This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module aims to give you an advanced understanding of debates, concepts and methods surrounding a selection of focus research areas in art history and philosophy of art. The module is intended to give a broad picture of research in art history and philosophy of art, reflecting the broad range of art historical and art philosophical research concerns of the members of the History & Philosophy of Art subject area and the Aesthetics Research Group. Focus research areas in art history could include: Renaissance art, Eighteenth Century Art, Nineteenth Century Art, Modern art, contemporary art, the print, photography, collecting, and curating. Focus research areas in philosophy of art could include, the philosophy of pictures and photographs, beauty, the sublime, sentimentality, erotic art and pornography, and fiction, fakes and forgeries.
Eleven two hour seminars per week
100% Coursework: 4000 word essay (70%); 2500 word diary (30%)
Art History:
Belting, H. Art History after Modernism, University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Cheetham, M. A., Holly, M. A., Moxey, K., The Subjects of Art History: Historical Objects in Contemporary Perspective, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Crow, T. Modern Art in the Common Culture, Yale University Press, 1996.
Pooke, G. Contemporary British Art: An Introduction, London: Routledge, 2010.
Preziosi, D. (ed.), The Art of Art HIstory: A Critical Anthology, Oxford University Press, 1998.
Schapiro, M. Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries, New York: G. Braziller: 1978.
Philosophy of Art:
Danto, A.C. After the End of Art, Princeton UP 1998.
Budd, M. Values of Art: Pictures, Poetry and Music, Allen Lane 1995.
Kahn, S., Meskin, A. (eds.), Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology, Blackwell 2008.
Lamarque, P., Olsen,S. Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition, Blackwell, 2004.
Kieran, M.. "Emotions, Art and Immorality" in Peter Goldie (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Emotion (Oxford: OUP, 2010).
Scruton, R. “Photography and Representation” Roger Scruton, ‘Photography and Representation’ Critical Inquiry , Vol. 7, No. 3 (Spring, 1981), pp. 577-603
Friday, J. “Scruton's Photography and Representation” in Scruton’s Aesthetics. Hamilton, A. and N. Zanwill (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan (2012), pp. 128-146.
Lintott, S., Irvin, S., "Sex Objects and Sexy Subjects: A Feminist Reclamation of Sexiness," To appear in Body Aesthetics, ed. Sherri Irvin (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
Upon completion of this module students will have:
11.1 developed an advanced understanding of debates surrounding a number of active research areas in current study of art history and philosophy of art.
11.2 acquired the particular conceptual tools and methods necessary for independent art historical and philosophical engagement in these areas.
11.3 expanded their ability to develop argument, engage critically with relevant literature, and contextualise issues and materials within the framework of contemporary art historical and art theoretical thought.
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