offered every other year. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Color: Sight and Perception (C036)

AVC 282. Modern European Art.

An intensive investigation of European art from 1880 to 1930, with special attention to Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, the emergence of abstraction, and Dada and Surrealism. Artists studied include Seurat, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, Munch, Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, and Mondrian. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. Normally offered every other year. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Modern Europe (C024)

AVC 283. Contemporary Art.

This course concerns contemporary art, with a focus on art of the United States created in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Topics include changing definitions of art; the relation of art production to the mechanisms for exhibition, criticism, and sale; the contentious interaction of form and content; and the increased attention of artists and critics to matters of class, race, gender, and sexual orientation. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30 per section. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AVC 285. Renaissance and Post-Renaissance Gardens and Landscape Architecture.

The course examines the development and transformation of a major art form, the landscape garden, from its beginnings in fifteenth-century Italy through its later manifestations in seventeenth-century France and eighteenth-century England. While the garden provides the visual and historical framework for the course, the pervasive theme is humanity's changing attitudes toward and interpretations of nature and the world. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 285. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 286. Romantic Landscape Painting.

The importance of landscape painting in the Romantic period is a clear reflection of complex cultural change. The course examines the forms and meanings of the varied approaches to landscape painting in England, Europe, and the United States between 1750 and 1850. Artists and groups considered may include Constable, Turner, Friedrich, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the Barbizon and Hudson River schools. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 286. Open to first-year students. [W2] Normally offered every other year. E. Harwood.

AV/WS 287. Women, Gender, Visual Culture.

This course concerns women as makers, objects, and viewers of visual culture, with emphasis on the later twentieth century, and the roles of visual culture in the construction of "woman" and other gendered identities. Topics include the use of the visual in artistic, political, and historical representations of gendered and transgendered subjects; the visualization of gender in relation to race, ethnicity, nationality, class, age, sex, and sexuality; and matters of censorship, circulation, and resources that affect the cultural production of people oppressed and/or marginalized by sex and/or gender. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/WS 287. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30 per section. [W2] Normally offered every other year. E. Rand.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Queer Studies (C009)

AVC 288. Visualizing Race.

This course considers visual constructions of race in art and popular culture, with a focus on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. General topics include the role of visual culture in creating and sustaining racial stereotypes, racism, and white-skin privilege; the effects upon cultural producers of their own perceived race in terms of both their opportunities and their products; and the relations of constructions of race to those of gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 288. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30 per section. [W2] Normally offered every other year. E. Rand.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 290. Modern Architecture.

An introduction to modern European and American architecture. This course examines practical, social, and aesthetic dimensions related to the development of modern architecture. Special consideration is given to styles and collective movements such as the Bauhaus, the International Style, the Chicago School, and postmodernism. Architects considered at length include Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe, and Robert Venturi. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. Offered with varying frequency. E. Harwood.

AA/AV 292. Introduction to African Art.

This course examines the royal and religious arts of sub-Saharan Africa. The arts commissioned by African kingdoms and royal individuals to define royal identity are explored, as well as the ways in which these arts have been interpreted by the populace. In addition, the course addresses the arts related to religion, many of which interface with arts in the royal context. This includes discussions of divination and religious belief systems, arts related to spirit possession, the role of art in communicating with another realm, and the ways that religious arts have been affected by missionaries, colonialism, and postcolonialism. Not open to students who have received credit for Art and Visual Culture 292. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AVC 293. African Photography: Representations of Africa.

The course examines photography in Africa through two distinct lenses: that of the nonindigenous outsider and that of the African insider. The first half of the course is devoted to photographic representations of Africa by European and American explorers, missionaries, colonial officials, and tourists from the nineteenth century to the present. In the second half of the course, the works of African photographers from the nineteenth century to the present are examined, as well as the interface/distance between these photographers and their nonindigenous counterparts. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AA/AV 294. Religious Arts of the African Diaspora.

This course examines the religious arts of the African diaspora. The arts related to the religious traditions of CandomblThis course examines the religious arts of the African diaspora. The arts related to the religious traditions of Candomblé, Lucumí (Santería), Rastafarianism, Vodun, and Kongo-derived religions are explored through a multidisciplinary lens. Contemporary visual culture is discussed in addition to arts created for the purpose of worship or memory, such as sculptural figures, altars, garments, and yard shows. In exploring these arts of the diaspora, the course considers and challenges constructions of race, ethnicity, and Africanicity from insiders' and outsiders' perspectives. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies/Art and Visual Culture s20. Not open to students who have received credit for AA/AV s20. Enrollment limited to 20. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AV/WS 295. The Decorated Body.

This course analyzes the arts associated with the body, using the body as subject and as lens for theoretical discussions in relation to non-Western and Western cultures. Cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary, with particular attention to the body as gendered and raced, the course addresses the ways that the body has been adorned and manipulated as an artistic medium through practices including painting, scarification, surgical manipulation, tattooing, piercing, branding, and hair adornment. Enrollment limited to 25. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AV/WS 296. Visualizing Identities.

This course examines definitions of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and culture in diverse visual materials. Students think critically about the ways that we articulate and interpret self and other. Students analyze specific examples of visual culture as a means of evaluating constructions, experiences, and interpretations of identities. Themes explored include feminisms; masculinities; transgender issues; and relationships among gender, sex, sexuality, race, ethnicity, globalism, and cultural identity. Students are required to lead a discussion of readings, participate in discussion, and conduct semester-long research for a final paper and presentation. Enrollment limited to 30. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AVC 312A. Drawing: The Figure I.

This course emphasizes drawing from the human figure, the development of conceptual drawing attitudes, and drawing as a medium of lyrical expression. Recommended background: previous drawing experience. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 312 or Art and Visual Culture 312. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every year. R. Feintuch, P. Johnson, J. Nicoletti, P. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The Human Body (C027)

AVC 312B. Drawing: The Figure II.

Continued study from the human figure. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 312A. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 312 or Art and Visual Culture 312. Open to first-year students. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. R. Feintuch, P. Johnson, J. Nicoletti, P. Jones.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The Human Body (C027)

AVC 314A. Advanced Painting I.

An opportunity to combine experience from other painting courses with post-1945 painting practices. Students are encouraged to develop individual responses to thematic material. Consideration is given to the interaction of image, process, and meaning. Prerequisite(s): any painting course including Art and Visual Culture 202A, 214A, or 215A. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 314 or Art and Visual Culture 314. Enrollment limited to 10. Normally offered every year. R. Feintuch, P. Johnson, J. Nicoletti.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 314B. Advanced Painting II.

Continued study of painting. Prerequisiste(s): Art and Visual Culture 314A. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. R. Feintuch, J. Nicoletti, P. Johnson.

AVC 316. Etching Workshop I.

Students develop images using intaglio printmaking processes including drypoint, etching, softground, aquatint, sugar-lift, photo-transfer, multiple plate, and color printing. Emphasis is placed on development of sustained independent projects and critical thinking. There is a laboratory fee. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 212 or 365A. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 316. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. P. Johnson, E. Jabar.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 317A. Etching Workshop II.

Continued study of intaglio printmaking processes. There is a laboratory fee. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 316. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 317A. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. P. Johnson, E. Jabar.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 317B. Etching Workshop III.

Further study of intaglio printmaking processes. There is a laboratory fee. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 317A. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 317B. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. P. Johnson, E. Jabar.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The Collaborative Project (C012)

AVC 318. Photography II.

Continued study in film-based or digital photography, offering refinement in technical skills as introduced in Art and Visual Culture 218 or 219. The further development of perception and critical analysis of images is emphasized. There is a laboratory fee. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 218 or 219. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 318. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 11. Normally offered every year. E. Morris.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 319. Photography III.

This course offers advanced studies in the perception and generation of photographic images, using film-based or digital techniques. Emphasis is on photographic projects that are independently conceived and undertaken by the student. There is a laboratory fee. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 318. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 319. Enrollment limited to 4. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. E. Morris.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Evidence: Documentation and Reality (C017)

AVC 350A. Visual Meaning I: Process, Material, Format.

This course reflects changing concerns in the contemporary art world. Working in various media of their choice, students share a common investigation of the process of making meaning, and the impact material has on visual thinking/visual product. Students consider the potential of format, with emphasis on processes that balance critical thinking with creative generation. Prerequisite(s): one previous studio art course. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 350 or Art and Visual Culture 350. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. P. Johnson.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 350B. Visual Meaning II: Process, Material, Format.

Continued study of contemporary studio practice, as introduced in Visual Meaning I. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 350A. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. P. Johnson.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 360. Independent Study.

Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AVC 361. Museum Internship.

Students who have arranged to participate in a volunteer internship at the Bates College Museum of Art may receive one course credit by taking this course at the same time. Depending on the needs of the museum, internships may involve collections management, gallery lecturing, or research. The same arrangement is possible for students who obtain internships at the Portland Museum of Art or summer internships. Students may have internships throughout their college careers, but may receive credit for one semester only. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 361. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every semester. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 365. Special Topics.

A course or seminar offered from time to time and reserved for a special topic selected by the department. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 365.

AVC 366A. Drawing the Model/Sustained Study I.

For a variety of reasons the human body has been and continues to be of great importance in Western art, and sustained study from the model is often central to artists' training and practices. This seminar focuses exclusively on drawing from the model in three-hour sessions. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 365A or Art and Visual Culture 365A. Enrollment limited to 12. Offered with varying frequency. R. Feintuch, P. Heroux, P. Johnson, J. Nicoletti.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The Human Body (C027)

AVC 366B. Drawing the Model/Sustained Study II.

Continued study from the model. Prerequisiste(s): Art and Visual Culture 366A. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. R. Feintuch, P. Heroux, P. Johnson, J. Nicoletti.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The Human Body (C027)

AVC 374. Methods in the Study of Art and Visual Culture.

This course considers the history and methodology of art history and visual culture studies, with an emphasis on recent theoretical strategies for understanding visual culture. Topics discussed include stylistic, iconographic, psychoanalytic, feminist, historicist, queer, anti-racist, and postmodern approaches to the study of visual material. Prerequisite(s): two 200- or 300-level courses in the history of art and visual culture. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 374. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every year. E. Rand.

AVC 375. Issues of Sexuality and the Study of Visual Culture.

This course considers issues of sexuality as they affect the study of visual culture, with a focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other queer sexualities. Topics include the value and politics of identifying artists and other cultural producers by sexuality; the articulation of sexuality in relation to race, ethnicity, class, and gender; and the implications of work in sexuality studies for the study of art and other forms of visual culture in general. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 375. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. E. Rand.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Queer Studies (C009)

AV/CM 376. Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Art.

This seminar examines the visual culture of Europe and the Mediterranean basin in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In different years the seminar focuses on specific subjects, which may include manuscript illumination, regional architecture, Crusader art, and medieval urbanism.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/CM 376C. Siena: Art and Social Memory.

At the height of its power Siena, Italy, bankrolled much of Europe and from 1250 to 1450 produced images that influenced painting from England to the Islamic world. Studying the work of Sienese artists including Duccio, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti, this course investigates the ties between visual culture (including sculpture and architecture) and politics, economics, religion, urban structure, and social identity. Recommended background: at least one 200-level course in the history of art and visual culture or the equivalent, or a course in medieval or Renaissance history. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/CM 376C. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/CM 376D. Crusader Art and Architecture.

This seminar investigates the visual and material culture of the Crusader states found between 1099 and 1500 from Jerusalem to Syria, Constantinople, Greece, and the islands of the Aegean. Focusing on manuscript and icon painting, sculpture, and church and military architecture of the Frankish states, it also addresses the related production of Armenian Cilicia, the Byzantine Empire, Cyprus, Greece, the Balkan kingdoms, Europe, and the Islamic Near East and North Africa, concluding with a consideration of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century fascination with the Crusades and the recent flowering of scholarship on Crusader art. Recommended background: at least one 200-level course in the history of art and visual culture or in a related field such as history or religion. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/CM 376D. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] Offered with varying frequency. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 377. Seminar in Architectural History.

The seminar considers selected topics in the history of architecture, urbanism, and landscape design. Possible subjects include Versailles, the English landscape garden, the Periclean building program, Rome in the Baroque, the architecture and landscaping of world's fairs, and the domestic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Enrollment limited to 15.

AVC 377A. Picturesque Suburbia.

The seminar focuses on the interconnections among conceptions of nature and the city, emergent middle-class social practices, and developments in the design of single-family houses in the United States between 1830 and 1930. Particular attention is paid to A. J. Downing, the garden city movement, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Recommended background: a 200-level course in the history of art and visual culture. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 377A. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The City in History: Urbanism and Constructed Spaces (C057)

AVC 377B. The Chateau and Gardens of Versailles.

Beginning in the 1630s as a modest hunting lodge for Louis XIII, Versailles evolved over the next two centuries into a monumental palace and garden complex. This seminar considers the design and building history of the chateau and its gardens. Particular attention is devoted to their use both as the physical setting for the court, and as the staging area for and the embodiment of an idea of a magnificent, national monarchy and its attendant culture. Recommended background: two 200-level courses in the history of art and visual culture. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 377B. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AV/AS 380. Stupas: Forms and Meanings.

Stupas are the most pervasive and symbolic form of Buddhist architecture in Asia. Buddhist stupas serve as the symbols of illumination, and repositories for the relics of revered persons. They also serve as universal symbols, embodiments of metaphysical principles and multivalent meanings. This seminar not only examines different architectural forms of stupas, but also studies religious concepts and symbolic meanings expressed in stupas in Buddhist Asia. Recommended background: one of the following: Anthropology 244, Art and Visual Culture/Asian Studies 243, Asian Studies/Religious Studies 250, 251, 308, or 309. Not open to students who have received credit for AR/AS 380. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC 390. Seminar in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art.

The seminar offers the opportunity for an in-depth consideration of a significant artist, critic, movement, or aesthetic current in the nineteenth and/or twentieth century. Enrollment limited to 15.

AVC 390A. Claude Monet.

Monet's work is so often before our eyes today in exhibitions and reproductions, and so popular, that it is easy to lose sight of the complexities of both his career and his work. The seminar offers an overview of these, but focuses especially on recent efforts to contextualize and interpret them. Recommended background: two courses in the history of art and visual culture. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 390A. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Color: Sight and Perception (C036)

AVC 390B. Pre-Raphaelitism to Modernism.

Through the second half of the nineteenth century, the stated goals of progressive painting evolved away from a commitment to pursue an objective, visual realism and toward artists' recreation on their canvases of determinedly personal and subjective responses to the material world. This seminar traces that transformation through a focus, though not an exclusive one, on developments in the English art world. Topics and artists covered include Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Whistler, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Post-Impressionism, aestheticism, and symbolism. Prerequisite(s): one course in the history of art and visual culture. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 390B. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Beauty and Desire (C055)

AVC 457A. Senior Thesis: Studio.

Guidance in the preparation of a project in studio art accompanied by a short essay and culminating in an exhibition presented in conjunction with the Bates College Museum of Art. Students majoring in art and visual culture in the studio track take 457A in the fall and 458A in the winter and must take these courses consecutively in their senior year. Students undertaking a thesis in studio art meet weekly. Normally offered every year. P. Heroux, R. Feintuch.

AVC 457A — 458A. Senior Thesis.

AVC 457B. Senior Thesis: History and Criticism of Art and Visual Culture.

Preparation of an essay in the history or criticism of art and visual culture, conducted under the guidance of a member of the department faculty. Students may conduct a thesis in either fall or winter semester. Students conducting a senior thesis in history and criticism do not meet as a class. [W3] Normally offered every year. R. Corrie.

AVC 457B, 458B. Senior Thesis.

AVC 458A. Senior Thesis: Studio.

AVC 458B. Senior Thesis: History and Criticism of Art and Visual Culture.

Short Term Courses

AVC s10. A Cultural Walk into China.

This unit has two goals: 1) to offer an introduction to Chinese aesthetics through architecture and the fine arts; 2) to study Buddhist aesthetic ideas expressed in rock-cut temples, monasteries, and garden design. Students travel to historically important cities in China: Beijing, Datong, Luoyang, Xian, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou. Recommended background: Art and Visual Culture/Asian Studies 234 or 243, any course in Chinese language and literature, Asian Studies/Religious Studies 208 and 309. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 12. Offered with varying frequency. T. Nguyen.

AV/AS s16. Understanding Vietnam: Its History and Culture.

In this unit students consider a wide range of Vietnamese history and culture through a multidisciplinary lens. Students explore Vietnam within the framework and context of specific historical and visual culture, ranging from ancient monuments to contemporary sites. Students visit a variety of field sites including national museums, historical monuments, imperial palaces and tombs, and traditional craft villages, as well as important sites of battles during the Vietnam War. Students discuss background texts and field trip experiences in light of their historical and cultural contexts. Recommended background: Art and Visual Culture 245 or s29. Enrollment limited to 14. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Asian Art and Literature (C033)

AVC s17. Consuming Consumer Culture.

While cultural commentators, professional and otherwise, often describe U.S. consumer culture as a monolithic or homogenizing force, the complexity of consumption and variations among consumers are receiving increasing attention. This course considers consumers in consumer culture, with a focus on the United States. Questions may include: How does participation in consumer culture vary according to shared factors such as gender, race, sexuality, economic status, age, and location, or conversely, the individual idiosyncrasy? What is involved in consuming such contested products as pornography or video games? How does consumption vary across products? How, for instance, is buying art different from buying shoes? Not open to students who have received credit for Art s17. Enrollment limited to 25. Offered with varying frequency. E. Rand.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC s18. Leonardo and His Heirs: High Renaissance and Mannerism.

This unit investigates the transformation of art and architecture that began with Leonardo da Vinci and his contemporaries, and remade the visual culture of Italy and northern Europe in the urban and courtly settings of the sixteenth century. Using traditional and recent modes of analysis to address the effect of religion, gender, and social and political structures on visual culture, students research the works of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Bronzino, Titian, Anguissola, Palladio, and Holbein, among others. Attention is given to the changing reputations of the artists and their clients over the last five centuries. Not open to students who have received credit for Art 266 or Art and Visual Culture 266. Enrollment limited to 30. [W2] Offered with varying frequency. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AA/AV s20. Religious Arts of the African Diaspora.

This unit examines the religious arts of the African diaspora. The arts related to the religious traditions of Candomblé, Lucumí (Santería), Rastafarianism, Vodun, and Kongo-derived religions are explored through a multidisciplinary lens. Contemporary visual culture is discussed in addition to arts created for the purpose of worship or memory, such as sculptural figures, altars, garments, and yard shows. A short trip to New York City to visit sites of these arts is an integral part of the unit. In exploring these arts of the diaspora, the unit considers and challenges constructions of race, ethnicity, and Africanicity from insiders' and outsiders' perspectives. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies/Art and Visual Culture 294. Not open to students who have received credit for AA/AR s20 or AA/AV 294. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC s21. Soda Firing.

This unit focuses on using the potter's wheel as a tool to generate forms-functional and sculptural. Soda firing glazes the work in a unique way that enhances every surface. Various clays, slips, and glazes are employed in exploration of the techniques used by the pioneers of the soda-firing process, as well as its current practitioners. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s21. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 13. Normally offered every year. T. Gulden.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Visible Ideas: 2D and 3D Design (C029)

AVC s22. Pinhole Photography.

The method and appearance of pinhole images extend the possibilities of photography and "drawing with light." The very immediate and low-tech process of pinhole photography, using just a light-tight container with a tiny opening as a camera, offers a prolonged and intense engagement with surroundings and subjects. Due to the lensless camera, minuscule aperture, and long exposure time, pinhole images provide a different treatment of time and space, often appearing timeless and ethereal. In this unit students create pinhole cameras and images to explore this form of image making. There is a laboratory fee of $40. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 218. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s22. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. E. Morris.

AV/CM s23. Ancient Egypt: Abydos to Meroe.

This unit surveys the art and architecture of ancient Egypt, with attention given to topics including women in ancient Egypt, the Kingdom of Kush, and the ancient Near East. The history of archeology and current developments in Egyptian archeology are also considered. Some day trips are planned. Not open to students who have received credit for Art and Visual Culture/Classical and Medieval Studies 232. Not open to students who have received credit for AV/CM 232. Enrollment limited to 30. [W2] Offered with varying frequency. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The City in History: Urbanism and Constructed Spaces (C057)

AVC s24. What Are You Wearing?.

This unit considers clothing in terms of the production of goods, markets, and meanings. Topics may include the Nike boycott, outsourcing, and the Clean Clothes Campaign; the function of clothes in the construction of cultural, social, and personal identities; the regulation of clothes to enforce behavioral standards, such as gender normativity; selling, advertising, shopping, and acquisition, with attention to issues of class, race, gender, nationality, sex, and sexuality in the making of markets for particular products; and "ethnic" dress, queer fashion, and other clothes that may raise issues of appropriation, allegiance, and cultural theft. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s24. Enrollment limited to 25. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. E. Rand.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC s25. The Japanese Tea Bowl.

Tea and Zen Buddhism came to Japan from China in the twelfth century. The tea ceremony developed from these imports and many schools have been formed since then, but all have kept the ceramic tea bowl as one of the most important focal points. In this unit, students explore the history of the ceremony by making tea bowls and related utensils. Various clays, forming methods, and styles are explored. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s25. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. P. Heroux.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC s26. Museum Studies.

Analyzing how the history of museums and architecture has influenced paradigms of display and taxonomy, and how display and taxonomy have influenced museums and architecture, this unit views the past in an attempt to identify characteristics of new museum ideologies of the twenty-first century. Few institutional concepts have the fortitude and resilience to continually defend and renew themselves from external attack and self-referential lethargy. The museum "conquers" by slowly assimilating cultural challenges. In the past hundred years, the museum has met these challenges while increasing its relevance and historical importance despite architectural makeovers, financial scandal, censorship, cultural shifts, and the ever-changing demands of new media. As the work shifts from analog to digital, museums are presenting exhibitions of painting, sculpture, photography, and video to ever-increasing audiences. Field trips are planned. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s26. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. M. Bessire.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC s28. Desiring Italy.

For four centuries Italy and Italian art have drawn artists, writers, and scholars from America and transalpine Europe. This unit focuses on the literature, art, and art history that have emerged from this encounter, stressing the work of such writers as Stendhal, Hawthorne, James, Forster, Mann, and the Brownings, and artists including Mengs, West, Turner, and Hosmer. It investigates the manner in which the nature of that encounter shaped the practice of the history and criticism of art from Winkelmann and Ruskin to Berenson and van Marle, and even the political life and material survival of Italy itself, and concludes by considering the recent spate of films that seek to evoke this now nearly-lost expatriate world, including A Room With a View and Tea with Mussolini. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s28. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. [W2] Offered with varying frequency. R. Corrie.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Beauty and Desire (C055)

AVC s29. Modern Vietnamese Culture through Film.

Many people conceive of Vietnam through images of war rather than through its culture. This unit offers students an opportunity to study modern Vietnamese culture through documentary and feature films produced by westerners and Vietnamese during the last fifty years. The unit helps students to gain insight into a traditional culture that, in part, shaped the modern course of Vietnam's history. The unit challenges the old stereotypical views of Vietnam advanced by Hollywood movies with the new cultural images presented through Vietnamese eyes. Enrollment limited to 25. Offered with varying frequency. T. Nguyen.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

AVC s30. Arts of the African Diaspora.

This unit examines the arts of the African diaspora with particular focus on the Caribbean and the Americas from the eighteenth century to the present. Through commerce and the slave trade, African arts and culture traveled to these areas and were negotiated in unique ways by artists. In exploring the arts of the diaspora, the unit considers and challenges constructions of race, ethnicity, and Africanicity from insiders' and outsiders' perspectives. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s30. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AVC s31. Museum Internship.

Students who have arranged to participate in a nonpaid internship at the Bates College Museum of Art may receive one Short Term credit by taking this unit at the same time. Permission may be given for internships carried out at other institutions, including the Portland Museum of Art, upon petition to the Department of Art and Visual Culture in advance. Students may have internships throughout their college careers, but may receive credit for one Short Term unit only. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s31. Enrollment limited to 30. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. R. Corrie.

AVC s32. The Photograph as Document.

Documentary photographs generally describe human social situations that aim to be objective transcriptions of events into images. This unit examines changes in style and methodology from classical documentary approaches of the 1930s and 1940s to contemporary modes of documentary photography. Using either traditional darkroom or digital imaging techniques, students produce projects that address the photograph's function as a document. Concepts of documentary photographs as witness and testimony are analyzed as is the issue of how these notions are challenged and manipulated by many contemporary artists. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 218 or 219. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s32. Enrollment limited to 15. Offered with varying frequency. E. Morris.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Evidence: Documentation and Reality (C017)

AVC s33. The Fine Arts in England, 1550–1900.

The unit examines the bountiful English art world from the rise of the Elizabethan "prodigy houses" through the Arts and Crafts Movement. Particular attention is devoted to the architectural history of London after 1666; the country house: its architecture, art collections, and landscape gardens; the Gothic Revival; and the flowering of Romantic landscape painting. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s33. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. E. Harwood.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

The City in History: Urbanism and Constructed Spaces (C057)

AVC s34A. Building a Studio Practice I.

Choosing media they would like to investigate closely, students focus on methods and ideas in order to develop their work. Students are encouraged to investigate the possibilities that arise when they choose limitations on subjects, materials, processes, and form and make a group of closely related works. This unit offers an opportunity to try to maintain a regular, independent, and self-sustaining studio practice for five weeks. Access to some technical facilities may be limited. Prerequisite(s): one studio art course in any medium. Not open to students who have received credit for Art s34 or Art and Visual Culture s34. Enrollment limited to 14. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. R. Feintuch.

AVC s34B. Building a Studio Practice II.

Continued study of intensive studio practice. Prerequisite(s): one course in any medium and s34A. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. R. Feintuch.

AVC s35. Materials and Techniques of Drawing and Painting.

Guided individual research into various drawing media including etching, as well as consideration of the problems of landscape painting, figure drawing, and similar genres. Each Short Term focuses on one of the above categories. The Short Term registration material includes a description of the particular focus for the Short Term unit at hand, including specific prerequisites. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. J. Nicoletti.

AVC s37. Landscape Painting and Drawing in Italy.

The unit consists of field trips in and around the provinces of Tuscany and Umbria, and takes full advantage of the unique landscape and cultural opportunities of the region. Studio work alternates with regular visits to regional cities such as Florence, Siena, Perugia, and Assisi to study painting, sculpture, and architecture. Prerequisite(s): two studio courses. Recommended background: Art and Visual Culture 212, 213 or 214, 265, 266. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission is required. Offered with varying frequency. J. Nicoletti.

AVC s38. Eurotopia: Pottery and Practice.

This unit focuses on the rich history of European ceramics, using history as a springboard for the production of personal work that is technically proficient, historically referential, and conceptually robust. The unit consists of demonstrations, supervised studio work, critiques, discussions, and slide lectures. It is designed to cover a wide range of processes including coil building, slab building, and bisque and press molds. Enrollment limited to 13. Offered with varying frequency. Staff.

AVC s39. Drawing and Intention.

Guided individual and collaborative research into various drawing methods including systemic approaches, off-press printing processes, mechanical reproduction, drawing as ritual, and perceptual drawing. Consideration is given to the relationship between function, form, image, and idea. Students have an opportunity to respond to an expanding definition of drawing that could include text, movement, and sound. Course work culminates in a site-specific drawing installation. Prerequisite(s): Art and Visual Culture 212 and one additional course in either studio art, music composition, theater design, playwriting, directing, contemporary performance, theater production, dance composition, fiction writing, poetry writing, or documentary video. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 18. Offered with varying frequency. P. Johnson.
Concentrations

This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations

Improvisation and Experimentation (C023)

AVC s50. Independent Study.

Independent study during the Short Term in the Department of Art and Visual Culture is available only in the history and criticism track of the department. Independent study is not available in studio art during the Short Term. Acceptance of a proposal for independent study is entirely at the discretion of the faculty member. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.