ARTS230 Survey of the Visual Arts
Course Description
This course offers a foundation in the visual arts, elements, styles, and critical analysis for beginning art students. Emphasis is on identifying and explaining styles of visual arts from various cultures, eras, and places. The course focuses on the interpretation of art to understand meaning, and the ability to make critical judgment based on principles of art. Students learn to communicate ideas and expression through their own creative work in a two-dimensional, three-dimensional, video, and other time-based media.
Topics and Objectives
Defining the Visual Arts
- Define the purpose and language of the visual arts.
- Differentiate the visual arts from other art forms of creative expression.
- Identify the elements and principles of art.
- List artistic skills necessary in the creation of art.
- Demonstrate an aesthetic understanding of the visual arts.
Artistic Skills and Knowledge for Creating
- Interpret meaning in visual art from various eras, cultures, and locations.
- Compare ideas and meanings of visual art through the eras.
- Analyze the developments and patterns in the creation of art.
- Create visual art to communicate meaning, aesthetic awareness, and cultural value.
- Apply methods for creating and expressing visual art.
Renaissance and Baroque
- Recognize the characteristics and artists from the Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque periods.
- Examine the role of the visual artist in context of historical culture and influence.
- Identify expressive, sensory, formal design, and technical properties of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
- Compare artistic choices and skills in the creation of art in the Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque periods.
Enlightenment and Romantic
- Recognize the characteristics and artists from the Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism periods.
- Examine the influence of the visual arts in context of historical culture.
- Identify expressive, sensory, formal design, and technical properties of the Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism periods.
- Compare artistic choices and skills in the creation of art in the Rococo, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism periods.
Pre-Modernism, Modernism, Pluralism
- Recognize the characteristics and artists from the Impressionism, Abstraction, and Surrealism periods.
- Examine the influence of the visual arts in context of historical culture.
- Identify expressive, sensory, formal design, and technical properties of the Impressionism, Abstraction, and Surrealism periods.
- Compare artistic choices and skills in the creation of art from the Impressionism, Abstraction, and Surrealism periods.
- Construct methods for creating and expressing visual art.
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