ARTH 014. Facing Race and Identity in American Art


In the late 20th Century, scientists concurred that race is more of a social construction than it is a biological one.  Although physical markers of race such as skin color, hair texture, and the shapes of facial features are determined by a tiny part of human genetic information, art history evidences the persistent impact of racial concepts on American lives and art.  This social interpretation of race has had a tremendous impact on the history of American cultural production and its engagement with the global art world. 

This course explores art history in terms of racial and cultural identity, and points to the ways in which race intersects with other group identifications such as class, religion, sexual orientation or gender.  We will examine the visual history of race in the United States, as both self-fashioning and external cultural mythology, by looking at the ways that conceptions of Native American, Latino, and Asian identity, alongside ideas of Blackness and Whiteness, have combined to create the enduring ideologies of class, gender, and sexuality evident in our historical visual and material culture. How did race become attached to individual bodies? How did art, fashion, and film aid in the creation and reification of racial categories in the United States during the 19th through 21st centuries? We will also investigate the ways that these creations have subsequently helped to launch new visual expression, from the colonial period through the early 2000's, including painting, sculpture, photography, film, installation art, and performance.

In this class you may have the opportunity to ask and explore open-ended questions, investigate your own identity, visit museums, archives, and local art collections, to analyze works of art and art movements in terms of various identity issues, to hear from contemporary artists, and to look at, read about, and discuss how artists have used their work to investigate their identity or larger ideas about identity, diversity, race, and ideas about the Americas. We will analyze art and imagery that may be considered by some to be controversial and challenging.  Participants must make a commitment to openly consider multiple perspectives and diverse arguments with dignity and respect.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Art and Art History: Art History  
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/art-art-history


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