Art History

What Came Before You

Without knowing about what came before you – the techniques and styles of well-known artists, how art is connected with culture, the context of famous works – it’s hard to truly delve into the creation of your own imagination. In art history, we examine artistic production across many times and places; every class considers artifacts against their cultural background. Most courses also examine the nature of art history itself: how value judgments are made, by whom and how they change over time.

How Culture Influences Art – and Vice Versa

By its very nature, art history defies boundaries between different fields of knowledge. Art history classes at UW-Green Bay explore the social and cultural contexts of art and architecture and incorporate not only social, economic and political history, but also gender history and gender politics. We also examine religious belief, human psychology, modes of creativity and issues of ethics, aesthetics and artistic practice.

With its emphasis on global artistic practice, our curriculum explores many world cultures and artistic traditions. In art history classes, you'll learn to promote and value diversity, and gain insight into your own preconceptions of the world. You'll also gain the tools and vocabulary needed for interpreting visual culture and for decoding and analyzing the visual world around you.

Art Curriculum Guide

Want to Know More?

Minimalism? Maximalism? Abstract Expressionism? Neo-Expressionism? Settling an argument on who painted what? Our faculty, like Professor Sam Watson, are experts at sorting things out (including choosing the best medium for your message).