ARTH 310 | Women, Gender, and Art, 1500-2000

This course investigates women as creators, patrons, and subjects of art from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries. We will study individual histories of female artists alongside some critical theories around gender, sexuality and representation, in order to explore the gendering of artistic practice and the practices of representing gendered subjects. The course explores questions like: How does gender change our understanding of art and the meanings associated with art? Did women's artwork or commissions differ from those of men, and if so, in what ways? What were the range of meanings for woman as subject matter? What do these images tell us about women's changing positions and roles in family and society? What different positions have women adopted in relation to representing, looking and being represented? The course approaches this history chronologically and thematically, covering themes like patronage, markets, portraiture, the craft-art separation, and modernism; and in order to widen our perspective and achieve broader conclusions, we will consider case studies of women as artists, patrons, and subjects in India, China, Japan and the Ottoman Empire. Class sessions will combine short lectures with in-depth discussions of readings and images, student presentations, and film viewings/discussions.