The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History is a top 10 public art school in the US. The school is part of the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

located in

Iowa City, IA Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

which awards undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art and

Art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

. The graduate program offers

Masters of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in Art and Art history,

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in Art and

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in Art history. One of the largest departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School has approximately 650 undergraduate majors, 100 graduate students and 40 faculty and is consistently ranked as one of the top ten public art schools in the US. Faculty and students have included:

Grant Wood Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 February 12, 1942) was an American painter and representative of Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for '' American Gothic'' (193 ...

Mauricio Lasansky Mauricio Leib Lasansky (October 12, 1914 – April 2, 2012) was an Argentine artist and educator known both for his advanced techniques in intaglio printmaking and for a series of 33 pencil drawings from the 1960s titled "The Nazi Drawings." ...

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

Elizabeth Catlett Elizabeth Catlett, born as Alice Elizabeth Catlett, also known as Elizabeth Catlett Mora (April 15, 1915 – April 2, 2012) was an African American sculptor and graphic artist best known for her depictions of the Black-American experience in th ...

H. W. Janson Horst Woldemar Janson (October 4, 1913 – September 30, 1982), was a Russian Empire-born German-American professor of art history best known for his ''History of Art'', which was first published in 1962 and has since sold more than four million c ...

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising ...

, Charles Ray, and

Ana Mendieta Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. Born in Havana, Mendieta left for the United States in 1961. Earl ...

University of Iowa Visual Arts Building at twilight

History

The arts were an important part of the curriculum at the University of Iowa long before The School of Art and Art History was officially established in 1936. As far back as 1882, University of Iowa students were required to take "free-hand drawing" courses. Art history was added around 1900 through the departments of Philosophy and Classical Archaeology. In the 1920s, the university brought art history and studio art into one department, creating a rich learning environment where studio artist would benefit by learning the history of art and art historians could better understand the studio experience. This innovative idea was copied by many institutions calling it the "Iowa Idea". Iowa was the first major university to accept creative works, rather than written theses for graduate degrees in the arts. In 1924 the University of Iowa conferred the first graduate degree "Master's in Graphic and Plastic Arts" to

Eve Drewelowe Eve Drewelowe (1899–1988) was an American painter, especially renowned in her native Iowa and Colorado, but also widely exhibited nationally. Her long career produced more than 1,000 works of art in oil, watercolor, pen and ink and other media ...

. In 1940

was awarded the first

degree at the University of Iowa. The University of Iowa conferred more graduate arts degrees in the nation between 1946–62 than any other university.

taught painting at the School from 1934–41.

, renown art historian, taught art history at the School from 1938–41.

taught painting from 1941–45. Many of Guston's painting from this time show

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

buildings in the backgrounds. Recognizing Iowa's innovative approach,

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with t ...

donated Jackson Pollock's
Mural
to the art department in 1951.

taught at the School of Art and Art History from 1945–86. In September 1962, Time Magazine called Lasansky "the nation's most influential printmaker" and his University of Iowa studio "the printmaking capital of the United States."

received an MFA in Intermedia from the

in 1972. Born in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, her family fled to the United States in 1961 to escape the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

. Mendieta's work focused on the female body and the landscape. She created photographs, videotapes and films that documented her performances and landscape sculptures. Mendieta died in September 1985 from a fall from a 34th floor apartment in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1969 the

University of Iowa Museum of Art The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art is a visual arts institution that is part of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Since its inception, the museum has partnere ...

(UIMA) opened with collections from the School of Art and Art History, including the

Pollock Pollock or pollack (pronounced ) is the common name used for either of the two species of North Atlantic marine fish in the genus ''Pollachius''. ''Pollachius pollachius'' is referred to as pollock in North America, Ireland and the United Kingd ...

br>"Mural"
and the

Beckmann Beckmann is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Astrid Beckmann (born 1957), German physicist *Ernst Otto Beckmann (1853–1923), German chemist and discoverer of the Beckmann rearrangement *Johann Beckmann (1739&ndash ...

triptyc
"Karneval"
and the Elliott Collection, which included works by

Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

, DeChirico,

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, Léger,

Marc Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system of ...

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and

Vlaminck Maurice de Vlaminck (4 April 1876 – 11 October 1958) was a French painter. Along with André Derain and Henri Matisse, he is considered one of the principal figures in the Fauve movement, a group of modern artists who from 1904 to 1908 w ...

. In the 1980s, Maxwell and Elizabeth Stanley donated one of the most important collections of African art to the Museum. Artbuilding1936002

Facilities

In 1936, The University of Iowa constructed a new home for the School of Art and Art History. Built with help from the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations, the building's design is based on Palladian villas. Several new buildings were added to the arts campus in 1968 including a new printmaking wing, ceramics studios, sculpture foundry, and jewelry/metalsmithing studios. In 2006

Steven Holl Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is a New York-based American architect and watercolorist. Among his most recognized works are the 2019 REACH expansion of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the 2019 Hunters Point Library in Q ...

designed a new building for the School adjacent to quarry pond. Art Building West received the

RIBA International Award The RIBA International Award is the Royal Institute of British Architects' highest award. The shortlist for the Lubetkin Prize is made up of the winners of the RIBA International Awards. Laureates 2011 RIBA International award winners in 2011 ...

and the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

Honor Award for Architecture in 2007. The

Iowa Flood of 2008 Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

damaged the 1936 Art Building and Steven Holl's Art Building West. Art Building West was restored and re-opened January 2012. The 1936 Art Building will be retained on campus as an historic property, but many of its functions have been moved to a new Visual Arts Building designed by

opened in the fall of 2016.

Areas and programs of study

Art History Division
*Studio Division
3D Design

Animation

Ceramics

Graphic Design

Intermedia

Jewelry and Metal Arts

Painting and Drawing

Photography

Printmaking

Sculpture

Degrees offered

Undergraduate degrees include:
Bachelor of Arts in Art History Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art
Graduate degrees include:
Master of in Art History Ph.D. in Art History Master of Arts in Studio Art Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art

Graduate archive

For the past seventy-five years the School of Art and Art History has documented thousands of artworks by artists attending the School's graduate studio programs. Each graduate student was required to leave behind a work or images of the work they completed during their graduate studies here at the University of Iowa. The Graduate Archive contains over 13,000 images of paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures and other art objects. The Archive is unique in the country and provides a critical glimpse of academic American art over much of the last century. Visit the University of Iowa School of Art and Art Histor
Graduate Archive

References

External links

The School of Art and Art History at The University of IowaSchool of Art and Art History Graduate Archive

The University of Iowa Museum of Art

The University of Iowa
{{University of Iowa Art schools in Iowa University of Iowa Educational institutions established in 1936 1936 establishments in Iowa