Program Description
The art history major at Purchase College serves those students who see the arts as central to the intellectual challenges that lie at the heart of college life. The study of art history introduces students to a wide range of visual culture. Our program offers study of the various forms of art and architecture: painting, sculpture, graphic arts, decorative arts, photography, and design. These media are approached through the contexts of social, cultural, and political history, theoretical methods, anthropology, and religious traditions. A large selection of courses covers all periods of history and many of the world’s cultures.
The Art History Program is designed to introduce not only subjects but approaches: visual and stylistic analysis, criticism, iconography, historiography, and methodology. The architecture of New York City, the surrounding area, and the campus, along with the many city museums and the Neuberger Museum of Art on campus, are a living part of the general curriculum and are specific components in specialized courses. Internships and study abroad programs provide many opportunities to become involved in the art world outside the classroom. Upon graduation, many students choose to pursue their interest in art history through employment at museums and galleries. Other graduates have chosen to work in film production and publishing and as art handlers and transporters. Some have earned advanced degrees in art history, art therapy, and art education.
Requirements for the Major
- History of Art Survey I & II
- One pre-1800 art history course
- Junior Seminar in Art History
- Four additional art history courses
- Three courses in related disciplines/languages
- Two studio courses in the visual arts
- Senior Project in Art History
Representative Courses
Art Since 1945
Early Italian Renaissance Art
Women Artists and Feminist Criticism
The Caravaggio Effect
The Avant-Gardes
Dada and the Readymade
Collections Research/Neuberger Museum
The Body in Modern Art
American Art to 1913
Northern Renaissance Art
Dutch Art
Modern Architecture
Design History and Theory: 1750–Today
19th-Century Art
Abstract Expressionism
The African Presence in Western Art
Introduction to Museum Studies
Representative Alumni
- Rebecca Hejduk Morse ’93, assistant curator, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles
- Jennifer Glaser Norton ’80, advertising director, The Magazine Antiques
- Emily O’Leary ’06, curator’s assistant, The Hebrew Home, Riverdale, NY
- Christine Cauchon Summer ’91, managing editor, Sussex Publishers
- Thomas E. White ’02, Ph.D. candidate in art history, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
For more information, visit the Art History site in Academic Programs.
Updated May 27, 2008
