111-486 History, Travel and The Visual Arts

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

To have satisfied the entry requirements for Honours in Art History

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject examines the various connections between travel and the visual arts through a number of case-studies, from a western perspective, that range across several geographic sites from Ancient Rome to the Twentieth century. There is an emphasis on the theoretical issues (historiographical and methodological) that arise from a study of the relationship between travel and the visual arts. The case-studies may include Pausanius' travels to Greece; Medieval Pilgrimages; Renaissance Exploration and the 'New World'; the Grand Tour; Searching for the Picturesque; Europeans in the South Pacific; Art and the Frontier in the USA; Art and the Frontier in Australia; the Mediterranean Passion in the late Nineteenth Century; Exoticism and Orientalism in Africa and Asia; the Travels of Twentieth Century Australian Artists; Art & Travel at the end of the Twentieth Century (beyond corporeal travel - cyberspace, international blockbuster exhibitions and mass tourism). Other themes arising in this study relate to gender, the visual arts and travel; colonialism, the visual arts and travel; nationalism, the visual arts and travel; and sexualities, the visual arts and travel.

Assessment

Written work which may comprise class papers, essays or take home examinations totalling 6,000 words.

Prescribed Texts

• K. Jenkins, On 'What is History?'. Routledge, London/New York, 1995.
• E. Leeds, The Mind of the Traveler. Basic Book, New York, 1991.