Aftermath of the Reformation, Histories of Genre Painting
8-weeks | Registration closed 9/10/2025
We will compare various subject-specific areas of painting that have occurred over the last 400 years in Western art. How does comparing works from different periods and cultures reflect what communities are/were engaged by? For example, what could we learn from comparisons such as the following: Alice Neel vs. Holbein the Younger or Neil Welliver vs. Corot, or Janet Fish vs. Pieter Claesz? The goal of the course is to establish an appreciation for how genre painting from a wide range of cultures and time periods has served the need we have for image making. Weekly links to video and pertinent texts will be provided prior to each class meeting.
John McGiff
John McGiff has been an artist and teacher for over 40 years. He was an adjunct at Drexel and Temple Universities in Philadelphia and was Chair of the Arts Department at St Andrew's School, an independent boarding school in Delaware, for more than 20 years. He taught studio arts courses and art history and has shown his paintings at numerous venues across the mid-Atlantic region. He and his wife, “The Salt-Point Potter,” live in Dutchess County, New York.