Course Offerings by term

Celebrated for the beauty of its architectural past, Paris is also a rapidly changing, dynamic, modern metropolis in the present. From its historical center to newer neighbourhoods at the city's periphery, recent buildings and urban projects have altered Paris and made it the site of significant modern architecture and urbanism. This course introduces the major new monuments and urban designs that characterize the city today. Following a brief historical introduction, the Grand Projects such as the Louvre Pyramid, the Grand Arch and the Bastille Opera, as well as more modest and unassuming structures, will be studied on site. Focussing on the major architectural and urban undertakings of the past few decades, such as museums, libraries, cultural centers, housing projects and public parks, this course explores how the architecture and urban fabric of the past have been reassessed to suit modern materials, tastes and needs. Students will also investigate how international influences have been adapted, adopted, or rejected in the creation of Paris today. Emphasis is placed on the students' grasp of the material, rather than the completion of a chronological survey.

This course examines the reverberations and multi-faceted reactions to the reform movements known as the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, and explores different notions of the Baroque in a global context. We will consider the art and architecture of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and France, as well as the art of colonial Latin America and East Asia. Key themes and issues of consideration will include the changing role of religious images; heresy and persuasion in art; colonial art and questions of transmission, reproduction and hybridity; the rise of artists' academies and art theory; the development of genre painting; cabinets of curiosity and collecting; and eroticism, artifice and Orientalism in Rococo art and architecture.

This course is designed to introduce students to the history and practice of curating artworks. “Museums, like asylum and jails, have wards and cells — in other words, neutral rooms called ‘galleries.’” Writing these words in the 1970s, the artist Robert Smithson expressed sharply the struggle of many 20th century artists with curatorial settings. From the private cabinet of curiosities to the Academic Salons, from experimental art galleries to large museums and the use of exhibitions themselves as an artistic medium, curatorial practices never ceased to shape our “understanding” and appreciation of artworks. Relying on historical and theoretical texts, on-site visits (museums and art galleries) and a dialogue with museum professionals, the class is focused on the creation of a virtual exhibition by the students, taking into account all aspects of the project from its conception to its realization. This course has a course fee included.

This is a parallel course offered at the 2000-level and 3000-level. While the assignments are similar at both levels, the written component of the final project goes up from 25 000 to 35 000 characters (space included) and an upper-level degree of precision in the critical apparatus of the final project (research; bibliography, theoretical and methodological pertinence) is expected. Faculty approval is required for AH3030.

Topics vary every semester.
“For the course description, please find this course in the respective semester on the public course browser: https://www.aup.edu/academics/course-catalog/by-term.”