Master of Arts specialisation in Art History

Visual intelligence is crucial in navigating the world of images conveying coded messages and ideas' history. How do we read such images? Art History provides the skills to decode and analyse how experts move the eye around artworks, photographs, advertisements, digital images, buildings, and monuments—and in different historical periods. Students learn how to identify and discuss the visual styles of many cultural traditions around the world and to connect deeply with Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Pacific.

Art invites us to experience culture and history through the senses, producing empathy, passion, and contemplation. It trains students to recognise how power in social media, news and entertainment manipulates vision and shows how artists have challenged this power. Art sharpens our perceptions and therefore strengthens our abilities to think independently.

Postgraduate courses in Art History explore a variety of approaches and methodologies in relation to European and American, New Zealand and Australian, Māori and Polynesian arts.
The topics you can study range from individual artists such as Rembrandt to the social and cultural significance of public art and art galleries.
Postgraduate study in Art History is not limited to the traditional fine arts. You can also investigate the forms, meanings and values of different images and objects in the visual cultures (both contemporary and past) of various societies.
Our research interests inform both taught courses and student research. We have particular research strengths in the following areas:
- Aotearoa New Zealand's unique history of art
- Māori, Pacific and indigenous art
- Cross-cultural and inter-cultural representation and post-colonial theory
- Portraiture from the early modern to the modern period
- European early modern painting, tapestries and prints
- Gender, ethnicity and visual culture
- The psychology of art and critical theory

Degrees in Art History make job applicants stand out from the crowd, enhancing what employers seek: dynamic personality traits such as independent thought, creative problem-solving and impactful visual and textual presentation skills. Art History has provided access to careers in communication, media and marketing companies, journalism, and the management and design of national and international music, multimedia and digital festivals and exhibitions.

Our Art History graduates have gone on to careers in the cultural sector, museums, galleries, biennales and tourism. They work in auction houses, as intellectual property and copyright law lawyers, and in government ministries such as Business, Innovation and Employment, Culture and Heritage, Conservation, and the Foreign Office. They are also some of the most inspiring teachers in our schools and universities.

Master of Arts in Art History
120-point (one-year) MA
A BA(Hons) or PGDipArts in Art History with a Grade Point Average of 5.0 or higher (you should have completed a research component as part of the PGDipArts). The research masters has higher requirements.
The following subjects may also be considered for entry: Humanities, Media, Museums and Cultural Heritage, Museums Studies.

180-point (18-month) MA
A BA with a major in Art History. You must have a Grade Point Average of 5.0 or higher in 75 points above Stage II including at least 45 points in the major.
The following subjects may also be considered for entry: Humanities, Media, Museums and Cultural Heritage, Museums Studies.