Art History Department to scrap survey course

Yale Daily News ^ | January 24, 2020 | Margaret Hedeman & Matt Kristoffersen

[gibsonguy]

Western civilization is being shredded because of these woke a-holes and by the way I despise African art.

[Albion Wilde]

Just following in the footsteps of University of Pennsylvania (founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740, before the American Revolution), which allowed student activists of color to remove the portrait of William Shakespeare that had hung in the English Department for over a century, to be replaced by a portrait an obscure lesbian of color no one has ever heard of. She’s intersectionally oppressed, though. /s

[miss marmelstein]

Remember the Venus of Willendorf? The first image taught during the class. Quite a sight for the dull-witted 17 year old I was.

[monkeyshine]

Yes indeed. And there is another factor: preservation of historical sites and works. I have no doubt there have been great works in Africa but how many have survived the generations? There were great statues in Afganistan but the Taliban blew them to smithereens. The Western Canon has preserved its monuments to the best of its abilities; from the bible to Chaucer to Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde and James Joyce and Arthur Heller and so on. From pre-Renaissance artists like Cimabue to Davinci to Jaques Louis David. From the Dome of the Rock to the Colosseum to the Louvre and Monmartre. In India and in Asia they have also preserved their historical monuments, artifacts, literature.

Not all of these works were created by straight white men, fwiw. Art is supposed to be transcendent of personality. Great art is universal, though, if one has no understanding of the history of his or her culture some of that will be lost on the observer. I won’t get the same understanding of Kabuki theater that a native of Japan would. A Pakistani would probably not understand much of Samuel Beckett. But we can all learn - Unless they stop teaching!

[EEGator]

LOL, actually many military officers Major in History.

[Verginius Rufus]

Kenneth Clark may not know how to spell “civilization” but he can speak about it very well.

[Jeff Chandler]

taught properly and passionately, Art History is perhaps the most comprehensive of all the liberal arts.

I took an Art History class in college, and you are correct. We learned about Western culture and history from prehistoric times on. I loved that class.

[stylecouncilor]

Sad!

[dfwgator]

“Hey Hey Ho Ho Western Civ Has Got to Go!”

[dfwgator]

Thirty years ago, when I started college. I asked a friend from high school who was a year ahead at the same college, “What course can I take where I’ll meet good looking girls?” His answer: “Art History.” He was right.

"Mention Modern Arts, Civil Rights or Folk Music and you're in like Flynn"

[GOPJ]

I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church day after day. By the hundreds we would move out, and Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come. But we just went before the dogs singing, "Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around." [applause] Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." (Yeah) And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn’t know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn’t relate to the trans-physics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. [applause] And we went before the fire hoses. (Yeah) We had known water. (All right) If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist and some others, we had been sprinkled. But we knew water. That couldn’t stop us. [applause] And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them, and we’d go on before the water hoses and we would look at it. And we’d just go on singing, "Over my head, I see freedom in the air." (Yeah) [applause] And then we would be thrown in to paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. (All right) And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, "Take ’em off." And they did, and we would just go on in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome."

Important to remember MLK changed the world for the better - and Bull Conner stayed a democrat...

From link:

[A_perfect_lady]

What makes them uneasy is the clear superiority of Neo-classical and Renaissance oil paintings and sculptures: they are amazing. Nothing anywhere rises to that level.

[Jack Hammer]

Hey, mon, we hates da white folks.

[virgil]

It was one of best courses I took in college. It enriches your understanding of western history and culture. I value it as much as I do my 8th grade typing class. Much more than that worthless sociology class we were required to pay for.

[colorado tanker]

I took 8th Grade typing too! I had no idea how much I was going to use that skill in my lifetime. Like typing this message!

[Covenantor]

"....Remember the Venus of Willendorf?."

Always considered the Venus appellation as an insider joke. Now I've come to realize it was prescient in foretelling the rise of the Kardashians.