BA HAMS (History of Art with Material Studies)

The History of Art Department at UCL offers a History of Art with Materials Studies single honours degree as part of its BA programme. The distinctive characteristic of this course is that it combines a full programme in the history of art with a unique focus on works of art as physical objects. This gives the students comprehensive skills in art history, together with a thorough understanding of artists techniques and questions of materiality, both at the time a work of art was made, and subsequently as it ages and deteriorates. In some years, a HAMS special subject is also offered for the MA History of Art programme.

Future careers
The programme provides students with an excellent basis for any career dealing at first hand with works of art, such as museum and gallery curators and registrars, art dealers, valuers and auctioneers. It is also a good foundation for those wishing to take up further training in any discipline within art conservation. In addition, any of the professions dealing with art would benefit from the expertise gained from the training HAMS courses offer, and students have taken up careers in education, journalism, television and the film industry. The programme can also be a springboard for graduate research into a comparatively unexplored area of art history.

Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Programme Structure Teaching Methods Entry Qualifications How to Apply Further Information

Programme Structure
First Year HART1001 History of Art and its Objects: an introduction to a range of skills required to study the History of Art, including the first-hand study of works of art. It is designed to familiarise students with some current debates in the subject, and introduce them to a variety of theoretical positions of which they need to be aware in the course of their degree. HART1303 Science for Art Historians: a basic science course for non-scientists, to give students an understanding of the physical and chemical behaviour of artists materials. HART1302 Methods and Materials of Artists: an introduction to the major developments in painting techniques of artists from the medieval period to the present day. HART1306 History of European Art (1): Classical to Early Renaissance

and HART1305 History of European Art (2): High Renaissance to Present Day: an introduction to the dominant narrative of art history as an historical development ('the canon'), and are encouraged to look at that model critically. The subject matter of the lecture series ranges from classical to contemporary art. Space is also given to categories outside the conventional canon. Second Year HART2001 Category Art: aims to familiarise students with the way in which the concept of art has evolved in the European world, especially since the Renaissance. It examines the emergence of Aesthetics as a distinct branch of philosophy in the eighteenth century, and subsequent developments, especially in relation to the role of the category Art in Modernism. or HART2002 Methodologies: a text-based course to introduce students to a variety of different methodologies and approaches current in the discipline. Through lectures, seminars and weekly reading tasks students learn to identify and evaluate different kinds of art historical writing. HART2216 The History, Characteristics and Analysis of Paint: a closer look at the raw materials, manufacturers, suppliers, visual, physical and chemical characteristics, ageing, identification and analysis of paint. HART2217 Care and Conservation of Works of Art: to introduce students to concepts and practices relevant to conservation, including ethics, controversy and consensus, damage and deterioration and historical and modern conservation and restoration practice. HART2219 Prints and Printmaking: Techniques, History and Meaning: an introduction to all aspects of prints and printmaking in Western Europe from c.1500 to the present. Third Year HART3907 HAMS Project Paper: all HAMS students write a HAMS research project to a maximum of 10,000 words. This must have a technical element, combined with art historical research. HART3903 Methods and Materials of Artists: Extension Essay: students define a research project based on work they have done for the previously-completed HAMS courses and receive guidance while undertaking the research and writing the 5,000-word essay. HART 3111 Art/Work/Spaces: this module enables students to gain work experiences outside of the department (current parnters are the Strang Print Room, UCL Collections. the Victoria & Albert Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Wellcome Collection (prints and drawings), the Guildhall Art Gallery, and Haunch of Venison), while writing an independent research project of 5,000-words reflecting critically on the practical experience.

Students may also take units from outside History of Art in departments such as anthropology, archaeology, architecture, chemistry, geology, history etc., with the agreement of the department concerned and their course tutors.

Teaching Methods
Students are taught in small groups both within and outside the department. Seminar discussions and assessments of the impassioned debates surrounding recent restoration projects run alongside practical experiments, designed to give the students first-hand experience of artists materials. The practices of painters are examined through making and handling paint, referring to historical documents and close examination of paintings, both in the department and in galleries throughout London.

Students often also get an opportunity to go behind the scenes to visit conservation studios and on -site conservation projects, gallery stores, paint factories and artists studios.