Registration ends 07.4.2026 at 23:59 h

This course will introduce students to what it means to look at art and to think and write about it.

Among the methods covered feature: Formalism; Iconography and Iconology; the Social History of Art; Feminist Perspectives; Queer and Decolonial Perspectives.

Emphasis will be put on close reading and close looking, and on writing about individual artworks. The students will be assigned an artwork at the start of the seminar, which they will explore in depth for the written exercise and final exam.

The goal of the course is to gain the basic skills in understanding, describing, analyzing and contextualizing images, especially in the Western tradition. At the same time, the course puts a high emphasis on the close reading of complex texts. It views both images and texts as artefacts that reveal more about themselves the more you engage them. Slow looking and close reading are the pillars of this course.

Further information on teaching evaluation: https://www.leuphana.de/en/teaching/quality-management/evaluation/course-evaluation.html