The "History of Art and Design" course, which is an important theoretical course in the Faculties of Fine Arts, is a compulsory course for the 1st year students within the Faculty of Fine Arts of Istanbul Gelişim University. Starting from the first art activities of humanity, students who have just started their departments acquire their knowledge, including today's modern art, through this course. The first theoretical step is “What is art?” It starts with the question. The visual experience starts with cave wall paintings and the art periods of humanity are explained and students' knowledge and visual visions are developed. In this context, Istanbul Gelişim University Faculty of Fine Arts Communication and Design Department Art Historian asst. Prof. Dr. Çağlayan Hergül evaluated the importance and handling of the History of Art and Design course:
“20. The beginning of the century is a period that witnessed the formation of modern art. The image world, which was based on the direct reflection of the classical figure until this period, went to the way of grasping the figure or the object, leaving its place in a new era that art could not express until now. Interestingly, many artists such as Hanri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vasiliy Kandinsky have guided modern art around the concept of "Primitive Art". Here, the activities of the artists that I mentioned before, in search of the primitive and with it the essence, take us to the history of art. When we look at it from this perspective, the importance of our "History of Art and Design" course is here: Questioning memory and creating a new memory. To witness and analyze the formation of this artistic memory. To give an example, the "bull" figure is perhaps best suited for this. The visual adventure of the bull figure, a mythological figure starting from the cave walls and extending to Picasso, lies in Art History. The importance of the "History of Art and Design" course lies in the ability to analyze even a single figure. For a faculty of fine arts student, perhaps the most important gain of being able to do this analysis is to be inspired and discover the ore in himself.
Aside from the importance of our "History of Art and Design" course, how do we convey this art activity of mankind spanning thousands of years to our esteemed students in this course? This is where visual material comes into play. We try to provide our students with as much visual material as possible. This is the most fundamental issue that distinguishes the history of art from other social sciences. On the other hand, there is a diverse student body where art is practiced, consisting of Interior Architecture, Interior Architecture and Environmental Design, Graphics, Communication and Design, Gastronomy, and Culinary Arts departments. For this reason, we analyze a work that portrays a Renaissance or Rococo food feast for a longer time with Gastronomy and Culinary Arts students. We work on the same paintings more intensively with the students of the relevant department on the architecture of the period. On the other hand, we make flashbacks and recalls during the training period. ‘Why do we see Ancient Greek culture as the source of Ancient Roman Art? Our questions such as “Why does the Renaissance bring the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome back to the light?” keep our memory alive about our lesson. In addition to these, we make our course more livable by making use of different disciplines such as history, history of science, and philosophy as much as possible. Because it is not possible to read the period only through works of art. There is a collective formation for every period. For example, it would be weak to read Surrealism only through Salvador Dali. However, the collective memory that makes up Surrealism includes the interaction of art movements as well as many other subjects such as Psychology, Neurology, Political History, and History of Science. Therefore, we try to perpetuate our students' memory by using these instruments as much as possible. In addition, such a versatile narrative leaves the impression of experience during the lesson, ensuring the permanence of the information and especially the visual image for the student. An example of this experience is music. Starting the lesson with music specific to each period I have told has a very good effect. “So why did I play this music? (Ex.) because Andy Warhol introduced the band “Velvet Underground and Nico” to the world.” It makes it easier for Pop Art and Andy Warhol to stick in the memory because the music makes the senses sharper at that moment and makes the emotions feel different from person to person. This situation stimulates mutual interaction and increases class participation.”
