Global Art Histories offers a broad survey of art and visual culture spanning from the early modern period to the contemporary. In different cultures and through different historical periods, art is used variously to express and extend existing power and authority. Yet such images have also been used for revolution, activism and change.
In this unique course students will be introduced to a range of art practices situated within a global context and will consider art works produced in Māori and Pacific cultures alongside European and American, Indian, Middle Eastern and Asian traditions. Taking a comparative approach, the course provides students with knowledge of the world's most important cultural traditions. It trains students to recognise how power manipulates vision, concepts and materials, and how artists have challenged this power.
The classes are structured within thematic topics, which include the expression and representation of authority and power, the emergence of different perspectives on modernity, and different cultural and political explorations of feminism, Mana Wāhine, gender and identity. Other themes include migration and diaspora.