>Merri,

Your question regarding foreign languages needed for graduate work in Art
History is actually very important and an issue that I wish more programs
were taking the time to reconsider.

It depends first and foremost on your area of concentration (or at least it
should). If your doing contemporary, maybe German would be more useful,
Historical Modernism would be a tough call given the importance of both
Germany (think of the Bauhaus, the Expressionists, Die Bruke, etc) and
France (dada, surrealism, Duchamp, etc). What happens when you want to study
non-western art though (see below)?

Secondly consider the program.  To the best of my knowledge, most M.A.
programs require either German, French or Italian. They sometimes let
someone studying a non-western art substitute an appropriate language.  Some
M.A. programs (Williams I know for certain) requires both German and French
or Italian).  Doctoral programs certainly require two languages and
sometimes more as many schools will not let you substitute more appropriate
languages for your area of study for those required, so some students end up
having to learn 3, 4, or even 5 languages.  Other schools are rethinking
this requirement (rightly, I believe) and only require languages related to
the student's are of specialization.  Thus far, the UCAL Irvine is the only
program that I have found that has taken this progressive approach.

In an ideal world (and we all live in those right?) it is best to have a
good handle on the languages that the program requires prior to beginning
the program and getting past the translation requirement a.s.a.p.  I love to
study languages and even gain at least basic proficiency fairly easily, but
language classes are a HUGE time suck for the grad. student.

Good luck.



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