NCEA Level 3 Art History

This course is conditional on a sufficient number of students being enrolled.

Aims

Art History aims to introduce students to a study of the works of artists (mainly painters, but also some sculptors and architects), from different times and different societies.

Course Content

Students study artists, their lives, their beliefs and their work to learn more about the artists and the society in which they lived. This gives students a greater insight into how the art of today has developed from the art of the past.

For 2020 the artists and famous art works will be chosen from the following:

Late Renaissance to Mannerism — Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. These artists reached an extremely high level of technical excellence and produced some of the greatest art works ever created, such as the Birth of Venus, Mona Lisa, the sculpture of David and the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Some artists were often considered controversial and Michelangelo even risked banishment and the death penalty to continue his studies of the human form.

Modern Art from 1900 to the present — The most interesting period will form the basis of individual student research. Students will be able to study how artists like Picasso, Dali, Jackson Pollock, Judy Chicago, Damien Hirst, Shane Cotton and others, changed the way we look at things and introduced new and challenging methods of expression.

Assessment

There are a variety of assessment tasks and school examinations. Externally assessed topics are examined nationally at the end of the year.

Qualification gained

Full course completion — 24 credits in NCEA Art History Level 3

This subject has links with

Visual Art Painting, Photography, History

Prior knowledge required

Open Entry

Next Step

Art History can be continued at University as a full subject and at Polytechnic as part of several Art and Design courses.