24 courses with the subject ARTH, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ARTH 153Introduction to Art History1.00
This course introduces students to the working methods of Art History. Students learn to analyze works of art visually, to understand the relationships between works of art and their cultural contexts, to consider the practices and politics of museum display, and to think critically about the role of art in their own lives and in society. Offered each semester. OLE Core Requirement: Global Histories and Societies.
This course examines architectural monuments and their symbolic forms combined with evidence of earthly and divine concepts. From cave dwellings to geodesic domes, from Eastern to Western systems, students review sacred and profane structures from a variety of cultures. Each student investigates a living reality of space, function, and form found in human-built environments. Offered annually. OLE Core Requirement: Global Histories and Societies.
This course is an introduction to modern and postmodern art and thought after World War II through a survey of painting, sculpture, and new-media arts. Students learn about celebrated art and artists, major values such as issues of identity informing their work, and ways of analyzing and making sense of newer art. Offered annually. Prerequisite: none, but at least one college art history or studio art course is recommended. OLE Core Requirement: Global Histories and Societies.
This course explores painting, sculpture, architecture, and urban development in Italy from c. 1300 to c. 1600. The course focuses on the major urban centers of the period: Florence, Rome, and Venice. Students address the ways in which art functioned in its original Renaissance context and explore issues of artistic identity and the importance of patronage in the period. Offered periodically. St. Olaf Catalog 2025-2026 51
What kinds of stories do historians, writers, and artists tell about the cities in which they live? How are these stories reflected in the architecture and urban fabric of the cities themselves? And how do the geography and environment of Italy shape both the lore about a city and its actual built environment? To answer these questions, students explore the representations of Italian cities in literature and visual arts and the documented and architectural realities of urban development. The majority of the course focuses on a study of the city of Florence; students make shorter visits to other Italian cities and study the facts and fictions about each city's urban history. Prerequisite: At least one Art or Art History course at St Olaf College. OLE Core Requirement: Creativity; OLE Experience in Practice.
Since its invention, photography has shaped our ways of seeing, our social history, and our identities. Photography is also a compelling form of artistic expression. This course is an introduction to the history of photography from its origins to the present, including the role of photography in society and in the fine arts. Students learn the skills of formal visual analysis and critical thinking about the power of the photographic image in our lives. Offered periodically. OLE Core Requirement: Power and Race.
This course examines visual art created in Europe between 1300 and 1650, a time when Europe's colonial and economic power in the world was growing. The course considers how Europeans visualized the people and geographies of their world, how religious belief and conflict shaped visual traditions, and how works of art reflect conceptions of sex and gender. Offered alternate years in fall semester. OLE Core Requirement: Global Histories and Societies.
This course is intended as an introduction to the history of Chinese art, offering a survey of major artistic developments from neolithic times to the present. Among the topics considered: ritual bronzes, funerary remains of the Qin and Han, Buddhist sculpture, and the evolution of landscape painting. Important issues discussed include production and patronage, function, and borrowing and influence in the evolution of artistic works across time and space. Offered annually. OLE Core Requirement: Global Histories and Societies; Religion, Faith and Values.
This course introduces the history of Japanese art, offering a survey of major artistic developments from neolithic times to the present. Among the topics considered: funerary remains of the neolithic through Kofun eras; Indigenous as well as imported religious traditions and their imagery, and the secular arts. Issues discussed include production and patronage, function, and borrowing and influence in the evolution of artistic works. Offered annually. OLE Core Requirement: Global Histories and Societies.
ARTH 261O'Keeffe and Arts of New Mexico (study away)
One of America's most revered artists, Georgia O'Keeffe loved New Mexico, writing: "It's so beautiful there. It's ridiculous." This course follows O'Keeffe's path through Santa Fe, Taos, and Ghost Ranch, engaging with her life and work within the Modernist movement and arts of the region. Emphasizing New Mexico's rich Indigenous and Hispanic arts and culture and its unique natural environment, the course uses feminist, decolonial, and critical landscape theories to analyze O'Keeffe and her legacy. Offered alternate years during January term. There are no prerequisites, but ARTH 253 is recommended. OLE Core Requirement: Creativity; OLE Experience in Practice.
Were the Middle Ages white? This seminar is an introduction to the ways that conceptions of race and difference were active in the visual culture of the later Middle Ages (ca. 1000-1500) in Europe, a period that is often mistakenly racialized as white in popular culture. The course also examines how European colonialism shapes our ideas about medieval art and how medieval art has been used to support racist and white supremacist ideologies. Offered alternate years. OLE Core Requirement: Global Histories and Societies; Writing Across the Curriculum.
This course is a survey of African American art, from folk and decorative arts of the 19th century, to Modernist painting and sculpture in the 20th, to the multi-media productions of today. Issues of race and identity are explored through examinations of the visual productions of African American artists. The course is discussion-based. Working in groups, students learn to closely examine artworks and related texts. Individual research and writing projects deepen students' engagement with the material. Offered periodically. OLE Core Requirement: Power and Race.
In this course, students explore the early medieval period, a time of dynamic transformation. Migrating and conquering cultures brought new approaches to art and architecture that forever changed the visual landscape of the early medieval world. Students examine the art of the Christian empires of the Mediterranean, the monastic traditions of Egypt and Nubia, Germanic cultures (the barbarians), the Islamic caliphate in Spain, and the Carolingians and Ottonians in northern Europe. OLE Core Requirement: Religion, Faith and Values; Global Histories and Societies.
Students will encounter and interpret a variety of religious sites in Asia past and present. By considering the sacred from a variety of theoretical perspectives, students come to understand how the sacred reflects religious and cultural beliefs and can serve as a marker of identity. Offered periodically during the fall semester. OLE Core Requirement: Religion, Faith and Values.
This seminar-style course focuses on a specific art-historical topic, and students learn how to pursue art-historical practice beyond the introductory level. Topics change with each offering. Offered periodically.
This seminar-style course focuses on a specific art-historical topic, and students learn how to pursue art-historical practice beyond the introductory level. Topics change with each offering. Offered periodically. OLE Core Requirement: Global Histories and Societies.
ARTH 280Art Now: Critical Issues in Contemporary Art
This course explores in depth the issues most crucial to artists working today in an increasingly globalized art scene. Students investigate the complexities of new media, new methods of production and exhibition, and theoretical models through readings and a required field trip to a contemporary art museum. Students analyze both journalistic criticism and theoretical texts, encompassing a wide variety of perspectives, and respond through short writing assignments and classroom discussion. Fee for field trip may be required. Offered periodically.
What is a museum? Is it an impartial space to display and store valued objects that objectively reflect culture, or is it a more complicated organization that evolves and responds to the emerging needs and challenges of individuals and communities? In this course, students explore these questions, consider how museums can be understood as systems of power, and become acquainted with the various roles people play within them. Specific topic varies by instructor. May be repeated if topics differ. Offered alternate years.
Prerequisites: (for studio art) four foundation courses and two upper-division courses in area of study. (for art history) two upper-division courses in area of study.
This seminar explores methods by which art historians and curators analyze works of art. Students develop an advanced understanding of these methods by application of various methods to works of art, by examining historical factors surrounding principle movements in the study of art history and by engaging in lively class debates about them. Readings, discussions, and presentations culminate in an independent research project that allows each student to find their own place in the discipline. Offered annually. Prerequisite: art history major or permission of the instructor.
This course provides a comprehensive research opportunity, including an introduction to relevant background material, technical instruction, identification of a meaningful project, and data collection. The topic is determined by the faculty member in charge of the course and may relate to his/her research interests. Offered based on department decision. May be offered as a 1.00 credit course or .50 credit course. Prerequisite: determined by individual instructor.
