By far, this has to be one of the worst classes I have ever taken. In the beginning, the class was super confusing bc she decided to give the T.a's leniency in deciding the format of these short responses due each week. Don't let the word "short" fool you. While yes, the responses were a total of 300 words, the readings which the responses were on were sometimes up to 50 pages total! As if that wasn't enough, the lectures, which were boring and not in the slightest useful, also had questions at the end which were part of the response. However, given that the T.a's had all the say for these, some T.a's, like mine, asked us only to focus on the readings, which meant we had to read the whole text in order to get our participation points. The readings themselves were super boring and difficult to understand --the one exception being Machiavelli's Prince--so the students who had to focus completely on them, struggled. But, this did mean that if you only had to use readings in your responses you could, and should as it as a big time saver, completely ignore the lectures which many students did.

The tests which were a midterm and final had the same structure as each other. Both were comparisons of two artworks of her choosing from the 50 or so that are the lectures. Luckily, since everything Is recorded and the fact that she gave us a week to do them, when the test comes out, you can just scroll through the lectures were she talks about the paintings and ignore everything else. I did this for both tests and got an A- on my midterm and a B+ on my final, despite her still giving out readings during test weeks, which by the way, were the longest ones in the class! Ignoring the lectures, if you are fortunate enough to get a T.a who only asks you to focus on the readings, is the best thing you could do as it just saves you so much time.

We had two other assignments due which were not as difficult as the tests. One was a visual analysis on a work. To sum up the visuals analysis, the goal is to describe a work as completely as possible using terms from the class in about 500 words. Write everything you see even if it does not seem important. The next assignment is based on the work you picked. It is a research project or "proposal" as she says. This assignment purely depends on your work and how 'famous' it is. The more well known the work you have, the easier it is for you to find your sources. The structure was a powerpoint that included a title page, a refined version of your visual analysis, three research questions, and three works similar to the one you chose.

I do not know if it was her idea or the T.a's but someone was generous enough to offer extra credit in the form of a self portrait in which you would take a photo of yourself that looks similar to the one you chose, although it only counted for about the same as one of the weekly responses.

In sum, do not take this class, especially if you just want to fulfill a G.E. this class is not worth the stress and sleep loss that comes with it. Even if you really enjoy the subject, I suggest you still try and look for something else. To those poor people who have to take it for one reason or another, I hope you get through it.

Overview/Professor:
I really enjoyed the subject matter of this course. I thought Professor Wilson was very clear and extraordinarily knowledgeable.

Material:
- Her lectures are recorded/not live, and often go well over 3 hours per week. They often range between 2.5-3.5 hours of recorded material per week.
- The readings are usually 15-40 pages per week (including both required and recommended readings).
- She sometimes includes recommended 10ish minute videos per week as well.
- She holds optional 75 min review sessions once a week.

Discussion Sections:
- For discussion section, it is essentially a review and a deeper dive into the required reading for the week.
- A 1 -1.5 page summary of the reading is due each week at the beginning of section.

Assignments:
- Most of the 'take home exams' are two essays. These slide comparisons each compare and contrast 2 pieces of art/architecture. There are two of these in the quarter, kind of like a midterm/final.
- There is also a visual analysis assignment where you simply describe a piece of art, and it is more like one single essay.

While Professor Wilson seems like a nice person, she is not a great GE professor. I took this class as a GE, as I’m sure many people did, but she acted as though we all had a background in Art History. There were a lot of readings, but they were interesting to me. The midterm essay was graded a little harshly, but that was more on my TA than Prof Wilson. By the time the final essay rolls around, though, you should figure out what you’re doing. In terms of the lectures, they’re recorded which is nice, but there’s a lot of material covered throughout the quarter so I picked and chose which lectures were actually necessary to watch. Overall, I wouldn’t take it again, but it wasn’t an awful class.

She made me cry :(

For everyone saying this class is a difficult GE, it is true. However, the professor was extremely engaging and definitely one of the best I’ve had at UCLA. I’m a south campus major and enjoyed this class thoroughly. My interest in this subject which I had no prior experience in, is all thanks to Professor Wilson. She takes time to hold 3-4 hours of review sessions prior to the midterm and the final. Her lecturing style is very engaging and her passion for the subject inspired me. It is very evident that she cares for her students and their learning. All art history GE courses have a lot of artworks to memorize, and her final didn’t require memorization of the midterm material, which made it quite fair. I agree the grading is a bit unstandardized and your grade depends on the TA who grades your paper. Never the less, both the professor and my TA were very willing to guide me on how I could improve. This may definitely not be one of the easier GEs, and if all you care about is your GPA then maybe you shouldn’t take it. However, it is very enjoyable, educative and enhances your analytical skills that can be of use to you, regardless of your major.

Her lectures are increadibly insightful she pushes people to speak their "opinions" on the works of art being discussed. There are 2 tests, one visual analysis and one research paper. Taking her again in the spring for 121C. For art history beginners, this class will set you up nicely since there is not that much workload. For art history majors, this is the class you take with other classes that will take up time because it is really not that hard. Participate a lot in class. She never puts anyone on the spot though so don't worry!

First, I would NOT recommend this class to any STEM majors who are entirely unfamiliar with art history. It's an art history class! And if you don't have a background in it, you will struggle.
That being said, I loved this class as an art history major. Wilson is a great teacher and explains everything very well. The essays were challenging, but they forced me to learn a lot and grow in my writing. The research essay was also tricky, yet I enjoyed it a lot because we could pick what we wrote about. Please make sure you choose something you're REALLY interested in because you will be spending a long time with it.
Overall, this is a great lower-division class for art, art history, or history majors. It's immensely interesting and you will learn a lot!

This class is an extremely easy GE if you are looking for something interesting that doesn't take up too much time/effort. The content is really interesting and it gives you a new perspective/some extra background to evaluate artwork in the future. There wasn't a single assignment until about week 4 other than weekly reading (which, in my opinion, isn't necessary because I rarely read them and was fine). There is an essay around week 4, essay around week 6, a research project(fancy essay) starting around week 6, and then two essays for the final in week 10. Your TA grades all of your essays and then it is passed onto a second reader for a second-pass. My TA was super nice and was able to tell me what I could improve on which was SUPER helpful so I definitely recommend reaching out to your TAs.