Meet the teaching team

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  Edward Bacal

  Course Instructor

  Edward is a learning designer and occasional art historian. He did his BA and PhD at U of T, plus an MA at University College London. He specializes in modern and contemporary art and especially likes abstract and conceptual art from the last 60 years, as well as theory that is impossible to understand yet transforms how you think. Since finishing his PhD, he’s been working in digital design and media and has a day job at CAMH producing an online education project. He teaches art history when he has the chance. He thinks the best way to learn about art is to visit as many galleries in as many places as you can.

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  Dongwon (Esther) Kim

  Teaching Assistant

  Esther is a medievalist and an art historian. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History, and has degrees in fine art, theatre design, and medieval studies. Her dissertation focuses on 15th-century books of devotion and their uses by laypeople, and looks at late medieval art as social art in context. Esther has worked as a public engagement fellow in history at the University of Leeds, and at Birkbeck College, University of London. She also dabbles in painting and drawing, carpentry, rock climbing (and generally being outside), and this year, maintaining her little plot and growing her own food at the community garden in Christie Pits.

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  Marina Dumont-Gauthier

  Teaching Assistant

  Marina Dumont-Gauthier is a PhD Candidate in Art History at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation investigates the impact of the great exodus of artists from Europe in the wake of rising anti-Semitism and the onset of the Second World War to Buenos Aires, Argentina, focusing on the role played by female photographers in the emergence of the city’s photographic modernity. Marina has held a number of curatorial positions including a research internship at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and a graduate internship at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She is currently a curator in the Photography Department at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

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  Fahimeh Ghorbani

  Teaching Assistant

  Fahimeh is a PhD candidate at the Department of Art History, University of Toronto. Her studies focus on Islamic art and architecture, with a particular emphasis on the Persianate world. She holds an extensive academic background, having completed her first master's degree in Islamic crafts at the Art University of Tehran, Iran, and subsequently obtaining a second master's degree in Art History from the University of Victoria, Canada. Her current doctoral research at the University of Toronto revolves around exploring the intricate connection between the tradition of futuwwa (an ethics-based institution, based on qualities such as bravery, generosity, loyalty and honesty) and material culture and architecture of the Persianate world from early Islamic to early modern period. She has held several research and curatorial fellowships at the world-class research institutes and museums in Iran, Canada, and United States, including the Malek National Museum and Library, Iran; the Institute of Islamic Studies at University of Toronto, Canada; the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies at University of Toronto, Canada; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, USA.

Organizing information from Art History courses

• Historical Background and Contextual Information

  Historical background and contextual information are the "history" of art history. Historical information is used to elucidate works of art. In history classes, images are shown to illustrate a historical event or period. Art is used as "wallpaper." In art history classes, the relationship is different. Historical circumstances (or historical contexts) are used to show how history can shape a work of art and often help explain changes in works of different periods. Write down the historical information so that you can comprehend the full meaning of the art objects.

• The Visual Information

  While the historical component is important, you may notice instructors spending a lot of time describing and analyzing images. In art history classes, instructors will engage with the artwork, describe their visual properties, explore the messages they send, and compare them with other art objects. This is the essence of art history, and you will be doing the same in tests, papers, and discussions. Engaging with works of art is one of the most significant challenges for art history students. Practice this skill early and often. How will instructors discuss a work of art? Below are some key groupings to help you organize the visual information.

• The "Vital Statistics" of an Image

  The vital statistics of an artwork include its name, when it was produced, who produced it, and where it is located. Most of this information can be gathered from the museum label. Some clarification on chronology:

  • With years in the AD or CE, the larger the number, the more recent the time. For example, 1900 CE is more recent than 500 CE.
  • In BC or BCE years, the opposite is true. The larger the number, the earlier the time. For example, 500 BCE is more recent than 800 BCE, which is more recent than 1300 BCE.
  • The year 1923 is not in the nineteenth century, it is in the twentieth century. If you are given a date by century, such as the fifth century CE, remember that to find the date in years, you should subtract one from five. Hence, a date in the fifth century CE will be in the 400s. This rule works for both centuries in BCE and CE. For example, a work dated to the third century BCE could date anywhere from 200–299 BCE.

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  Other hints:

  • There is no year 0.
  • The first half of the second century = 100–150 CE. The second quarter of the nineteenth century = 1825–1850. The middle of the seventh century BCE = 650 BCE.
  • If you are given a date with no BCE (BC) or CE (AD) attached, generally, you can assume it is in CE (AD), just as we tend to say 2020 rather than 2020 CE.
  • Contemporary is commonly understood to mean "current"; however, it can also mean "at the same time as." For example, if you are asked to look at a painting by Renoir and read a "contemporary text," you are being asked to read a text written in the late nineteenth century, when Renoir was active.

• The Content of an Image

  There is much more to an image than its vital statistics. The content of an image refers to several levels and types of meaning expressed through the literal content and metaphorical content of the art object. This is where we delve into the 5Ws and 1H of art history (discussed above).

• The Visual Description of an Image

  Describing the visual properties of a work of art can be challenging. Why should we describe an image when we are sitting here looking at it? The answer is because there is looking and then there is looking. One of the most important skills you can learn in art history is how to look at an image actively and critically. When looking at images passively, we revert to descriptive adjectives—It is beautiful. But when we are actively looking, we can offer more specific information: the elongated proportions of the figure, the handling of different textures such as flesh and silk, etc. In describing images, art terms are often used. For example: The figure stands in a contrapposto stance, with the weight of the body shifted onto the left leg. The wet drapery sticks to the figure's body, revealing the cavity of the navel as well as an expanse of thigh. The description provides information about the position of the body and the quality of the drapery. More importantly, special attention has been devoted to how the drapery reveals the body underneath.

• The Formal Analysis

  The next component of visual information you need to identify is formal analysis. We have described what is happening in the image: what the figure is doing, how it is standing, and its specific physical properties. That is all well and good. But what do all these properties add up to? What is their total effect? Formal analysis studies how a work of art comes together to create a specific effect. The critical element here is that the discussion has turned from objective, matter-of-fact statements about the form to consider how the form creates abstract patterns that shape the overall effect of the work and our reaction to it.

• The Macrostatement and the Comparison

  Macrostatements provide specific examples of what makes a work of art typical of its period. If you understand the basic characteristics of each period, you will be able to speak intelligently not only about works you are familiar with, but also about works you have never seen. Comparisons are often used in macrostatements because they are instructive—showing you how a period can be defined by contrasting it with another. They illustrate what is important about each style—what visual properties are typical. They give you a sense of the evolution of forms.

Selecting a work of art

For the two assingments in this course, you will choose one object from the eight options listed below that you will analyze and study for the remainder of the term. Browse through the list of objects and identify which objects you are particularly drawn to. Have fun visiting the objects in person!

• Sculpture, probably of Cleopatra VII On view at the ROM, Galleries of Africa: Egypt.
• Face Mask On view at the AGO, Gallery 249
• Rembrandt von Rijn – Portrait of a Lady Holding a Lap Dog On view at the AGO, Gallery 119.
• Vase Zen with hundred deer. On view at the ROM, Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Chinese Art.
• Beam with Surat al-Nur On view at the Aga Khan Museum.
• Tekaronhiáhkhwa / Santee Smith – Talking Earth On view at the Gardiner Museum (outside front entrance).
• Preston Pavlis – your skin behind the lattice On view at the AGO, gallery 248.
• Abraham Anghik Ruben - The Hunter and the Seamstress On view at the AGO, gallery 200.