History of Art

History of art is the discipline that studies visual culture across time and across the world, asking how images, objects and built environments are made, what they mean, who made and consumed them and how they have been interpreted by different audiences in different periods. It is a field that brings together close visual analysis with historical research, critical theory and cultural enquiry, developing your ability to look attentively and think rigorously about the evidence that visual works provide. Art history is not merely a catalogue of masterpieces but a way of understanding human creativity, social life, politics and meaning-making through material and visual form.

At Goldsmiths, a college with a globally recognised identity in contemporary art and culture, you will focus particularly on modern and contemporary art, art theory and visual culture from around the world, approached from fresh and often challenging perspectives. You will encounter a wide range of critical and theoretical frameworks, from formalism and iconography through to psychoanalytic, feminist, postcolonial and queer approaches, developing your analytical vocabulary and your ability to situate works within broader intellectual and cultural contexts. Seminar discussion, research, essay writing and direct engagement with works in London's extraordinary range of galleries and museums are all central to the programme, which runs full time over three years.

Graduates of history of art programmes work in galleries, museums and auction houses, cultural heritage, arts journalism and criticism, arts administration and management, publishing, education, public relations and communications, and the commercial art world including dealing, curatorial roles and collection management. Goldsmiths graduates benefit from the college's strong connections to the contemporary art world, which provides networks and opportunities that are hard to replicate elsewhere. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in art history, curating, museum studies or cultural studies.