The course is intended to offer an introduction to the most significant examples and trends of European and American art and architecture from the late 18th to the 21stC. Several sections will also include a look at non-European/American traditions, especially in Africa, in order to explore more expansively how cultures intersect while asserting their own values. 

Some emphasis will be placed on the more “familiar” art of Europe and the emergence and gradual independence of modern art in the United States, in order to provide the student with a basic knowledge of the most significant developments in Western art of this period. From the French Revolution and a concept of art as a means of moral elevation, we will turn to the Romantic celebration of individual sensibility. A major change occurs with Manet and the Impressionists’ discovery of new techniques and subjects within modern Parisian society.  In the late 19thC, artists begin to emphasize emotion and spirituality over naturalistic representation; in the early 20thC, Modernist artists begin to examine the very nature of art itself. With the explosion of movements as varied as, for instance, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism, issues concerning the role of the artist and the relationship of art to reality become ever more vital. These experiments leave artists in the later part of the century to wrestle with questions concerning the conflicting values of social engagement or aesthetic isolation. Finally, more recent trends of the last decades of the 20thC and first decade of the 21st will be examined through a selection of works which exemplify the expanding borders of “what is art,” and which can even more provocatively go on to challenge the by now “classic” status of the avant-garde.

We will also take the opportunity to investigate how 19th and 20thC artists and architects in Europe and the U.S. developed an increasing awareness of visual worlds outside of their own Western framework, and absorbed and reinvented this cultural material according to their own interests. Alternatively, some attention will be given to the way in which artists in, for example, Latin America and Africa, often emerging from a colonized past, achieve an art expressive of their own cultural identity, traditions, and modern experiences. 

This course is designed both for the student with no previous art history background, and for the student with some experience seeking a general historical overview. Through lectures, class discussions, readings and a few visits to sites and museums, the student will become familiar with a variety of period styles and cultures, artists and major works from the Modern and Contemporary periods. 

           In addition, the course should stimulate consideration of some of the various approaches of art-historical study – the different ways of looking and thinking about art, and an awareness of the contexts in which art is made. In this way, the student will be introduced to the basic methods of the field, as well as to the tools which enable a more informed appreciation of painting, sculpture, architecture, and more contemporary art forms. 

            The range of artworks presented in this course is selective rather than all-inclusive, in the belief that deeper knowledge of a few key works will supply students with essential art-historical skills, and a foundation for what may be hoped to be a continued involvement with art. In order to achieve a firm grasp of the basic issues relevant to the quite vast spectrum of art to be investigated, students are expected to arrive at class having already carefully read the assigned sections in the textbook. Several additional brief readings, especially of texts contemporary with the artists and works under investigation, will also be required; handouts of quotations and brief essays will be provided.

The class lessons will consist of both lecture and class discussion, with stress on individual student engagement. “Lectures” will be continually alternated with “discussion,” with the purpose of augmenting and deepening the more overarching and very informative textbook readings. 

Textbook:

Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: A Global History,  ed. F.S. Kleiner, Boston: Thomson/Wadsworth, fourteenth edition – Volume II 

Aims of the Course:

            Students will be expected to develop, in the course of the semester, the following:

-      Ready recognition of selected works, and knowledge of basic facts related to them. A basic understanding of the historical development of painting, sculpture, architecture and other art  forms from the Late 18thC through early 21stC within the cultural, political and ideological contexts of the periods.

-      Awareness of problems of interpretation, in relation to the study of selected works; basic familiarity with the subject matter and meaning, function and purpose, issues of patronage, sponsorship and identity.

-      Development of the visual and analytical skills of looking (and thinking!). 

-      The student should achieve a recognition of major representative movements; also essential is a perception of the ways in which form and meaning are conjoined. An awareness of the development of different art forms and the ideas and cultures which shape them is also to be gained.

-      An awareness of trends of taste, changing patterns of art production and consumption, and aesthetic as well as extra-artistic issues concerning selected works.

-      A grasp of the changing function of art as a shifting expression of individuals, institutions and belief systems in different moments of history and in different nations and cultures.

-      Furthering of writing skills: declaration and development of a clearly stated theme, development of methods of argumentation and organization, written expression and structure.

-      Furthering of oral communication skills, through class discussion, questions and comments.

AH 144 / World Art IV: Visual Culture of the Modern and Contemporary Periods

Schedule of Classes

NB: The professor reserves the right to adjust the schedule of classes with the agreement of the class. 

Readings:Required reading for each class marked “G” are from the textbook, Fred Kleiner, Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History, vol. II(International edition), 14^thed.

If you have purchased an earlier edition, match readings with topics given for the day’s lesson.

Each class also includes a required reading from another source; suggested readings are also given.

See Reading List below for full references and locations of texts.

Introduction:

-Introduction to the Course: Discussion of the Syllabus, requirements, and goals. An introduction to art-historical analysis of 19-20C art. Consideration of the Journal assignment.

Reading:

            G:Introduction: “What is Art History”

The Late 18thC to the Mid-19thC – Neoclassicism and Romanticism:

–Art and architecture in the “Age of Enlightenment: Reason, Science and Nature – and Revolution. Neoclassicism, as an expression of stylistic and moral ideals.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 26, “Rococo to Neoclassicism,” 726-48.

            R. Rosenblum, Chapter II, “The Exemplum Virtutis,” <Model of Virtue>,in

             Transformations in Late 18C Art,  50-106 (esp. 50-54; 68-85).

Recommended: 

            T. Crow, Chapter I, “Patriotism and Virtue,” in S. Eisenman, ed., 19C Art: A Critical History

– Neoclassical art and architecture in England and the United States: The “Grand Tour,” the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, Palladianism, and (in America) imagery for a new democracy.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 26, con. (pp 745; 748-52 for Sept. 21, see below)

            D. Irwin, Chapter 1, “The Lure of Italy and Beyond: The Grand Tour,”in Neoclassicism,

             12-63. (book On Order; Download will be on message board)

Recommended:

            D. Irwin, Chapter 5, “Commercial Initiative: Furnishing the Home,” in Neoclassicism,

            212-48

H.W. Janson, in Part I, 1776-1815: “Sculpture,” in Rosenblum and Janson, Nineteenth-Century Art, 90-111

–Romanticism in France: Napoleon and the cult of the hero; Gericault and Delacroix - individualism and feeling.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 27, “Romanticism, Realism and Photography,” 755-70

            T. Crow, Chapter 2, “Classicism in Crisis; Gros to Delacroix,” in Eisenman, ed., 55-81.

Recommended:

            L. Eitner, ed., Neoclassicism and Romanticism(Sources and Documents), vol. II, 

Gericault and Delacroix, 98-132.

R. Rosenblum, in Part II, 1815-48:” Painting,” in Rosenblum and Janson, Nineteenth-Century Art,114-128. 

Feb. Sept. 20 –Romanticism, the “Sublime,” and landscape painting: German Romanticism (Friedrich); English poetic vision (Constable and Turner); Pioneering art in the New World (American landscape painting).

Reading:

            G: Chapter 27, 770-75.

            R.Rosenblum,19C Art, 150-161.

Recommended:

B. Lukacher, Chapter 5, “Nature and History in English Romantic Landscape Painting;” Chapter 6, “Landsscape Art and Romantic Nationalism in Germany and America,” in Eisenman, ed. 19C Art: Critical History.

“Nature Philosophy” (Goethe, Schelling, Carus and Friedrich) and “Art and Nature” (Constable), in Eisler, ed., Sources and Documents, vol. II, 40-56; 59-68.

–Architecture: Building for an Industrial Age, historical revival, new public projects.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 26, 748-52; Chapter 27, 787-91

            B. Lukacher, Chapter 7, “Architecture Unshackled,” in Eisenman, ed., 160-79.

Recommended:

            B. Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890 (select sections)

-The Birth of Photography: A look at a new medium – how “real” is it? Aesthetics, techniques, reception.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 27, 791-96

            D.L. Phillips, Chapter 12, “Photography, Modernity and Art,”in Eisenman, ed., 265-9

The Later 19thC – The Beginnings of Art for a Modern World:

–“Realism” in France and the defiance of tradition: Courbet and the socialist aspirations of painting; Daumier, caricature and political commentary

Reading: 

            G: Chapter 27, 775-80

            L. Nochlin, Chapter I, “The Nature of Realism,” in Realism(Style and Civilization), 13-56

Recommended:

            L. Nochlin, Chapter II, “Death in the Mid Nineteenth Century,” in Realism, 57-101.

R. Rosenblum, in Part II, 1815-1848, and Part III, 1848-1870, in 19C Art, 186-190;218-255.

- Manet, “the painter of modern life.” Realism in Britain and the United States.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 27, 780-787.

T.J. Clark, (chapter selection: "Olympia"), The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet, 1985

– Impressionism: “The New Painting” in Paris; new subjects (work and leisure, city and suburbs, new techniques and attitudes; the seemingly spontaneous.  

Reading:

            G: Chapter 28, “Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism,” 798 -810.

R. Herbert, Chapter I, “Paris Transformed,” in Impressionism: Art, Leisure and Parisian Society1-32

Recommended:

            R. Herbert, Chapter 6, “Suburban Leisure,” 195-263.

–Post-Impressionism: A modern art “like the art of the museums:” Cézanne makes of Impressionism “something solid and lasting;” Seurat’s pointillism, and the science of color

Reading:

            G: Chapter 28, 811-819.

Eisenman, Rosenblum

–Post Impressionism, continued: Individual response, and the search for an inner reality in the art of Van Gogh and Gauguin; Symbolism: The search continues - Munch and Rodin

Reading:

            G: Chapter 28, 819-826.

Eisenman, Rosenblum

–The Fin-de-Siècle and the beginning of modern design and architecture: the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau, and the Vienna Secession; The Skyscraper in America

Reading:

            G: Chapter 28, 827-832.

The Early 20thC – Modernism:

(Readings forthcoming - revisions)

–European Expressionism: the Fauves; “Die Brücke; Der Blaue Reiter (especially Kirschner and Kandinsky). A new vision – Abstract Art and the spirituality of Kandinsky.

NB: The material for this lesson will not appear on the Midterm, but on the Final.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 29: “Modernism in Europe and America,” 834-843.

–Matisse.

Reading: TBA

–Cubism and its Legacy: Picasso (to Guernica) – We will concentrate on the development of the Demoiselles des Avignon, the artist’s radical explorations of the very basis of representation, his arrival at Cubism, with Georges Braque, and  subsequent experiments up to the Guernica. Here also is an opportunity to explore the European usage/creative “exploitation” of non-Western art (African, Oceanic), in preparation – and contrast -for the class on Modern and Contemporary African art, as an independent culture, and its incorporation of “modern” Western concepts. 

Reading: 

G: Chapter29, 844-853.

 –Art as expression of Contemporary Modern Life and the Irrational: Futurism and Italy; Dada (especially Duchamp). The Armory Show and the United States. 

Reading:

            G: Chapter 29, 853-858; 862-870.

–A World Gone Mad: Artists in World War I Germany - Grosz, Beckmann, Dix.  

Reading:

            G: Chapter 29, 858-874.

- Surrealism: The subconscious, the primitive, childhood – de Chirico, Dali, Magritte, and Klee.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 29, 874-880

Nov. 15 –Utopias: Art as aesthetic and social Ideal in Suprematism, Constructivism, and de Stijl; Early 20thC architecture and design:  the Bauhaus, the International Style, and Frank Lloyd Wright

Reading:

            G: Chapter 29, 858-862; 870-872; 880-887; 896.

Nov. 20 -  African Art and Culture: Background, and the Modern Experience in African Contemporary Art

DUE: COMPLETED JOURNAL- ALL FOUR ENTRIES (first two already submitted, and two new ones)

Reading:

            G: Chapter 37, “Africa 1800-1980,” 1060-1079.

The Later 20thC to Now – The U.S. (New York) to the Forefront, and Postmodernism:

–New York as Art Center – the 1950’s and 60’s: Clement Greenberg and formalism; Abstract Expressionism, “Post-Painterly Abstraction,” Color Field Painting, Minimalism; Painting and sculpture as “Object.”

Reading:

            G: Chapter 30, “Modernism and Post-Modernism in Europe and America,” 898-909.

–Outside the Frame! Happenings, Fluxus, Performance Art, Conceptual Art, “Earthworks.” Public art and public controversy.

Rading:

            G: Chapter 30, 909-913; 933-938.

Dec. 4 –Art and Consumer Culture: Pop art, and its Heirs;  Architecture in the later 20thC and early 21st: From Modern to Postmodern to Deconstruction.  (Students will be expected to have visited recent sites in Rome for discussion).

Reading:

            G: Chapter 30, 913-921; 925-933.

–Art as Political and Social Statement; Gender, Race, Sexuality, Protest.

Reading:

            G: Chapter 30, 921-925; Chapter 31, “Contemporary Art Worldwide,” 940-72.

Evening Reviews (pick one). Times to be announced

FINAL EXAMINATION: to be scheduled

NB: Do not make plans to leave Rome before the day after examinations!!!

Reading List:

-       Robert Rosenblum and H.W. Janson, Nineteenth-Century Art, NY: H.Abrams, 1984.  N6425.N4R65

-       Stephen Eisenman and Thomas Crow, et al., 19C Art. A Critical History, London: Thames and Hudson, 2007. N6450.E39

-       Robert Rosenblum, Transformations in Late 18C Art, Princeton UP, 1969. N6410.R66 

-       Lorenz Eisler, Neoclassicism and Romanticism 1750-1850(Sources and Documents), New York: Harper and Row, 1989.   N6425.N4N45 - 2 vols.

-       David Irwin, Neoclassicism, London: Phaidon, (1997) 2000 – On Order

-       Barry Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890, Oxford UP, 2000.  N6425.N4N45

-       Eugène Delacroix, eds. Hubert Wallington and Lucy Norton, The Journal of Eugène Delacroix: a Selection, London: Phaidon, 1995.   ND553.D33A2

-       Charles Baudelaire, ed. P.E. Charvet, Selected Writings on Art and Artists, Cambridge UP, 1981.  NX65.B38219 (RES)

-       Linda Nochlin, Realism, London and NY: Penguin Books (1971) 1990. N6465.R4N6

-       Linda Nochlin, Realism and Tradition in Art 1848-1900(Sources and Documents), NY: Harper and Row, 1966.   N6450.N57

-       Barbara Groseclose, Nineteenth-Century American Art, Oxford UP, 2000. N6507.G76

-       Eleonor Jones Harvey, The Civil War and American Art, exh. cat., Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Yale UP, 2012. N6510.H37 2012

-       Robert Herbert, Impressionism: Art, Leisure and Parisian Society, Yale UP, 1988. ND550.H47

-       T.H. Clark, (Courbet and Manet)

-       Meyer Schapiro, Modern Art, 19 and 20C, NY: G. Braziller, 1979.   N6447.S33

-       Richard Brettell, Modern Art, 1851-1929: Capitalism and Representation, Oxford UP, 1999. N6757.B74 1999