How do mechanisms of perception structure responses to visual art? What is at stake when words describe images? By means of intensive looking, thinking, speaking, and writing, this course introduces the student to a series of problems and issues in the description and analysis of works of art. Because the course is also an introduction to the historical study of art, it is intended for students with no previous course work in the field. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

Ceramics are tools for use, surfaces for ornament, feats of technology, and carriers of meaning across cultural and geographic borders. Ceramics produced in east and southeast Asia are considered among the world’s first global commodities. They are also fascinating works of art that were copied and translated by potters in regions including West Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This course is framed around a series of study visits to examine Asian ceramics in the collection of the Berkeley Art Museum. Each week, close object analysis is paired with visual and textual analysis in order to engage with methodologies and critical issues in ceramics history and material culture studies. Across four modules, we discuss topics such as ceramics as archeological evidence; the figure of the craftsman; the art of tea; and ceramics in global trade. This course fulfills the second half of the Reading and Composition (R&C) requirement. We will engage closely with texts and works of art, developing strategies to be effective readers, writers and researchers at the college level. In the first half of the course, we will be guided by primary sources, scholarship and museum catalogues in the field of Asian and global ceramics history. Students will study texts closely for how they use sources, build an argument, and enter into an academic conversation. Frequent short writing assignments will draw on object and visual analysis skills practiced in class, and respond to primary sources and methodological texts. In the second half of the course, we will produce a longer (10-12 page) research paper, crafting a historical argument based on the analysis of an object or set of objects in the Berkeley Art Museum collection.

Requisites

• UC Entry Level Writing Requirement, English 1A, or equivalent. Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills