Visual Arts Courses

VISA 1F90
Introduction to the History of Art: from Prehistory to the Present
Critical survey of major styles in architecture, sculpture and painting from antiquity to the 20th-century. Principal monuments, buildings or studio artifacts, their period characteristics, the artist's cultural role and the critical or theoretical trends that have influenced our reading of the history of art.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Note: no studio work.

VISA 1P93
Introduction to Drawing
Fundamental principles of drawing. Analytic, creative and graphic notation.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: open to students admitted to VISA or VISA (single or combined) majors.
Note: portfolio assessment required prior to registration. Enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 1P94
Figure Drawing
Fundamentals of drawing the figure anatomically and expressively.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: open to students admitted to VISA or VISA (single or combined) majors.
Prerequisite: VISA 1P93.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 1P96
Foundation Studio
Basic aesthetic and conceptual processes that underlie visual art production. Two- and three-dimensional formal principles, fundamental critical issues and stylistic/material development. Examples from historic and contemporary art practice provide context for studio projects and readings.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week. .
Restriction: open to students admitted to VISA, or VISA (single or combined) majors.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Note: portfolio assessment required prior to registration. Enrolment limited to 15 students in studio courses. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 1P97
Studio Now: Introduction to Contemporary Practice
The making, thinking and language of contemporary art from the perspective of the studio practitioner. Field trips, visits to exhibitions, studio and written assignments exploring the dynamics between contemporary art practice and theory. Emphasis on multimedia, alternative or marginal practices, current studio trends and the cultural reception of art.
Lectures, studio work, gallery visits, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: open to students admitted to VISA, or VISA (single or combined) majors.
Prerequisite: VISA 1P96.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 2F05
Introduction to Sculpture
Fundamentals of three-dimensional work: design, construction and formal analysis. Emphasis on modelling techniques and principles of assemblage including mold or form making, casting and fabrication.
Lectures, studio work, 20 hours per week.
Restriction: open to VISA (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide.
Note: offered in spring or summer session only. Enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 2F26
Introduction to Photography
Fundamentals of the camera, the exposure and processing of black and white film and basic darkroom printing with an emphasis on non-silver and alternative processes and their relationship to other art forms. Reference to the history of photography, critical analysis and photographic theory will supplement group critiques.
Lectures, studio work, off-campus visits, 20 hours per week.
Restriction: open to VISA (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide.
Prerequisite: VISA 1P97 (1F96) or permission of the instructor.
Note: offered in summer session only. Enrolment limited to 15 students in studio courses. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 2F95
Introduction to Digital Imaging
(also offered as COMM 2F95)
Basic concepts in two-dimensional image creation and manipulation for print and the web. Systematic overview and projectbased application of fundamental graphic software including Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker, Flash and Dreamweaver.
Lectures, lab, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: open to VISA (single or combined) or COMM (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide.
Prerequisite: VISA 1P97 (1F96) or COMM 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 2F96
Interdisciplinary Workshop I
Currency of multimedia and the influences of interdisciplinary practice on conceptual, video, performance and information art, public projections and site-specific or installation art. Emphasis on collective and individual exhibition practices, alternative spaces, applied technology and critical approaches to institutional, cultural or independent models of art.
Lectures, studio work, off-campus projects, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1P97 (1F96) or permission of the instructor.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 2M90-2M99
Special Studies in Studio
Studies in a specialized area of the visual arts.

VISA 2P02
Painting I
Fundamentals of painting: introduction to colour theory, media and methods.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: open to VISA (single or combined) majors.
Prerequisites: VISA 1F90 and either VISA 1P94 (1F92) or 1P97 (1F96) or permission of the instructor.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 2P03
Painting II
Fundamentals of painting: introduction to the analytic, narrative and expressive concepts of acrylic painting.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: open to VISA (single or combined) majors.
Prerequisite: VISA 2P02.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students . Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 2P40
Early to High Renaissance Art and Architecture
Major monuments, buildings and artworks of the period from several critical perspectives including the humanist influence on the arts in Florence and Rome, the issue of patronage and the question of the artist's cultural status.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 2P41
Baroque Art and Architecture
Influence of artists such as Caravaggio, Gentileschi, Rembrandt, Rubens and Poussin examined in terms of the broader definition of Baroque art within 17th- and 18th-century Europe.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 2P50
Canadian Identities: From Nouvelle France to the Mid-20th Century
Canadian cultural life from Nouvelle France to the art and architecture of Confederation; from 18th-century topographical sketches to the landscape icons of the Group of Seven; from the Social Realism of the 1930s to the beginnings of abstraction; with an emphasis on historical identity, cultural definition and nationalism in art.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 2P51
Canadian Art since 1945: Contemporary Trends
Major conceptual, critical and theoretical concerns of the visual artist; from Les Automatistes to neo-expressionism, Pop to neo-Pop, conceptual art to photo-conceptualism, installation to site-specific sculpture, video to multi-media.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 2P90
Art in Revolution: 1750-1851
Art's role and function within the paradigm shifts of the modern world, its relation to politics, social and cultural change. Neoclassicism and the principal movements leading up to the French Revolution and beyond, Romanticism, Realism and the Industrial Revolution.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 2P91
Modernism, Modernity and Contemporaneity: 1851-1907
Thematic examination of individuality, contemporaneity and progress in the context of the period's cultural, political and technological changes.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 2P93
Drawing III
Further investigation of drawing materials and techniques with emphasis on compositional structures.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: open to VISA (single or combined) majors.
Prerequisite: VISA 1P94 (1F92).
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 2P94
Drawing IV
Idea development, integration of media and conceptual approaches.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: open to VISA (single or combined) majors.
Prerequisite: VISA 2P93.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 3F96
Interdisciplinary Workshop II
Studio workshop for the development of independent projects based on the multi disciplinary examination of critical discourses with reference to identity, visual culture, representation and the construction of meaning. Projects involve new media exploration, collaboration, collective practice and investigation of alternatives in public dissemination.
Lectures, studio work, off-campus projects, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 2F96.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 3F99
Honours Tutorial
Advanced study in an area of mutual interest to the student and the instructor.
Restriction: students must have a minimum 75 percent overall average and permission of the Chair.
Note: a written proposal must be approved before registration.

VISA 3M00-3M04
Special Studies in Art History
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 3M05-3M10
Art Studies Abroad
Unique cultural, architectural or regional setting examined through the eye of the visual artist, critic or art historian. Utilizing the host country's institutional resources, museums and galleries. For students with an interest in both studio and art history.
Restriction: permission of the Chair.
Prerequisite: one VISA credit or permission of the instructor.

VISA 3M90-3M95
Special Studies in Visual Arts: Praxis
Studies that combine theory and studio.

VISA 3P02
Painting III
Personal painting strategies reflecting individual ideas. Writing artist's statements. Readings in contemporary practice.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 2P03 (2F03).
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 3P03
Painting IV
Creation of a body of paintings that reflect the inter-relationships among critical strategies, personal mythologies, process and meaning.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 3P02.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 3P05
The European Avant-Garde: 1905-1960
Contextual analysis of the European and Russian avant-garde movements in art, design and architecture with an emphasis on principal artists, theoretical or primary documents and the critical reaction.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 3P06
The American Avant-Garde: 1912-1970
From the Armory Show to the European influence on American art and photography of the Early Century, the International Style in architecture, to the emergence of the New York school, the Pop movement, Minimalism and conceptual art and their hold on the art and culture of the 60s.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or permission of the instructor.

VISA 3P22
The Art and Architecture of Iron Age Italy and the Roman Republic
(also offered as CLAS 3P22)
Art and architecture of the cultures of the Italian peninsula, in the first millennium BC, within the framework of cultural change and external influences.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or one credit from CLAS 1P91, 1P92, 1P93, 1P95, 1P97.

VISA 3P23
The Art and Architecture of Rome in the Imperial Age
(also offered as CLAS 3P23)
Roman art and architecture from Augustus to Late Antiquity. Christian art and architecture and the influence of Roman aesthetics on the Renaissance and beyond.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or one credit from CLAS 1P91, 1P92, 1P93, 1P95, 1P97.

VISA 3P24
The Art and Architecture of Early Greece
(also offered as CLAS 3P24)
Greek art and architecture from the Bronze age through the end of the Archaic period within the framework of historical and cultural change.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or one credit from CLAS 1P91, 1P92, 1P93, 1P95, 1P97.

VISA 3P25
The Art and Architecture of Classical Greece and the Hellenistic World
(also offered as CLAS 3P25)
Greek art and architecture from the early Classical era through the Hellenistic period within the framework of historical and cultural change.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or one credit from CLAS 1P91, 1P92, 1P93, 1P95, 1P97.

VISA 3P90
Readings in Contemporary Art I: 1970-1990
Advanced seminar with an emphasis on what constitutes the paradigm shift from Late Modernism to Postmodernism.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 and two credits from VISA 2P50, 2P51, 2P90, 2P91, 3P05, 3P06 or permission of the instructor.
Note: required for all honours students in VISA but open to students with third year standing.

VISA 3P91
Readings in Contemporary Art II: Art Now
Current trends in the production, reception and interpretation of art and discursive approaches to contemporary issues including the critical text, theoretical and cultural readings.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 3P90.
Note: required for all honours students in VISA but open to students who have a minimum of 9.0 overall credits.

VISA 3P93
Expressive Drawing
Advanced drawing as a means of expressing personal and subjective imagery.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 2P94 (2F92).
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 3P94
Contemporary Drawing
Advanced drawing which questions the boundaries of media, process and creative expression.
Lectures, studio work, 5 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 3P93.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply.

VISA 4F06
Honours Studio
Advanced studio practice from concept to public exhibition. Readings, grant applications, production schedules, exhibition coordination, catalogue preparation, and advertising.
Studio work, 5 hours per week.
Restriction: students must have a minimum 75 percent overall average and permission of the instructor.
Note: enrolment may be restricted due to limitations of space. Each student must submit a written project proposal for Program approval before May 1. Honours standing in VISA is required. Materials fee required. Students may need additional materials which they must supply. Students should contact the department for further information.

VISA 4F99
Honours Thesis
Critical, historical or creative project in the visual arts of mutual interest to the student and the instructor.
Restriction: students must have a minimum 75 percent overall average and permission of the Chair.
Note: projects must be arranged in the spring for the following year. A written proposal must be approved before registration. Honours standing in VISA is required.

VISA 4M00-4M09
Study in Mediterranean Lands
(also offered as CLAS 4M00-4M09)
Topographical investigations of ancient sites and monuments. Study tours of the great cities and museums of the Mediterranean world with emphasis on the art and architecture of the Prehistoric, Classical and later periods.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Note: offered in the Summer Session for three or four weeks abroad.

VISA 4M01
2001-2002: Monumental Rome from Romulus to the Renaissance
(also offered as CLAS 4M01 and ITAL 4M01)
Rome as a city of monuments, from its founding to the Renaissance. The Roman and imperial fora, baths, Colosseum, mediaeval and Renaissance churches and palaces, including St. Peter's and the Vatican. Emphasis on sites both as monuments and relics, and for their social function.
Restriction: permission of the Department.
Note: given in English. Offered in Italy for four weeks. Students are responsible for travel, accommodation and other expenses.

VISA 4P13
The Art and Archaeology of Cyprus
(also offered as CLAS 4P13)
Cultural history of Cyprus from the Neolithic period through the early Byzantine period, based on the archaeological record. Role of Cyprus in the civilization of the eastern Mediterranean.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or one CLAS credit numbered 2(alpha)90 or above or permission of the instructor.

VISA 4P14
The Aegean Bronze Age
(also offered as CLAS 4P14)
Development of the Bronze Age cultures of the Aegean Basin from 3000 to 1100 BC. Art and architecture of the Minoans on Crete and the Mycenaeans on the Greek mainland will be stressed.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or one CLAS credit numbered 2(alpha)90 or above or permission of the instructor.

VISA 4V30-4V39
Topics in Mediterranean Art and Architecture
(also offered as CLAS 4V30-4V39)
Topics and problems in current art historical and archaeological research pertaining to the art and architecture of the ancient Greek or Roman world.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: VISA 1F90 or one credit from CLAS 3P22, 3P23, 3P24, 3P25.