Professor of Art Carrie Patterson is writing 24 lectures for The Great Course Lecture Series program. The Great Courses are a series of educational classes offered to “surround the world’s greatest teachers with a team of experts who collaborate on crafting a customized and entertaining educational journey.”
Titled “How to See,” Patterson says this about the course: “From the works of great masters to the architecture of great buildings and even the design of everyday objects, visual literacy enhances your appreciation and ability to describe the aesthetics of practically anything. These lessons teach you the principles of design as the vocabulary of art – line, shape, space, texture, color, and more – and how to see and evaluate them. You learn also how the arrangement of these principles affect the quality of design and art overall.”
Patterson continued, “See how clues to a work’s meaning are often communicated in the language of symbols, whether it’s the iconography of a Renaissance work or the colors of a company’s logo. You don’t have to be an artist to appreciate and apply these lessons, though artists and designers will certainly benefit. You just need an active mind ready to see beyond the obvious in any designed art or object.”
Patterson will begin taping the course in January 2019 and it will be available for purchase that summer. She follows in the footsteps of Jennifer Cognard-Black, professor of English, and David Kung, professor of mathematics, who have also had offerings through the Great Courses.