Art History

Degree Type Bachelor of Arts
Department Art and Art History
Academic Division The College
Offerings Minor

A student looks at a painting of Frida Kahlo

The Department of Art and Art History includes a major and a minor in art history, as well as a minor in cultural heritage and museum studies. Art history classes are small – with caps on lecture courses set at 25 – and plentiful, with all courses taught in state-of-the-art facilities.

Home Academics Areas of Study Art History

Art History

In a world that has become increasingly dependent on images, and in an age marked by the manipulation of information through them, the importance of understanding the vitality of visual literacy and the challenges facing image-makers and image-readers has never been so strongly felt. The discipline of art history provides students with the intellectual tools to consider these issues and fosters an academic forum in which to address them thoughtfully, critically and innovatively.

Andrea Lepage

Department Head

P: 540-458-8305
E: lepagea@wlu.edu

Caryl Bryant

Administrative Assistant

P: 540-458-8861
E: bryantc@wlu.edu

News

Meet a Colleague: George Bent

George Bent is the Sidney Gause Childress Professor of Art History.

W&L’s Staniar Gallery Presents “Florence As It Was”

The interactive exhibition will run from Feb. 13 through March 25.

W&L’s Staniar Gallery Presents Rare Salvador Dalí Collection

‘Salvador Dalí: Les Chants de Maldoror’ features original etchings from the surrealist and will run from Jan. 11 through Feb. 8.

Six W&L Students Awarded Gilman Scholarships to Study Abroad

The Gilman Scholarship Program offers awards of up to $5,000 to U.S. undergraduate students who are Pell Grant recipients.

Melissa R. Kerin Selected as Next Director of the Mudd Center for Ethics

The associate professor of art history will serve as the Mudd Center Director for three years beginning July 1, 2024.

John K. Delaney to Deliver Annual Pamela H. Simpson Lecture

Delaney will discuss the scientific imaging of paintings in his Oct. 30 lecture.

Thierry Greub to Deliver Lecture on Cy Twombly’s Artwork

Greub will explore physical and emotional responses to Twombly’s works in his Oct. 16 lecture in Northen Auditorium.

Students talk through the curatorial process with Patricia Hobbs.

W&L Students Curate Fall Art Exhibition

“Mohammad Omer Khalil: Musings,” co-curated by four Washington and Lee students as part of a seminar course in museum studies, will be on display in the Watson Galleries Sept. 28, 2023 through June 1, 2024.

The DeLaney Center to Present Opening DeLaney Dialogue Discussion for the 2023-24 Academic Year

Professor Wendy Castenell kicks off the series on Sept. 19 at noon in Leyburn Library.

Josh Caraballo ’25 Receives National Accounting Scholarship

Caraballo is one of 369 students from across the U.S. to receive the merit scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Museums at WLU

Museums at W&L: Fall 2023 Programs and Exhibitions

The Museums at W&L invite the public to their opening reception for “Musings” on Sept. 28 at 6:30 p.m.

George Bent’s “Florence As It Was” Project Featured in Case Study and Documentary

Leica Geosystems followed Bent and his team of W&L students on a day spent mapping the city of Florence.

Sample Courses

At W&L, we believe education and experience go hand-in-hand. You’ll be encouraged to dive in, explore and discover connections that will broaden your perspective.

ARTH 275

Community Muralism

During the term, we trace the historical development of community murals. Students participate in studio exercises that give them experience with a variety of methods, materials and techniques necessary to plan, design and produce a large-scale community mural. We produce and document a mural in collaboration with a local community partner.

ARTH 356

Tech. Examination of Dutch Painting

This course involves a survey of 17th-century Dutch history, art history, etc., which links the scientific analysis to the art and culture of the time. The first 12 weeks (CHEM 156), involving primarily the scientific and technical background, are taught on campus at W&L during Winter Term. The second four weeks (ARTH 356), involving art and culture, are taught at the Center for European Studies (CES) Universiteit Maastricht in The Netherlands.

ARTH 245

Modern and Contemporary Asian Art

This course examines the art movements of the last 100 years from India, China, Tibet and Japan primarily through the lenses of the larger sociopolitical movements that informed much of Asia's cultural discourses: Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, Socialism, Communism and Feminism. We also address debates concerning "non-Western" 20th-century art as peripheral to the main canons of Modern and Contemporary art.

ARTH 246

Questions of Ownership

This courses explores the ways art and cultural heritage objects have been stolen, laundered, purchased, curated and destroyed in order to express political, religious and cultural messages. Case studies and current events are equally studied to shed light on practices of looting and iconoclasm.

ARTH 170

Art of Mesoamerica & the Andes

Survey of the art and architecture of Mesoamerica and the Andes before the arrival of the Europeans, with a focus on indigenous civilizations including the Olmec, Maya, Aztec and Inca. Art is contextualized in terms of religious, social, political and economic developments in each region under discussion. The class includes a trip to the Virginia Museum of fine Arts in Richmond or the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

ARTH 394

Little Magazines

Between 1880 and 1950, hundreds of small-press, non-commercial journals were published in cities around the world, their pages filled with a mixture of radical poetry, fiction, avant-garde art, manifestos and criticism. These so-called “little magazines” were small in publication run but not in ambition. In fact, many scholars believe that little magazines were the single most important factor in fostering modernist and avant-garde thought during the period. Through an in-depth exploration of little magazines, this seminar brings together two types of scholarly research: archival and digital.

Student in graduation cap and gown

Outcomes

After W&L

The study of art history has provided opportunities for recent majors, including careers in museums, theaters, nonprofits, arts agencies and camps. Other majors have pursued museum internships across the globe.

More to Explore

At W&L, the Art and Art History major has access to unparalleled resources and opportunities that include gallery space, scholarships, study abroad and extracurricular activities.

Facilities

Staniar Gallery

The Staniar Gallery is dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary and historical works in all media by regionally, nationally and internationally recognized artists. The gallery was conceived of as a pedagogical space and works in tandem with the Art Department. Exhibiting artists spend time in the Art Department conducting critiques, giving lectures and mentoring students. Gallery internships provide students the opportunity to participate in the entire exhibition process by working closely with the gallery director and exhibiting artists.

Explore Staniar

Extracurriculars

Join the Club

The Student Arts League is geared towards the promotion of the visual and performing arts as well as art history on W&L’s campus.

Scholarships

Get Funding

The I-Hsiung Ju and Chow-Soon Chuang Ju Endowment for Traditional Chinese Art Students is a permanently endowed fund providing support for student travel to China or Taiwan to study traditional Chinese Art at a university or as an apprentice.

The Pamela H. Simpson Endowment for Art is a permanently endowed fund to support academics and visitors to work directly with students and faculty at W&L.

The Doyon Award recognizes outstanding art historical writing.

The Thomas V. Litzenburg Jr. Prize recognizes outstanding academic work that addresses issues pertaining to objects in the University Collections of Art and History at Washington and Lee.

The Joan O’Mara Award recognizes a student or students whose work in art history for the duration of their undergraduate career embodies the values and interests of the scholar for whom the prize was named.

Meet the Faculty

At W&L, students enjoy small classes and close relationships with professors who educate and nurture.

Andrea Lepage

Pamela H. Simpson Professor of Art History and Department Head

P: 540-458-8305
E: lepagea@wlu.edu

Andrea Lepage offers classes in the following areas: contemporary Chicana/o and U.S. Latina/o art, modern and colonial Latin American art, arts of Mesoamerica and the Andes, and Early Modern European art (Italian, Spanish, Dutch).

George Bent

Sidney Gause Childress Professor in the Arts

P: 540-458-8863
E: bentg@wlu.edu

Bent teaches courses on medieval art, Renaissance art and gothic art. He has researched Italian art extensively and recently taught a course called Digital Florence in which students helped to digitally reconstruct the city.

Curriculum Vitae

Wendy Castenell

Assistant Professor of Art History

P: 540-458-8465
E: wcastenell@wlu.edu

Melissa R. Kerin

Associate Professor of Art History

P: 540-458-8858
E: kerinm@wlu.edu

Kerin teaches courses in South Asian and East Asian art and architecture. Her research focuses on the intricate and multifaceted relationships between art and identity formation, cultural memory and religious praxis.

Elliott H. King

Associate Professor of Art History

P: 540-458-8857
E: kingeh@wlu.edu

King teaches courses in American and European Art, 1750 to the present. His research specialization is Surrealist art and thought with particular concentration on Salvador Dalí\'s production after 1940.

Theodore Van Loan

Visiting Professor of Art History

E: tvanloan@wlu.edu