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Mission Statement

Research Objectives | Teaching Objectives | Outreach Objectives

The mission of the Department of Art History is to promote scholarly inquiry into the history of art in all its different media in a wide range of historical periods and world cultures.

Research Objectives

As a major scholarly department, our primary goal is to make original contributions to knowledge in specific areas of art history and to the development of our discipline. We pursue both long-term and on-going research and publishing projects, as well as shorter, discrete undertakings.

We divide the history of art geographically and chronologically. Each member of the faculty has a specialty in the art of a country or continent or of a period of time within a geographical designation. Our work requires familiarity with languages both of our geographic areas and of the art historical discourse of our fields.

Art history is important not just for singling out art objects but for showing how art is fully integrated into larger cultural histories. Our publications reflect our varied interests. We employ a variety of methods and approaches to consider the distinctive forms, language, and meanings of works of art within the specific context in which they were produced. In differing degrees we explore and analyze the formal constituents and qualities of individual works of art and their relation to larger period styles; the iconography and layers of meanings of works of art and their relation to the larger cultural meanings in which they participate and which they help shape; the social and economic history behind the development of works and the conditions of their patronage, commission, production, or exhibition; and the reception and place of works within institutions of the larger culture. Aside from the need to discern and analyze formal features of art, which requires extensive study of original objects and wide-ranging comparison to related examples, we also need both broad and specialized expertise in the cultural, political, and social histories, in the economic conditions and factors of production, and in the religious beliefs and practices of our areas. We also pursue more traditional lines of research, such as issues of attribution of newly-discovered works to a particular artist or workshop. To remain abreast of current research, we require continued access to works of art, colleagues, and publications in our own fields and in such related fields as literature, history, philosophy, cartography, and artistic conservation. Many of us also require close connections with museums, and regularly provide consultation and research for museums both here and abroad.

We feel that the quality of our teaching is directly affected by the quality and efforts we put into research and publishing. We believe that the best instructors are those who test their ideas in public and professional arenas, and who seek questions and debate from their students. We test our ideas in several ways:

1) through papers read in meetings of professional societies and in national and international symposia;
2) through faculty fora in which we share our current research with colleagues, graduate students, and undergraduate majors;
3) through the incorporation of results of research and writing in our courses;
4) through participation in interdepartmental seminars and colloquia;
5) through the organization of symposia on topics related to our research interests; and
6) through the offering of lectures and subsequent group discussions by distinguished visiting scholars.

Teaching Objectives

Undergraduate introductory courses consider the basic theories, methods, and terminology used in art history as they survey artistic traditions in all areas of the West, Asia, Africa, and the African diaspora. The surveys introduce a wide range of students from all disciplines to the basic outlines of major art historical periods, to problems of formal analysis and the determination of period styles, and to the integration of visual and other kinds of information required to understand the place of the work of art within its specific historical and social context. Students are taught to discern the meanings works of art convey and how meanings are constructed. They are encouraged to write papers on original works in the Elvehjem
Chazen Museum and to participate in group tours of the Chazen and field trips to museums in other cities.

Intermediate and advanced courses permit further depth of study in specific media, cultural, and historical traditions. Students are expected to have at least introductory training to undertake more sophisticated reading, writing, and discussion in these courses. They are encouraged to write more extensive research papers, often based on the study of original works in the Chazen or other museums, in which they combine study of secondary sources on the cultural, historical, iconographical, and artistic background of the work with their own careful formal analysis. Most of these courses, too, make extensive use of the Chazen and several include field trips to museums in other cities. Most of the 400-level courses have more prerequisites and were specifically designed to give a more challenging and in-depth exposure to advanced problems of research to smaller groups comprised primarily of juniors, seniors, and graduate students.

Proseminars provide undergraduates with seminar experience and are usually taken after several semesters of introductory and intermediate/advanced level courses. In these they are introduced to the general methodology and bibliography of the course area, and helped to develop major research projects presented in both oral and written form. The seminars are run by discussion or a combination of lecture and discussion so that students participate much more actively in the material than in lecture courses. Study of original objects in the Chazen, other Madison collections, and museums in other cities is encouraged.

Over the years many of our undergraduates have held summer internships, particularly in the departments of 20th-century painting and prints & drawings in the Art Institute of Chicago, but also in the Milwaukee Art Museum and such other prominent institutions as the Whitney and Metropolitan museums in New York, and the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. If they have sufficient hours, complete a written report of what they have done, and have not been paid for their work, students receive academic credit for internships.

The graduate methodology course was designed to introduce all new graduate students, some of whom arrive without prior seminar or proseminar experience, to the larger scope of the discipline, its history, and its methodologies, and to the tools they will need to conduct research at the advanced level. The course includes extensive introduction to bibliography and the use of library resources, substantial writing assignments, and work with original objects in the Chazen collection. Although many art history departments have recently added methodology courses, they are still not found everywhere, and many students have found this an important reason for choosing Wisconsin.

Graduate seminars are the major forum in which students undertake original research, and often lead students to topics or areas for theses and first publications. Students are encouraged to take seminars in a number of different areas as the best way to come to know the discipline and its methodologies at large.

Outreach Objectives

Art history faculty reach both broader scholarly and public audiences through their publications of books, catalogues, articles in professional journals, published proceedings of scholarly symposia, translations, and book reviews; through professional and public lectures at scholarly meetings and museums; through consultation on editorial boards, museum and exhibition committees, scholarly peer reviews; and through the direction of major travelling public exhibitions. They bring their findings directly to their students in lectures, discussions, and scholarly writings. They regularly interact with both students and a larger public in the Chazen and other museums through discussions, gallery talks, and media interviews about works in the collection; through advice on museum acquisitions and research; and through assignment and supervision of student research in the Chazen.