"Art and Architecture of New Mexico" class restoration project at Las Trampas, Summer 2007. Read more in the Santa Fe New Mexican and in the Albuquerque Journal.

A major in Art History helps students negotiate a world saturated with images. It challenges us to confront critically the issues posed by the visual culture that mediates our understanding of the past, present, and future. Built on the fertile exchange between the arts and the humanities, Art History at SMU subscribes to an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to learning. We teach students to think across current categories and boundaries and practice a socially responsible art history. In addition to developing acute visual sensibilities, our students leave here with the ability to evaluate and organize information, conduct scholarly research, and articulate their ideas in both written and spoken language.

Click here to download an Art History program overview in PDF format. If you have trouble viewing the PDF, download the free Adobe Reader program.

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Print Exhibition at the DMA prepared by SMU Art History Undergrads

Albrecht Dürer and Ferdinand Columbus, an exhibition now on view at the Dallas Museum of Art, was prepared as part of an undergraduate seminar on early modern collecting taught at SMU during spring 2008 by Assistant Professor Lisa Pon.  The students in this seminar visited the DMA to examine first hand the prints by internationally renowned German artist, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).  They also studied the collecting activities of Ferdinand Columbus (1488-1539), son of the famous explorer, who in 1502 had traveled to the New World with his father.  Ferdinand Columbus, an avid print collector, once owned impressions of the six Dürers displayed in this exhibition. Each student prepared the wall text for the prints by researching the subjects depicted, the significance of the print in Dürer’s oeuvre, and the entries given in Columbus’s detailed inventory.  This exhibition is on view through November 2008.