BA History of Art

Structure & Modules

Each year you will take a combination of required and optional modules totalling 120 credits, with the whole degree equalling 360 credits. The first year will establish solid foundations in the subject through modules that introduce you to a range of periods, places, and methods, with classes taught in London’s art collections. You will also pick a modern language to study.

In the second year, you will take two core modules. One explore works of art as physical objects (Physical Histories) and the other examines the role that museums, galleries and exhibitions play in society (Exhibiting Art). Alongside these, a range of optional modules are offered, exploring different art histories and critical approaches, as well as some electives through the Arts and Humanities departments at King’s College London and the King’s Modern Language Centre.

In your final year, you will be able to express preferences for Special Options and further electives and will also pursue your own research project, culminating in a dissertation. We will accommodate your choice wherever possible, keeping in mind the value we place on research- led teaching in small seminar groups of 12 to 15 students.

You will be supported throughout your degree by a personal tutor who will meet with you regularly to discuss your work and progress, assist you in selecting appropriate modules and offer guidance in your future plans.

The modules we teach are directly shaped by the tutor’s research and partly for that reason, they change from year to year – modules outlined below are therefore indicative of subjects that may be on offer.

Year one

The first year is designed to give you a solid basis for the study of Art History by introducing you to broad content and key skills.

Core modules − Foundations 1 and 2 (30 credits each):

A series of lectures, dealing with a range of major themes and issues from antiquity to the present day across the globe, runs in two parts in semesters 1 and 2. It is supported by discussion classes of about 15 students which help you to build up your confidence in looking, thinking, discussing and writing about Art History.

Subjects change according to the tutors involved in the modules, but recent lecture blocks have included:

• Classical and Byzantine Art
• The Renaissance: Italy and Beyond
• The Buddhist Arts of Asia
• Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Art
• From Civil Rights to Black Power
• What is the Contemporary? Art Since 1960

Optional modules − Topics (15 credits each):

In each semester, you will join a module that focuses on the first-hand study of art in London, making the most of the world class works in museums and galleries that surround us. These are taught in groups of ten to twelve students and meet weekly.

Indicative topics include:

• Chinese Art in London Collections
• Contemporary Art in London
• Display as Discourse: Persian Art in London Collections
• Graphic Arts in the Italian Renaissance
• Looking at the Overlooked in Early Modern Still Life
• Medieval Sculpture in London Collections
• Modernism and the Sacred
• Modern Women, Modern Artists
• Possibilities of Portraiture
• Techniques and Meaning in 20^th Century Art
• The Global City: Urban Issues in Contemporary Art
• The Pursuit of Leisure in the Pre- Modern World

Academic Literacies (15 credits):

Throughout your first year, you will attend sessions and undertake tasks that support your transition to undergraduate level work, honing skills in writing fluently, reading critically and looking analytically — essential as you find your own voice as an art historian.

Language (15 credits):

We strongly believe in the importance of offering you the chance to learn or improve a foreign language. It gives you insights into another culture, helps connect you with other people, and provides you with access to new literature and ways of thinking. It is also increasingly important as a way to stand out in the job market. You will study a language initially during your first year, though you may elect to take it further over the course of your degree. Language teaching is provided through the Modern Languages Centre at King’s College London and a wide range of languages are available to you including French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Mandarin.

Year two

The second year is designed to help you develop your skills in critical thinking and extend your detailed knowledge of particular art historical periods and themes.

Core module – Physical Histories (15 credits):

Physical Histories is a pioneering module taken in semester 1, taught with input from colleagues in our conservation department, which encourages you to understand and interpret works of art via close looking at their material characteristics.

Core module – Exhibiting Art (15 credits):

In semester 2, you will move to considering the role of museums, galleries and exhibitions in societies (past, present,and future), and how display contexts can shape (and also limit) the understanding of works of art and architecture. Making use of London collections, you will think analytically about the display choices, methods and narratives adopted by different museums and galleries.

Optional modules – Histories (15 credits each):

In each semester you will take up to two Histories modules that look at a particular period, theme, or event in the History of Art, situating it in relation to the different ways in which it has been understood or approached. These modules are taught weekly through one lecture and one seminar (in groups of ten to twelve students).

Examples of this module type include:

• American Art and American Landscape, 1800–1920
• Art and Cold War Politics
• Artists, Radicals, Mystics: European Art, 1760–1830
• Beyond the Great Wall: Mapping Contemporary Art on the ‘New Silk Road’
• Landscape and Environment in Early Modern China
• Learning from Paris: War, Internationalism, Postmodernism
• Reality and Fantasy in French Art, 1863-97: From Haussmannisation to Enchanted Ground
• The Art of Contact between Africa and Europe during the Early Modern period

Optional modules – Approaches (15 credits each):

You will also be introduced to theoretical and methodological frameworks for thinking about art and art history through one Approaches module per semester. Modules are taught through weekly seminars and in groups of no more than fifteen students.

Indicative titles include:

• Art and Magic in the Pre-Modern World
• Art History and Social Justice
• Embodiments: The Body as Subject and Object in Medieval Art
• Facsimile Debates: From AI to Plato
• Monuments and Memory
• Renaissance Art in the Making: Materials and Techniques
• Sexual Politics
• Ways of Seeing and Being Seen: The Politics of Vision in Modern and Contemporary art

Year three

The third year of the BA enables you to explore specialised topics in depth and helps you to find your own critical voice as a writer and art historian.

Core module – BA Research (30 credits):

Beginning in semester 1, you will be supported in honing your skills in independent research, defining an area you wish to explore and establishing appropriate parameters, research questions and approaches before embarking on a sustained piece of work, supervised by a member of our teaching faculty. The research module culminates in the writing of an 8,000- word dissertation, to be submitted at the end of semester 2. For many students, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of the degree.

Optional modules – Special Options (30 credits each):

You will meet twice a week in a Special Option seminar group, undertaking one module in each semester. These modules are designed to engage with materials and methods at an advanced level, and to equip students for further study or for a broad range of careers.

Examples of Special Options include:

• Another Story: A Transnational History of Postwar Exhibitions
• Arts at the Courts of France, c.1360–1420
• Art and the Modern Nation: from Medieval Islam to Post-Modern Iran
• Arts of the Indian Ocean
• Body Politics: Art, Gender and Class in the Victorian Metropolis
• Building a Feminist Art World: Gender, Politics and Community in 1970s American Art
• Reassembling Modernism: Artists’ Networks in Europe 1909–1960
• Sea of Dreams: A Tidalectic Approach to Modernism
• Soviet and Post-Soviet Art
• Surrealism: History, Themes and Concepts
• The Black Imaginary
• The Global Print
• Trading Identities in the Early Modern Netherlands

Optional Modules – Histories/ Approaches/Electives (15 credits each):

Finally, you will take two further 15-credit modules from the range of Histories, Approaches and electives available within the department or at King’s.

Fees, Funding, Scholarship & Bursary

Tuition fees:

Tuition fees are available here.

Undergraduate Student loans:

Please visit the Student Finance England website for further information and to apply online.

Bursaries: 

The Courtauld is committed to making its degree accessible to all suitably qualified Home students. We offer financial support, up to £3,000 per year, on a sliding scale for Home undergraduate students who meet set criteria. More information can be found here.

Scholarship:

The James Hughes-Hallett Undergraduate Scholarship has been established through generous philanthropy to support students who are from groups that are underrepresented in UK Higher Education. The scholarship is worth £10,000 over the duration of your three-year degree. More information can be found here.

Travel:

In addition, many final year special options include short group trips with the lecturer to see the art they are studying. These trips are generously subsidised according to their location (UK or abroad), and are planned with the subsidies in mind in order to minimise any additional costs for students. However, it is possible that subsidies will not cover all costs in some instances. Students are encouraged to speak to Student and Academic Services, should they need further support.

Support

To support you through the degree, we offer:

Wellbeing: We have a dedicated Wellbeing team, with counsellors and advisors.

Academic Skills: The academic skills tutor offers group and one-to-one help to develop the skills and confidence you need to succeed on the degree. We also have two Royal Literary Fund fellows who will help you with your writing skills – concentrating on how to structure and improve your writing.

Personal tutor: You will be supported throughout your degree by a personal tutor, who will meet with you regularly to discuss your work and progress, assist you in selecting appropriate modules and offer guidance in your future plans.