ART 100 European and North American Art

Content: Overview of painting, sculpture, and architecture produced in Europe and North America, focusing on work created between the 14th and 21st centuries. Exploration of key theoretical problems and ways of looking especially important to the history of art. Multiple perspectives and methods of analysis provided through lectures, scheduled discussions, and museum fieldwork. Key works situated in a variety of contexts: the role of art in religious and memorial practices; the rise of the social status of the artist; drawing as a form of thinking; art as a tool of power and politics; art as constructor of gender and identity; visual narrative; the potentials and limitations of various technical media; definitions of "modernism"; the uses of "classicism."
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 105 Introduction to Visual Art and Culture

Content: Hands-on exposure to working methods of contemporary visual artists from an interdisciplinary perspective. Intensive studio workshops and experimental exercises in two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and time-based media are accompanied by lectures, screenings, readings, discussion, and off-campus events. Emphasis on inventive and exploratory approaches to relevant issues of contemporary society and culture.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 106 Introduction to Video Art

Content: Introduction to history of video art and fundamentals of digital video production. Exposure, analysis, and critical thinking of course topics through lectures, artist/critic talks, readings, written assignments, discussion, journaling, field trips, group presentation, and feedback. Basic technical production skills, lab assignments, and creative projects explore video as an expressive medium within the context of historical, experimental, and contemporary art strategies.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 112 Digital Media I

Content: Exploration of how technology both informs and transforms art, culture, and society. Through hands-on workshops, in-class tutorials, and artist overviews, students will gain the knowledge and confidence needed to create their own media artworks. Exploration of a range of mediums and materials including image, video, sound, sculpture, and artificial intelligence, which will be supplemented by discourse surrounding a wide array of topics such as memory, surveillance, artificial intelligence, social media, ecology, and politics.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Open to freshmen and sophomores. Juniors and seniors require instructor consent.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 113 Sculpture I

Content: Form and space explored through a variety of media and techniques such as wood, plaster, found object, and assemblage. Short exercises to explore materials and techniques, opening up a broader discussion about the possibilities and complexities of the three-dimensional form. Readings, critiques, and more involved assignments leading to in-depth discussions and approaches to understanding and exploring sculpture.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 115 Drawing I

Content: The rigorous investigation of drawing elements, techniques, and design principles. Students are introduced to a variety of drawing approaches and media informed by reference to historical, modern, and contemporary drawings. Development of observational and eye-hand coordination skills is achieved primarily through still life subjects and occasional life drawing. The ability to analyze a drawing utilizing drawing terms and critical thinking skills takes form in classroom discussions and group critiques.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 116 Ceramics I

Content: Conceptual strategies are emphasized in this expansive, nontraditional approach to ceramics. Fundamental techniques such as pinching, coiling, slab construction, extrusion, and some wheel throwing, as well as ceramic history, are taught as a means to bolster material experimentation and creation of personally relevant artwork. Critiques, collaboration, and surprising exercises reinforce this approach. In-depth assignments shift each semester in response to rotating themes, with a focus on relational and conceptually driven sculpture, rather than pottery or utilitarian vessel construction.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 117A Painting Fundamentals

Content: Fundamentals of using oil paints in a representational and abstract manner. Emphasis on gaining technical proficiency with color and paint handling, finding self-direction, and identifying precedents in the history of painting. Topics explored include representation, abstraction, postmodernism, collage. Students will develop and use critical language that addresses the inherent issues in painting.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall, spring, and summer.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 117B Figure Painting

Content: Fundamentals of using oil paints through a focus on the study of the human body. We address both historical and contemporary contexts and include specific approaches to figure painting such as old master, alla prima, direct observation, abstraction, color and pattern, and collage. Emphasis is on gaining technical proficiency with paint handling, finding self-direction, and identifying both contemporary and historical precedents. Through short readings, slide lectures and discussions, students will develop and use critical language that addresses inherent issues in figure painting including representation, phenomenology, post-structuralism, and feminism.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall, spring, and summer.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 120 Photography I

Content: In this introductory course, students will be introduced to photographic equipment, materials, analog and digital processes, and historical and contemporary photographic practice. Photography I will concentrate on the skills and technologies used for making 35mm SLR film photographs, from image capture to print. Students can expect to learn to analytically and critically discuss photographically generated images through a series of critiques, lectures, discussions, and demonstrations.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 150 Chinese Art

Content: Overview of ceramics, calligraphy, painting, prints, sculpture, and architecture produced in China, focusing on select key works created from the neolithic to the contemporary moment. Exploration of key theoretical problems and ways of looking especially important to the history of art. Multiple perspectives and methods of analysis provided through lectures, scheduled discussions, and museum fieldwork. Key works are situated in a variety of contexts: the role of art in religious and memorial practices, the social status of the artist, art as a tool of power and politics, art as constructor of gender and identity, the potentials and limitations of various technical media.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 201 Modern European Art

Content: Developments in the European tradition, 1860 to 1940, that culminate in experiments in abstraction in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. Realism, impressionism, postimpressionism, expressionism, fauvism, cubism, dada, surrealism.
Prerequisites: ART 100 recommended.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 204 The History of American Art

Content: History of American art and architecture from the colonial period until the Great Depression. How social concerns were represented in the arts, including formative debates about nation, identity, environment, and industrialization. Special emphasis given to art that can be viewed within Washington, D.C., and its environs.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Participation in the Washington, D.C., off-campus program.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 207 Pre-Columbian Art

Content: Overview of the art of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca civilizations and other major early Central and South American cultures. Examination of architecture, sculpture, ceramics, painting; how the arts played a key role in developing a sense of continuity within these societies across time and distance.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 208 Ancient Greek and Roman Art

Content: An introduction to art and architecture of the ancient Mediterranean, focused on Greece and Rome. Special attention given to the intersections of art and literature and the role of art as a tool of politics. Theories in classical culture about the visual image, the artist, and the practice of narrative; how our definition of classical art is often shaped by the early modern period's views.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 212 Digital Media II

Content: Expands on the foundational techniques and concepts introduced in Digital Media I and prepares students to develop more complex, comprehensive work. Extends beyond the limits of traditional screen-based media, adopting an interdisciplinary approach that delves into nuanced digital artistic practices and media theories, all while continuing to engage with a broader contemporary discourse. Students will explore a variety of forms including audio-visual installations, video, sound, and immersive worlds, and will learn about niche artistic movements related to digital media such as bioart, cybernetics, and glitch feminism. Students are encouraged to further develop their artistic identities by aligning their assignments with topics and research that resonate with their own unique interests.
Prerequisites: ART 112.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 213 Sculpture II

Content: Advanced study of form and space through more self-directed assignments. Developing technical skills learned in ART 113, with an introduction to metalworking and welding. Creating sculpture that demonstrates technical proficiency and radical explorations of content, materials, and context as it relates to form.
Prerequisites: ART 113.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 215 Drawing II

Content: Further development of the student's observation, conceptual, and expressive skills. The refinement of drawing abilities and visual organization skills are heightened through the study of the human figure and additional subjects. A variety of drawing media is explored, including color. Traditional conceptions of drawing are challenged as the term progresses. Visual literacy and historical context are further advanced through examination of classical, modern, and contemporary drawing. Oral and written analysis is a critical component in this course.
Prerequisites: ART 115.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 216 Ceramics II

Content: Increasingly experimental approaches to clay are explored with a focus on materiality and metaphor. Includes research, critiques, group discussions, one-on-one meetings with the instructor, nontraditional construction skills, and expanded understanding of clay's behavioral qualities. Exploration of how the traditions of ceramics can bolster a contemporary, conceptual approach to making while developing a critical, contextual, and personally relevant body of work.
Prerequisites: ART 116.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 217 Painting II

Content: Focus on critical questions of contemporary painting by exploring a variety of approaches to pictorial space from 20th-century modernism through postmodernism and contemporary practice. Students will strengthen technique and material knowledge of working in oil paints, identify individual working processes, expand critical language through discussion and readings, and develop a significant and informed body of work.
Prerequisites: ART 117A or 117B.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 220 Photography II

Content: Students build upon existing photographic skills and further investigate the making and meaning of photographically based images through a series of readings, lectures, discussions, demonstrations, and critiques. Students will explore problems leading to the mastery of technical skills regarding camera usage, exposure, film- and digital-image processing, lighting, printing, and photographic finishing with an emphasis on the development of craft and cultivation of a visual vocabulary. Students must have a 35 mm manual or DSLR camera.
Prerequisites: ART 120.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 229 Art & Ecology: Material Matters

Content: Exploration of what it means to live and build an artistic practice in a time of climate change and ecological crises. As artists, how do we think through the material, environmental, and psychological costs of our production? What kinds of thinking are embodied in place? How can place-based embodied knowledge teach resilience? What does a sustainable practice look like in terms of material and immaterial resources? Utilizing expertise from regional eco-artists, field trips in and around Portland, research, and practice, we will explore the relationship between place, the agency of material, and the intention of the artist.
Prerequisites: Any 100-level ART course.
Usually offered: Annually.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 230 Global Baroque

Content: Baroque and rococo art as a global style characterized by theatricality, dynamism, and reality effects. Exploration of European art created 1600-1800 and its conversation with related monuments produced in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Investigation of the role of colonialism, commerce, and empire in the construction of a global aesthetic. Close examination of examples of art and architecture crafted for individual monarchs, missionaries, merchants, and common citizens by artists such as Rembrandt, Bernini, and Artemisia Gentileschi.
Prerequisites: ART 100 recommended.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 244 Practicum

Content: Internship or practicum to be arranged with instructor.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing and consent required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 1-4.

ART 299 Independent Study

Content: Independent study topic to be arranged with instructor.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing and consent required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 1-4.

ART 301 Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture

Content: Italian Renaissance art and architecture from 1300 to 1550. The working practices of artists; the changing social status of the artist; developments in artistic theory; the cultural engagement with classical antiquity; the crisis in religious art in the context of the Reformation; controversies of conservation (for example, the cleaning of the Sistine Chapel); the problems of visual narrative; conflicting interpretations of Christian iconography; representation of gender, among other themes.
Prerequisites: ART 100 or ART 208.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 303 Realism, Photography, and Print Culture in the 19th Century

Content: The intertwined history of realism and mass media as integral components of an emerging modernity in the United States and Europe during the 19th century. Focus on technical innovations and the examination of primary writings by artists, critics, authors, and other cultural figures to assess their aspirations for and anxieties about the innovations' social and cultural implications. Realism as a movement in academic art; debates about the artistic value of mass media and the impact on artistic practice; early mass media and the pursuit of political change; the relationship between art and science; the shaping of national, racial, class, and gender identities; the emergence of the modern commercial market and industrial production.
Prerequisites: ART 100.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 309 Art of New York

Content: Art and art history through the cultural resources of New York City. Exploration of how art gets made, how it reaches the public, and the process of its interpretation and display. Taught only on the New York off-campus program. Art majors may participate in the New York program only during their sophomore or junior year, because they must be on campus during the senior year.
Prerequisites: ART 100 recommended.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required. Acceptance into the New York City off-campus program required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 311 Studio Seminar on Contemporary Art Theory and Practice

Content: Issues in contemporary art critical for developing artists. Practical and theoretical questions artists face today: how art is defined and understood (or misunderstood) in our culture, varieties of theoretical practices, and the artist's relation to the institutions of art. Discussions of contemporary art theory, visiting artist lectures, and visits to exhibitions, performances, and other art-related events are crucial components of the studio seminar.
Prerequisites: None.
Corequisites: Upper-division studio course.
Restrictions: Studio art majors with junior standing.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 312 Digital Media III

Content: Advanced, self-directed studio course that will prepare students to create and exhibit fully formed technology-based artworks. Students will develop and refine a single artwork, both in its formal execution and conceptual framework, culminating in a public exhibition. Students will also be tasked with smaller assignments throughout the semester, including curating an exhibition and/or applying for an artistic opportunity (such as an exhibition, residency, or internship). Consolidation of technical and conceptual skills and preparation for a professional artistic practice outside of the classroom.
Prerequisites: ART 212.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 313 Sculpture III

Content: Advanced study of form and space through self-directed projects designed by the student in consultation with the instructor. In-depth exploration of advanced sculptural concerns, as directed by the student and presented through writing, presentation, and installation of artwork. May be taken twice for credit.
Prerequisites: ART 213.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 315 Drawing III

Content: Further exploration of contemporary drawing and the development of an independent body of drawings. The major portion of the course is primarily designed to prepare the student for the senior thesis project, where an in-depth series of works is created and exhibited. Oral and written analysis, project proposals, and the artist's statement are also critical components in the furthering of the advanced student's studies. May be taken twice for credit.
Prerequisites: ART 215.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 316 Ceramics III

Content: Increasingly experimental approaches to clay are explored with a focus on materiality and metaphor. The course format builds on Ceramics II; students are expected to be self-directed in developing and executing projects and to hone their individual artistic voice. Students expand their knowledge of the ceramics field and continue to learn how the traditions of ceramics can bolster a contemporary, conceptual approach to making while developing a critical, contextual, and personally relevant body of work.
Prerequisites: ART 216.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 317 Painting III

Content: This course presents students in painting with the structure and tools needed to conduct original research and develop individual projects at the advanced painting level. Students will focus on developing a semester-long cohesive body of work through a series of advanced problems in concepts and material. Students produce writings and engage with texts for each of the projects. May be taken twice for credit.
Prerequisites: ART 217.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 319 Modern Architecture

Content: History of modern architecture from the late 18th century to the present, focusing on the way historical developments in architecture reflect and influence social values and on architecture as a unique artistic medium. Specific issues include: entirely new types of buildings and structures for a modern industrial and commercial society, new building materials, the decline of craftsmanship, the constraints and opportunities of urban planning, and the impact of new design/reproduction technologies. Provides a set of architectural concepts and terms for describing structure and space and a critical overview of the aesthetic, technical, and social issues confronting architects over the past two and a half centuries. Finally, investigates how architects themselves conceptualized the challenges facing them as architecture responded to and shaped an evolving modern world, through close readings of their writings in relation to the buildings and structures they designed.
Prerequisites: ART 100.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 320 Photography III

Content: Students will converge content with craft and polish technical analog and/or digital processing and printing skills. They will also build upon the use of lens-based media as a means to convey image intent through a proposed term-long project. The goal of this course is for each student to be engaged in a critical dialogue and discourse about his/her photographic process, and, also, to explore issues surrounding the impact of the medium on culture(s) and society as a whole. Students must have a 35 mm or larger film camera. May be taken twice for credit.
Prerequisites: ART 220.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 325 Ovid and the Visual Arts

Content: Ovid's poetry, especially Metamorphoses, has had a transformative impact on the history of art from the first decade of the Common Era to the present day. This course explores how Ovid was influenced by the visual culture of ancient Rome and how his works had a lasting influence on art and on various conceptions of representation from the Middle Ages to the present.
Prerequisites: ART 100, ART 208, CLAS 100, CLAS 201, or CLAS 202.
Usually offered: Alternate Years.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 327 Special Topics in Studio Art

Content: A studio-based class organized around themes or topics in contemporary art practice. Focus varies depending on instructor; please refer to the art department website for detailed course descriptions. Topics may include heterogeneity, hybrids, environment, time, and the human-animal relationship. May be repeated for credit with a change of topic; however, registration for subsequent sections must be done via the registrar's office.
Prerequisites: One 200-level studio art course.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 333 Visual Perspectives on Dante's Divine Comedy

Content: Dante's "Divine Comedy" and visualizations of the poem created in a variety of media from the 14th century to the present. Exploration of how Dante's poetry was influenced by the art and visual culture of his time, and how artists such as Botticelli, Michelangelo, Blake, Delacroix, Ingres, Rodin, and Rauschenberg have engaged the complex world Dante created. Examination of contemporary film and popular culture as well as high art. Consideration of the implications of Dante's concept of visible speech.
Prerequisites: ART 100, ART 208, ENG 204, ENG 241, ENG 281, or ENG 310.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 361 Modern China

Content: Examination of art produced in China from the 17th century to 1949, with a focus on work created in four cities: Suzhou, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai. Considerations of relationships between the built environment and artist production; definitions of modernity; artistic conventions and religious beliefs of the Manchu court; impacts of trade with Europe and America on visual culture; responses to new reproductive technologies, including lithography and photography; woodblock print and film as mediums of political protest.
Prerequisites: ART 150.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 367 Special Topics in Art History

Content: Seminar course co-taught between a Lewis Clark faculty member and a faculty member at another undergraduate institution, covering topics important to the disciplines of art and art history such as: nonextant art; memory and representation; visual mathematics; art and the environment.
Prerequisites: One previous art or art history course.
Usually offered: Every third year, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 401 Art After 1945

Content: Art and art criticism from 1945 to the present, facilitated through exploration of current work, museums, galleries.
Prerequisites: ART 100. ART 201 recommended.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 444 Practicum

Content: Internship or practicum to be arranged with instructor.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Senior standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall, spring, and summer.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 451 Theory in Practice

Content: Reading and critical analysis organized around themes or problems in art history. Focus varies depending on instructor's teaching and research areas. Previous themes have included art history and memory and art and the environment. May be taken twice for credit.
Prerequisites: One 100- or 200-level art history course.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 452 Memory as Representation

Content: Exploration of memory as a form of representation and works of art especially concerned with memory. Interdisciplinary approach to the concept of memory: How art might help us understand the process by which memories are not merely recalled or retrieved, but assembled and constructed in a complex and mediated process of representation. Beginning with memory in classical antiquity and medieval European culture, ending with meditations on memory in contemporary art. Some areas of focus will include memory and the body; image and text; trauma; public memorials; who gets remembered and who does not; the "accuracy" of memory; the history of art as a practice of memory (sometimes damaging).
Prerequisites: 100- or 200-level art history course.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 491 Senior Art Practice

Content: First half of the capstone series in studio art. Provides a firm foundation and proficiency in a chosen medium, and fosters a critical dialogue and interdisciplinary discourse about art-making through critiques and visiting artists. Students will work on a series of writings and research including interviews and project proposals.
Prerequisites: 300-level studio art course.
Restrictions: Art major, senior standing, and instructor consent.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 492 Senior Art Projects

Content: Second half of the capstone series in studio art. Supports students' thesis work by focusing on professional practices and a professional exhibition. Students will refine their final thesis work through a series of critiques and discussions with both peers and faculty. Students will prepare artist statements; develop an understanding about gallery presentation; and design, plan, or curate an outside project with peers.
Prerequisites: ART 491.
Restrictions: Art major, senior standing, and instructor consent.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 493 Senior Seminar: Art History

Content: Advanced research seminar. Development of skills essential to the practices of art history: writing, researching, oral presentation, intellectual dialogue. Culminates in a 40-minute oral presentation and a 25-page thesis.
Prerequisites: ART 401 or ART 451. Two courses at the 300 level or above. HIST 300, PHIL 203, or SOAN 245 strongly recommended.
Restrictions: Senior standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.

ART 499 Independent Study

Content: Independent projects designed in consultation with department faculty.
Prerequisites: The 300-level course in the medium or art historical period.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing and consent required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 1-4.