The material of the course
is two-fold: Three current exhibitions will provide the laboratory for studying
the ways in which the exhibition proposes an interpretation of the works it
displays. Then, contemporary and historical examples of exhibition reviews make
up the other major component of the course material. By analysing the range of strategies
employed among the selected reviews (by art historians, art critics, and
journalists) students will learn how to describe and evaluate the observations
they have made about the exhibitions. The emphasis will be on learning to
situate the exhibition in the relevant context—of the scholarship in the field,
of other recent exhibitions of the same work, of significant art-historical
debates, etc.