History of Art BA

Course overview

You'll explore practices and interpretations of art across an exceptionally wide array of intersecting cultures and different periods. In a world increasingly defined through images and material culture, we approach art history as a vital and dynamic framework for understanding both our shared histories, and some of the most pressing questions we are faced with now.

With an emphasis on the interconnections between art and larger social dynamics, the course offers an active engagement with questions of power, politics and society, and the potential for a deep understanding of art history to illuminate the wider frameworks that shape our culture, such as those of race, our relations to nature and the environment, class, gender and sexuality.

Our students are equipped to become global citizens, as experts in their fields of study and as socially aware thinkers with dynamic, relevant and transferrable skills.

Our learning community

The course has a distinct position as a degree in a Russell Group university where art historians study alongside fine artists, within a purpose-built space that includes studios and a gallery alongside seminar rooms and a shared student common room.

We have expertise in the social history of art, feminist art history and the critical study of race and global cultural encounters, with emerging interests in our historical and contemporary relations to nature through issues of sustainability, climate and the environment. We offer the second oldest art history course in the United Kingdom.

All our teaching is driven by cutting-edge research, with a dynamic approach based on emerging issues and questions that matter to us as a community of academics, practitioners and students. The course covers an exceptional variety of specialist areas of study ranging from Africa to Asia, from the Medieval world to New York in the 20th century, from the Renaissance to contemporary art markets and exhibition cultures and from interrogations of art and capitalism to structures of power within the portrait. Across the areas we teach, we attend critically to the institutions and spaces in which art is encountered, drawing on ongoing professional collaborations and long-standing expertise among many of our staff who have worked in major museums, galleries and related arts and cultural organisations.

Specialist facilities

In addition to the wide range of museums and galleries in the city and beyond, the University campus features:

• The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

• Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery

• Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

• Marks & Spencer Company Archive

• International Textile Collection

• Public art trail

• Project Space – a multi-purpose space in the School designed for the development of curatorial practice and visiting exhibitions

The University Library offers online books, journals and databases, has a wealth of archive material in its Special Collections, including manuscript, archive and early printed material, and provides a range of spaces for individual study or group work. You’ll also benefit from access to Box of Broadcasts, an archive of over 2 million TV and radio broadcasts.

Course details

You’ll build an advanced art history knowledge and develop key abilities in research, independent thinking and the expression of your ideas. We’re committed to approaching art and its histories from a global lens and with an emphasis on important social and political questions. The compulsory modules provide a foundation of art history knowledge and transferable skills and the optional modules allow you significant scope to tailor your course with a diverse range of choices, calling on the expertise of the School and our staff. The dissertation forms a major component of your final year, in which we’ll provide you with one-to-one support for your independently devised project.

Year 1

You'll gain the fundamental skills and knowledge for art-historical analysis and for critical awareness of the spaces, institutions and social practices in which art, in its widest forms, takes shape. You’ll take on different approaches to learning while looking at key themes and interpretive methods and building skills for research. You'll consider art in its most diverse forms, in global and local contexts, and in the complex ways art is embedded in wider social and political questions.

A choice of optional modules will allow you to give more focus to particular areas of interest.

Year 2

You'll build on this knowledge and skill-base, with further scope to pursue your individual interests in depth. Compulsory modules enable you to explore the philosophical foundations and legacies of art history and its formation as a distinct set of practices and intellectual frameworks; to develop higher-level understanding of different methods and approaches in the development of your own art-historical practice; and to further explore the complex and dynamic institutional frameworks in which we encounter art in its many forms.

You'll choose from a significant range of optional modules covering a very wide array of topics in art history, as well as related areas of critical theory.

Year 3

By your final year, you'll be able to apply your research and critical skills to an independently formulated dissertation on a topic of your choice.

This is alongside further choice of optional modules covering a similarly diverse range of topics and approaches at an intellectually advanced level.

Course structure

The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our terms and conditions.

Year 1
Compulsory modules

Art History as Practice (20 credits) - Taking art-historical research as a dynamic and inclusive set of practices grounded in questions that matter now, this module draws on the varied expertise of teaching staff to introduce you to the combined and converging challenges of a deep understanding of past cultures, engagement with current issues in the field and methods for developing independent research. This module presents a wide array of art-historical topics, with a global perspective and covering a broad chronology, placing emphasis on the question of what it means to be an art historian now.

Ways of Seeing (20 credits) - Taking the act of ‘seeing’ as its starting point, this module asks you to analyse assumptions about art that may appear ‘natural’, obvious or unquestionable. By exploring the many ways in which ‘seeing’ is thought and theorised, you’ll question the relation between society, ideas, art and writing. You’ll consider how visual culture conveys and constructs social values, and how ‘seeing’ is wrapped-up with verbal representations and conceptualisations, gaining skills of critical thinking, visual analysis and independent learning in the process.

Ways of Thinking Seeing (20 credits) - Drawing on a wide array of critical art-historical sources and examples from visual culture, this module considers some of the ideological and conceptual structures associated with shaping the process of seeing. Through close reading, you’ll gain an awareness of various categories and structures for seeing, you’ll question notions of ‘meaning’ and ‘interpretation’. Using these ideas as a basis, you’ll develop critical thinking and writing skills to explore, and reflect on, how our lived experience and social relations are shaped by many different, yet interrelated, structures and modes of seeing.

From Art History’s Myths to Critical Art History (20 credits) - This module sets out a broad range of art-historical topics and questions, with a focus on modernity and the contemporary, together with a direct, critical engagement with some of the prevailing myths of the discipline. You’ll be equipped with an understanding of key moments in the history of art in texts, practices and institutions and with an ability to reflect on how the history of art both illuminates and shadows our work as art historians today. While gaining in-depth knowledge of art movements and practices up to the present, we will explore how the interpretation of art has been coloured by notions of nationhood and claims to universality, by the very notion of ‘modernity’ and by myths of origins and authenticity.

Critical Approaches to Display, Institutions and Engagement (20 Credits) - This module introduces a range of approaches to the critical study of practices of curating and the institutions, spaces and cultural formations through which art, in its widest senses, is encountered. From the origins of museums to the most recent forms of socially engaged participatory practice, from heritage sites to the international biennale, you’ll be equipped to develop an informed engagement with the wider structures and relationships – political, social, and cultural – which underpin our lived experience of the artworld and shape our interpretations as scholars.

Optional modules

Discovery module (20 credits) - Throughout your degree you will benefit from a range of opportunities to expand your intellectual horizons outside or within your subject area. This course gives you the opportunity to choose from a range of discovery modules. They’re a great way to tailor your study around your interests or career aspirations and help you stand out from the crowd when you graduate. Find out more about discovery modules on our Broadening webpages.

Cultural History (20 credits) - You'll be introduced to some social and cultural formations underscoring the history of ‘the West’ since the period known as the Enlightenment. It invites you to engage with history from a cultural perspective, develop a 'sense of history' and reflect on what might be understood as ‘historical consciousness’. We draw on historical events, developments and concepts to interrogate some of the ideological and political assumptions informing modernity and postmodernity. Using a wide variety of materials, you’ll also consider how race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality have been figured and represented since the Enlightenment.

Year 2
Compulsory modules

Methods in Practice: Art-Historical Research (20 credits) - This module builds core skills through a focused critical engagement with methods in art-historical research. Combining detailed reflection on the concerns and approaches of key art historians with work-in-progress explorations of the development of live research, this module equips you to build your own projects with a strong sense of the resources and choices open to us, and of the discipline of Art History as an inclusive, dynamic space to be developed though the questions that matter now.

Origins, Structures, and Critique: Framing the Discipline of Art History (20 credits) - This module interrogates the history and legacies of the discipline of Art History, with a view to a critical reflection on what art history can do in the world we face today. We explore the distinct formation of Art History as a discipline rooted both in historical or antiquarian studies and in philosophical aesthetics, while also reflecting on its complex entanglements with discourses of nationalism and racial hierarchies and other more or less hidden structures of power. This module equips you to deal critically and reflexively with complex and often difficult legacies and to understand transformative potential of the discipline.

Expanding Fields of Display, Institutions, and Engagement (20 credits) - This module builds on your engagement with critical, socially aware questions of display, institutions, and expanded practices of curating. Setting out key skills and intellectual frameworks grounded both in historical study and contemporary practices, it enables the development of a strong, reflexive approach to research on the varied ways in which art is encountered, and the complex and nuanced relations between such encounters and artworks’ effects and meanings.

Optional modules (selection of options from the full list):

The New York School (20 credits) - You’ll examine aspects of the shift of the metropolitan centre of the avant garde from Paris to New York at the end of the 1930s, the art and art criticism associated with it, and the ways that art and art criticism was developed, contradicted and transcended in the post war period 1947-1958/9. Artists considered will include Pollock, Rauschenberg, Johns, Louis, Noland, Kaprow, Stella, Rothko, Barnett- Newman, Reinhardt, Frankenthaler, amongst others. The idea of the Cold War, contemporary politics, formalist theory and contemporary debates on the nature of 'American Art' will provide the context for your understanding of the practices and reception of such artists.

Cinema and Culture (20 credits) - You’ll comparatively examine specific films and their remake(s). This approach enables us to note cultural, social and technological shifts over time, to discuss the possibilities and challenges of transnational remakes and to consider wider questions of inter-, para- and metatextuality in 20th century cinema and our postcinematic age. You’ll engage with relevant discourses and make detailed analyses of screenings, readings and terminologies. The module also dedicates time to develop your writing and presentation skills. Techniques and strategies of how to construct a focused argument, find appropriate literature and read a film closely will be explicitly addressed and practiced in this module.

Seeing in Asia (20 credits) - Are there fundamental differences between the ways you see familiar objects and those from Asia? Are there ways in which the power and meanings of 'seeing' change in an Asian context, so that even though we are 'seeing' the same object, we understand the object differently? How do cultural and historical values and standards shape the act of seeing and how we interpret images? By engaging with wide-ranging historical and cultural examples drawn from a range of specialities from art to science, this module addresses the age-old problem of ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’ through the perspective of Asian Culture.

Variant Modernism (20 credits) - Narrative histories of English Art in the 20th century have tended to imply a succession of movements of varying 'modernity'. You’ll look at the different definitions of 'modern' or 'contemporary' art at different historical moments in 20th century England to the present day, as well as studying the underlying critical ideologies. This module will make particular use of the notable collections of Leeds City Art Gallery and the University Collections to understand museological collecting and display policies.

The Grand Tour: Travels, Excavations, Collections (20 credits) - The Grand Tour’s origins lie in the early 17th century, when a small number of British aristocrats left their native islands to explore the cultural capitals of Europe. By the 18th century, it had developed into a rite of passage for privileged young men sent abroad to expand their knowledge of the visual arts, architecture, music and foreign political systems. Its culmination was Rome, where a thriving cultural industry arose to meet the demand for paintings, objet d’art and antiquities. This module will follow a typical Grand Tour itinerary; assess the importance of certain travellers, guides, artists and dealers; explore key publications (some of which are held in Special Collections of the Brotherton Library); and analyse the classification systems and modes of display of major Grand Tour collections in Great Britain and Ireland.

The Art Market: Moments, Methodologies, Meanings (20 credits) - This module introduces some of the main themes in the histories of the art market. It is a chronologically ordered and thematic investigation that focuses on key notions, such as the Primary (production) and Secondary (resale/collecting) art markets, and key segments such as the Fine and Decorative Art ('Antiques') markets. The role of key institutions, such as auction houses and galleries, and key agents, such as art dealers, collectors and artists, are also addressed. You’ll critically reflects on the meanings of some of the dominant tropes associated with those that have traded in art objects, such as the consistent theme of forgery and fakes, as well as the role that the art market plays in the complex nature of the notion of 'value'.

Bodies of Difference: Gender, Power and the Visual Arts (20 credits) - This module explores a range of feminist, postcolonial and queer theories of the embodiment of gender, its performance, performativity and representation in art and visual culture, showing the relations between the two. You’ll address shifts in the representational schema of the woman's body by the study of a range of feminist perspectives that offer a critical framework for thinking about the body, embodiment and difference in all its intersectional complexity. This module also covers a range of theories and concepts that are vital to our understanding of the power and dynamics of gender and the body that are operative in art history and visual culture. It is in this sense that we will move toward the recent critical feminist theories and art practices that have revisited and challenged the conventions and representations that encoded ‘woman’ as the image of desire.

Renaissance / Anti-Renaissance: Critical Approaches to Early Modern Art in Europe (20 credits) - You’ll engage with several questions fundamental to a critical and historical approach to Renaissance art. Starting with the provocative notion of Anti-Renaissance – explored by the Italian art historian Eugenio Battisti, and in related discussions elsewhere – we will think through the Renaissance as a dynamic site of conflict, contestation and experiment. Against an idea of the Renaissance as the expression of a calm, linear ‘progress’ – towards artistic perfection, towards a rational approach to the world, towards the triumph of the ‘individual’ – notions like Battisti’s enable what is arguably a vital shift of attention to difference, to counter-tendencies, and to the instability, contingency, and even possibly the non-existence, of what are casually accepted as Renaissance ‘ideals’.

Year 3
Compulsory module

Dissertation (60 Credits) - The final outcome of this module is a BA dissertation. The dissertation should take the form of a coherently argued, thoroughly researched and carefully edited written work which is based on and clearly reflects the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the programme and the dissertation process.

Optional modules (selection of options from the full list):

From Trauma to Cultural Memory: The Unfinished Business of Representation and the Holocaust (20 credits) - This module addresses debates in literary, historiographical and psychological theory about the ways in which witnesses provide testimony, and the ways in which the legacy of a historical trauma of the magnitude of the Holocaust is represented by historians, sociologists, writers, artists and museums. Rather than an historical study of the events of 1933-45, you’ll consider the continuing significance of this disaster in the larger context of European history. You’ll pay close attention to the voices and images of those who continue to live with a trauma that only psychological, analytical, creative work can turn into memory, which the cultures of Europe must take on as the history that continues to shape our present responses to all forms of racism, genocide and violence against the stranger.

Anthropology, Art and Representation (20 credits) - The anthropology of art has long been a fertile and vital area of contention around cultural value and cross-cultural relationships. It has not been merely an academic area of enquiry, but one caught up in the debates and controversies in the public sphere, about museums exhibitions. In addition, the anthropology of art provides a comparative perspective on the way in which art is represented in the west. The issue of cultural representation is therefore of crucial importance to an understanding of the way in which Euro-American interacts with the rest of the world. You’ll examine specific objects and "texts", and their interpretation, in relation to larger questions concerning gender, embodiment, technology and representation.

Unmaking Things: Materials and Ideas in the European Renaissance (20 credits) - This module will attend to a series of questions generated by historical consideration of the materials from which Renaissance artworks and objects were made. With a focus on Europe (though in several ways thinking about European encounters with other cultures), we will develop approaches that cross between close object-analysis and critical reflection on some of the broader social, political, religious and philosophical frameworks in which ideas of materiality took shape in this period. You’ll look at primary written sources and think about a broad range of objects and materials. We will pursue ways of ‘unmaking’ the ostensibly settled and self-contained appearance of Renaissance objects, and of positioning them as active engagements within dynamic, and often conflicting, cultural tendencies.

Critical Approaches to Photography (20 credits) - Photographic images saturate every corner of contemporary society in a developed country to such an extent that it is difficult to spend a day without seeing a photographic image. Yet, the popular concepts in discussions of photography remain overused and unexamined at best ('truth' 'reflection' 'index'). By engaging with historical and cultural treatises about the medium and its property (how photography 'reflects' reality, how photographers 'see' differently, for instance) this module excavates the multiple layers of philosophical issues embedded in concepts such as 'truth,' 'reality' and 'mediation' in thinking about and writing about photographic images.

Postcolonial Feminisms (20 credits) - You’ll examine feminist theory and politics, as they have developed in the context of the period of decolonization and its wake. Emphasis will fall on theoretical formulations concerning sexual difference and the social division of gender as these have been produced by women writing to or from former European colonies. Attention will also be given to questions posed by and for feminism within postcolonial metropoles.

Art, Ecology and Empire (20 credits) - This module explores the emergence of an ecological imagination in nineteenth century British art and visual culture including in its Imperial contexts. This period, marked by anti-ecological processes of both industrial revolution and colonial expansion, also gave rise to new knowledge in natural science (theories of geological time and of evolution, for example). We will trace how art and science mutually informed, unsettling and upending anthropocentric beliefs in the pre-eminence of human life and generating innovative and prescient visions of the natural world.

Learning and teaching

On this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

Assessment takes varied forms, including different kinds of written assignment, presentations, group work, and innovative practice-led approaches. Assessment is led by principles of relevance, fairness and inclusivity, and the development of vital skills beyond university, such as problem-solving, adaptability, self-reliance and reflexivity.

The University Library offers classes and resources on topics such as exam technique, public speaking, research and structuring essays throughout your degree.

Entry requirements

A-level: ABB

Other course specific tests:

Where an applicant is undertaking an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), the School may make an alternative offer of BBB including A in the EPQ.

NB: An EPQ is optional and not a requirement of application.

Alternative qualification

Read more about UK and Republic of Ireland accepted qualifications or contact the School’s Undergraduate Admissions Team.

Alternative entry

We’re committed to identifying the best possible applicants, regardless of personal circumstances or background.

Access to Leeds is a contextual admissions scheme which accepts applications from individuals who might be from low income households, in the first generation of their immediate family to apply to higher education, or have had their studies disrupted.

Find out more about Access to Leeds and contextual admissions.

Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

This course is designed for students whose backgrounds mean they are less likely to attend university (also known as widening participation backgrounds) and who do not currently meet admissions criteria for direct entry to a degree.

The course will give you the opportunity to be taught by academic staff and provides intensive support to enable your development of academic skills and knowledge. On successful completion of your foundation year, you will progress to your chosen degree course. Find out more about the Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

International

We accept a range of international equivalent qualifications. Contact the Undergraduate Admissions Office for more information.

International Foundation Year

International students who do not meet the academic requirements for undergraduate study may be able to study the University of Leeds International Foundation Year. This gives you the opportunity to study on campus, be taught by University of Leeds academics and progress onto a wide range of Leeds undergraduate courses. Find out more about International Foundation Year programmes.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.0 overall, with no less than 5.5 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English
If you're an international student and you don't meet the English language requirements for this programme, you may be able to study our undergraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

Fees

UK: To be confirmed

International: £26,000 (per year)

Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2024/25
Tuition fees for UK full-time undergraduate students are set by the UK Government and will be £9,250 for students starting in 2024/25.

The fee may increase in future years of your course in line with inflation only, as a consequence of future changes in Government legislation and as permitted by law.

Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2025/26
Tuition fees for UK full-time undergraduate students starting in 2025/26 have not yet been confirmed by the UK government. When the fee is available we will update individual course pages.

Tuition fees for international undergraduate students starting in 2024/25 and 2025/26
Tuition fees for international students for 2024/25 are available on individual course pages. Fees for students starting in 2025/26 will be available from September 2024.

Tuition fees for a study abroad or work placement year
If you take a study abroad or work placement year, you’ll pay a reduced tuition fee during this period. For more information, see Study abroad and work placement tuition fees and loans.

Read more about paying fees and charges.

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page.

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There is help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government. Find out more in our Undergraduate funding overview.

Applying

Apply to this course through UCAS. Check the deadline for applications on the UCAS website.

Read our guidance about applying.

International students apply through UCAS in the same way as UK students. Our network of international representatives can help you with your application. If you’re unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Admissions Policy 2025

This course is taught by

School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

Contact us

School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies Undergraduate Admissions

Email: finadm@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone:

Career opportunities

Our History of Art course provides training in critical thinking about the ways in which practices, objects and ideas shape the world. It embeds high-level intellectual skills, flexibility of approach, independence, collaboration, and problem solving.

As you study, you’ll learn to adapt and build a wide and dynamic array of different intellectual and practical skills, vital for a changing world. Focus on the history of art, as part of a study of societies in the widest sense, means our students engage throughout their degree with trans-disciplinary approaches, drawing also on areas of literature, philosophy, the media, religion, history, and wherever else their research takes them.

There is also a strong emphasis on the institutional and professional dimensions of art and culture, and on understanding the practical side of how they take shape and affect our lives in the real world. These are vital transferrable skills in high demand, and graduates of History of Art at the University of Leeds go on to enjoy a wide range of career choices.

Employment opportunities include the widest array of challenging careers that demand those core, transferrable skills and the rigour of a Russell Group university degree, whether or not directly related to the history of art.

Equally, many of our students gain employment within:

• national and international heritage

• art gallery and museum sectors

• public relations

• advertising

• public service administration

• commercial art galleries

• broadcasting

Many go on to postgraduate study, including completing PhDs as a route to teaching in higher education institutions around the world.

Careers support

The School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies has a strong commitment to enhancing student employability and embedding transferable, career-oriented skills.

Every week the school organises a Visiting Artist Talk Programme with leading artists regionally and internationally discussing their careers and practice.

Other industry sector visitors include art auctioneers, dealers, directors and curators (including Tate Modern, Tetley, Hepworth, Henry Moore Institute, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Tenants Auctioneers, British Antique Dealers Association, Leeds Museums, Leeds City Art Gallery).

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

Leeds for Life is our unique approach to helping you make the most of University by supporting your academic and personal development. Find out more at the Leeds for Life website.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more about Careers support.

Study abroad and work placements

Study abroad

On this course you have the opportunity to apply to spend time abroad, usually as an extra academic year. We have over 300 University partners worldwide and popular destinations for our students include Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa and Latin America. 

Find out more at the Study Abroad website.

Work placements

Practical work experience can help you decide on your career and improve your employability. On this course you have the option to apply to take a placement year module with organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK, or overseas.

Find out more about work experience on the Careers website.

The School’s exemplary Year in Industry programme has led to students successfully undertaking work-based placements locally, nationally, and internationally, some of which have led to permanent full-time employment upon graduation. Recent placements include: Archival assistant at Chert Ludde Gallery, Berlin; Social Media Assistant at CeeCee, Berlin; Arts PR Consultancy with Bolton & Quinn, London; Marketing assistant, L’Oreal, UK;  Programme Assistant at Oris House of Architecture, Croatia and Palazzo Monti Artist Residency, Italy; Gallery assistant at Wychwood Gallery, UK; Assistant Producer at Limehouse Film Production, Leeds; Gallery Assistant at ArtDog London & Nahmed Gallery, London; Marketing role with Adobe Design Projects.

My year in industry has been absolutely invaluable. I feel so much so secure now, knowing that I will have a year of work experience under my belt, once I leave university.

- Madeleine Birks, BA Cultural and Media Studies