Fine Arts to Limit Field of Concentration

New tightened Fine Arts Department regulations this term have required all junior concentrators to select a restricted period of art history for intensified study. All future concentrators will also have to choose one of six periods for specialization in their last three terms.

The innovation follows the Department's plan to "increase intellectual challenge and cut down the number of students looking for pleasant courses," Charles L. Kuhn, associate professor of Fine Arts, said yesterday.

Concentrators must elect their specialities from six fields: ancient, medieval, Renaissance, 17th and 18th centuries, modern or oriental art. Frederick B. Deknatel, chairman of the Fine Arts Department, likened the program to that first introduced by the Department of History and Literature.

Under the new rules it is possible to limit study within each period to the dominant country of the time. Kuhn said that the specialization "will be based on concrete general knowledge which concentrators have acquired through wide reading in the tutorial program initiated this fall.

Prevents Superficial Knowledge

"We hope to prevent concentrators from acquiring only a superficial knowledge of art," he continued. "Formerly, students often covered so much area that they didn't know any of it well."

Deknatel praised the success of the tutorial system begun last fall as the first step in tightening the department.