Debates and Contestations in Art History

Description

This module explores the possibility of adopting an object-centred approach to Art History & Visual Culture. Spanning across a range of historical and geopolitical contexts, each week offers a close reading of an artwork, cultural artefact or everyday object. Rather than attempting to provide an overview of key moments in the discipline or create an alternative canon, the module will introduce you to a range of critical frameworks for engaging with object and the broader issues - or debates - they provoke, from the role of cultural heritage to questions of censorship. It will also invite you to consider how these ways of reading can be used in your written assignments. This module will introduce you to the benefits of adopting an object-centred approach to Art History & Visual Culture. Through a series of lectures, workshops and practical sessions, you will examine a series of cultural artefacts and their accompanying literature. As part of this process, both object and scholarship will be subject to critical analysis, resulting in a well-informed, independent position on the object in question. You will also consider the extent to which the meaning of works of art and visual culture is open to revision.