Visual intelligence is crucial in navigating the world of images that convey coded messages, and the history of ideas fundamental to all disciplines. How do we read such images? This course decodes paintings, sculptures, prints, architecture, photography and digital images, providing, tools to analyse artists from Leonardo to Warhol: experts at moving the eye around the artwork for meanings to emerge.
A broad survey of visual art spanning from the early modern period to the contemporary. Students will be introduced to a range of art practices situated within a global context and will consider art works produced in Māori and Pacific cultures alongside Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern, European and American traditions.
Topics in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century painting, sculpture and architecture in Europe, particularly France and Britain. The impact of social and industrial revolution is examined, and developments in portraiture, landscape and history painting are explored. The major artists include Constable, Turner, Goya, Reynolds, Gainsborough, David, Ingres, Gericault and Delacroix.
Examines some central concerns that have arisen in late modernist art, exploring the moves, intensifications and political implications of art in the post-1968 period: dematerialisation of the art object, site-specificity, the artist in a commodity culture, activism, questions of identity, notions of looking and spectatorship, interactivity, new media, contemporary censorship and debates about the place of the aesthetic.
A study of the central role played by architecture and design within twentieth-century Modernism. Dealing with function, materials, decoration and Modernist theory, the course spans the period from Art Nouveau in the 1890s to World War II. The main focus will be on Europe and the United States, with some references to New Zealand.
Focuses on work by contemporary Pacific artists, exploring the ways that they translate indigenous knowledge and urban experiences into gallery forms such as painting, installation, performance, film and video making. Themes such as migration and diaspora, language and memory, notions of homelands and return, and the creation of complex cultural identities will be explored.
The use of art to display, enhance, and justify political power and piety and to promote political and religious ideologies in the major power centres of seventeenth- century Europe in the Baroque period. Refers to the work of artists such as Caravaggio, Bernini, Velasquez, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Le Brun, Jones and Wren.
An examination of the society and culture of Europe between 1400 and 1700 as expressed in print and visual images. Topics include court and merchant culture, popular cultures, religious faith and the Reformation, festivals, literacy and the book, family and marriage, food, sexualities, witchcraft, death and disease.
Explores the growing trend of art crime through a focus on five primary areas: theft, fraud, smuggling, forgery, and vandalism. These will be examined within the context of international and New Zealand case studies, including the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911, Nazi looting in World War II, and Education 695 and thefts during the Iraq War in 2003. Ways to curb such crime, particularly the development of art crime squads, will also be discussed.
The rise of Modernism saw the development of art which is reflexive, which draws attention to itself and the illusion of representation, making us reflect about what art is and how it affects the viewer. This course is designed to enable students to develop their own reflexivity and critical awareness through a study of the 'classic' movements of the twentieth century, such as Cubism, Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Op, Pop and Conceptual Art.
Explores the intersection of gender and ethnicity with the visual arts. Emphasis will be on art forms and traditions in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Australia, with some reference to the Pacific, including photography, film, jewellery, tattoo and textiles.
Focuses on contemporary art in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1970s to the present, beginning with the later modernist period, exploring the innovations and contributions of Māori and Pākehā artists, and charting its influences and evolution into post-object, and contemporary practices. The development of Pacific art as well as practices that engage with feminism and gender are also a focus.
A journey into the motivations and inspirations behind the production of art in Renaissance Italy, this course examines the social, economic, religious and political relationships between patrons, artists and artworks c.1400-c.1520 in a variety of civic, religious, familial, artistic and spatial contexts. It ranges from Florence to Milan, the Medicis to the Sforzas, Duccio to Donatello, Leonardo to Michelangelo.
Considers Māori visual art from arrival from the Pacific to the present day. Examines how artists critically negotiated current notions of identity in their work. Forms including moko, carving, weaving, architecture, film and contemporary art are explored through key ideas such as gender politics, patronage, and repatriation. Artists examined include Raharuhi Rukupo, Te Kooti, Pine Taiapa, Lisa Reihana and Ralph Hotere.
Examines the role of art, architecture and material goods in communicating magnificence and legitimising political power in Tudor and Stuart England. Coverage includes Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Anne of Denmark and Charles I and artists and architects such as Hans Holbein, Marcus Gheeraerts, Anthony van Dyck and Inigo Jones.
Overview of photography’s global history, beginning with proto-photographic forms and ending with a consideration of digital technology and social media. Art photography is examined alongside journalistic, scientific and ethnographic paradigms of photographic practice. Conceptual issues such as socio-cultural power relationships and diverse representations of time lie at the heart of this course.
Construction of Identity Considers the camera’s involvement in the construction of identity in global photography and in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1960s to the present. Explores photography’s role in representing selfhood at a time when human identities and experiences are increasingly produced and manipulated through the camera’s lens, and distributed via the Internet.
Provides an interdisciplinary study of topics in and tensions between art, fashion, clothing and textiles within a global context. Covering the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, it examines how these realms have intertwined, shaping cultural narratives, social politics and identities. Case studies encounter such themes as representation and identity, conflict and exchange, making and materiality, and consumption and consumerism.
A study of the central role played by architecture and design within twentieth-century Modernism. Dealing with function, materials, decoration and Modernist theory, the and Education 696 course spans the period from Art Nouveau in the 1890s to World War II. The main focus will be on Europe and the United States, with some references to New Zealand.
Focuses on work by contemporary Pacific artists, exploring the ways that they translate indigenous knowledge and urban experiences into gallery forms such as painting, installation, performance, film and video making. Themes such as migration and diaspora, language and memory, notions of homelands and return, and the creation of complex cultural identities will be explored.
Topics in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century painting, sculpture and architecture in Europe, particularly France and Britain. The impact of social and industrial revolution is examined, and developments in portraiture, landscape and history painting are explored. The major artists include Constable, Turner, Goya, Reynolds, Gainsborough, David, Ingres, Gericault and Delacroix.
The use of art to display, enhance, and justify political power and piety and to promote political and religious ideologies in the major power centres of seventeenth- century Europe in the Baroque period. Refers to the work of artists such as Caravaggio, Bernini, Velasquez, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Le Brun, Jones and Wren.
An examination of the society and culture of Europe between 1400 and 1700 as expressed in print and visual images. Topics include court and merchant culture, popular cultures, religious faith and the Reformation, festivals, literacy and the book, family and marriage, food, sexualities, witchcraft, death and disease.
The rise of Modernism saw the development of art which is reflexive, which draws attention to itself and the illusion of representation, making us reflect about what art is and how it affects the viewer. This course is designed to enable students to develop their own reflexivity and critical awareness through a study of the 'classic' movements of the twentieth century, such as Cubism, Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Op, Pop and Conceptual Art.
Explores the growing trend of art crime through a focus on five primary areas: theft, fraud, smuggling, forgery, and vandalism. These will be examined within the context of international and New Zealand case studies, including the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911, Nazi looting in World War II, and thefts during the Iraq War in 2003. Ways to curb such crime, particularly the development of art crime squads, will also be discussed.
Explores the intersection of gender and ethnicity with the visual arts. Emphasis will be on art forms and traditions in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Australia, with some reference to the Pacific, including photography, film, jewellery, tattoo and textiles.
Examines some central concerns that have arisen in late modernist art, exploring the moves, intensifications and political implications of art in the post-1968 period: dematerialisation of the art object, site-specificity, the artist in a commodity culture, activism, questions of identity, notions of looking and spectatorship, interactivity, new media, contemporary censorship and debates about the place of the aesthetic.
Focuses on contemporary art in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1970s to the present, beginning with the later modernist period, exploring the innovations and contributions of Māori and Pākehā artists, and charting its influences and evolution into post-object, and contemporary practices. The development of Pacific art as well as practices that engage with feminism and gender are also a focus.
A journey into the motivations and inspirations behind the production of art in Renaissance Italy, this course examines the social, economic, religious and political relationships between patrons, artists and artworks c.1400-c.1520 in a variety of civic, religious, familial, artistic and spatial and Education 697 contexts. It ranges from Florence to Milan, the Medicis to the Sforzas, Duccio to Donatello, Leonardo to Michelangelo.
Considers Māori visual art from arrival from the Pacific to the present day. Examines how artists critically negotiated current notions of identity in their work. Forms including moko, carving, weaving, architecture, film and contemporary art are explored through key ideas such as gender politics, patronage, and repatriation. Artists examined include Raharuhi Rukupo, Te Kooti, Pine Taiapa, Lisa Reihana and Ralph Hotere.
Examines the role of art, architecture and material goods in communicating magnificence and legitimising political power in Tudor and Stuart England. Coverage includes Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Anne of Denmark and Charles I and artists and architects such as Hans Holbein, Marcus Gheeraerts, Anthony van Dyck and Inigo Jones.
Overview of photography’s global history, beginning with proto-photographic forms and ending with a consideration of digital technology and social media. Art photography is examined alongside journalistic, scientific and ethnographic paradigms of photographic practice. Conceptual issues such as socio-cultural power relationships and diverse representations of time lie at the heart of this course.
Construction of Identity Considers the camera’s involvement in the construction of identity in global photography and in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1960s to the present. Explores photography’s role in representing selfhood at a time when human identities and experiences are increasingly produced and manipulated through the camera’s lens, and distributed via the Internet.
Provides an interdisciplinary study of topics in and tensions between art, fashion, clothing and textiles within a global context. Covering the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, it examines how these realms have intertwined, shaping cultural narratives, social politics and identities. Case studies encounter such themes as representation and identity, conflict and exchange, making and materiality, and consumption and consumerism.
Explores a range of increasingly prevalent artistic practice grounded in artistic collaboration and audience participation that are typically mediated though photographic documentation. Considering work by artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Tania Bruguera, and Sophie Calle, this course covers topics such as relational aesthetics, site-specificity and pedagogical interventions into public space.
Examines the production, patronage and display of art and its function within the political, religious and social frameworks of the early modern court and the city. It focuses on Amsterdam and The Hague in the Dutch Republic and London as the epicentre of the Stuart court. The full panoply of visual and material culture are discussed including painting, sculpture, tapestries, clothing, jewellery and interior decoration.
A broad range of critical approaches to the art and life of Rembrandt. The course is taught in seven modules: these comprise the socio-political milieu in which he worked, the historical documents of his life, the artworks he produced, the technical aspects of his work, the organisation of his studio and mechanics of the art market, the issue of authorship and the critical reception of his life and work.
Examines the cross-fertilisation of theory and praxis, philosophy and art, materialism and idealism in the arts. It will be taught in four thematic units – Body/Mind; Representation/Experience; Self/Other and Materialism/ Conceptualism – testing how visual theory bridges the gap between these dual terms. Students will learn to apply a number of important critical theories to their understanding and Education 698 of art, and importantly, to fine-tune those theories through visual experience.
Directed study on a topic or topics approved by the Academic Head.
Highlights the importance of studying original artworks in context. Contexts for artworks include the original setting, such as a palace, monastery, or town hall, to wider examinations of the socio-historical situations in which they were created. In addition, new museological contexts for artworks offer insight into the display and interpretation of visual culture.
Focuses on a range of Māori and Pacific art forms. Themes dealt with include indigenous and migrant voices, memory and notions of belonging, popular culture and its interface with gallery practices, and stereotypes and representation. These topics will be discussed alongside relevant Māori and Pacific writers and theorists, including Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Albert Wendt and Epeli Hau’ofa.
Focuses on issues and implications of colonialism and its role in relation to the creation and expression of cultural identities. Classes revolve around close discussions of key readings and their implications in relation to contemporary art practice. There will be particular emphasis on the mediums of film, video, photography, multimedia and performance. Topics include border art, gender issues and counter-curating.
Focuses on a range of Pacific art forms and aspects of visual culture. Topics include indigenous and migrant voices, memory and notions of belonging, popular culture and its interface with gallery practice and stereotypes and representation. A range of art works and issues are discussed alongside relevant Pacific writers and theorists, including Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Albert Wendt and Epeli Hau'ofa.
Explores the basic principles of curatorial practice and art writing. It will open up professional opportunities for students interested in working with art galleries and museums, and will focus on developing comprehensive art writing skills.
A 5000 word supervised research essay selected by the student and the Academic Head or nominee in consultation.