Course Review - Art History

Art Appreciation, Theatre Appreciation, Music Appreciation, they all tend to aim for one goal-  To make the average, uneducated college student appreciate and gain an admiration for fine arts.  The problem with this goal, as nice as it is, is the fact that appreciation classes do not give the student any time to experience and relate to art itself.  For example, in Art Appreciation, we watched movies about art and took notes on historic periods with art, but never truly dabbled in it.  There were maybe two hands-on activities throughout the entire semester that felt more like arts and crafts busywork.  Professor Jacqueline Lubbers knows her stuff, but not necessarily in a way that will interest a student.  There were a lot of notes to take, and most came from lecture.  The tests were the most difficult, though.  There would be some multiple choice, and then a set would be given on the screen.  It would show a piece of art, and you would need to identify the name, time period, creator, and the date the piece of art was created.  That is a lot for most students to handle, especially for those who don't memorize all that great. Somehow,I made it out with a B, but I remember dreading the final.  The multiple-choice questions were at least four pages long and there were 30 memorization slides.  I hurried, finished, and hoped for the best.  Just note to yourself that whenever Lubbers says a date, record it somewhere!  I could never remember the dates or time periods of those pieces of art, and I failed at least two of the tests before the final raised my grade up. It is not an easy class; be prepared to study a lot.

Class: History of Industrial Design School: Montclair State University   I originally took this as an elective towards my major in Art History. I wasn't sure what to expect from the class, as the Industrial Design and Art History departments at my school don’t really communicate at all. Sometimes I find that Art History classes don’t view anything that is mass produced as real ‘art’ – with the exception of Andy Warhol, of course. That’s why I took the class in the first place, to learn about an incredibly large chunk of art produced in the last two or three centuries that was completely overlooked in most of my other classes. I was surprised by some of the things I learned. Incredibly famous items that, if I had seen them at an antique store or online, I would have thought to be fairly modern I learned were from the middle of the 1800s or even earlier. There was even a little bit about marketing and production methods designers used that I never would have gotten had I taken another class. Because I was used to the usual style of Art History tests – where the professor shows a slide and then expects every detail you could possibly remember about it to be written down and handed in – I faired a little better than some of the other students when it came to exam time. But let’s face it, at the end of the day one white teapot looks pretty much exactly like another so some creative studying methods should be used if you take this class. 

Class: Contemporary Art School: Montclair State University   Contemporary Art was a unique experience for me. It’s a required course for all of the Fine Art students and all of the Art History students. On top of that it was a cross listed class, so there were at least a dozen graduate students spread across the lecture hall. But somehow the professor did it. Since, as I later found out, he was the head of the MFA program he was about to talk to the class on a level which both graduate students, art students, and art history students could understand. Although there were times when he began talking above the undergraduates heads, he almost always caught on and backed up, re-explaining everything we needed more clarification on. Another good thing about the diverse student body in the class was that there was always someone there to help you. I usually sat next to a woman pursuing her MFA in Painting and she would explain terms to me I didn’t quite understand or explain an artist’s vision to me when I simply didn’t get what their art was trying to do. And I gave her tips on how to study for an art history exam and what professors usually looked for in an art history paper. It was a real learning experience all the way around and I was able to meet a lot of people that I normally wouldn’t have interacted with in any of my usual art history classes.  

This class was not the best art history class I ever took. It could have been, though, and that was the most disappointing part. The professor is top in her field and has written several books on medieval art herself. The class is always full, being required for art history majors, with all the other seats normally being taken up by artists looking  for more background on art to enhance their own work. But dear lord that semester was a disaster. Nearly a whole month of classes were missed. Not because I didn’t feel like going, or the professor was ill, or there was a record snowstorm, flood, or any other natural disaster. The professor had a book coming out. So she had to go to Europe for a number of talks that were scheduled. Therefore an entire month’s worth of classes were missed. She came back just in time for the midterm though. Needless to say she relented and curved her grading when she saw that the best students in class were getting terrible marks. But she couldn’t figure out why and by that time we had given up trying to explain it to her.   The parts of class she was there for, however, were great. She knows everything about Medieval art this is to know. If there’s one flaw about her teaching style it is that she goes too in depth at times. There was definitely more than one occasion where the class stopped her to ask to step back and explain something over again because we didn’t know where information was coming from. She was always happy to accommodate though, at least in that regard. While I do recommend this class for the simple fact that the Middle Ages are a very interesting time, try and make sure that your professor won’t just disappear for month in the middle of the semester. Appreciated time off soon turns into a problem when trying to keep grades up, after all. 

Art in Western Civilization: Ancient – Medieval, besides being quite a mouthful to say, was a good introduction to art history as a whole. The first out of two survey courses required for all majors in the art school, students get a dose of the best of history’s art and architecture from the western civilizations. Topics started in prehistory and ran right up to the beginning of the middle ages by the time finals came along. There were more grades for this class than usual, for which I was very grateful. Short quizzes on chapters learned in class consisted of a few identification slides, some short answers, and definitions. The definitions helped me the most. If I hadn’t been required to know them later art history classes would have been more difficult than they turned out to be. Those pesky identification slides were much more numerous on the midterm and final, of course. Names of art works, artist names, materials used, dates of the object, and the location or civilization they came from were all needed. The dates were given some leeway and didn’t have to be exact, only close. There were also a few short papers we had to do, but nothing of any substantial length. The professor for this class had spent some time overseas on archaeological digs, even working on some of the sites featured in the textbook readings. Seeing her pictures and hearing the stories directly from her about finding object similar to the ones we were studying brought the art to life for me. It was this that also prompted me to take several archaeology classes and eventually pursue a minor in it. I would suggest this class only if you are interested in the subject. There is a lot of memorization involved and even for people in the major it is a lot to take in. Even though this is a level 100 class there’s a fair amount of work involved.  

My favorite professor teaching her favorite subject was, ironically, the worst grade I've received for a class in my major. The professor isn't terribly difficult, but she holds her students to a high standard. As the advisor for the art history majors, she holds us to an even higher standard and grades according to how she knows we could do. This is both frustrating, but also a good thing. It really made a lot of us in the class work harder than we normally would have in order to prove to both ourselves and our professor that we could do better.  Dr. Weinshenker is probably one of the best professors I've ever had. She's been teaching forever and really has her stuff down. When lecturing in a dark room with a PowerPoint covering the majority of the chalkboard she doesn't let thing like spellings and dates stop her. She knows exactly when a student will ask how to spell something or if she can repeat something and does it automatically. Painting title in a different language? Just keep your mouth shut and she'll spell it for you twice and ask if you need it again. This is great for note taking, even if you're using a computer with spellcheck. There's also no question she can't answer about history, art history, or anything else. And if she doesn't know the answer she can direct to straight to a person, website, book or magazine who will.  Besides being a great class and fascinating time period, its taught by a great person to get to know during your time at Montclair State University. So if you ever have the option of taking this class I would highly recommend it. While there is a fair ammount of memorization tests, the essays do not require any research at all. They are to all be written from a descriptive point of view, which is both easier and harder than normal essays. Pay attention on how to analyze art in class because it will be very useful for this, and other, essays. 

Renaissance Art in Italy taught me two important things. The first was that I didn’t like renaissance art at all. The second was that it is very hard to pay attention to a class taught in the dark at night for three hours when you don’t like the subject. The class was presented like any standard art history class. There was lecture and some class discussion. We had two papers due, one short and one longer paper. The class visited a museum. And we had a midterm and final that were actually not as bad as some of the other art history exams I had taken. The thing that I disliked the most about this class was that the professor was consistently late for class. I can’t even say that it was always her fault as strange things just seemed to happen to her. One time she had to go to the hospital because a knife was dropped onto her foot. She wound up chasing her dog down the street for a few hours when another class was supposed to start. Or maybe she was just a bit too klutzy for her own good. Either way she was a sweetheart and probably one of the smartest people I had ever met. 

19th Century Art was an all-around good class. The art we studied began with the very end of the 18th century and continued on to the beginning of the 20th century. The class was taught by the head of the art history department. She has refined teaching in the dark from a PowerPoint presentation to an art form itself. Really, this woman doesn't stop for anything, but she doesn't need to. Tests weren’t a lot of fun, but there was only a midterm and final so it could have been worse. They consisted of slide identification, an essay and a compare/contrast essay. There was also an essay which was definitely much better than the tests. It was all analysis based. No research was needed at all, which was a nice change from most other art history classes, and most other classes. If you like the 1800s, art and history in general you’ll probably like this class. While there isn't a lot of physical work that you need to hand in, if you don’t come to class or don’t take notes, you won’t do well at all. 

jvstanley wrote: KatePrice wrote: Renaissance Art in Italy taught me two important things. The first was that I didn’t like renaissance art at all. The second was that it is very hard to pay attention to a class taught in the dark at night for three hours when you don’t like the subject.  The class was presented like any standard art history class. There was lecture and some class discussion. We had two papers due, one short and one longer paper. The class visited a museum. And we had a midterm and final that were actually not as bad as some of the other art history exams I had taken.  The thing that I disliked the most about this class was that the professor was consistently late for class. I can’t even say that it was always her fault as strange things just seemed to happen to her. One time she had to go to the hospital because a knife was dropped onto her foot. She wound up chasing her dog down the street for a few hours when another class was supposed to start. Or maybe she was just a bit too klutzy for her own good. Either way she was a sweetheart and probably one of the smartest people I had ever met. I've always loved art and although I never got the chance to take an Art History course, I don't doubt that it would be mesmerizing.  I've always loved Italian Art, particularly Renaissance, and since I'm not familiar with time periods of artwork, I'll just leave it at Renaissance paintings as well as sculptures.  For those classmates of yours who were simply looking for an easy A, I find it kind of silly, considering its a history course which I automatically assume contains a decent amount of reading as well as note taking.  I personally think when students take an Art History class they think they're taking a class where they sit around all day and look at slides then answer a few questions.   This sounds like it was a really fun course!  As for your teacher's tardiness, that has to be quite aggravating at times, especially if you have a class scheduled directly after that one, but perhaps that professor was teaching another course and had to rush to get there?  The course was really fun! Even if I didn't always like the subject matter I had a good time in the class. About the professor, I wish what you said was true. She was habitually half an hour late to every class that I've ever had with her. An absolutely brilliant woman, don't get me wrong, but she doesn't exactly run on a normal person's schedule. She was once convinced it was Wednesday all day long and only came to class after someone texted her asking if she was going to be in. Yep, she gave some of us her cell phone number, in case she was going to be late and could tell us. While it was very frustrating, it could always be worse. She was a good teacher once she got there, didn't even need notes to lecture with. 

While this course is labeled as “writing intensive,” I’d label more along the times of “memory intensive” than anything else. (I am an English major, though, so I might be biased as to what “writing intensive” actually means.) If it means having to write only TWO papers, then sure.  Moving on, this course will address the essential artistic artifacts dating all the way back to 28,000 BCE with the Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux, France. History of the Western Art world meanders along Europe from Egypt to Ancient Greece and Rome to Byzantine to the Middle East and also to different civilizations, such as the Etruscans and the Mycenaeans.  Be sure to take lots of notes. Don’t put that pen down. Keep writing even if it seems like a mundane detail. There are no Powerpoint presentations available online with the notes, and the amount of pages assigned for every day’s reading of the textbook is so enormous it’s to the point of absolutely unrealistic.  Be sure to memorize the civilizations just as much as the artwork, and you will have to learn a lot of artwork. For the midterm and the final, approximately 40 artworks will be assigned for you to memorize, including the title, artist’s name, approximate date of when it was made, location (or original location) of artwork, and finally the medium(s) that make the artwork. Prepare yourself. Don’t study the night before or – God help you – a few hours before the test.  If you listen AND take notes, you will be sure to learn a lot and have fun while doing so. All of this stuff matters if you want to be an artist. You should learn to be able to speak about and analyze another’s artwork as much as you can speak about your own.  Even if this is a required course, have fun with it.

I took a very basic art history course at a community college to cover one of my elective credits at university. It was by far the easiest class I've taken to date. It was offered online; I only went to the school for the midterm and final, and I believe I got A+ scores on both tests. But I had an incredibly easy teacher who would give you full credit for even the slightest bit of participation. Make sure you know your syllabus! Many art history classes are heavy on discussion and much of your grade is going to be how you communicate your feelings or knowledge of an art/subject/period/etc. In my class we had weekly readings and had to answer questions/discuss topics on an online forum. The more you wrote, the better your grade. We also had weekly quizzes which were easy to begin with, but easier still because it was an online course and you could have materials with you. I seem to remember one or two questions on the final tripping me up, but still...very easy. I learned...somewhat. I enjoyed a lot of the earlier art history, prehistoric paintings and such. Once we got into more civilized societies I lost interest, so if I had to take another art class it would be a prehistoric or ancient art type class. Definitely interesting to see how people created art during the Stone Age.

After studying the works of the long-dead famous artists whose names are common knowledge, it was time for me to venture into the world of contemporary art. This class was smaller in size than the lecture survey courses, mainly because this class was only for actual art majors and not people with an elective to fill. There were two take-home assignments posted online, an exhibition review and a research paper that would make up our grades. The format of this class was less pictures and more reading, as you're required to read not only your textbook, but other scholarly articles about how art affects society and things like that. One of the benefits of this class, other than learning yet another different style of writing a paper (historians prefer APA and not MLA citations), was the exposure to contemporary art practices. We all know about Michelangelo and Picasso, but they're dead and have been dead a long time. So we can't ask them why or how  they created. This class allows you to study living, practicing artists and maybe get into their methodology if you could contact them. The exhibition review was one of the highlights of the course. In Atlanta, there are several museums from high-end, fine art to what some call low-brow. The review allowed us to go out and choose an exhibit that we actually liked rather than forcing us to write about the same paintings we've all seen before.