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  • » Courses — Fall 2008
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Proseminar

The Proseminar equips students with the skills required for scholarship in the history of decorative arts. Class discussions introduce a range of methodologies and critical approaches. Exercises train students in essential tasks such as conducting formal analyses, writing catalogue entries, and making visual presentations. This writing-intensive course stresses the mechanics of expository writing through projects that require students to conduct and integrate primary and secondary source research. Each student selects one work from the Cooper-Hewitt collection to study throughout the semester.

Survey of Decorative Arts I

This course provides an overview of European decorative arts from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, focusing on Italy, France, and England. Discussions address the style, function, and meaning of the decorative arts in both daily and ceremonial life. Drawing on interdisciplinary readings, the course considers objects and ornaments within their cultural, political, and social contexts. As the semester progresses, students explore how the transmission of style, the migration of craftsmen, the availability of new materials and techniques, and the development of artist-designers who created unified decorative schemes, all led to the establishment of an international vocabulary of design.

Survey of Decorative Arts II

Students examine the decorative arts from the nineteenth century to the present. Sessions on the nineteenth century consider Neo-classicism, the many revival styles, the Aesthetic movement, the Arts and Crafts movement, and Art Nouveau within the broader history of the period. Individual craftsmen, firms, and important style-makers and commentators on the decorative arts are discussed, as is the effect of industrialization on design and objects. Moving into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the course considers decorative arts in Europe and America and addresses various theories of modernism as well as the development of industrial design. Twentieth-century topics include the Wiener Werkstaette, Bauhaus, Art Moderne, “Good Design”, and Postmodernism.

Artifacts in Their Contexts

The course thus examines material artifacts and their relationships to social and cultural contexts. Theoretical approaches will be introduced to examine, interpret and account for the significance, signification and value attributed to mass-produced artifacts. Investigation of the artifact per se, will lead to discussions of the role of the artifact in human consciousness and experience, the nature of decorative and designed artifacts, the function and style of artifacts, time and space, technology etc. Specific artifacts will be considered as well as types of artifacts, relative to their production, consumption and use. Contexts will include the domestic sphere, public spaces, the museum, and the store. Students will be required to research and to critically analyze artifacts of their choice and to study them relative to their contexts.

Decorative Arts Theory

This seminar offers a historiography of art theory, with special attention given to decorative arts. Readings begin with the Renaissance, when a hierarchy of the arts was first established. Discussion moves to the codification of art theory by the academies of the seventeenth century and the aesthetic theories of the eighteenth. Nineteenth-century studies of ornament emerge as an essential strand of theoretical discussion, with emphasis given to the works of Jones, Riegl, and Semper. The mechanization of art production in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries resulted in a renewed attention to craftsmanship and consideration of an industrial aesthetic, as seen in the writings of Morris, Ruskin, Wright, and Le Corbusier. With the replacement of decorative arts with the more current fields of design and material culture, the question emerges whether this marks the end of the decorative arts, or rather a reinvention of a theoretical discourse.

Museology

This course focuses on the history of the museum from the Renaissance kunstkammer to the public galleries of today’s museum, with particular attention given to the collection and display of decorative arts and design. Readings range from the psychology of collecting, the canonization of culture, and the narrative of display, to the implications of public funding. The history of the museum has played an important role in the classification of objects, and in the designation of value. Case studies examine these shifting rubrics in museums of history, of culture, of individual’s collections, of science, of natural history, of design, and — no less significantly — in museums of art. Class meetings will alternate between group discussions and working presentations from museum curatorial staff.

What is Not Painting: Aesthetic Experience in Design, the Decorative Arts and Architecture

The history of modern aesthetics is essentially a history of philosophy and theory of art: a history of theory trying to think aesthetic experience through the idiom of painting. One result of this is that all that is not painting, design, the decorative arts and architecture especially but also most pre-Renaissance and non-western arts are inadequately understood and theorized. To attempt to counter this unfortunate bias towards the literal image, the seminar explores a variety of ways in which we can formulate a better understanding of the aesthetic work of all that is not painting. Using both theory and case studies, the intent is to develop a critical working vocabulary though which we can understand the aesthetic, normative and ethical challenges and opportunities posed by works in design, the decorative arts and architecture.

Materials and Techniques in the Decorative Arts

This course introduces students to technical and material aspects of the decorative arts. In a small group, we will consider both historic and contemporary forms of production across a wide range of media, including furniture and woodwork, prints and paper, ceramics, glass, wallcoverings, textiles, and metalwork. The class visits museums, manufacturers, workshops, and galleries around the city for behind-the-scenes visits as we draw on the expertise of craftspeople, designers, curators, conservators, and dealers. In addition to developing a basic knowledge of technique and process in the decorative arts, one of the main aims of the class is to acquaint students with sources that may be useful to them later in their studies and careers in the field.

Survey of Ceramics

This course surveys the history of western ceramics. It begins with an introduction to the technology of ceramics, focusing on body types, formation, and firing and decorating techniques. Subsequent lectures present intensive histories of Asian ceramics, German porcelain, Chinese export porcelain, French porcelain, English pottery and porcelain, and American ceramics. Lectures are supplemented with visits to public and private collections.

Survey of Costume: 1700–1860

Dress is a personal form of expression shaped by societal conventions, artistic trends, and established notions of body and gender. This course surveys dress and fashion accessories from the late seventeenth through mid-nineteenth centuries focusing principally on the trends of England and France. During these one hundred and fifty years, fashion shifts from the purview of the nobility to a general preoccupation of the middle class. It follows the general aesthetic trends prevalent in other decorative arts and is an interpretable barometer of social change. This survey emphasizes fluctuations of silhouette and the meanings of dress within the larger society.

Survey of Glass

This survey of Western glassmaking methods, production and design, from the ancient period to the nineteenth century, includes the major techniques and designers. After a brief introduction to the history of glass, this course emphasizes the glassmaking and decorative traditions of Italy, France, England, Germany, and America. Topics include the impact of mechanized production as well as the innovative techniques that emerged in the nineteenth century. Visits to museum collections and a glassmaking studio supplement the course.

Survey of Jewelry

Across cultures and through history people have chosen to ornament themselves with jewelry. An examination of jewelry illustrates the aesthetic, design, and technical developments of its time and offers insights into the cultural forces at work on both the maker and wearer. As personal adornment, jewelry exists at the intersection between the production of an artist, the desires of a wearer, and the perceptions of the viewer. This survey follows the development of jewelry from the renaissance through the twentieth century, emphasizing relationships between jewelry, dress, and other forms of body adornment, and jewelry as a personal and societal statement, while studying techniques and media employed in the creation of jewelry.

Survey of Silver

Silver has played a significant role in the decorative and fine arts since ancient times. After an introduction to the properties of the metal and to both the traditional and industrial techniques of its fabrication and ornamentation, the course focuses on the products made by European, English, and American precious metalsmiths since the Middle Ages. Identification and connoisseurship are discussed. Students visit museum collections and auction previews of gold and silver.

Survey of Textiles

This course introduces the culture and history of textiles from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries. The interdisciplinary class looks at textile’s full significance as a sought-after commodity in world trade, and fosters an understanding of production, technology, distribution, and function, as well as decorative and ornamental characteristics. Varied approaches to the study of textiles are discussed. Attention is paid to developments and influences of style and ornament associated with specific geographical regions, cities, media, designers, patrons, and other relevant figures. Beginning in the sixteenth century when lace, embroidery, tapestry, and silk weaving reigned as the height of luxury, the semester ends with a discussion of high performance fabrics and their roles in science, sport, architecture, and fashion. Format combines slide lectures with visits to collections in the New York area such as the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum textile collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum at FIT.

Drawings and Prints Seminar: Design Resources for the History of the Decorative Arts

This course offers, through a representative selection of ornament prints, an overview of the history of ornament from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The class considers a broad variety of issues based on an analysis of designers, major artistic centers, the production of ornament prints with attention to the engraver, print publisher, and print seller, the print market, the role of the print in the diffusion of ornament, and how craftsmen, artists, and patrons used ornament prints. Special attention is given to the topic of design and execution by discussing the variety of relationships between ornament prints and decorative arts objects. The class studies original prints and drawings from the Cooper-Hewitt’s drawings and prints collection, as well as the collections of other print study rooms in New York City.

From Cella to Kunstkammer: The Emergence of the Renaissance Studiolo

One of the most significant manifestations of Renaissance Humanism in the decorative arts is the emergence of the studiolo, a domestic space specifically constructed as a retreat for scholarly meditation and aesthetic appreciation. This seminar begins with the origins of the humanist study, both the self-conscious emulation of the ancient bibliotheca and the practical evolution out of the monastic cella and the royal trésor. Seminar topics focus on the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century princely studiolo of the Medici in Florence, the Montefeltro in Urbino and Gubbio, and the Este in Ferrara and Mantua. The course culminates with the Kunstkammern that flourished from 1540–1740.

Intimate Objects: The Gift in Renaissance Europe

This seminar explores gift-giving in the complex social spheres of Renaissance Europe and its effects on the production, valuing, and interpretation of objects. Subjects include marriage rituals; the gift as a token of friendship, as evidenced in the exchange of portrait medals, small collectibles, and books among European humanists and rulers; and the political implications and effects of the gift, including diplomatic gifts exchanged by the Medici and the courts of Europe, by European traders and their counterparts in Africa and the East, and the elaborate rituals of gift-giving within court circles in Tudor England and the French court at Fontainebleau.

The Art of Dining

This seminar examines why the metal, ceramic, and glass objects used for food and beverage storage, preparation, and service during the past four hundred years have taken the shapes or forms they have. The course provides a thorough period context for objects that are often treated as isolated pieces of small sculpture in culturally neutral museum displays. Issues include: how the characteristics of materials help determine the forms objects take and the uses to which they are put; the introduction and changing popularity of various foods and beverages and how they determine the vessels for service and consumption; exotic influences on customs and design; room use; furniture development; roles of servants; the rise of middle-class consumers; and the impact of fast-food culture on the decorative arts and modern mores. Object analysis and research sources such as inventories and diaries, period literature, paintings and drawings, advertisements, etc. are stressed. Each session combines a slide lecture with class discussion and a hands-on workshop with objects, drawings, or documents.

The Seventeenth-Century English House

This course surveys the architectural developments during a century of war, revolution, and social change. Increasingly, English houses, both externally and internally, reflect continental models; prints, illustrated books, and greater opportunities for travel reinforce this. The role of architects also changes significantly: from acting as surveyor and interpreting the wishes of the patron, he (for they are all male) takes over control of the design and building process. The Office of Works, which controlled all royal and government buildings, is the driving force for change in this field, as well as providing professional training for architects. We consider its role, and especially its two leading architects of the early and late seventeenth century, Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, and the royal palaces that they were required to create. In London the development of the town house reflects the increased economic power of the rapidly growing middle class; in the country a new type of compact house, allowing greater privacy for family, for servants and for guests, leads to increasingly specialized rooms, which demand new types of decoration and furnishing. Finally, we consider the strong French and Dutch influence on a group of great country houses of the late seventeenth century.

The Arts and Living in Britain in the Long Eighteenth Century (1660–1820)

This course looks at the cultural and historical issues that influenced taste and social habits during the period 1660–1820. The seminar examines patterns of patronage and collecting insofar as they relate to the furnishing of interiors and ways in which social habits dictated domestic equipment, with particular emphasis on foreign influences. We will look at the provisions made for essential domestic services including heating, lighting, and time-keeping, and sophisticated domestic activities including dining and taking tea, dressing, game-playing, and writing. The seminar considers design sources for domestic equipment and draws on recent transcriptions of eighteenth-century inventories of important London and country houses, reflecting new research undertaken for specific projects, such as the new British Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which demonstrate new ways of presenting history and the development of the decorative arts.

Royal Furnishings of Versailles

Representing the apogee of absolute monarchy under Louis XIV in the seventeenth century, Versailles symbolized royal extravagance at the close of the eighteenth century, when the revolution wrested Louis XVI from Versailles and the throne. This course focuses on the furniture and interior design of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Famous artists, craftsman, and tastemakers such as Charles Le Brun, Andre-Charles Boulle, Jean Berain, Georges Jacob, Adam Weisweiler, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Madame de Pompadour, Madame du Barry, and Marie Antoinette are discussed.

French Ceramics

This course focuses on the production of porcelain at the major French manufactories of the eighteenth century. After an introduction to the development of porcelain in France in the late seventeenth century, participants study the production of factories such as those at Saint-Cloud, Chantilly, Villeroy, Mennecy, and Vincennes/Sèvres. Issues including technique, the creation of a recognizably French style, factory organization and specialization, the relationship between metalwork and ceramics, and the domestic and foreign markets for French porcelain are examined. Students examine French porcelain in the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and visit local dealers and auction houses.

The Grand Tour

In eighteenth-century Britain, the crown of a young landowner’s classical education was a tour of Europe, especially Italy. An extensive industry—involving guides, dealers, topographical artists, copyists, and restorers—developed in response to this unparalleled phenomenon. The great collections formed on the tour influenced contemporary art and design at home, particularly in the creation of a series of major country houses with their furnishings, art collections, and natural environments. This course looks at the patrons, artists, and events, such as the discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii, which led to the Grand Tour’s widespread influence on the arts of England.

Nineteenth Century British & American Silver: From Craft to Industry

The nineteenth century witnessed significant transformations in the style, production, and distribution of precious metal objects in both Britain and the United States. Course participants examine these transformations through lectures, detailed independent object examinations, and the study of relevant primary and secondary source materials. After an introduction to the properties of silver and gold, and to traditional and industrial techniques of fabrication and ornamentation, the course focuses on the products made by British and American precious metalsmiths from 1760 to 1900, their marketing, and their uses in the societies in which they were produced. Issues of identification and connoisseurship of precious metal objects are covered, with one or more guest lecturers sharing their specialized knowledge.

Revivalism to Modernism: French Furniture 1840-1930

This course looks at the development of French furniture and interiors from revival styles and eclecticism that characterized decorative arts of the mid-nineteenth century through to the early twentieth century, when French design became associated with the functional yet luxurious modernism of Le Corbusier. The emphasis is placed on learning and identifying the characteristics of different stylistic periods of furniture: Louis-Phillipe, Second Empire—including the Gothic, Renaissance, Louis XV (Rococo), Louis XVI, and Regency revivals, as well as the influence of China and Japan—Art Nouveau (Style 1900), Art Déco, and finally International Style Modernism. Designers covered include Henri-Auguste Fourdinois, Louis Majorelle, Emile Gallé, Hector Guimard, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jules Leleu, Paul Iribe, Louis Süe, André Groult, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Charreau, and others.

The Design of Modern Life: Transformations of the Interior 1851-1966

This course investigates the history of modern design through notions of domesticity and the architecture of the interior. It explores concepts of modernity, tradition, feminine taste, and everyday life. It examines how these concepts influenced the design of the home form the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Some examples of spaces studied include the Victorian parlor, the so-called Frankfurt Kitchen (1926-1929) and the Case Study Houses (1945-1966). It works towards developing a framework for addressing the modern home and ideas of modern living that encompasses architecture, design, and their social and cultural implications. The course is conducted as a research seminar. Students have the opportunity to pursue individual areas of research and are strongly encouraged to use the resources of the Cooper-Hewitt collections.

Tiffany and Twentieth-Century Design

Louis C. Tiffany (1848–1933) is best known today for the mosaic glass lamps and windows that his firm produced from 1880 until 1932. The actual scope of his work was much broader and included—in addition to glass objects—products ranging from colonial revival furniture to jewelry. The seminar addresses issues of connoisseurship and focuses on Tiffany as a model for issues of twentieth-century design, manufacturing, marketing, and consumption. Topics include the role of women in Tiffany’s workshops, as consumers of his art objects, and as patrons for large-scale decorating projects; advertising practices as a means of increasing demand; and the role of private collectors and museums in generating a renewed market for Tiffany’s work from the 1960’s onward.

Designing American Lifestyles: 1876–1976

This course examines key American architecture and design movements that were shaped into compelling “lifestyles” not only by the design community but also by media figures and tastemakers. We study the role of books, magazines, exhibitions, films, department stores, and museums in the creation of such socially and culturally significant movements as modernism, the colonial revival, and the arts and crafts. The impact of powerful events in the nation’s history, such as World War II, is also discussed.

Turn-of-the-Century American Material and Visual Culture

This class assesses late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American material and visual culture in a broad context by examining painting, design, decorative arts, architecture, cartoons, photography, sculpture, world’s fairs, and other forms of the visual and material. We connect these objects and images to larger historic themes, such as industrialization, empire, debates about gender, and class conflict, to contextualize our study of the period. After reading a number of different books by a diverse range of authors (including Sarah Burns, Thomas Denenberg, Laura Wexler, and Mary Blanchard), students are asked to do their own research project culminating in a formal presentation and paper.

World’s Fairs - Art, Design and the World of Tomorrow

This course examines the histories of the various European and American world’s fairs—from the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London to the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair—as a way of understanding both how cultural aspirations are represented at the exhibition, and the effects of the exhibition on the culture. Among the topics covered are: theories of exhibitions, how arrangement and display of objects can coalesce into a lesson or an ideology; fine arts and applied arts at the world’s fairs as lessons in taste, design, and nationalism; world’s fairs and the development of consumerism; fairs as laboratories for architecture and their influences; fairs and ethnographic exhibitions, the display of foreignness and imperialism; the development of amusement areas and the contest for the social significance of fun; and futurism at the fairs. Readings come from primary and secondary sources, from various disciplines, including art history, social history, and history of technology.

Designing Modern Italy

This seminar examines the rich legacy of twentieth-century design in Italy. It traces the development of numerous design disciplines—graphic, industrial, architectural and urban—and parallel developments in the fine and decorative arts. The course begins with the seminal 1902 Turin International Exposition of Decorative Arts, and proceeds chronologically to the present day, exploring the emergence of specific industries and audiences, the importance of changing political contexts, and the effects of international communications and trade on the design disciplines in modern Italy.

Graphic Design: Art Nouveau to the Present

This seminar explores the history of twentieth-century century graphic design commencing with works from the Art Nouveau period and concluding with the recent digital revolution. It emphasizes the avant-garde movements and their accompanying designers to illustrate how they contributed to the collective process of advancing, detracting from, or redirecting graphic design during the past century. This course also places the history of graphic design in the context of concurrent architecture and industrial design movements while illuminating the effects of various cultural and societal conditions on graphic communications.

Design Since 1945

This course examines the major post-war movements, designers, and trends. It emphasizes both industrial and graphic design with some discussion of relevant architecture and fashion when appropriate. Commencing with the early Modernist work done in both America and Scandinavia it proceeds to examine the significant contributions made in Italy and Germany in the Sixties and Seventies. Post-Modernism and the present state of “pluralism” are to be discussed. Contemporary ideas about social responsibility, the use of technology and new materials, as well as the role of design in society are explored through contemporary texts.

Historic Houses

Decorative Arts displayed in a museum — whether in exhibits or period rooms — necessitate a different interpretation than when in the context of a historic house museum. Current standards for historic house museums support a thematic approach to interpretation — which often places objects within a narrative, framed by historical context. To be able to accomplish this, staff of historic house museums need to be knowledgeable about the objects within the collection, as well as be skilled in current methods of interpretation. This course explores the role of decorative arts objects within the historic house museum context. It combines object-based study with site visits and readings which are largely drawn from material culture studies. The class also considers the narrative role of the historic house museum and its contents through the perspective of fiction, and the role of thematic interpretation in historic houses from the perspective of contemporary artists and designers. The course also includes lecture, discussion, site visits and object examination at the Cooper-Hewitt/National Design Museum. Students are expected to visit historic house museums, and write three short analytical/response papers.

Modern Scandinavian Design

This course focuses on the architecture and industrial design produced during the twentieth century in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. Industrialization came late to these nations and the culture and tradition of design blossomed alongside the new industries. Because of their strong craft traditions and relatively progressive social systems, they embraced the political and formal values of the Modernist movement with a unique rigor. In fact, in Finland and Denmark design is a significant cultural and economic export. The course begins with a discussion of the pre-war work of designers such as Kaare Klint, Elis Bergh, Alvar Aalto, and Gunnar Asplund. It examines the major figures and manufacturers of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s including Kaj Franck, Orrefors, Hans Wegner, Marimekko, Arne Jacobsen, and Verner Panton. The final section examines contemporary work including objects by Ikea, Thomas Sandel, Bjorn Dalhstrom, and Harri Koskinen. The course includes field trips to furniture dealers and museum collections.

Redefining Modernism

This seminar explores major modernist movements including English Arts and Crafts, Russian Constructivism, De Stijl, German Modernism, and post-war American and Scandinavian design. The class explores similarities and differences in theory, practice, and the resulting objects in an attempt to define “what is modernism?” Providing a strong overview of the political, social, and aesthetic issues guiding twentieth-century design, the course addresses architecture, graphics, and industrial design, and emphasizes practitioners’ writings.

Contemporary Issues in Fashion

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, fashion has fragmented into a plurality of styles with a diversity of potential readings. From Levi’s to couture designers, from synthetics to organically farmed hemp, from uniforms of conformity to on-the-street individuality, a range of aesthetic and meaning-filled choices is available to both the creators and consumers of fashion. This seminar offers a joint exploration of key topics in contemporary fashion including the rise of the celebrity designer, revivalism styles and appropriation of imagery, the influence of technology on fashion, the role of the media in disseminating fashion, and certain topics of consumer and gender theories. Previous course work in the history of fashion is recommended but not required.

Sustainable Design

Many leading architects and designers have recently turned their energies to creating ecologically responsible buildings and products—a design movement that has been called a second industrial revolution. Architects, designers, and entrepreneurs see the challenge of building in concert with nature as the most important initiative of the coming generation. Eco-architecture has developed as a vibrant strategy for corporations and public institutions. The course is structured around planning an exhibition of sustainable design. Students choose objects, write catalogue essays, organize object presentation, write wall texts, and develop interactive educational initiatives. Topics include: 1) designers using recycled or cast-off materials; 2) products that employ renewable and sustainable raw materials; 3) products that re-use manufactured debris; 4) continuously recyclable products; 5) familiar products produced via environmentally friendly techniques; 6) products requiring low-energy transport and operation; 7) designs powered by renewable sources. The class visits studios engaged in sustainable design.

Twentieth-Century American Popular Culture

This course examines the intersection of the popular and the material in twentieth-century America. What is popular culture, and what does it reveal about life during the twentieth century? Is it a valid index? The course is run as a seminar and begins with an examination of theoretical constructs surrounding the study of popular culture including the perennial debate between high and low art. Topics are taken from TV, movies, radio, and the like. Cars, sitcom interiors, Disneyana, costume jewelry, Barbie and her paraphernalia, film posters, packaging, fashion, the souvenir—are all potential areas of exploration. The new materials of the postwar world, such as plastic and aluminum, are analyzed for their impact on design, the decorative arts, and contemporary life. So called “collectibles” are explored within a political and postmodern context. Students are expected to present and discuss popular objects considering the relationship of goods to class, kitsch, and gender.