At the Faculty of History of the Higher School of Economics, a new direction of bachelor's degree is opening - "History of Art". Admission - according to the Unified State Exam, exams: history (profile), foreign and Russian languages. Education is free (25 budget places), the best students are paid a scholarship.
The 4-year program will be built on a combination of innovative methods with classical approaches to teaching art history. Provides a thorough course in subject methodology and a three-year chronological course in art history. Much attention will be paid to contemporary art, cinema, photography and design.
This breadth gives an excellent orientation in all areas of visuality, which is so important in modern society. An art critic is one who knows better than others to understand the language of the visual, to interpret it, that is, to translate it from it into verbal and vice versa. “The concept of 'style', which art historians use, is essentially a pure sense of the era, which we get directly from the most visual source without any admixture of textual interpretations,” says architecture historian Lev Maciel Sanchez, one of the program's creators and instructors.
Specific areas of application of these skills
- museums and art centers: storage, research, consultations, lectures, exhibitions
- restoration centers and museum departments
- Media: art, architecture and general cultural criticism
- public authorities carrying out cultural policy
- lyceums, gymnasiums, etc.: teaching "World art culture" and other related subjects
- educational and travel agencies
To work in narrowly professional areas: science and higher education, the field of antique and gallery business, you need to continue your studies in a master's degree. For two years now, the HSE has been running a master's program “History of Artistic Culture and the Art Market”, and it is planned to open new programs.
But back to the undergraduate program. In the last courses, students will have the opportunity to choose many specialized courses, among which almost half are devoted to architecture. According to Lev Maciel Sanchez, the architectural component of the course is very important, because “today, without the involvement of specialists in the history of architecture, it is impossible to properly plan the urban environment, nor, of course, to protect and preserve monuments. Without serious knowledge of the history of architecture and urban planning, instead of restoration, pseudo-historical dummies, Disneyland are obtained. Specialization courses will focus on urban studies, interpretation of regional and vernacular architecture, landscape art, and architecture of recent decades.
In addition, it is planned to focus on the study of art from the whole world as a whole, without the traditional (and often interfering with perception) priority of the European mainstream. Already the main course "Introduction to the history of art" includes lectures and seminars on the art of China, Oceania, Africa and Latin America. According to art critic Anna Guseva, a teacher of the direction and a specialist in modern Japanese architecture, this approach “will create a holistic view of the development of art and architecture in the world, understand how closely different, in our modern view, interacted different cultures. If in music modern culture easily interacts with traditions that came from Asia, Latin America or Africa, then in the field of art these countries, in many respects, still remain terra incognita. And given the growing economic role of countries such as China, Indonesia or Brazil, it is impossible to ignore the current processes both in culture and in the art markets of these countries."
On the importance of the museum component, learning in constant contact with works of art Elena Sharnova, academic director of the department and an expert in the field of French painting, “in the process of study, a lot of attention will be paid to acquaintance with various museums, galleries and their practices of presenting works of art, including antiques galleries and auction houses . (The text of the interview with Elena Sharnova can be read on the HSE news portal). Knowledge of the conditions for the existence of works of art, their representational and market role, is an important feature of teaching art history at the HSE.
