Faculty of Arts Art History

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Faculty of Arts

Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Diploma in Arts (Art History)
3. Requirements for a major
4. Honours entry
5. Honours requirements
    5.1. Pure honours
    5.2. Combined honours
6. Studying overseas
7. Further study
8. Career opportunities
9. For more information
Subject Lists
    First-year subjects
    Second/third-year subjects
    Third/fourth-year subjects
    Fourth-year subjects

Art history is housed in the School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology (ACCA). The first department of its kind in Australia, it was founded in 1948. The School develops joint projects with many Australian museums including the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Students of art history have the opportunity to undertake fieldwork overseas. Subjects taught in Rome and New York provide unrivalled access to major art collections such as those of the Vatican museums and the Museum of Modern Art. Alliances with the Potter Institute of Conservation and Ian Potter Museum also bolster the pre-eminent position of the School within the academic community of the Asia-Pacific region. Students benefit directly from these close links with industry and the arts community and are able to develop a wide range of transferable skills. Graduates of the art history program occupy key curatorial, museum and administrative positions in the arts throughout Australia and overseas. Students have the opportunity to further explore their academic interests and develop specialist knowledge in art history through an articulated structure of higher degree options at the University of Melbourne.

Art history is concerned with the visual and material aspects of culture and how painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, design, photography and museums, may be interpreted. Students of art history should develop critical and historical skills about the work of art as a physical object and the representation of subject matter. Art history subjects cover a broad spectrum from ancient classical art to the art of the postmodern. The School has particular research and teaching strengths in the study of Australian culture and Aboriginal art, the medieval, Renaissance and baroque periods and in Asian art, including a unique course on Japanese art and architecture.

1. Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for first-year subjects in art history.

The prerequisite for a second/third-year subject in art history is usually two first-year subjects in art history (25 points). Students who believe they have completed suitable alternative first-year subjects are advised to consult with the Head of School for permission to enrol. Exemptions may also be granted where second/third-year subjects are taken as part of an approved interdepartmental program with its own entry requirements.

The prerequisite for a third/fourth-year art history subject is usually three second/third-year subjects in art history (37.5 points).

2. Diploma in Arts (Art History)

The Diploma in Arts (Art History) is only available to students who are currently enrolled in a degree course at the University of Melbourne. It consists of a three-year sequence of study, and adds one year to the duration of your degree.

Students must complete 25 points of first-year art history subjects and 75 points of second/third-year art history subjects. Alternatively, students who have completed appropriate background studies at first year may complete 100 points of second/third-year art history subjects.

3. Requirements for a major

A major in art history usually consists of nine 12.5 point subjects, totalling 112.5 points. It comprises:

• two first-year subjects in art history (25 points); and

• second/third-year subjects in art history (87.5 points). Two of these subjects (25 points) may be in other related areas of study in the School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology.

It is advisable for students to choose subjects from different periods of art history.

4. Honours entry

The prerequisites for entry to fourth-year honours in art history are:

• completion of all the requirements of the BA;

• completion of a major in art history;

• an average grade of H2B or higher over the second/third-year subjects within the major.

Entry to honours must be approved by the honours coordinator of the School and the Faculty of Arts honours course adviser. Forms to be submitted to the School are available at the School office in May and September each year.

5. Honours requirements

Honours coordinator: Dr Mark Nicholls

5.1. Pure honours

Students undertaking pure honours in art history must complete:

• 107-519 Art History Thesis or 107-520 Art History Thesis (MYE) (37.5 points); and

• 107-419 Theory and Discourse in Art History (12.5 points); and

• four honours subjects in art history (50 points).

  With the approval of the honours coordinator, one of these subjects may be in cinema studies, or classical studies and archaeology.

5.2. Combined honours

Students undertaking combined honours in art history and another area of study must complete:

• 107-519 Art History Thesis or 107-520 Art History Thesis (MYE) (37.5 points); and

• 107-419 Theory and Discourse in Art History (12.5 points); and

• one honours subject in art history (12.5 points); and

• three honours subjects in the combined area of study (37.5 points).

or

• honours thesis in the combined area of study (37.5 points); and

• two honours subjects in the combined area of study (25 points); and

• 107-419 Theory and Discourse in Art History (12.5 points); and

• two honours subjects in art history (25 points).

• combined honours students may replace 107-419 Theory and Discourse in Art History with an approved fourth-year research methods seminar in the other discipline.

6. Studying overseas

The School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology teaches a number of art history subjects in Europe and the United States as one-month intensive fieldwork programs in the Summer Semester or Winter Recess. See individual subject entries for details:

• 107-264 Nineteenth Century European Art

• 107-466 Contemporary Culture: Art in New York

• 107-467 Renaissance and Baroque Rome 1450-1750

• 131-044 Medieval and Renaissance Nuremberg

or, contact Australians Studying Abroad:
Email: enquiries@asatravinfo.com.au
Web: http://www.asatravinfo.com.au

7. Further study

A BA with a major in art history can lead to a Graduate Diploma in Arts (Art History), a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Art History) or Master of Art Curatorship.

An honours degree in art history can lead to MA or PhD degrees.

8. Career opportunities

Career opportunities for graduates in art history are to be found in teaching and in academic research, in the arts industry as curators, administrators, and directors of art galleries and museums, in the commercial sphere of dealerships and auction houses, and as critics, journalists and arts writers.

9. For more information

School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology
Elisabeth Murdoch Building
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
Tel: +61 3 8344 5565
Email: finearts-info@unimelb.edu.au
Web: http://www.sfca.unimelb.edu.au

First-year subjects

107-130 Art History A: The Work of Art
107-131 Art History B: Twentieth Century Art

Second/third-year subjects

103-006 Multimedia Authoring
107-020 Art of the Italian Renaissance
107-021 The Age of Michelangelo
107-023 Baroque Art
107-024 Truth & Beauty: British Art 1840-1914
107-026 Studies in Asian Art and Architecture
107-027 Materials and Techniques of Art
107-028 Australian Art: Colonial to Pop
107-030 Contemporary Aboriginal Art
107-031 Art and the Market: Then and Now
107-032 Venetian Renaissance Painting
107-033 Northern Renaissance Art 1480-1600
107-034 The 1980s: Postmodernism in Art
107-036 Nineteenth Century French Art
107-038 Modernist Avant-Gardes
107-043 French Avant-Gardes
107-046 Contemporary Australian Art
107-048 Art, Society & Ritual in Medieval Italy
107-063 Watteau and 18th Century Art 1700-1770
107-210 Art Since 1990
107-219 Early Christian and Byzantine Art
107-220 Art and Culture in Medieval North Europe
107-262 Photography: History and Theory
107-263 Visions of Paradise: Art of the Garden
107-264 Nineteenth Century European Art
107-266 Zen and Manga: The Art of Japan
131-044 Medieval and Renaissance Nuremberg
760-231 Radical Perspectives in 20th Century Art
760-241 Surrealism and the Creative Imagination

Third/fourth-year subjects

107-401 Theories of European Modernism
107-402 Attribution, Expertise & Connoiseurship
107-405 Spectacles: Museums to Theme Parks
107-420 Art and Mass Culture in the 1960s
107-423 The Parthenon
107-430 Orientalism in Visual Culture
107-433 You Beaut Country: Australia in the '50s
107-444 Art Museums in Melbourne
107-449 The Representation of Architecture
110-456 Japanese Art: Zen Painting to Edo Prints
107-466 Contemporary Culture: Art in New York
107-467 Renaissance and Baroque Rome 1450-1750
107-471 Histories and Theories of Conservation
107-485 Siena and its Environs
760-424 Sexuality and Gender in Media Arts

Fourth-year subjects

107-519 Art History Thesis
107-520 Art History Thesis (MYE)
107-528 Art History Special Topics A
107-403 Fine Arts 4A
102-511 Imaging Australian Spaces
107-406 Readings in Caravaggio
107-407 Form and Meaning in Spanish Art
107-416 The Visual Culture of Colonial Australia
107-419 Theory and Discourse in Art History
107-424 Australian Artists in Europe 1880-1960
107-425 Sound and Vision: Art & Popular Music
107-428 The Book in Medieval & Renaissance Art
107-434 The Baroque: Theory and Method
107-436 Cross-Cultural Visual Art
107-437 The Artist's Body
107-438 Women in 16th & 17th Century Italian Art
107-442 Netherlandish Painting:van Eyck to Bosch
107-443 Futurism and Fascist Art in Italy
107-451 The Floating World: Japanese Prints
107-469 Art and Film Criticism
107-486 History, Travel and the Visual Arts
107-521 New Media Art
107-526 The Virtual Print Room

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