Art History courses online and in London
Looking to build your confidence in discussing and interpreting art? Or are you interested in taking your established knowledge of art in new directions? Then come and join City Lit’s Art History learning community!
Our exceptional range of courses, both introductory and in-depth, are designed for all learning levels. Our programme approaches art history from a variety of perspectives including social and cultural context, art theory and philosophy, curation and collecting, general art appreciation and so much more.
Choosing the right class for you
Our courses are open to all. Our students come from all backgrounds and learning experiences, from the absolute beginner to those refining their knowledge and understanding. We aim to give you the confidence to engage meaningfully with art, whatever level you are working from. Our students use our courses for personal fulfilment as well as professional and educational development. Many of our students go on to advanced degree and certificate programmes and many are able to use their knowledge in art making and gallery work.
Learn from expert tutors
At City Lit we are proud of the expertise of our tutors who are all professional art historians working actively in museums, galleries, research and writing, universities and auction houses. As experts in the field, they are able to provide you with the support and guidance you need to develop your art historical knowledge. As teachers they provide student-focused education, helping students achieve their art historical goals, both the personal and the professional.
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- Focus on: 19th-century fashion
Course start date: Sat 24 Jun 2023Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the relationship between nineteenth-century society, from the Napoleonic era to the suffrage movement, and men’s and women’s fashions which witnessed constant change, restrictions, extremes and the start of the dress reform movement.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Focus on: 20th-century fashion Course start date: Sat 1 Jul 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the ever-changing statement of identity that was twentieth-century fashion through the study of key designers and significant social and political events that shaped the clothes we wore.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Art history taster Course start date: Fri 7 Jul 2023 (and 17 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayEver wondered what art history is but don’t want to commit to a whole course? This taster explores some of the ways art historians come to their interpretion art. Build your confidence in looking at art by learning what art and art history really are.Full fee £10.00 - London architecture: Renaissance, Baroque and Palladian Course start date: Sat 7 Oct 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersFrom the beginnings of Renaissance architecture in Britain, through the Baroque to Palladianism - study key architects including Jones, Wren, Hawksmoor, and Burlington, looking at religious and secular buildings. Includes site visits.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - London architecture: post-modernismCourse start date: Sat 21 Oct 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersLondon’s recent building boom has foregrounded discussions about architectural style, but postmodernism has been practiced in the capital for more than forty years. This course will look at the style’s variety through key examples.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Modern art in America, 1900-1930: the Ashcan School to Precisionism Course start date: Sat 4 Nov 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersStudy American art, including paintings, illustrations and cartoons from late-nineteenth century Impressionism and Realism to Precisionism, analysing movements and styles, social and political context, materials, and art theory.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Islamic art at the British MuseumCourse start date: Sun 5 Nov 2023
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Anita ChowdryTake a Friday evening to explore the British Museum’s newly refurbished Islamic galleries and learn the stories behind one of the world’s great collections of Islamic art.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £15.00 Concession £12.00 - Modern art in America, 1930s: the age of Hopper, Rivera and the New Deal Course start date: Sat 11 Nov 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersFrom Edward Hopper to Philip Evergood to Diego Rivera, study American art from the turbulent 1930s, analysing movements and styles, social and political context, materials, and art theory.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Study day: Kandinsky, Mondrian and pure abstractionCourse start date: Sat 18 Nov 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore abstraction as it developed in different locations and within different movement. It will focus on Kandinsky and Mondrian as its key examples, considering issues such as content ambitions, artistic influences and stylistic developments.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £59.00 Concession £38.00 - Focus on: Vermeer Course start date: Sun 19 Nov 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Leslie PrimoMaster of stillness and light, author of only 35, maybe 36, known works, Vermeer’s art continues to fascinate. Discover his life and works in the context of the Dutch Golden Age.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Study day: Rothko, Pollock and Abstract ExpressionismCourse start date: Sat 25 Nov 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the Abstract Expressionist movement, focusing on Pollock and Rothko as its key examples, considering such issues as biography, social and political context, artistic influences, and stylistic progress.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Study day: Monet & Impressionism Course start date: Sat 2 Dec 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore the Impressionist movement, focusing on Monet as its key example, considering such issues as biography, social change, artistic influences, material developments and stylistic progress.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - The Victorians: art, fashion & architectureCourse start date: Sat 20 Jan 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersFull fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00 - Modern art in Ireland Course start date: Sun 11 Feb 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Henry MartinThis course explores how artists on the island of Ireland have responded to, and created, cultural and social change between 1922 and 2022. Themes include religion, inequality, post-colonialism, modernity, secularism and the Troubles.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Velázquez, painter to the King
Course start date: Sat 24 Feb 2024Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Mark Stuart-SmithInvestigate the work of the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, including enigmatic paintings such as Las Meninas (1656), and learn about how his art relates to his political role as court painter to Philip IV.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00
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