ART 232 African American Art: A Visual & Cultural History

3 hours 

This course examines African American artists and art since colonialism, as a means to gain insight into the American experience. Key to content is the means artists used to create art despite socioeconomic oppression. Methods of art analysis include biography (analyzing art using facts from the artist’s life), contextual analysis (considering socio-politics, economics, and race in the meaning of art), and semiotics (identifying universal meaning in art).  Among the styles and periods covered are slave crafts, Harlem Renaissance art, Social Realism, the Black Arts Movement, Post Black Art, Afrofuturism as well as photography and architecture.