Pratt’s an exceptional place to study art and design history. From our landmarked campus you’ll have access to NYC’s premier international private collections, libraries, museums, studios, and galleries, as well as 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. Specialized foundational, art and design history, and liberal arts courses prepare you to conduct research, critically analyze and describe works of art, and place them in their social context. Studios and electives in your chosen concentration provide an in-depth program of study and experiential learning opportunities to practice traditional and new visual arts techniques.
The Experience
Taking specially designed foundation and survey courses, students in the BFA program will engage with a range of liberal arts disciplines including philosophy, literature, and criticism of the history of art and design, as well as studio courses. 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, 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. For more information on Study Abroad, visit Pratt’s Study Abroad page.
Learning Resources
We develop disciplinary fluency in our program of study and we celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of 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.
Our Alumni
Pratt’s distinguished alumni are leading diverse and thriving careers, addressing critical challenges and creating innovative work that reimagines our world.
Success Stories
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You are invited to an HAD Faculty Conversations by Evan Neely, “The Logic of Diagrams and the Illogic of Vision: Russell and Fry, Peirce and Obscurity.”
* This event is for Pratt community only.
Date: Thursday, April 3rd, 2025
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Venue: Main 212
About the Project: Diagrams have been central to scientific and technological development since methods to print them in mass quantities were invented. Yet in modern logic, the language of choice has been the symbolic notation Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead devised from the initial efforts of the Italian mathematician, Giuseppe Peano, not the explicitly diagrammatic “Existential Graphs” that Charles Sanders Peirce proffered at the same time. This talk will suggest not only that the reasons why logicians preferred Russell’s notation to Peircian diagrammatic methods have everything to do with assumptions about the nature of vision and its connections to mind and epistemology, but that foundational texts in formalist art theory by Roger Fry and Clive Bell were influenced by the communal ideals they shared with Russell, as Cambridge Apostles and members of the Bloomsbury Group. Formalism, an effort to theorize a new norm for talking about representational and non-representational art alike, will be treated as an analogue to the efforts of the authors of the Principia Mathematica to construct a symbolic language that would be normative for the practice of scientific theory.
About the Speaker: Evan Neely is Assistant Chair of the History of Art and Design Department at Pratt Institute. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 2010. His recent book is Political Economy, Race, and the Image of Nature in the United States, 1825-1878 (Routledge, 2024). He has two current book projects: The Semiological Economy of New York City, 1848-1918 (in contract with Routledge) and a project on the theoretical connections among logic, the philosophy of science, and formalist art theory at the turn of the twentieth century tentatively titled The Logic of Diagrams and the Illogic of Vision.
1 day ago
Artwork Analysis: Pablo Picasso’s "Guernica" (1937)
Overview: "Guernica" is one of Pablo Picasso's most renowned works, created in response to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. This monumental black and white mural conveys the horrors of war and the suffering it inflicts on individuals, particularly innocent civilians.
Visual Elements:
Monochrome Palette: Picasso chose a stark black, white, and gray palette, reminiscent of newspaper print, to evoke the immediacy and gravity of the tragic event.
Composition: The chaotic arrangement of fragmented figures, animals, and objects creates a sense of disarray and urgency, reflecting the chaos of the bombing.
Symbols: Key elements include a bull (representing brutality), a wounded horse (symbolizing the people of Guernica), and a woman holding a lamp (a beacon of hope or truth amidst the darkness).
Interpretation: "Guernica" is a powerful anti-war statement. The painting does not depict the event literally but instead uses symbolic imagery to convey the universal suffering caused by war. Each figure and element contributes to a narrative of pain, resistance, and the stark reality of human cruelty.
Symbolism:
Bull and Horse: The bull may represent the brutality and darkness of war, while the wounded horse represents the anguish of the people. The interplay between these two figures is central to the painting’s emotional impact.
Broken Sword and Flower: At the bottom, a broken sword with a small flower sprouting from it symbolizes hope and the resilience of life even amidst destruction.
Disembodied Parts: The scattered and distorted human forms reflect the physical and emotional disintegration caused by the violence.
Legacy: "Guernica" has become a universal symbol of the tragedies of war and a reminder of the human cost of conflict. It remains a powerful piece of political art, demonstrating how art can serve as a tool for protest and remembrance.
1 day ago
Prof. Kim and her HAD 112 class visited the Museum of Modern Art to see the newly opened retrospective, Jack Whitten: The Messenger, an exhibition Kim worked on closely during her time there.
6 days ago
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.
1 week 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."
2 weeks 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
2 weeks 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.
3 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.
3 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
4 weeks ago
