VISST-200 courses develop students' visual analysis skills while providing the opportunity for in-depth study of the visual/structural artifacts associated with a particular topic, region, or movement. Students will also engage with the relevant primary/secondary literature for the topic at hand. Courses will pay particular attention to the larger cultural, historical, and theoretical/ideological contexts in which the visual artifacts and structures under consideration were created.An introduction to the visual arts, film, and performance of Africa from an African-centric perspective, the course begins with a critical art historical discussion on classical sculpture, considers performance, photography, painting, textiles, and architecture, and finishes with a series of films, narrative, documentary, and animation. Subject, form, purpose, ethnic/language group, regional style, country, gender and sexuality will be comparatively considered through lectures, discussion of scholarly texts, biographical statements, reviews, and student writing. We’ll ask: Who are African artists? How can we know, from our points of view in the western classroom, what artists from Africa value in art/cinema? Who is their audience? Why are so many artists ‘anonymous’ to us? Remnants of recent colonial past can inform, but do not define, art in a postcolonial present of African history and art. How can we be mindful of the role we play—and the meanings we assign--in incorporating understandings of African art and film in our own work and lives? These questions will intersect with students’ own knowledge and research in our seminar. Art and film viewing, short readings from art history, interviews, and artists’ reflections, and a museum field trip will inform student writing and brief research.

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