Art history essay topics

[courrier]

I'm a undergrad student in Japan, studying art history. I'm planning to attend a grad school in the States, and I want to know what kind of essay/assignment topics do undergrad or grad get.

I just want to grasp what it's like specifically to study art history in the States.

If you took/are taking art history courses or art history major, pls help! It doesn't have to be exact

[pears]

I'm not quite an Art History person (archaeology; art history was one of my undergrad & high school loves, though! — still is, really), but you may have some more luck asking this + clicking around on the Art History forum (click for link). Hope that helps! Good luck!

[Seeking]

Naoko,

 

There is a vast diversity in the kinds of assignment topics Undergrads and Grads get at different levels.

 

If you can outline what you've been used to in Japan in your Art History program, I can tell you more about it.

[courrier]

Thanks!

Any topic would help. Like Western modern to ancient Egypt. My course in Japan covers anything related to art such as aesthetics and music and fine arts.

My research is on modern Japanese art, but I also take music theory/history classes and visual cultures.

 

I think even a freshmen assignment on Renaissance would help me, as well as an assignment from an internship would.

[Seeking]

In the US, you get the maximum benefit from your Undergrad and Grad level education if you can orient most of your research paper assignments along the area you find most interesting and possibly you would like to research in at Grad school. Your courses in other disciplines can be supporting to this primary area of interest. 

 

In short, your study should be focused. Scattering the focus often leads to problems at a later stage.

 

So, if you are interested in modern Japanese art and visual culture with secondary interest in music, it would be better for you to develop this area further. 

 

Perhaps, you can work more in Japanese visual culture from the modern and contemporary period for the time being. Taking this as the general area, you can decide upon an artist, a group of objects, or an idea that you would like to work on.

 

For example, in some American universities a course on Art and Body in contemporary Western culture is taught. Within this course, one can take a group of paintings by a particular artist from the 20th/21st century and study issues of gender, power relations, or identity and explore the representation of the human body in these paintings from these perspectives.

 

It's not always necessary that similar questions would be relevant for a non-Western culture such as Japan. But this is only an example of how one goes about devising a topic for one's assignment. 

 

Taking an analogy from above - if you are interested in Modern Japanese visual culture for example, you can select a few examples of paintings, objects, sculptures, photographs etc from the modern Japanese culture and study how the human bodies are represented in the examples you have taken, what particular questions are relevant in studying these images, if it is possible to study what questions were important for the artist while making these works of art, what it means for the Japanese society for that particular time and place, whether these representations are influenced by the contemporary Western aesthetic sense and you can even question if it is at all relevant to explore Japanese art from a perspective of studying the human body and why.

 

I would also like to underline that while exploring these questions, at many US schools the study of style and technique involved in art making remains very important, as also the styles of different artists. So if your courses deal with fine art, this method may appeal to you. However, it may not appeal much to those who are interested in methods that don't deal much with artist-specific style and technique.

 

Above is just an example. You don't have to follow it. But you can use it as a guide to devise your own topic.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Seeking

[courrier]

Thank you so much for the specific info!

 

I was feeling that taking music theory courses are a little irrelevant to my research, although it is of my interest.

 

Do you know how many classes/hours in a week the US schools usually offer for the undergrad seminar?

My seminar class is only once a week and I only have 2 to 3 presentations/papers for the class each semester. Also, my school does not offer so many East Asian art history courses. I feel like I need to study and write more on my research topic.

[Seeking]

They won't look for specific details about how many hours/classes a week you have done a particular course. They know that universities in different countries have different systems. Many countries don't even have the hours/credit system.

 

What they will look for is that you should have done at least 6-7 Art History courses in your undergrad level and at least a couple of them should be in the area that you want to study at the Grad level. It will help if you've got good grades in these courses.

 

Music theory is not necessarily unrelated. In many Asian cultures visual and performing arts are inter-related. There are paintings based on music.

 

I don't know if this is the case in Japan, but you don't have to talk about Music theory in your personal statement. Just focus on your primary area of research.

 

Of course, wherever you apply, make sure that there is a professor there who specialises in your primary area of research.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Seeking