Introduction to Art History II

I took Intro to Art History with Professor Higonnet last semester and I'm in the process of taking 19th- Century Art with her this semester. I think that a lot of the negative reviews can be explained away because the reviewers were probably going to Professor Higonnet with problems and/or questions that they should have taken to their TAs. She's got 5 TAs for a reason. She's quite the notable art historian, and can't really be troubled with petty questions regarding the grade your TA gave you on a paper...you should really go to your TA with questions about your mid-term, final, papers, etc. It's their job.

Professor Higonnet is the reason I decided to be an art history major. I was at the Spring 2009 program planning meeting, and she said something to the effect of "Art is the only beautiful thing that people have ever done..." and it melted my heard a little bit. She is eloquent, always prepared, and in a way, it's almost as if she puts on a performance of sorts every lecture. It's highly amusing when she comes up with a new idea or concept while she's lecturing. She's very, very organized. I need structure to perform optimally, and she definitely provides an adequate amount of it. For example, of the three art history professors I have at the moment, she was the first to post a review for the mid-term, and did so almost three weeks before the exam which was really helpful because the others more or less waited until the week before the test. And she does the powerpoints herself and sends out the mass e-mails to the class. I've been in a class in which there has been miscommunication between the professor and the TAs, and even the TAs weren't sure what to tell you what was on the exam, but since she e-mails you her personal expectations, you know just what you're getting into.

I definitely like 19th-Century Art better than Intro to Art History and I think it's because Professor Higonnet does all of the lectures. I will readily admit that there are some awful guest lecturers in the Intro course-- this applies to both semesters of Barnard's Intro. Some people might be noted scholars, but they're just not very good at communicating their ideas. Her Intro class in the spring is A LOT better than Moxey's class in the fall, however, so if you're thinking of taking Intro to Art History to fulfill a GER, take it in the spring with Professor Higonnet.

This class comes down to one thing - memorizing. If you are able to memorize a bunch of slides, titles, dates, etc and spit it back out on a test you'll do just fine. The papers are fairly easy and the grading really depends on who your TA is. I had Emily Beeney and she was great, somewhat difficult grader but good overall. The guest lecturers can sometimes be hard to understand and you may find yourself falling asleep during the lectures but try not to. The lectures are the most important thing. I wouldn't bother buying the textbook, you don,t need it and any time you want to consult it you can just look online. The weekly readings are annoying if you actually try to do all of them but its very easy to get away with not doing them. Overall, this class is a good way to fulfill your art requirement if you are good at memorizing. The best thing I did was find someone to trade off attending lectures with so I only had to go once a week.