Art History

Art History at Baylor

Four full-time art historians on the faculty comprehensively cover the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, the Renaissance and Baroque, 19th-century Europe and America, and modern and contemporary European and American art. The small size of the art history program fosters a high degree of individual interaction with the faculty and a serious intellectual atmosphere. In addition to university funding, qualified students in the program may be supported by the Bronstein Scholarship for Study Abroad (priority is given to art history majors), which is around $8,000 annually.

Studying Art History

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The fact that each of the art history faculty are both active scholars and strong teachers provides unique opportunities for Baylor's art history majors to develop significant experience and expertise both inside and outside of the classroom. Our art history students are very competitive for top graduate programs in the country, or succeed in other fields. Our alumni have gone to graduate programs at Yale University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Missouri, the University of Kentucky, Rutgers University, Penn State University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Kansas State University, Texas Christian University, and Southern Methodist University among many others. Other art history graduates, have gone on to work in museums and art galleries, or to business school, law school, and medical school, and into other graduate programs such as industrial design, civil engineering, and architecture.

The art history program regularly brings world-renowned art historians, artists, art critics, and museum professionals to speak to students. Some recent and notable guests include:

Area & Facilities

The area of Art History has two computerized art history classrooms, equipped to project video and digital media and to accommodate up to 36 and 150 students respectively. These classrooms are located within steps of faculty offices, the Visual Resource Center, and the Martin Museum of Art, and with most of the art studios just down the hall, offering optimal convenience and access for both faculty and students.

Visiting Speakers

• Kathleen Brandt (Professor of Art History, New York University / Michelangelo)
• Joan Breton Connelly (Professor of Classics and Art History, New York University and a MacArthur Grant Recipient / The Parthenon)
• Wanda Corn (Professor of American Art History, Stanford University / Norman Rockwell)
• Senior Special Agent Brent Easter (Homeland Security Investigations / Art Crime)
• June Hargrove (Professor of 19th-Century Art History, University of Maryland / Gauguin)
• Paul Joannides (Professor of Art History, Cambridge University / Titian)
• Jason Kaufmann (art critic and museum consultant)
• Judith Mann (Curator of European Art until 1800, Saint Louis Art Museum / Artemisia Gentileschi)
• Edgar Munhall (Director of the Frick Collection, New York / Jean-Baptiste Greuze)
• Rosie Rios (Treasurer of the United States from 2009 to 2016 / Currency Redesign)
• Robert Simon (Owner Robert Simon Fine Art NYC /Improving the Old Master)
• Frank Stella (the great minimalist artist)
• William Wallace (Professor of Art History, Washington University of Saint Louis / Michelangelo as CEO)
• Alan Wallach (Professor Emeritus of American Art History, College of William & Mary / Hudson River School)
• Gabriel Weisberg (Professor of 19th-Century Art History, University of Minnesota / Japonisme)
• David Wilkins (Professor of Art History, University of Pittsburgh / The Brancacci chapel by Masaccio)

Faculty

Heidi J. Hornik, PhD, Professor of Art History | Department Chair |  Italian Renaissance & Baroque Art

Dr. Hornik is the leading scholar on the Late Renaissance artist, Michele Tosini. Her work on attribution issues and primary documents allows undergraduates to fully understand those aspects of the field of art history. She also researches in art and theology creating an opportunity for students to comprehend the iconographic, social and religious contexts of the Renaissance and Baroque. Students often present on research developed in her classes at the Midwest Art History Society Annual Conference and at Baylor’s URSA Scholars Week

Katie Larson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Art History | Modern and Contemporary

Dr. Larson is a scholar of modern and contemporary art with a specialty in postwar Italy. Her current book project examines the early career of Roman artist Alberto Burri (1915-1995), contextualizing his work in relation to the legacies of Fascism and Futurism, receptions of Surrealism, and the development of multimedia artistic strategies in Europe. Dr. Larson has conducted extensive archival research in Italy with the support of a Gerda Henkel Stiftung Ph.D. Scholarship and the Chuck Close Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize in Modern Italian Studies at the American Academy in Rome.

Jerolyn E. Morrison, PhD. Temporary Lecturer of Art History

Dr. Jerolyn E. Morrison is a Minoan archaeologist, art historian, and potter with a passion for cooking in ceramic pots. She teaches ARTH 1300 Introduction to Art, Survey of Western Art I and II (ARTH 2302 and ARTH 2303), and upper-level art history classes. These upper-level art history courses examine the material culture and art of the Minoan people. Dr. Morrison is a U.S. Fulbright Student Recipient 2006–2007 and founder of Minoan Tastes, a social-minded enterprise in Greece that promotes the culinary history of the Aegean by working with a network of food and craft experts and scholars. Since 1997, she has participated as a Minoan ceramics expert in Crete and Kos on archaeological projects under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the British School at Athens, Scuola Italiana Statale di Atene, and the Greek Ministry of Culture. Before returning to Baylor (Dr. Morrison has an undergraduate degree from our department), she lived most of the year in Crete.

Christopher Wood, M.A. Temporary Lecturer of Art History

Christopher Wood is an archaeologist and art historian. His areas of expertise include Greek and Roman art and archaeology and the expansion of trade in the ancient Mediterranean. He also specializes in Bronze Age burials and modern reception of Homeric heroes and has recently published a book on the subject entitled Heroes Masked and Mythic.