CCOG for ART 206 Winter 2025


Course Number:
ART 206
Course Title:
Global Art History: 1700 to the Present
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Explores art globally from the 1700s through the 21st century. Analyzes visual culture and the built environment to reveal social, religious, political, economic and technological changes in societies, recognizing the impact of art and art history on the world today. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  • Recognize and critique traditional approaches to art history, considering the way art history upholds racialized and gendered concepts of style, development, and civilization.
  • Explain how art is representative of the historical moment in which it was produced, acknowledging the interactions between social, religious, political, economic and technological factors. 
  • Analyze the relationships between form, context, and meaning in visual communication utilizing a critical vocabulary. 
  • Articulate the relationships between art made from the 1700s through the present, the history of visual culture, and world history to enhance civic and global engagement.
  • Apply insights gained from course content to visual culture encountered outside of the classroom.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Through the study of art history, students look closely at works of art and architecture, articulating the way elements of art are interrelated and considering how values and interpretations have changed over time. They critically analyze visual communication, work creatively with art historical data, use evidence to support arguments and assess the stakes of primary and secondary sources. They also analyze the relationships between art and its historical, cultural, social and political contexts. Art history enhances students’ engagement in contemporary global culture through a deeper understanding of history, which helps students recognize connections between the past and present and become more aware of their own vantage points.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assessment tools may include:

  • informal and formal responses to discussion questions

  • analysis and evaluation of reading assignments

  • visual and contextual analysis of art in writing assignments and exams

  • journals assessing learning in and out of the classroom

  • research projects resulting in papers or presentations

  • class field trips

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS:

  • Analyze and work creatively with art historical data, using it to better understand the history of art and visual culture.

  • Evaluate primary and secondary art historical sources, assessing their stakes and motives.

  • Assess the ways in which art is impacted by the viewer’s vantage point.

  • Articulate the relationship between art and its historical, social and political context.

  • Recognize and differentiate various styles of art and evaluate how values and interpretations change over time.

  • Recognize and identify parallels between the art historical past and the present.

  • Conduct a formal analysis of a work of art and articulate the way its elements are interrelated.

  • Research and write coherently about art history, using evidence to support arguments.

  • Use knowledge gained in the course to study fine art, art history, design, anthropology or history at a four-year institution.

THEMES, CONCEPTS, AND ISSUES:

  • Imperialism, Revolution, and Innovation

  • The Invention of Art and its implications

  • The Invention of Art History and its implications

  • Collecting

  • Power and Oppression

  • Looting and Repatriation

  • Imperialism

  • Revolutions 

  • Picturing the Other in the Age of Imperialism

  • Art of Oceania in the Colonial and Postcolonial Era

  • Art of Colonial and Independent South Asia and Southeast Asia

  • Realism in European and North American Art

  • Modernity and Impressionism in European Art

  • The Spread of Photography

  • Avant-Garde Art in Europe

  • African Art, Colonialism, and the Modern World

  • European Modern Art at the Turn of the Century

  • Political Protest in European and Mexican Art

  • Modernity and Identity in East Asian Art

  • Modern Art and War

  • Modern and Contemporary Art in North Africa, West Asia and Central Asia

  • Art of Independent African Nations

  • Pluralism and Postmodern Art in Europe and the Americas

  • Technology and Art

  • Art and the Human Form

  • Art and the Landscape

  • Constructions of Gender

  • The Idea of the Universal

  • Abstraction

  • Art History and Nationalism

  • Diaspora 

  • Colonization and Decolonization

  • Globalism in Contemporary Art

  • Cross-Cultural Influence 

  • Active Artworks and Ideas of Use

  • Problematizing the Museum Model

  • Art in the Age of the Internet

  • Language, Legibility, and Translation

  • Hybrid Practice