UNISA Art history Course Module 2025-2026
Major Combinations: BA degree
NQF level 5: ARH1501, ARH1502
NQF Level 6: ARH2601, ARH2602, ARH2603
NQF Level 7: ARH3701, ARH3702, ARH3703, ARH3704, ARH3705
| Contemporary South African Art – ARH412S |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Year module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Pre-requisite: ARH3701, ARH3703 & ARH3704 or ARH311N & ARH313Q & ARH314R |
Co-requisite: ARH411R |
| Purpose: To enable students to understand and analyse contemporary discourse on visual culture in the South African context. Debates on the relationship between art and the South African community and the public, categorisations and definitions of art and critical methodologies are scrutinised. Conceptualism and Postmodernism form the core of this module, but with local application. Special attention is paid to the nature and orientation of exhibitions in the South African context. |
| Memory and Identity – ARH4801 |
| Honours |
Year module |
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 24 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Purpose: To guide students in analysing and evaluating the societal implications of memory and identity in visual culture. |
| Revising Modernism – ARH4802 |
| Honours |
Year module |
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 24 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Purpose: To guide students in undertaking relevant revisions of modernist art historical constructs, and in understanding the implications of such revisions with regard to contemporary balances of power. |
| The Practice of Art History – ARH4803 |
| Honours |
Year module |
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Purpose: To guide students in analysing and evaluating selected art historical research methodologies, specifically with regard to the truth claims one can reasonably make when interpreting works of art and visual culture in general. |
| Contemporary Theories of the Arts – HMV4802 |
| Honours |
Year module |
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 24 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Purpose: To guide students in analysing and evaluating the reciprocal relationship between contemporary art theory and practice. More specifically it explores the impact of the deconstruction of depth aesthetics on the meaning of the art and music in our time and especially on creative artistic and musical expression in Africa. This module also aims to develop students’ critical skills, research methodologies and writing skills within the framework of assignment essays. Furthermore, it aims to develop individual interpretation and argumentation. |
| Visual Literacy – ARH1501 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 5 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To acquire sufficient art history and theoretical skills in order to engage meaningfully with contemporary art. |
| Research Report on the Arts – HRHMV81 |
| Honours |
|
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 36 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Purpose: To write a research report (article) on an approved topic in Musicology, Art History, Visual Art or Multimedia. This research module aims to familiarise and equip students with sound research methodologies and writing skills applicable to the arts. Furthermore it aims to develop independent thinking, argumentation and interpretation. Because of the emphasis on independent thinking, students are required to set their own problems. However, these problems and arguments have to be grounded in sound literature studies. Completing this research module will assist students who wish to continue with an MA degree as it provides the necessary technical and methodological skills. |
| Introduction to Art History – ARH1502 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 5 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To equip students with an overview of art history, its themes, styles, purposes, prospects and problems. Qualified students will be able to use basic terms of art history in their understanding of perspectives and methods relevant to art history. |
| Studio Practice 5 – VMA4801 |
| Honours |
|
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 24 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
|
Co-requisite: PAT4801 & VMA4802 |
| Purpose: to equip students to enter the world of art as an independent art practitioner. The qualifying student will present artwork that is unique, contemporary, original together with incorporation of technical excellence. |
| The Arts and Ideology 1 – ARH2601 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To equip students with the ability to understand and engage with the power structures at work in selected examples of historical art. |
| Studio Practice 6 – VMA4802 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
|
NQF level: 8 |
Credits: 24 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
|
Co-requisite: VMA4801 & PAT4801 |
| Purpose: of this module is to equip students to be able to submit a portfolio of art works relevant to a selected theme related to craftsmanship, and to enter the world of art as an independent art practitioner. The qualifying student will present artwork that is unique, contemporary and original together with incorporation of technical excellence. |
| Introduction to Art History in Africa – ARH2602 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To equip students to understand and engage with the art history in Africa, its themes, styles purposes, prospects and problems. |
| Visual Culture 1 – ARH2603 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 6 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To equip students with the knowledge and competence to analyse and evaluate the relationship between cultural practices and visual culture such as craft, design, mass-media and new-media. |
| Art and Ideology 2 – ARH3701 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to understand and analyse the intimate alliance that exists between art and ideology, with specific reference to the twentieth century. A primary area of investigation is Western Modernism and the ways in which artists and theorists are challenging Modernist notions, foregrounding gender and socio-political dimensions in the society in which art is produced. Areas of investigation are: Early European Modernism; Cubism; Dada and Duchamp; Primitivism. |
| The Arts in Africa – ARH3702 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: The purpose of this module is to analyse and critically debate artistic traditions, practices and discourses in Africa. |
| Visual Culture 2 – ARH3703 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: The purpose of this module is to critically engage with the relationship between cultural practices and visual culture such as craft, design, mass-media and new-media. |
| Modernism and Postmodernism – ARH3704 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: Purpose: to critically analyse and evaluate the impact of postmodernism’s deconstruction and reconstruction of modernism for contemporary art practices. |
| The Arts and the (Post)Colonial – ARH3705 |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Semester module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
|
| Purpose: To enable students to understand and analyse patronage as the chief area of social context which informs the form and content of the visual arts. The area of study includes objects of European and African cultures of historical times up to the 19th century: 15th-century Florentine art and the influence of humanist patronage; 17th-century Dutch painting as comment on materialism; Roman art and imperialism; 19th-century South African colonial images. |
| Contemporary International Art – ARH411R |
| Under Graduate Degree |
Year module |
NQF level: 7 |
Credits: 12 |
| Module presented in English |
Module presented online |
| Pre-requisite: ARH3701, ARH3703 & ARH3704 or ARH311N & ARH313Q & ARH314R |
Co-requisite: ARH412S |
| Purpose: To guide students to understand and analyse contemporary discourse around visual culture in the international context, but with sharp focus on controversies and deliberations of the last 30 years. Debates on the relationship between art and the community or the public, categorisations and definitions of art and critical methodologies are scrutinised. |
