Art History
Bachelor of Arts (Major subject)

The prerequisite for admission to the Bachelor's program in Art History is a general or relevant subject-related university entrance qualification. Applicants without a university entrance qualification but with many years of professional experience can take an aptitude assessment test.

As a rule, admission to the course of Art History is granted by the internal Numerus Clausus, which regulates admission flexibly depending on the number of applicants. The number of places offered can vary between 70 and 90 per year for the core subject and between 30 and 60 per year for the supplementary subject.

Students can only begin their studies in the winter semester.

The Bachelor's program in Art History conveys an extensive and well-founded core knowledge in the field of Art History in historical and systematic terms on a broad basis of units with very different teaching formats. Overview seminars on methods and forms, covering the entire spectrum of epochs from late antiquity to the present, are offered, as are lectures with more in-depth topics, basic seminars and classes in front of originals, particularly through excursions.

The discipline of Art History focuses on work processes, forms of design, meanings, functions, cultural contexts (historical, conceptual, political, social, institutional, individual), materials/techniques of works of art as well as other areas of visual cultures such as contemporary (image) media and the aesthetically designed environment. It is also dedicated to the history of art theory, the history of the reception of works of art, and the history of art history.

Specializations in the field of garden art and urban planning as well as art mediation in museums, exhibitions, art trade etc. are already possible in the Bachelor's program. The respective competences are conveyed in courses in art history, which are participant-oriented and encourage the students' independent participation.

The unusually wide range of subsidized study trips under the guidance of lecturers offered at our institute enables students in both core and supplementary subjects to gain a profound understanding of the historical complexity of art settings in various cities as well as entire art regions or regional art centers, both in the wider surroundings and abroad.

Institute for Art History

The Institute for Art History at Heinrich Heine University is comparatively young. It emerged in 1987 from an endowed professorship by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. Since then, the institute has expanded continuously and successfully, becoming one of the largest art history institutes in Germany. This ensures that all epochs from the Middle Ages to the present are covered by a total of 5 professorships and 2 junior professorships (plus 2 honorary professorships), supported by a highly staffed team of lecturers with doctoral or master degrees.

In addition to a permanent staff of lecturers, the Institute of Art History also has a rotating staff of lecturers, including many curators from renowned museums of the region. The Institute of Art History was one of the first institutes to introduce the bachelor's degree in art history in 2001 and the master's degree in art history three years later, which have since proved successful in teaching and have been positively evaluated and accredited several times.

The Institute of Art History has developed a number of different areas of specialization: The junior professorship for the history of garden art, donated by the state capital Düsseldorf, is unique in German art history. In keeping with the special profile of Düsseldorf and the Rhineland in the field of contemporary art, media culture and arts trade, there is a professorship for Historical Visual Sciences and Contemporary Studies and - in cooperation with the Business Administration Department - a course of studies for art mediation and cultural management that is unique in Germany.

The practical and subject-related study components comprising classes in front of originals (including excursions), hands-on training, an internship of at least 2 months and project seminars are intended to facilitate the transition to professional life. They therefore play an important role in the curriculum. In addition to that, stays abroad are encouraged, and a broad variety of occupational fields are presented (e.g. in lecture series, colloquia, brochures, etc.).

Cooperation with renowned museums and institutions (at home and abroad), symposia, research and exhibition projects as well as lectures and conferences on an international level complete the research and career-oriented offers of the institute. In addition, the Institute cooperates within Düsseldorf with the Academy of Fine Arts Düsseldorf and the Robert Schumann Hochschule.

The "Friends of the Institute of Art History of the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf" support many of these projects.

The professional spectrum for trained art historians is very broad (exhibitions, preservation of historical monuments, municipal public relations, cultural management, arts trade, art education, art mediation, museums, positions in cultural institutions, insurance companies, jobs in analogue and digital mass media, etc.). The aim of the program is therefore to prepare students for these multifaceted, innovative and creative demands in professional life and society. Furthermore, it is our goal to pave the way for individual careers and value-oriented personality development beyond the mere transfer of knowledge.