I had taken an art history course back in high school that was cumulative, but as the title of this class states, it is ONLY modern art with minimal references to the Renaissance and Egyptian art and so on. I thought this course would be easy with a 20% equal distribution to each of the two essays, final, midterm, and discussion, but I was greatly mistaken. The grade SOLELY DEPENDS on your TA. My TA was very knowledgable and offered insight and help into the artworks in the course, but this TA graded very harshly although this TA seemed like a really nice person. The average for all essays was a B+, even if you have given it your utmost effort and thoroughly knew the content. You do NOT need to buy any textbooks for this class as all readings are posted on CCLE. The course is interesting with all the artworks you get to learn about and the professor is very lively and passionate. But WARNING, you will never see some artworks that you may have seen before the same way again because the professor always finds something phallic or sexual about it. The readings range from ten to over thirty pages. I took notes on each one and it would take hours to comprehend the text because art is very objective, but in the class, we are more focused on the physical aspects of art and the context of each era of art. The first essay will have you compare and contrast two paintings and the second one will have you compare and contrast two sculptures. The midterm will include slide ID which makes you identify the artworks with its title, date, and artist and the other part is the compare and contrast essay. The final has slide ID and it also has more compare and contrast essays and one longer essay that wraps all the themes of the course. ALL ESSAYS THAT ARE WRITTEN IN THE CLASS (whether it be alone or in a test) MUST INCLUDE THE SUPPORT OF THE READINGS. So, take this class if you can write well and make art your beach. I tried my best, but it wasn't enough for an A (HA!).

Baker's lectures are very engaging. He is extremely passionate about art, and it comes out through the way he talks. I enjoyed going to lectures. I found him intimidating though, so I never went to his office hours. The class is quite challenging. There is a lot of required reading for each week, so you definitely have to keep up. Discussion is super helpful (attendance is mandatory anyways). My TA was great at explaining the material in detail (Baker only goes over the main points). Midterm and final were a bit tough-- you have to memorize around 70 works of art for each exam (title, artist, year), and there are some essays as well. I recommend this class only if you are interested in learning about art (don't take it just because you need a GE), because there is definitely a lot of work involved, and it would be painful to work so hard for a subject that you don't care for. I personally like art, but I think I will wait a while before taking another art history class because this one was just so challenging, especially since I am a science major.

Professor Baker is a great Professor! One of the great professors I have met in life. He loves what he teaches and he is always passionate while giving the lectures!And if you love art you HAVE TO take this class. This is the class that you will never regret taking.

I purchased these books halfway through last quarter (F 2014) brand new. I am one of those students who thinks I can go without purchasing the books and that I can just go to the library and use them temporarily for the readings. mmmm not so much for this class. And every time I went to the library to rent it out for a few hours, someone else in the class ALWAYS beat me to it.

Anyways, I have all 6 books :

Caught by the Tail
The Banquet Years
Rites of Spring
The Originality of the Avant-Garde
The Dada Seminars
The Dada Painters and Poets

They have no writing in them. literally like 6 weeks old. perfect condition. When you go to buy them, you find them to cost you $120 on amazon with amazon prime(because you need them right away. truly, you do. the readings are too long to get behind). and go online and quote me on that price!

Get em for me right away for $90 total. You can totally see them for yourself first so you know they are seriously brand new.

sophiakicko@gmail.com
7608890771

I took History of Photography with Baker, and was initially extremely excited to study under him. About a week into the course, I unfortunately couldn't keep up my enthusiasm. I'll admit the man is truly passionate about the subject, and does his best to inspire the class-- but I would have to say that 75% of what we discussed just seemed pompous and utterly subjective... sometimes I don't think HE even knew what he was trying to say. We had a midterm that he didn't return to us until ninth week, and a final ten page research paper. The amount of reading was astronomical, and difficult to incorporate into the research paper. All in all, it was a disappointing class. I don't think I would take Baker again.