A HISTORY OF ART IN 45 OBJECTS

OLLI of Greater Birmingham presents A History of Art in 45 Objects with Nick Bouler, Docent, Birmingham Museum of Art.  This course will break the history of art – a very large subject – into manageable pieces for discussion by focusing on specific art works.  Beginning with Venus figures made by prehistoric humans in a surprising number of locations, we will look at selected objects from every culture to see how the idea of art and ideas about how it should be used have developed over time.  While the majority of the course will address the Western tradition, we will also look at Eastern art and how the concerns of that tradition have been very different.  The first 3 weeks will be in lecture format.  The fourth week, March 26, we will meet at the Birmingham Museum of Art toview first hand some examples of the concepts we have discussed.