ARTH 2471

Really enjoyable class with great, relevant artwork and movements. Her lectures were engaging and covered a lot of material in one semester. Class was not very test-based, more weekly writings and essays. Took this class on zoom but did not feel like a significant amount of work for a 4 credit class. I am not an art major / minor but was just genuinely interested in learning more about modern art styles and analyzing them in the context of history and social sciences and this class was a great fit. #tCFF23

AMAZING class taught by Christa Robbins! She knows exactly what she's talking about, and is such an amazing lecturer; this is my second class taken with her and it's no less as great as the first one I took, (ARTH 3591 - Art Activism). Your only homework ever is to just read and really delve into the readings, and one journal entry due every week for discussion. You will be asked to read your journal at least once during discussion. Lowkey, Christa kinda says the same thing every class but that's only proof that everything in the class ties in. The midtem and final are not so difficult, as long as you adhere to the prompt. There are a few slide IDs, compare/contrast questions, and one's that ask you to specifically relate an art piece to a concept on a reading. So, as long as you do what's expected of you (read) and just pay attention in class, this is class should mostly be a breeze. It's really enjoyable, and if I could take it for the first time again, I would as well.

I went into this course with absolutely no prior knowledge on art movements, art pieces, or famous artists since 1945, and I was quickly overwhelmed with the level of detail involved. Christa's lectures are heavily focused on abstract ideas, meaning it's easy to lose track of the general timeline of the movements, difficult to take clear notes on the most important information, and sometimes hard to pay attention. However, discussion sections and the TAs were SO HELPFUL - the concepts I understood the best were the ones we covered during discussion. There were two main essays (which were graded relatively easily), a midterm and final (which required painting/artist identifications), and weekly readings and discussion posts. The discussion posts were pretty easy, but the readings could be really dense and sometimes pretty time-consuming. I would say if you're like me (with no background in art), you can still end with a good grade if you pay attention during discussion sections and study for the final/midterm!! These are definitely exams you need to study for in order to correctly identify the title/year/artist of the artwork. Also, there are two extra credit opportunities offered which add 2% (each) to your overall grade. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this course unless you are actually interested in art - don't just take it to satisfy the AIP requirement!

Took this class as a requirement for the Studio Art major. Lectures can become really boring, only outside classwork are weekly journals and readings, two short papers, a midterm, and a final. If you just relatively pay attention during lectures while taking notes, engage in discussions (in my opinion, the most helpful for your papers and exams), AND do the extra credit (two opportunities for up to 4% extra credit on final grade!) - you will do fine in the class. I pretty much got away by doing the bare minimum. I didn't study at all for the first exam and got an 87. You do have to identify a couple of paintings/works for the exams but the ones always tested on are the ones discussed during discussions. I would highly recommend taking notes during discussion and the artworks talked about! Weekly journals contributed a lot to this as well. I also did fine without doing the readings. I was diligently doing them at first, but then they became boring and lengthy. The most important readings are always talked about during lectures and further talked about during discussion. Didn't study too much for the final and got an 88. You will automatically get most of the artworks you will be tested on if you remember the ones discussed during discussion time! Check the paper requirements ahead of time, you will have to go out of your way outside of class time to visit the museum and memorials. DO NOT skip out on the extra credit!!! They really helped me end up with an A in the class after being a straight B+ student on all the papers and exams.

If you REALLY want to do well, I think if I were to change anything I would've compiled the artworks/artists shown in my own slides or notes with the artist, artwork, year, and medium AFTER every lecture. Defined or fleshed out all the keywords introduced at the beginning of every lecture into my slides or notes as well. Not heavily review, but look at them time to time as flashcards to be familiar with artworks and artists. Study guides are always provided, so from there you can just pick and choose.

For the professor, Christa can be very passive-aggressive, but I think she means well. I never went to any office hours, but it is clear that she wants students to do well and actually learn the content. She gave opportunities to redo papers, the midterm, and even gave an extension for the extra credit opportunity. This I always appreciated because she gave an opportunity for students to improve, especially as this was the first year back in person and students are learning to readjust to the classroom environment.

On the other hand, I did enjoy the class despite it being boring at times. I definitely learned a lot and it has even helped me to improve as an artist being exposed to different styles, artists, artworks, movements, etc.

TLDR; Lectures are boring, the class structure is fairly simple, weekly journals (reading responses), take notes during discussion, DO THE EXTRA CREDIT and you can either do the bare minimum on or never do the readings.

As far as art history goes, I enjoyed this class more in comparison to other art history classes I have taken at UVA. Attendance is mandatory and is recorded every class. There is a decent amount of reading and it can often be pretty dense stuff, but I feel like that is kind of expected for an art history course. There is a midterm, a final, weekly journals, and two papers, but they are all straight forward and are not difficult to succeed at. There are also two extra credit opportunities that can increase your final grade by 4%. As other reviews have said, Christa can seem kinda harsh/unapproachable at times, but I feel like this is just how she seems - she's really quite nice and super knowledgable. #tCFfall2021

Would not take this class unless required. Firstly, she really looks down on students asking questions in my opinion. This was my first Art History class and the subjects are definitely interesting and hard to interpret at times (like watermelons with cans of cat food on top). When I would ask about how to interpret these works she really made me feel stupid, which I don't think is right of anyone, much less a professor. If you're really into VERY modern art -- not surrealism or dadaism -- then this class may work for you since there also isn't a ton of work. However, Christa's entitled attitude really makes the class unenjoyable. Even though the TA was great and really tried to help you understand the works, Christa didn't.

... it was ok. that's all i have to say about this class. if you like to argue and analyze (and sometimes pull stuff out of thin air) about modern art... especially synthesizing the arguments from the readings you get, then it'll be a fun class. otherwise, it is kind of a boring class considering how abstract most of modern art can be in that sometimes the arguments you make about each artwork end up becoming all convoluted into the same things like "society bad" "capitalism bad" "establishments bad" after a while. now that i think about it, that's basically what all artworks we studied in this class boil down to. but it was fun at times to look at some artworks that were indeed quite funny in their compositions.
don't take the art you studied in this class seriously unless you want to become the next Greenberg/Rosenberg...
in terms of workload, this class wasn't bad. some 20-30 page readings before each class and a 200 word weekly journal. throughout the semester there were 1 500-word essay and 2 1500-word essays. both the midterm and final were in essay format and timed. easy A's if you just read the readings and know what each art movement is about (generally different variations of how society sucks).

Christa is a really knowledgeable professor and is really personable and helpful in office hours in particular. This class wasn't too hard, with some material being more interesting than others. Just weekly journals, two short papers, and a midterm and final. She wants students to do well and offers a good number of extra credit opportunities to raise your overall grade.

You have to write weekly journals which can seem tedious and unnecessary, but they're incredibly helpful for the exams. For the midterm, I mainly just reviewed all of the journals (because Christa wouldn't assign it if it wasn't important) and I did fine. The first paper is pretty boring but, once again, Christa gives you all of the tools to succeed. I think if you're interested in this type of art, this class will be a lot of fun. Christa is a really knowledgeable professor who doesn't ask that much of the class; the final isn't even cumulative, it just picks up where the midterm left off.

It's funny reading the previous reviews because this was one of my favorite classes I've taken at UVA. There is a fair amount of work for a survey class with weekly journals and a few papers aside from the two exams, but Christa's teaching style ensures that you actually learn something. While some people thought she was unapproachable or unfriendly, she's really not, and I think she's one of the best professors I've had here in terms of what I took away from the class. I went in hating contemporary art and came out obsessed. That being said I would only recommend taking it if you already like art or are an art history major otherwise it may seem a bit dry. Overall great class.

The class was not very hard, but the material was very boring. The teacher was very passive and not super helpful, or easy to approach. The TA's made the class more interesting and useful. As my first art history class, I would not recommend this class. If a different teacher is teaching than I would recommend it.

Unless you literally must take this class for your major, stay far away. Christa Robbins is didactic in lecture-- she loves using big words and flowery language just to prove that she can. She knows her stuff, but she wants you to know that, and her arrogance is off-putting. She's strict about phones, talking, laptops and even slouching in lecture-- she will individually call out students in a way that is infantalizing and more distracting than the problematic behavior itself. Her hour-and-fifteen minute lectures were tough to sit through, but you can't skip class-- for every absence she subtracts a FULL THREE PERCENT from your final grade. Her paper requirements are needlessly pedantic and specific, and creativity or independent thinking is strongly discouraged by herself and the TAs. Way too much work to be in this class "just for fun," which is why I misguidedly signed up. Would not recommend-- you can learn about modern art elsewhere a lot less painfully.