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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- Introduction to Tate Britain
Course start date: Fri 5 May 2023Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Chantal CondronEach week, we'll explore a different aspect of the permanent collection at Tate Britain, looking at artworks from the 16th to the 21st centuries. This course is gallery based.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Private portraits: painted miniatures in early modern EuropeCourse start date: Fri 5 May 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresPortrait miniatures are some of the most exquisite and beguiling likenesses ever produced. Their tiny scale and painstaking creation give them an intricacy, intimacy and sense of intrigue. These often reflect the circumstances in which they were gifted to their new owners by the person commissioning them, and both the images and their wider contexts repay our close study on this course.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00 - Introduction to the art of art history - part 2Course start date: Sat 6 May 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersExplore a variety of art movements, from Neo-Classicism to Abstract Expressionism through an introductory study of the writing of art theorists and commentators who have made a significant contribution to Art History as a discipline.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Looking at design: Arts and Crafts to Art DecoCourse start date: Sat 6 May 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersStudy the design reform movements – Arts and Crafts, Aesthetic Movement, Art Nouveau and Art Deco – and analyse a wide range of products, including fashion and textiles, graphics, furniture and architecture within their social, historic and artistic context. Includes a museum visit.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £111.00 Concession £90.00 - An introduction to the history of architectureCourse start date: Thu 11 May 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresArchitecture is the one art form that we cannot avoid even if we try. It shapes our environment and the way we live our lives, so understanding why buildings look the way they do is a vital part of understanding the world around us. This introductory course will enable you to do just that by examining the development of architectural styles from Ancient Greece to the present day.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - In depth: German art and the Weimar Republic 1918-1933Course start date: Mon 15 May 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayFocusing on the vibrant culture of the Weimar Republic, this course looks at the artists and artistic movements that emerged in Germany between two world wars.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £127.00 Concession £103.00 - An introduction to stained glass at the V&ACourse start date: Thu 18 May 2023
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Andreas PetzoldStained glass has been described as the most original and important medium in the high Middle Ages. The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of stained glass in the world, spanning the twelfth century to the modern period. The course will provide an introduction to this medium and the collection of it in the Victoria and Albert Museum.Full fee £59.00 Concession £38.00 - Study trip: art highlights of LisbonCourse start date: Fri 19 May 2023
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Marie-Anne MancioJoin us to explore the art of the beautiful city of Lisbon, a magnet for artists in recent years and fast becoming gentrified. This three-day tour with an expert art historian takes you to its many artistic highlights from ancient to contemporary and includes day trips to Belem and the pretty seaside resort of Cascais. Max places: 14.Full fee £429.00 Senior fee £429.00 Concession £429.00 - Study day: Degas, drawing the modernCourse start date: Sun 21 May 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayExplore Degas’s extraordinary legacy as ‘one of the founders of Impressionism’. His dynamic paintings and sketches of everyday life and activities, and his bold colour experiments will be examined throughout this informative weekend art history course.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Lunchtime lecture: drawing on nature - early modern women, textiles and plantsCourse start date: Mon 22 May 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayDiscover the extraordinary connection of botanical drawing and textile design by exploring the work of some of early modern Europe's most successful women artists: Maria Sibylla Merian, Isabella Parasole and Giovanna Garzoni.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £8.00 Concession £7.00 - Art and society in the early modern NetherlandsCourse start date: Mon 5 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Thomas BalfeThis course focuses on Flemish and Dutch (Netherlandish) art of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The course will examine well-known artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Rembrandt and Vermeer, as well as the role of artworks and visual images in the formation of religious, class, gender and national identities, in early science, and in cultures of collecting.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £111.00 Concession £90.00 - Space, time and class in the early 20th century: from Cubism to ConstructivismCourse start date: Tue 6 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Christopher CollierCubism, Futurism and Constructivism were pivotal movements in the history of modern art – encapsulating all the promise and peril of the 20th century’s troubled birth. From striving for rewrite the rules of representation, to the total transformation society itself, these movements tore up artistic convention, helping reshape perceptions of space, time, and class in the process.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00 - London's smaller art collectionsCourse start date: Fri 3 Mar 2023 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julie BarlowDiscover some of London’s fascinating smaller art collections and hidden art treasures on this gallery-based course.Full fee £169.00 Senior fee £135.00 Concession £110.00 - Copies & copyists in antiquity: art, beauty and misunderstandingCourse start date: Thu 8 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Simone ChisenaExplore the often-overlooked world of ancient copies and copyists, how their work helped to save art treasures for the future and how it impacts on our modern perception of the Ancient World.
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 - 'We're still here': new contemporary painting in the UKCourse start date: Fri 9 Jun 2023
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Chantal CondronLiving in a digital age, is contemporary painting ‘redundant'? This four week course explores how alive and kicking contemporary painting is in Britain. Discover how exciting, new UK-based artists use both experimental and traditional painting approaches to address issues of identity, history and personal experience.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00
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