Faculty of Arts Art History

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Faculty of Arts

Table of Contents

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

The art history program is housed in the School of Culture and Communication. The first program of its kind in Australia, it was founded in 1946. 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 Centre for Cultural Material Conservation (CCMC) and Ian Potter Museum of Art 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 curatorship.

1. Time commitment to study

As well as scheduled contact hours for lectures, tutorial and seminars a considerable additional time commitment is needed to complete the academic requirements of each subject.

A subject-specific time commitment to study will be provided by your lecturer or tutor at the beginning of semester to help you schedule your workload and successfully manage your time during the semester. In addition, see general estimates of the total time commitment required to study a 12.5-point single semester subject in the Faculty of Arts (Time commitment to study).

2. 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 one first-year subject in art history (12.5 points). Students who believe they have completed a suitable alternative first-year subject 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 interdisciplinary 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).

3. 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.

4. Requirements for a major

A major in art history usually consists of eight 12.5 point subjects, totalling 100 points. It comprises:

• one first-year subject in art history (12.5 points); and

• second/third-year subjects in art history (87.5 points).

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

5. 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.

For information on how to apply see Applying for Honours.

6. Honours requirements

Honours coordinator: To be advised

6.1. Pure honours

Students undertaking pure honours in art history must complete:

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

• 107-549 Theories of Art History (12.5 points); and

• 50 points of subjects from the lists below with at least 25 points of subjects from the Advanced Research in Art History list of subjects

6.2. Combined honours

Students undertaking combined honours in art history and another discipline must complete:

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

• 107-549 Theories of Art History (12.5 points); and

• 12.5 points of subjects from the advanced research in art history list of subjects; and

• three honours subjects in the combining discipline (37.5 points).

or

• honours thesis in the combining discipline (37.5 points); and

• two honours subjects in the combining discipline (25 points); and

• 107-549 Theories of Art History (12.5 points); and

• 25 points of subjects from the advanced research in art history list of subjects

• where combined honours students are undertaking. or have completed, an approved fourth-year research methods subject, they should replace 107-549 Theories of Art History with an additional 12.5 points from the list of advanced research in art history subjects.

6.3. Honours subjects

7. Studying overseas

The School of Culture and Communication 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:

• 107-466 Contemporary Culture: Art in New York (not offered in 2007)

• 107-467 Renaissance and Baroque Rome 1450-1750

• 131-044 Renaissance Nuremberg & Central Europe (not offered in 2007)

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

8. Further study

A BA with a major in art history can lead to a two-year Master of Art Curatorship. An honours degree in art history can lead to MA or PhD programs.

9. 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.

10. For more information

School of Culture and Communication
Elisabeth Murdoch Building
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
Tel: +61 3 8344 5565
Web: http://www.ahcca.unimelb.edu.au/programs/art_history/

First-year subjects

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

Second/third-year subjects

107-020 The Age of Leonardo da Vinci
107-021 The Age of Michelangelo
107-023 Baroque Art
107-027 Materials and Techniques of Art
107-028 Australian Art: Rock to Pop
107-030 Contemporary Aboriginal Art
107-031 Art and the Market: Then and Now
107-032 Venetian Renaissance Painting
107-034 The 1980s: Postmodernism in Art
107-038 Modernist Avant-Gardes
107-046 Contemporary Australian Art
107-048 Art, Society & Ritual in Medieval Italy
107-063 Eighteenth-Century Art
107-210 Art Since 1990
107-219 Early Christian and Byzantine Art
107-220 Medieval Art: Celtic to Gothic
107-235 Masculinity: From Classics to Modern Art
107-236 Asian Art and Spirituality
107-262 History and Theory of Photography
107-263 Visions of Paradise: Art of the Garden
107-264 Art and Revolution: 19th Century Europe
107-266 Zen and Manga: The Art of Japan
102-213 Face, Place, Race: Images of Australia
131-044 Renaissance Nuremberg & Central Europe
760-241 Surrealism and Creativity

Third/fourth-year subjects

107-402 Attribution, Expertise, Connoisseurship
107-405 Spectacles: Museums to Theme Parks
107-443 Futurism and Fascist Art in Italy
107-449 Architecture and the Visual Imagination
107-466 Contemporary Culture: Art in New York
107-467 Renaissance and Baroque Rome 1450-1750
107-471 Histories and Theories of Conservation
107-472 Aboriginal Art in the Northern Territory

Fourth-year subjects

107-520 Art History Thesis
107-549 Theories of Art History
107-403 Fine Arts 4A
107-406 Readings in Caravaggio
107-409 Indigenous Photography, New Media, Film
107-416 The Visual Culture of Colonial Australia
107-418 Truth & Beauty: British Art 1840-1914
107-422 Iconography: Rome to Renaissance
107-428 The Book in Medieval & Renaissance Art
107-436 Postcolonial Visual Art
107-437 The Artist's Body
107-438 Women in 16th & 17th Century Italian Art
107-451 The Floating World: Japanese Prints
107-526 The Virtual Print Room
107-530 History and Philosophy of Museums
107-548 Symbolists and Decadents: The 1890s
107-550 Biennales, Triennales and Documentas
102-511 Imaging Australian Spaces

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