Pratt’s an exceptional place to study art and design history and theory. From our landmarked campus you’ll have access to NYC’s premier international private collections, libraries, museums, studios, and galleries, as well as the opportunity to work with leading artists, designers, historians, and theorists.
History of Art and Design at Pratt
Join us in New York City, the art capital of the United States, for an immersive education in the history of art and design. Explore the effects of gender, class, politics and religion intersect with art and cultures that created it. Gain a wide perspective in theory and design methods and artistic expression in art, architecture, film, and literature. The liberal arts curriculum, including foreign language study, prepares you to research and critically analyze art and literature.
The Experience
Interdisciplinary and socially engaged, the History of Art and Design BA provides a broad foundation from which students build critical and analytical capacities to confront complex questions. Drawing on disciplines ranging from sociology, anthropology, linguistics, and economics, students go beyond aesthetic consideration to consider complex questions and evolving challenges.
With class sizes of just 8-12, you’ll collaborate closely with your team, faculty, and community partners to learn the skills needed to create strategies and systems that meet real-world challenges.
Electives and Seminars
You’ll have the opportunity to take electives in film and design, architecture, non-Western, pre-Renaissance, Renaissance to Rococo, and 19th-, 20th-, or 21st-century art, design, theory and methodology, and chemistry of art. Major-specific seminars are available from your first through senior years, on topics that include the role of New York as a cultural capital, critical and theoretical models, and art and social justice.
Study Abroad
Immersing yourself in another culture is an incredible experience that can extend the boundaries of creativity. Study abroad programs are an integral part of the college experience, and Pratt has deep connections with university partners around the world. Study in Paris with the Pratt in Paris summer program. We also recently celebrated the 35th anniversary of Pratt in Venice, which is a 6-week program that occurs each June and July.
Learning Resources
We develop disciplinary fluency in our program of study and we celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of art and design critical to address the plurality and complexity of the environments in which we operate. Learn about resources.
Our Faculty
Pratt’s distinguished faculty of outstanding creative professionals and scholars share a common desire to develop each student’s potential and creativity to the fullest. Bringing different views, methods, and perspectives they provide a rigorous educational model in which students make and learn. See all History of Art and Design faculty and administrators.
Success Stories
Ready for More?
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You are invited to “Art, Design, and the Palimpsest of History and Memories” by Billy Gerard Frank, Multimedia Artist, Filmmaker, and Designer.
Date: Tuesday, March 25th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Venue: ENGR 307
If you are interested to join this event, Please RSVP.
* This event is for Pratt community only.
About the Project: This presentation explores the intersection of art, design, and historical memory through the lens of Palimpsest: Tales Spun From Sea and Memories—originally presented at the 2022 Venice Biennale, Grenada National Pavilion—and Indigo: Entanglements. Drawing from these bodies of work, the discussion will delves into the layering and mining of histories, archives, materiality, and visual storytelling as acts of resistance, and reclamation. Engaging with the palimpsestic nature of memory—where traces of the past remain inscribed within the present—the presentation examines how art serves as a vessel for untangling complex narratives of colonialism, migration, contesting and suggesting new imagery to create counter-histories Through film, painting, and mixed media, and design, it considers the role of design in shaping collective memory and fostering new ways of engaging with history. Frank will also discuss his newly commissioned works for Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, presently in the Carnegie Library exhibiting with the Black Artist and Designers Guild (BADG).
About the Speaker: Billy Gérard Frank, born in Grenada, is an artist and filmmaker whose work explores race, memory, exile, global politics, and queer decoloniality. His mixed-media works and films challenge dominant narratives, using speculation to suggest counter-histories. He has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Butler Institute of American Art, Yale, and Frieze London. Representing Grenada at the 2019 and 2022 Venice Biennale, he is a 2024 Creative Capital awardee. Frank co-founded the Nova Frontier Film Festival & Lab and lectures at Yale. He studied studio art in New York and earned an MA in Filmmaking and Media Arts from The New School.
12 hours ago
"Did you know? The Arts and Crafts Movement, which emerged in the late 19th century, was a response to the industrial revolution, emphasizing handcrafted quality over mass production.
The movement celebrated traditional craftsmanship, often featuring intricate patterns inspired by nature.
It influenced architecture, promoting designs that were in harmony with their surroundings, using local materials.
Arts and Crafts also left a lasting mark on interior design, with an emphasis on functional yet beautifully crafted furniture.
Notable figures like William Morris and John Ruskin were central to promoting these ideals, which continue to inspire today's sustainable design practices.
Image 1: By William Morris - Scanned from Gillian Naylor, William Morris by Himself: Designs and Writings,Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4624510
Image 2: The Sussex Chair by William Morris, 1860s.
Image 3: The intricate floral wallpaper design by William Morris, 1876, known as 'Strawberry Thief.'
Image 4: Handcrafted ceramic tile by William De Morgan, featuring vibrant colors and intricate patterns, 1880s."
4 days ago
"Creativity takes courage." – Henri Matisse
Innovation and bold ideas don’t come from playing it safe. Matisse, a pioneer of color and form, knew that true creativity means stepping beyond the expected and embracing the unknown.
This month, let’s celebrate the fearless artists and designers who challenge conventions and push boundaries.
#HenriMatisse #CreativityTakesCourage #ArtInspiration #DesignHistory
1 week ago
You are invited to an HAD Faculty Conversations by Marsha Morton, “Ernst Haeckel’s Travels through Nineteenth-Century Ceylon: Eurocentric Views of Race and Place”
* This event is for Pratt community.
Date: Tuesday, March 25th, 2025
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Venue: Main 212
About the Project: The marine zoologist Ernst Haeckel was renowned as the “German Darwin” and author-illustrator of Art Forms in Nature. Less well known is his activity as an amateur anthropologist following his trip to Ceylon and publications of the travelogue Indische Reisebriefe (1883) and picture book Wanderbilder (1905) that contains his painted tropical scenes and photographs of the native population. As I will demonstrate, these convey alterity and evolutionary hierarchy from a privileged gaze with texts characterized by essentialized descriptions and racial bias resulting from a non-diaologic “rhetoric of vision.” Wanderbilder is informed by the Eurocentric perspective of picturesque theory and the nature-culture binary of the Lebensreform movement and colonialism.
About the Speaker: Marsha Morton’s work is centered on German and Austrian cultural history with a focus on the interdisciplinary topics of art, science (Darwin), anthropology, Orientalism, and music. In addition to numerous published essays, including three on Ernst Haeckel, her books are: Max Klinger and Wilhelmine Culture (Ashgate 2014) and the co-edited anthologies Visual Culture and Pandemic Disease since 1750 (Routledge 2023), Constructing Race on the Borders of Europe: Ethnography, Anthropology, and Visual Culture, 1850-1930 (Bloomsbury 2021), and The Arts Entwined: Music and Painting in the Nineteenth Century (Garland 2000). She is the recipient of grants from the National Endowments for the Humanities and DAAD.
2 weeks ago
You are invited to “A Conversation with Heiny Srour.”
* This event is for Pratt community.v
Thursday, March 13th, 2025
5:45 – 7:00 pm
Myrtle Hall, 4th Floor, MH 4E-03 DDA
Open to the Pratt community
On the occasion of two new restorations screening at BAM, Lebanese director Heiny Srour will visit Pratt to discuss her work with faculty and students.
Born in 1945 in Beirut, Srour studied Social Anthropology in Paris, where she worked as a journalist and developed an interest in Third World Cinema. To make her first film, The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (1974), Srour documented a revolutionary feminist uprising against the British-backed Sultanate of Oman. Her next feature, Leila and the Wolves (1984), combines fictional drama, archival footage, and fantasy sequences, and follows a young Lebanese woman in modern London as she time-travels through the 20th century, observing the place of Arab women in anti-colonial movements.
Organized by Olivia Crough (Visiting Assistant Professor, HAD) for the course History of Film, in collaboration with Graham Carter (Several Futures) – contact ocrough@pratt.edu with questions.
2 weeks ago
Celebrating the masterful Charles Le Brun, born February 24, 1619! Known as the 'Great Decorator,' Le Brun's visionary work defined the grandeur of the French Baroque era, leaving an indelible mark on the Palace of Versailles and beyond. His legacy continues to inspire. #ArtistOfTheMonth #charleslebrun #baroquemastery
3 weeks ago
Art History 101: Part 2 - Baroque to Romanticism
The Baroque Era
The Baroque period (1600-1750) introduced drama and emotion in art, with artists using bold contrasts and movement to engage viewers.
Example: Rembrandt van Rijn, The Night Watch, 1642, oil on canvas, 379.5 x 453.5 cm (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
Chiaroscuro Technique
Caravaggio was a master of chiaroscuro, creating striking contrasts between light and dark that added depth to his compositions.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew, oil on canvas, c. 1599–1600 (Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome)
Neoclassicism Emerges
In reaction to Baroque excess, Neoclassicism revived classical ideals, focusing on simplicity and symmetry while drawing inspiration from ancient Rome and Greece.
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil on canvas, 3.3 x 4.25 m, painted in Rome, exhibited at the salon of 1785 (Musée du Louvre)
The Rise of Romanticism
Romanticism (late 18th century) celebrated emotion, nature, and individualism, often depicting dramatic landscapes and historical events.
Example: "The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)
3 weeks ago
You are invited to "A Vida Portuguesa: Portuguese Art and Design Symposium."
Date: Friday, March 7th
Time: 3:00 to 5:00 pm
Venue: Alumni Reading Room
About the Project: A Vida Portuguesa, the renowned Lisbon-based shop founded by Catarina Portas in 2007, is celebrated for its mission to preserve Portugal’s artisanal traditions while offering a modern perspective on design. In collaboration with the MoMA Design Store, A Vida Portuguesa opened a Pop-Up Shop that brings an exclusive assortment of the shop’s handcrafted designs to the United States. This series of talks at Pratt features Portuguese history and culture and reflects on its artistry and contemporary design.
A Vida Portuguesa: Why and How to Make a Shop by Catarina Portas and Nuno Coelho
Can a Country’s History be Told Through its Brands? Unpacking Portugal’s 20th- Century History through Packaging Design by Nuno Coelho
Touch by Jorge Colombo
PALAVRAS EMPRESTADAS, from under the orange tree by Analia Segal
*A visit to the MoMA Design Store Pop-Up Shop (January 8th—March 10th) is recommended for attendants to have the opportunity to experience designs from A Vida Portuguesa first hand.
Please RSVP using the link in bio.
3 weeks ago
Pentimento: The Ghosts of Art’s Past
Definition:
Pentimento (plural: pentimenti) refers to a visible trace or alteration in a painting, where an earlier version, design, or element has been painted over but becomes visible again as the top layer of paint ages and becomes more transparent over time. This phenomenon provides insights into the artist’s process and reveals changes made during the creation of the artwork.
Image 1: Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, tempera and oil on oak panel, 82.2 x 60 cm (National Gallery, London)
Image 2: Arnolfini Wedding Portrait by Jan van Eyck (left), detail of infrared scans of Arnolfini Wedding Portrait (right); Courtesy: Principle Gallery
1 month ago
