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What would be a good History of Art debate?

I want to do history of art at uni and I'm doing the EPQ, and I want to base my dissertation on art history so it looks good on my UCAS. However I've never studied it before, but I've looked at various uni modules and love the look of the course, plus I genuinely have a passion for art. Anyway, I'm so stuck on what 'argument' to do for the dissertation, I would love to base it on Leonardo de Vinci, however I've looked on the Internet and I can't find any historical argument to do with him and his works. Obviously if a dissertation could just be descriptive this would be an easy task; but I'm struggling. I've looked at the Philosophy of art( which is a module at Leicester) and good philosophical questions came up on the website however I don't know if we would be allowed to use the exact question? If anyone has any ideas that would be very much appreciated; obviously I wouldn't copy it but just some guidance on specific topics would be great
Hi,
I did a History of Art EPQ, I focused it around how new technologies impacted on 19th century art and explored the extent to which the caused the developments in art during this period. In all honesty I found it very difficult to write considering my lack of knowledge of the subject, however, I was taking an AS level as a evening class so that helped to some extent. It seemed to turn out alright in the end as I got an A*, I think most people find whatever they choose difficult initially as it tends to be completely new area.

In terms of topics, I'd choose an area your really interested and driven to research, as it does tend to draw out and can be tedious if your not interested in your chosen topic. Personally, some of the other ideas I explored before choosing my final topic were, how the mentality of an artist had impacted on their work, so you could look at Van Gogh, Caravaggio, Manet, etc. This would allow you to cover a wide range of periods, and you could explore the change from artists projecting their external to internal world. Other topic's I looked at were the under representation of women in art and how war impacted on art, these were however topic which conformed to my personal interests so they might not appeal to you. My best advice would be to choose a topic which has some link to one of your other subjects your studying at the moment to give some context and starting point to build on.

You could have a look through this, its the textbook for the art history A level, it's not the full book but might give you some idea's.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XNl5CgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=penny+huntsman+thinking+about+art&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB6fLdr63NAhVjFMAKHQxZDgcQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=penny%20huntsman%20thinking%20about%20art&f=false

I'm going to be studying History of Art at UCL this September, if all goes to plan, so if you have any questions about applying for History of Art i'd be happy to help.:smile:
Honestly, thank you so so much! This has really given me some inspiration and you must feel so proud to have gotten into a top uni such as UCL! Just out of curiosity, where else did you apply for and do you believe that History of art is a competitive course to get into? I really would love to do it at a Russel group, preferably Manchester or Birmingham. I don't know my predicted grades yet,however Birmingham requires ABB(BBB for EPQ) and Manchester's requirements are ABB-BBB, but I'm just hoping I've got B's in all my AS' to get predicted some A's I guess. However if I get predicted BBB, plus a good grade in the EPQ, would I still stand a good chance of getting into somewhere like Manchester or Birmingham?
Original post by ambermariemorgan
Honestly, thank you so so much! This has really given me some inspiration and you must feel so proud to have gotten into a top uni such as UCL! Just out of curiosity, where else did you apply for and do you believe that History of art is a competitive course to get into? I really would love to do it at a Russel group, preferably Manchester or Birmingham. I don't know my predicted grades yet,however Birmingham requires ABB(BBB for EPQ) and Manchester's requirements are ABB-BBB, but I'm just hoping I've got B's in all my AS' to get predicted some A's I guess. However if I get predicted BBB, plus a good grade in the EPQ, would I still stand a good chance of getting into somewhere like Manchester or Birmingham?


No problem, glad i could help :smile: I also applied to Sussex, York, Warwick (which is my insurance) and the Courtauld, and got offers from all of them. In terms of being competitive it's difficult to tell, obviously oxbridge are extremely competitive and then I'd say a few others like St Andrews, the Courtauld, UCL, Exeter etc are, but nowhere near to the extent of other courses such as Medicine or Law. For the most part they want to see your interested in the subject and have some aptitude for it, this might involve an interview or submitting an essay nothing too difficult.

I don't know much about Manchester or Birmingham, but I'd say as long as you have a solid personal statement and a decent set of grades to go with it, then you stand a very good chance. :smile:
Original post by Louise0498
Hi,
I did a History of Art EPQ, I focused it around how new technologies impacted on 19th century art and explored the extent to which the caused the developments in art during this period. In all honesty I found it very difficult to write considering my lack of knowledge of the subject, however, I was taking an AS level as a evening class so that helped to some extent. It seemed to turn out alright in the end as I got an A*, I think most people find whatever they choose difficult initially as it tends to be completely new area.

In terms of topics, I'd choose an area your really interested and driven to research, as it does tend to draw out and can be tedious if your not interested in your chosen topic. Personally, some of the other ideas I explored before choosing my final topic were, how the mentality of an artist had impacted on their work, so you could look at Van Gogh, Caravaggio, Manet, etc. This would allow you to cover a wide range of periods, and you could explore the change from artists projecting their external to internal world. Other topic's I looked at were the under representation of women in art and how war impacted on art, these were however topic which conformed to my personal interests so they might not appeal to you. My best advice would be to choose a topic which has some link to one of your other subjects your studying at the moment to give some context and starting point to build on.

You could have a look through this, its the textbook for the art history A level, it's not the full book but might give you some idea's.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XNl5CgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=penny+huntsman+thinking+about+art&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB6fLdr63NAhVjFMAKHQxZDgcQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=penny%20huntsman%20thinking%20about%20art&f=false

I'm going to be studying History of Art at UCL this September, if all goes to plan, so if you have any questions about applying for History of Art i'd be happy to help.:smile:


Hi Louise, congrats at getting into UCL. If you don't mind me asking what were your grades and did you have an interview with UCL? Did you do much extra curricular in art history related things? Thank you :smile:


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Original post by Student1670
Hi Louise, congrats at getting into UCL. If you don't mind me asking what were your grades and did you have an interview with UCL? Did you do much extra curricular in art history related things? Thank you :smile:


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Hi, sorry about the late reply, I was predicted A*AB, so only just above the entry requirements. In terms of extra curricular, I attended a summer school at the Courtuald, volunteered as a conservation assistant at a national trust property and worked in my sisters gallery in London selling art and running exhibitions, i also took an extra AS level in Art History as an evening class along side my a-levels and obviously an EPQ, though I think I went a little over the top as I basically took every opportunity offered to me. I think the most important stuff they want to see it that your keen and have an interest, so you can do this via reading books (though id avoid the obvious ones), visiting exhibitions and doing art related volunteering you'd be surprised whats out there. UCL asked us to complete a written task, which was instead of an interview, personally I found this better as it allows you to demonstrated you skills. Hope this helps, again apologies for the late reply :smile:

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