University of Pennsylvania History of Art Department

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University of Pennsylvania History of Art Department

Welcome to one of the country's leading programs for the History of Art and one of the most active o

Welcome to one of the country's leading programs for the History of Art and one of the most active organizations on the Penn campus. At home in the Jaffe History of Art Building, we are located at both a physical and a virtual crossroads for Penn's vibrant community of students and teachers. We offer a wide variety of undergraduate instruction to satisfy the curiosity and pique the interest of stu

dents. General liberal arts majors and specialists are provided for equally. Our courses regularly transport students to Philadelphia's museums, galleries and historic sites, and we offer seminars in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art and the Arthur Ross Gallery, in which students devise and organize exhibitions. The department is home to the Visual Studies program and is a significant contributor to the new major in Cinema Studies. Our renowned graduate program is sustained by the Faculty of the Graduate Group in the History of Art, whose collegial appointments drawn from elsewhere in the University enriches the scope and expands the size of the department. The department also hosts the Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, underscoring the breadth of our interests. We are proud that our faculty have received all of the University's teaching awards (the Abrams, College Alumni Society, and Lindback prizes), and that faculty scholarship has won the major prizes of the College Art Association and the Society of Architectural Historians. History of Art faculty are also recipients of the major fellowships that support scholarly work: Guggenheim, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Humanities Center, Woodrow Wilson Center, etc. We hope that you enjoy your visit to this site, and we invite you to visit us in person.

09/08/2026

Shira Brisman's The Goldsmith's Debt is reviewed in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books.

https://arth.sas.upenn.edu/news/shira-brismans-goldsmiths-debt-reviewed-new-york-review-books

08/26/2026

TOMORROW | Thursday, August 27, 2026 - 4:30pm

Christina Kiaer, The Frances Hooper Professor in the Arts and Humanities, Northwestern University

"Report from an Undesirable: Soviet Art History in the Age of Putin’s War”

Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, 602 Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 6th floor
Reception to follow in Jaffe 104

This event is sponsored by the Katherine Stein Sachs CW'69 and Keith L. Sachs W'67 Expendable Program Fund

08/18/2026

Remembering Our Friend and Colleague, Darlene Jackson

Darlene Jackson, December 19, 1962 – August 8, 2026

In Loving Memory of Darlene Jackson, Graduate Coordinator in the History of Art Department

It is with deep sadness that we share the passing of our dear colleague and friend, Darlene Jackson, who served as our Graduate Coordinator for 25 years.

Darlene was the heart and soul of our department. She brought immense dedication, warmth, wisdom, encouragement, and a bright smile to our office every single day. Darlene made a lasting impact on everyone she came in contact with, and she will be so deeply missed.

Our deepest thoughts and sympathies go out to her family and loved ones during this difficult time.

Obituary:

View Darlene Annette Jackson's obituary, contribute to their memorial, see their funeral service details, and more.

08/14/2026

What happens when art, craft, and ideas of freedom come together?

This Independence Day, join Prof. Sonal Khullar for Creative Circuits: Art, Craft, and Languages of Freedom as she takes us through creative experiments across Santiniketan, Delhi, Bombay and Baroda, and explores the ideas of artist K.G. Subramanyan.

📅 August 16, 2026 | Sunday
⏰ 4:00 PM
📍 NGMA Bengaluru Auditorium
🎟️ Open to all | No registration required

Come listen, learn, and explore the many ways art and craft can become languages of freedom.

[Creative Circuits, Independence Day, NGMA Bengaluru, Art and Craft, K.G. Subramanyan, Sonal Khullar, Languages of Freedom, Indian Art, Art Talk, Modern Art, Ministry of Culture, Government of India]

08/06/2026

Julia Perratore (PhD'12) quoted in New York Times article:

As the museum reframes its story of medieval art, Andrew Winslow, the collections manager, embraces the challenge.

08/03/2026

Congratulations to Ramey Mize (PhD 2023) on her groundbreaking exhibition, "Winslow Homer: Painter, Etcher," at the Portland Museum of Art. The show contains a video interview with Mize and is accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by Prof. Michael Leja.

https://www.portlandmuseum.org/exhibitions/winslow-homer-painter-etcher/

07/29/2026

Congratulations to ARTH major Emma Poveda (BA'24) on curating the exhibition, "Michael E. Smith: The makings of you," at Mass MoCA. Emma's senior thesis advisor, Prof. Shira Brisman was delighted to visit the exhibition curated by her former student.

https://massmoca.org/event/michael-e-smith/

07/21/2026

Prof. Ann Kuttner and PhD student Benjy Jude in Penn Today

In recognition of the summer season and beach vacations, Penn Today spoke with history of art professor Ann Kuttner about ancient Roman portrayals of the sea and Ph.D. student Benjy Jude about 19th-century French seascapes.

07/08/2026

Michael Leja’s Flood of Pictures book was awarded the 2026 Ewell Newman Book Prize from the American Historical Print Collectors Society. A review of the book also appeared in the June 25th issue of the New York Review of Books.

In the decades before the Civil War, innovations in printmaking and photography created a “rage for pictures” that transformed American visual culture.

07/07/2026

A revelatory new exhibition titled "Winslow Homer, Painter Etcher," curated by Ramey Mize (PhD'23), opened at the Portland Museum of Art (Maine) on July 3. The opening celebration included a dinner at Homer’s studio at Prout’s Neck, where Ramey was joined by catalogue contributors Brooks Rich (PhD'18) and Michael Leja.

July 3 — October 18, 2026 Winslow Homer (1836–1910) is celebrated for his powerful paintings and watercolors, yet in the 1880s he turned to etching to revisit some of his most iconic subjects. From his studio at Prouts Neck, Maine, now preserved and interpreted by the Portland Museum of Art,...

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