BA Programme: First Arts

This has been designed to cover the major movements in European Art - painting, architecture, sculpture and design from Classical Greece to the C.20th - and to examine, in tutorials, seminars, gallery visits and study trips, the critical concepts that underpin artistic creation and analysis in different periods. It is a demanding and stimulating course that will teach you to use your eyes, to ask questions about art and to have confidence in your own critical judgments. There is a wealth of wonderful work to be explored and a great deal to enjoy. Art was created to enhance our lives. The UCC Course in the History of Art aims to enhance yours!

History of Art is essentially a visual subject. It is important therefore that, in the early years of study, you attempt to build up your visual memory by looking at as much art as possible and by learning to identify the different periods and styles by visual clues. The course supports this aim by encouraging you to take full advantage of the visiting exhibitions in different galleries in Cork, by visiting the Crawford Art Gallery and by organising special study trips to enable the class to see major works of art at first hand.

You will be asked to submit one essay and to sit two slide tests in each of the twelve-week teaching blocks. Course work will count towards a half of the final mark awarded to a student at the end of the session (i.e. 150 marks for coursework and 150 marks for the final examinations).

To allow us to assess how you are progressing in building your ?visual memory bank? and what you have learned, a core element of our teaching is provided by the regular use of slide tests, where images that have been examined in the lectures are projected for you to identify. Slide tests are obligatory.

History of Art is a visual subject and it is essential to become familiar with appropriate stores of images. Students in the History of Art can review key images from the lectures on the Visual Lab. This site can be accessed through the resources page or by visiting http://visuallab.ucc.ie/index.htm

The end of year examinations in the History of Art comprise two one-and-a-half-hour papers covering the art and architecture studied on the course. The first paper is a multiple choice question paper. Paper Two consists of essay questions. Visit the Boole Library website to view previous History of Art exam papers.

You are advised to acquire the core book,which is recommended as essential reading for the course. This is The Oxford History of Western Art edited by Martin Kemp (ISBN 0192804154), which is available to buy from the College bookshop, John Smith & Son. Further lists of recommended reading will be issued as the course progresses.

The class will have an opportunity to visit the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin in the second teaching period. In previous years we have also organised study tours to Paris, Barcelona, Rome, New York and Karlsruhe. The UCC Visual Arts Society normally organises a trip to visit the London galleries and museums each year.