Architecture, Sculpture, painting, architecture and urbanism of the Mediterranean world from the conquests of Alexander the Great to Rome's annexation of Ptolemaic Egypt in 30 B.C.E. Examines artistic styles, art and intellectual currents, cultural hybridity in the arts of the Hellenized East, and the Hellenistic transformation of Roman Republican artistic patronage. Prerequisite: not open to freshman. GE: F

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Painting and sculpture in Egypt from the fourth millennium to the first century BCE. Emphasis on the relations between visual representation and religious and political practice, including special attention to the formation and maintenance of the canonical tradition. Prerequisite: not open to freshman. GE: F WRT

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MINIMALISM AND THE NEW YORK ART SCENE OF THE 1960S

Minimalism emerged in the early 1960s as a powerful corrective to the deeply personalized work of the Abstract Expressionists and a defiant alternative to both the Neo-Dadaists of the 1950s--Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg--and the Pop artists -- Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg etc.--who burst upon the scene at the beginning of the 60s with their socio-infused aesthetic derived from the world of commerce and mundane culture. Often characterized as a cohesive style practiced by a group of similar minded artists, mostly in New York, Minimalism actually was never considered a movement by the artists who made what came to be known as minimalist art. Nor were those artists united in their vision of what constituted appropriate practices and products, resulting in heated exchanges and deep theoretical divides, even if the art that they made or ordered appeared to be united by the reigning mantra of the decade: less is more.

This seminar will examine the emergence and swift establishment of this non-movement movement, the major artists involved, the venues they developed, and the ways in which their work was described and debated not only by the artists/practitioners but also by the increasingly important cadre of critics, curators, and dealers. Attention will also be paid to the marketing of this work and its acquisition by an expanding art collecting public.

Central to our consideration will be the meanings ascribed to this body of painting and sculpture and the ways in which those meanings themselves can be decoded. Equally important will be the relationship of this ''cool'' ''detached'' ''primary'' art to the tumultuous moment in which it appeared. It could be argued that no decade was more contentious or more formative than the 1960s. That it would give rise to some of the most restrained paintings and sculptures the country had ever witnessed is surely one of the decade's most salient and problematic contradictions. Making sense of that will be one of the seminar's particular challenges.

Minimalist art also raises serious questions about gender and difference, which, of course, were crucial issues for American society during the decade as a whole. This art likewise poses fundamental questions about the nature of art and artistic activity, the definitions of time and space, and the role of the artist in a world that is being reconstructed from within and without.

In addition to regular class meetings, the seminar will take full advantage of opportunities presented in area museums: the Minimalism exhibition, for example, called A Minimalist Future? Art as Object 1958-1968, that Ann Goldstein has organized for MOCA and that opens on March 15; the symposium on Minimalism to be held at the Getty on Saturday May 1; and the larger exhibition of international minimalism, called Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-1070s, that Lynn Zelevansky is curating at LACMA and that opens on June 13. Class sessions, therefore, will be held both

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Special research in American painting and sculpture, 1700-1950. Prerequisite: graduate standing

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