Theories and Methods of Art History
So now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time to get back to my class recap for the semester. The course that’s most in my head right now, likely because I have a paper due on Thursday, is FAH 100: Theories and Methods of Art History. Besides FAH 1 and 2, which are the department survey courses, FAH 100 is the only other required course for the major. There are other breadth requirements and such, but for somebody who placed out of 1 and 2 with an AP score, 100 is the only class that I really have to take. So what is it?
Simply put, it’s the class that teaches you to understand art. While most other classes I’ve taken are about the art itself, FAH 100 introduces students to the ways people have tried to make sense of art. The authors we read have written about everything: what beauty is, to why we make art, questioning what should and shouldn’t be in a museum… These are things that we’ve all individually addressed at some point, at least those of us in the major grapple with it during most other classes, and because of that, people all have different opinions and ideas to bring to the table, in between the course readings.
You’ll hear from upperclassmen that 100 is really hard. “Pretend like it’s two classes,” a friend of mine said last year, “because with the readings, it kinda is.” And sometimes that can be true. We had two weeks in a row where the readings for a single class topped 90 pages. That’s terrifying. When the stack of papers is that big, you don’t even know where you start. Besides the sheer volume, the content can be hard too. We’ve had weeks where the readings were so difficult that I had no idea what was going on and even Wikipedia was no help. Thingness of things? Really?
The good part of the class is actually in that strange, thingy mess, when there are moments of clarity. That’s not to say that I immediately grasp the author’s method at large, or that I even understand the entire premise of the piece, but that there are stunning moments of clarity when the pieces snap into place and things just makes sense. The professor is a specialist in theory, and he’s found ways to keep our discussions on track and interesting at the same time, but there are definitely portions of the class when I’ve felt totally adrift in a sea of academic jargon.
But in between all that fuss, I’ve found a strange sort of peace with the class. Maybe not with Kant or Hegel, two philosophers who wrote extensively (and obtusely) on art, but I’ve got other favorites. It’s reassuring to read these documents, usually excerpts from larger pieces, and to see in them some of my own ways of making sense of art. The class is strangely applicable to my other courses as well— I’ve been able to bring much of the theory to my course on the Medieval Mediterranean, and I’m writing my final paper for the Miyazaki course using theory from FAH 100. As tough as this course is, I feel like it’s a great one to take near the end of my time here. It makes me work hard for the credit, but I also feel energized and excited about looking at art with fresh eyes.