Details of essential reading assignments, articles and podcasts will be provided weekly.
Core bibliographic works for the course:
Levine, D, Rule, A. (2013) International Art English
Malcolm, J. (2013) 41 False Starts (A House of Ones Own)
O’Hara, F. (1957) Why I am not a painter
Sontag, S. (1964) Notes on Camp
Woolf, V. (1942) Death of a Moth
* Alterations and/or additions to the schedule may take place.
Week 1.1 Lecture: Introductory Seminar
General introduction to the course structure, reading list and assignments.
Week 1.2 Lecture: The Press Release
Introducing different forms of the Press Release, its classic form, fiction and essay.
Week 2.1 Lecture: International Art English & the Bank Art Collective
On the rise - and the space - of the art-world press release.
Week 2.2 Gallery Visit: T293
Group Discussion & Review.
Week 3.1 Lecture: The Review
Introducing different forms of the Review, as classic critique, essay and prose.
Week 3.2 Gallery Visit: Gavin Brown Enterprise
Group Discussion & Review.
Annotated Press Release & Summary text is due
Week 4.1 Lecture: Camp is a Tender Feeling
This Lecture will concentrate on the seminal text Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag, 1964. It will introduce the students to the ideas, aesthetics and sensibility of camp.
Week 4.2 Gallery Visit: Lorcan O’Neil
Group Discussion & Review.
Week 5.1 Lecture: Camp is a Tender Feeling (continued)
This lecture continues to consider Notes on Camp and its influence particularly on the exhibitions Notes on Neo Camp, curated by Chris Sharp.
Week 5.2 Gallery Visit: Indipendenza
Group Discussion & Review.
Review (900 words) is due.
Week 6.1 Lecture: The Classics that Persist
This lecture will introduce the writers Virginia Woolf, JG Ballard & Samuel Beckett: writers who have had a profound affect on art production and curation.
Week 6.2 Conversation: Visiting Curator (tbc)
A curator will be invited to present three texts that have been seminal for them during their career.
There will be a group discussion on the introduced texts and the role of curator in the production of press material.
Week 7.1 Lecture: The Classics that Persist (continued)
This lecture will introduce the exhibitions, artists and events that have been directly influenced by Woolf, Ballard & Beckett.
Week 7.2 Gallery Visit: Emanuel Layr
Group Discussion & Review.
Week 8.1 Lecture: Jutta Koether & The Berlin Key
This lecture will focus on Jutta Koether’s 2010 exhibition Berliner Sclhüssel, at Galerie Buchholz and Bruno Latour’s text The Berlin Key.
Jutta Koether is an artist, musician and critic. Bruno Latour is a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist.
Week 8.2 Gallery Visit: Monitor
Group Discussion & Review.
Critical Essay (900 words) is due
Week 9.1 Lecture: The Interview
This lecture will introduce the form of the artist in conversation, with a discussion about how information is rehearsed, crafted and communicated.
Week 9.2 Conversation: Artist – Studio Tour of Castro Projects
Tour lead by director of Castro Projects, students will have the opportunity to meet and talk with the artists in residence.
Week 10.1 Lecture: The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson
This lecture will focus on The Argonauts by poet, writer and art critic Maggie Nelson.
The Argonauts is described as a genre-bending memoir, which weaves the personal with seminal texts on gender and sexuality.
Week 10.2 Gallery Visit: Frutta
Group Discussion & Review.
Interview/Essay (900 words) is due
Week 11.1 Lecture: The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson (continued)
This lecture will build upon the previous lecture in Week 10, pinpointing and expanding certain theoretical texts within the book.
Week 11.2 Conversation: Visiting Poet/Writer (tbc)
A writer will introduce and present 3 texts that have been seminal for their career.
Proposal for longer form essay/review due
Week 12.1 Lecture: AbEx and Disco Balls by Amy Sillman
This lecture & discussion focuses on the essay AbEx and Disco Balls by Amy Sillman published an Art Forum 2011.
Week 12.2 Lecture: Raspail by Isabelle Graw
Raspail by Isabel Graw is an essay published by Artforum in 2008. It discusses fashion, symbolic value and art.
Week 13.1 Lecture: More orange than the ear can hold
This lecture will introduce poetry as curatorial idea and as press release. It will focus on the poet Frank O’Hara and the historical relationships between poets and visual artists.
Week 13.2 Lecture: Oranges and Sardines
This lecture will be a discussion of the themes outlined in the first lecture More orange than the ear can hold.
We will analyse the poem Why am I not a painter, Frank O’Hara, 1971 and its use as the curatorial inspiration for the exhibition Oranges and Sardines, curated by Gary Gerrels, Hammer Museum, LA, 2009.
Week 14.1 Lecture: More orange than the ear can hold (continued)
This lecture will focus on the exhibition Sputterances, curated by Sanya Kantarovsky, NYC, 2017.
The exhibition takes its curatorial cue from a poem by eminent Dutch artist René Daniels. Poet Ben Lerner contributes in response to exhibition
Week 14.2 Gallery Visit: Fondazione Giuliani
Group Discussion & Review.
Longer form Essay/Review due (2000 words)
Week 15.1 In-Class Presentations. FINAL REVIEW
(10-15 min presentation per student of longer form essay)
Week 15.2 In-Class Presentations FINAL REVIEW
(10-15 min presentation per student of longer form essay)