Art History puts me to sleep. Every. Single. Day. Yet I love it and I’m intrigued. I don’t know if it’s the way we are being taught in college or maybe our generation has a short attention span. Whatever it is, I don’t think we have anyone to blame. We can complain and we can brainstorm changes, but this is the way that things have always been. Why would it change for us? If you can’t take the heat just get out… drop out………

I won’t be dropping out anytime soon, but I know too many students who have dropped my Art History course already. How is it some students can ace art history and others just can’t wrap their heads around the concepts? Maybe Art History is a constricting term. If the Sports Management majors (who are the majority to drop the course) could take an “Art of Sports” course, maybe they would pay attention?

Whatever the case, my interest in Art History is a new one. I decided to take on an Art History minor after being told to do so by my History of Architecture professor. I hadn’t realized I was so interested in these concepts until she brought it up.

When studying the history of art, there are so many elements of influence. Religion influences art which influences architecture which is a reflection of the environment which influences the beliefs and philosophies of the indigenous people, and so on. All of these elements, and so many more, intertwine to give us a vastly interconnected history.

Art History isn’t just about the art… It’s about the material, technique, purpose, and origin of the “piece of artwork” (and not to mention, a “piece of artwork” usually isn’t intended to be so). Tell me… if you spend months or years carving an intricate wooden statue of your people’s most precious god or goddess and a foreigner takes that statue so it can sit in a museum halfway across the world… is that okay? When did it become okay? The answer is, it has never been “okay” and still isn’t. Should our prized museums give those precious artifacts back to their indigenous people, or should they stay in our museums so we can appreciate the cultures of the world? This is a hard question and it won’t get easier.

Am I a bad person for visiting The MET and gazing on mummies?? To clarify, these are dead people. As simple as that! And we have unearthed them to study and show everyone. This is just a guess, but if the mummies were buried in underground tombs and behind “trap doors”, don’t you think they wanted to stay there? The only thing that makes this okay is the fact that thousands of years have passed. If the mummies were buried ten years ago, we wouldn’t go anywhere near them out of respect for their culture and life.

In light of this rant, I do believe there can be a sane balance between studying ancient civilizations and insulting a culture. Why don’t we put the mummies back when we are done? What value are they when they’re sitting in a museum in a foreign land? It’s not respectful and we wouldn’t appreciate it happening to us.

The point of this info session was not to discourage you from studying Art History, but rather help you understand how to do it correctly. We must start at the roots by understanding the controversal and immoral foundation that Art History has been built upon…

Think about it 🙂