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What is Art History?

Our Mission statement holds that:
"The objective of the Art History Program...is to provide students with a systematic examination of world art and architecture...Our program emphasizes formal analysis and the location of works of art within diverse historical, political, religious and philosophical contexts."

While most programs in Art History or the History of Art would hold to many of the elements in our definition of Art History (this one from Hamilton College, for example), the complexity of the field can be seen in the variations.  This page from the University of York raises the "existential" questions of "what can we know" about art, as well as what one can do with that knowing.  Stanford raises the question of "close observation," again a concern shared  in all Art History departments.  This exhibit from Sweet Briar delightfully complicates the question by asking the meaning of "art," "the artist," and the identity of both as features of the definitions of "art history."  The definition from UMASS Lowell assists in understanding how visual culture and art/fine art history might be related, while this story in the Harvard Crimson on the hiring of a new Art Historian, defines the two major "rift" points within Art History as formalism and historicism.

As the years more forward, we will be gathering information from faculty and other Programs which help us better define what it is when we talk about "Art History."