Art History Grad Programs

[J. V. Grabowski]

Hello. I was wondering if anyone can give me an (informed) opinion regarding
the "best" graduate schools for studying contemporary art history. If anyone
even knows what the hell I'm talking about, do post a reply. Thanks all.

J.V.G.

[Geri]

I may be biased, but in my opinion, there is only one school that is
tops for art history, the first one: the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU.
There is NYU, then all the rest. I did my undergrad there in art history,
and it was terrific, hard, but with classes with incredible professors,
including Kenneth Silver in contemporary art. As far as contemporary art
goes, you get the whole city full of galleries and working artists as a
bonus, and classes with major museum curators (even at the undergrad
level). I had also applied to Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton and Yale
programs, but that was more for medieval and Renaissance art.
Be warned, however, getting into the IFA is the most selective there
is, and when you do get in, the workload is unbelievable, and the
competition is hot. You are also required to study more than just
contemporary art; you must have a solid grad core in ancient, Asian,
medieval/Renaissance and modern art, before you can tackle contemporary
art. Do you already have at least intermediate German and one other
language? German is the first requirement for all art history majors,
with a second language requirement related to your area of
concentration. Especially in contemporary art, you can't get to the
journals if you don't read German fluently.
Surprisingly, there are not a lot of Ph.D. programs in Art HIstory
around the country, and there are not a lot of jobs in the field. Being
in NYC helps a lot, since you can get in at entry level to many gallery
jobs, and meet many of the people in the field.
BTW, FYI, I ultimately chose grad school in my other major instead, and
stayed at NYU in spite of other offers. Good luck to you!
geri
pb...@juno.com

In article <5s0rrs$c...@sjx-ixn3.ix.netcom.com>, J. V. Grabowski