Background

The PPGAV-UFRJ originated in 1985, when the first class of the then Master's in History of Art was established. It was, in this area, the first stricto sensu course in the state of Rio de Janeiro and one of the oldest in the country, meeting a significant demand from specialists and scholars in the visual arts. The course was created with a concentration area in Art History and Criticism, whose line of research focused mainly on studies in the history of Brazilian art.

From 1989 onwards, a second area of concentration was established, the Anthropology of Art, aggregating research on artistic productions registered in the scope of mass culture and popular culture. In 1996, in turn, the Visual Media area was created, through which space was opened up in the Programme for theoretical and practical research, emphasizing the process of creation and reflection on contemporary art.

In 1999, the doctorate was approved, being recommended by CAPES in April 2000, the year the course was implemented, with the opening of the first group. Changes in the structure were then undertaken to provide greater organicity to the Programme, resulting in the current profile, with two areas of concentration, each with two lines of research, namely: concentration area History and Theory of Art: lines of research Art History and Criticism (HCA) and Image and Culture (IC), and concentration area Theory and Experiments in Art: lines of research Visual Media (LV) and Interdisciplinary Poetics (IP). This last line of research, created in 2005, deals with artistic incursion in various media, with an emphasis on technological devices and interaction between different fields of creation.