I’m a History and Art History student working towards a BA with the Open University. Today I’m going to share my experience of studying A226: Exploring Art and Visual Culture. This is a slightly weird post in some ways, as I studied this during its final presentation. My aim with these posts is to give students thinking of taking a module an idea of what to expect. However, I like the idea of having a record of each of my modules on this blog, and I hope this post will be useful for anyone thinking of studying a level two Art History module with the Open University.
As of October 2024, there are now two standalone Art History modules available at level two:
As this is a post about a level two module, I’m assuming you already know the basics of OU study. If you’re new to this, you can read my other posts about studying remotely with the Open University here. In the level one module posts, I talk about my background, choosing my degree path, and how I finally became a university student at age 38. I also talk about the pros and cons of studying in this way.
The OU provides useful info on what to expect on each module of a degree path here.
Featured image: Dayne Topkin on Unsplash
What was A226: Exploring Art and Visual Culture?
Level two is the first time that Arts and Humanities students at the OU get to focus on their subject. At level one, modules are made up of first eight and then four disciplines. I’d had to choose between History and Art History in my second module at level one because of how the disciplines are divided up.
I was incredibly nervous about studying Art History. I’d taken the History pathway for my second level one module, so I was worried about being at a disadvantage. I wasn’t even entirely sure what Art History was! I just knew I wanted to learn more about art, and I was interested in how it intersected with history to tell a story of a place in time. Fortunately, because there is so much freedom to choose what modules you want to study with the OU, they do a great job of getting you up to speed at the start of a module.
I’ll be talking about A226 here, but I’m sure that many of the themes, styles and periods are included in A236 and A237.
A226 was a survey module covering (mostly European) art across the period 1100-2010. It was broken down into the following sections:
- 1100-1600:
- Medieval
- Renaissance
- 1600-1850:
- Academy
- Avant-Garde
- 1850-2010:
- Modernity
- Globalisation
As you can see, that’s quite a lot of ground to cover. Sometimes it would have been nice to pause on a particular artistic style for a bit longer, rather than rush through one case study in a week (I really liked Bernini’s Rome for example and would have liked a second week to learn more about the Baroque in other contexts). I wonder if having two modules at level two has allowed this to happen, or if they have just included more styles.
The module felt quite dated – we didn’t see a woman artist till the end of book two. The section on Globalisation felt like it had more of a thematic format than the rest of the module, and it just seemed repetitive and the artworks a bit cringe (as my tutor put it, ‘there’s nothing as passé as the cutting edge of art from ten years ago’). However, for the most part, I really enjoyed this module.
I bought a couple of books before I started this module:
- A World History of Art by Hugh Honour and John Fleming – this book is intimidatingly large, but very accessible. I didn’t end up reading it before I started (I didn’t have an entire lifetime to spare), but I did use it for some of my TMAs.
- Art History: The Basics by Grant Pooke and Diana Newall – I found this unaccessible and intimidating. I’ve finally dragged myself through it prior to starting level three, and I’m still not a fan. It’s focused on critical theories, and while I understand those better now, I don’t think they are the be all and end all of art history.
How was A226: Exploring Art and Visual Culture assessed?
I’ve talked about OU assessment at level one in my previous posts, and the overarching structure remains the same. A226 is assessed through six TMAs, two iCMAs and an exam.
The TMAs were all between 1500-2000 words, and each covered one or more chapters of one book section. The iCMAs were little quizzes to help you build confidence with captioning art. They were worth very few marks, but you were scored 100% for completing them, so they were worth doing to edge your score up as much as possible.
The exam was odd. It used to be in-person and had been adapted to a remote open book exam after Covid. I chose this module because I knew the exam would be from home. However, I didn’t consider that it was essentially a speed essay writing exercise. I had to write 2500 words that day, when it would normally take me at least a week to pull something coherent together. My brain was scrambled afterwards!
There was only one choice of question for the TMAs but I think having the option to choose which artworks to use allowed me a freedom I didn’t feel I had with my history module. The exam had ten questions in total, and was divided into four parts. We had to answer three questions in total, with no more than one from each part. There were two questions for each time period, and then four final options which looked at change (or not) over different periods.
I was really surprised that I consistently scored more highly in Art History than I did in History. Analysing artworks suited my methodical brain – I think it’s quite a logical skill to have, and I made myself a nice little template to help. I also think that my experience of studying history, and building an argument based on examples really helped. I found the exam really nerve-wracking, mostly because it wasn’t clear what the criteria were for a good answer – it’s so subjective what can be achieved in three hours!
So that sums up my first proper Art History module. I’m really looking forward to starting level three soon.
Do you have any questions about studying Art History with the Open University?
