Mural Art and the Ancient Americas

Most simply defined, a "mural" is an artwork made directly on a wall. Its meaning can extend as well to wall-scaled works. A modern sense of the word often evokes the idea of a public or community-facing work at large scale, often made by a collective. That modern image does not often hold for premodern settings, but what is enduring in deep historical study is the fact of mural art as both social and spatial practice. This graduate lecture course is an exploration of the diversity of mural art made in cities and centers in parts of what is now Latin America during the long autonomous era—from about 2000 BC until the European invasions of the 1520s and 30s. Lectures will present case studies of wall painting, relief sculpture, and occasionally textiles that covered the facades and interiors of public monuments, temples, courtyards, and palaces at sites in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, and Colombia. A secondary throughline of this course will be how images and traditions of Pre-Columbian mural art have been brought into twentieth- and twenty-first-century muralisms and community practices, both in and beyond Latin America. The course's final assignment allows three options: a research paper, a digital project, or an interpretive project designed to be public-facing. While some background in this field is helpful, there are no formal prerequisites for enrollment.

Enrollment is capped at 25. Advanced undergraduate enrollment considered upon petition.