Art History & Visual Culture

Our world is ever-increasingly visual. From social media to advertising to politics to identity representation, images have power.

Art History and Visual Culture majors develop their skills in communication across image types and platforms—from fine art to media to popular culture—and study the histories and theories of art and images in relation to power, ethics, and representation. 

At Whittier, Art History and Visual Culture students understand how images communicate and want to work in professions that value visual culture. Students interested in activism and advocacy, PR, advertising, social media, visual storytelling, and professions in the museum and cultural sectors will thrive in this major. 

Students study how art and visual images are made and move into the world to gain power, the materials and strategies of impactful artists, and how creativity and expression relate to visibility and empowerment. 

Art History and Visual Culture graduates work in museums, galleries, artist studios, and creative spaces that value skills in writing and communication.

What You'll Learn, See, and Do as an Art History and Visual Culture Major

• study how artists have understood race, gender, sexuality, and identity in visual terms
• develop skills in research, writing, and presentation
• learn about the history of murals and monuments in public spaces, and why they become controversial
• visit the Getty, LACMA, local galleries or public art sites

Sample Courses in Art History and Visual Culture

Art in the Public Sphere

Challenges students to look at the various roles of artists, curators, writers, gallery dealers, publishers, and non-profits—on scales both large and small—to ask: How does art become visible to a public audience? What are the dynamics of power and visibility in public space? 

Women Artists from the Renaissance to the Present

You’ve heard of Frida Kahlo, but have you heard of Vigée-Lebrun, portrait painter of Marie-Antoinette? Pioneering photographer Julia Margeret Cameron? If you have never heard of these powerful women, this is the class for you! This course covers amazingly talented women artists from the Renaissance to today.

Modern and Contemporary Latinx Art & Visual Culture

From public and site-specific murals of the 1930s and later to narratives of mapping and recovered histories, this course revolves around the rich and dynamic work of U.S.-based Latinx artists.