Art history and theory

Students undertaking the course of studies in art history and theory offered at Clayton should develop the ability to make informed critical judgements about, and distinctions between, various forms of visual culture, with a particular emphasis on contemporary and Australian examples.

Throughout the course of studies, students will be expected to:

consider visual material critically and investigatively, rather than with a merely appreciative approach;
understand the specific character and developmental histories of visual languages;
apply theoretical, critical and historical methods of analysis to the visual arts;
demonstrate knowledge of a range of aspects of visual culture, from the established forms of painting, sculpture and graphic arts to the decorative arts, photography, advertising, media, fashion and the various manifestations of architecture and urban planning and design.

Sequential organisation of art history and theory courses enables students to develop an understanding and knowledge of the visual arts and their critical and historical interpretation. At first year level, students will undertake preliminary analysis of relatively local and familiar visual examples, followed by an introductory study of aspects of the Western tradition in art and architecture. After completion of these introductory courses, students will be equipped with the fundamental critical and analytical skills needed to proceed to more advanced study of the visual arts.

Second and third-year courses involve more specialised study of a variety of thematic and historical areas, including Australian art and architecture, twentieth-century European and American art and architecture, photography, and aspects of medieval, Renaissance and baroque art and architecture. This intense study will equip students with conceptual schema enabling more sophisticated analysis of the visual arts, including intersections with class, gender, ideology etc.

Students continuing at fourth-year level should expect to intensify their understanding of theoretical issues, while at the same time deepening a specialisation through advanced courses and the completion of a research thesis on a chosen topic.

Postgraduate courses allow for further specialisation, either by completion of a research MA or PhD, or through an MA in Australian Art in which various aspects of Australian visual culture may be studied at an advanced level. An MA in Museum Studies and Cultural Policy, taught jointly by the departments of Visual Arts and Australian Studies, provides students with expertise appropriate to professional activity in art galleries and museums.

For details of postgraduate courses, please refer to the Arts graduate handbook for 1997.

Courses marked with an asterisk are offered in 1997; others are offered in 1998 or beyond.

VSA1010 Contemporary visual culture*
VSA1020 Transformations of the visual*
VSA2110/3110 Critical perspectives on modern art
VSA2130/3130 Postwar to postmodern: American and European art*
VSA2150/3150 The other side of the avant-garde: twentieth- century women's art history*
VSA2230/3230 Australian art
VSA2250/3250 Current architecture*
VSA2270/3270 Australian architecture*
VSA2310/3310 Modern architecture and urbanism, 1907-1968
VSA2410/3410 History and theory of photography, part 1*
VSA2430/3420 History and theory of photography, part 2
VSA2520/3520 Italian Renaissance art: power, patronage and imagination*
VSA2530/3530 Baroque art
VSA2620/3620 Image and belief in medieval art
VSA3010/4010 Making art history*
VSA4021 Beyond the museum*
VSA4030 Theory of art history and criticism*
VSA4034 Nineteenth-century Australian art
VSA4054 Twentieth-century Australian modernism
VSA4074 Australian postmodernism*
VSA4084 The culture and imagery of cities

* Courses marked with an asterisk are offered in 1997; others are offered in 1998 or beyond.

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