Introduction

The courses in Visual Theory / Art Theory are aimed at students in the Fine Art and Art Education programmes. They offer wide-ranging insights into the theory and history of the arts, visual cultures, and aesthetics. Course content covers current discourses in art as well as the analysis of historical and social developments in artistic and media practices. A central aim is the critical examination of canonical and Eurocentric perspectives – addressing the historical situatedness of the material, its methodological approaches, and theoretical contexts.

Interdisciplinary connections to media studies and philosophy, gender studies and postcolonial studies, alongside an engagement with current social and political questions, link the various areas of teaching and research.

The focus of teaching is on modernity from 1800 to the present, while thematically specific courses also draw inter- and transcultural connections across the broader art, cultural, and media history of the early modern period.

In addition to seminars and lectures, the staff in Visual Theory / Art Theory organise excursions, workshops, and symposia. The programme is further complemented by art history courses offered at the Institute for Art History and Musicology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, with which a formal cooperation exists. The programme also offers the possibility of pursuing a doctoral degree (Dr. phil.).