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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY
COURSE CODE: "AH 385"
COURSE NAME: "American Art and Identity"
SEMESTER & YEAR:
Fall 2019
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SYLLABUS
INSTRUCTOR:
Karen Georgi
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS:
TTH 10:00-11:15 AM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS:
45
CREDITS:
3
PREREQUISITES:
Prerequisite: One previous course in Art History or permission of the instructor
OFFICE HOURS:
T 11:-12:30
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COURSE DESCRIPTION:
For decades the question "What is American about American art?" stood at the center of American art history. American painting consequently has been studied and interpreted for its putative relationship to American identity or to aspects of national self-image. Though this paradigm is now questioned, it remains deeply embedded in the study of American art. By studying the paintings along with key essays, the course will examine the historiography of American art as well as the artworks. It will analyze the paintings and the debates about their relationship to socio-political contexts that are thought to be particularly American. It will also consider the significant influence on American art by Italian artistic traditions and American ex-patriot artists.
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SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
The course investigates major genres and styles of 19th Century American painting such as landscape painting, images of the West, the "painting of everyday life," and various forms of realism and trompe l'oeil that recur throughout the century. It looks closely at artists who have become well-known figures—artist such as John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, and Winslow Homer—as well as artists such as Asher Durand, Emanuel Leutze, Elihu Vedder and many others whose fame has not lasted into our time.The course is designed to analyze the wide range of pictorial practices that characterize the century while confronting and debating the important themes that have ostensibly made American art American. These include the rejection of European conventions, the democratic character of the artist and his public, empirical and scientific habits of mind, the physical place, and change and expansion. In addition, because our current moment is rife with tensions around identity politics, the course will also study the ways in which American art has constructed racial, ethnic, and gender identities in the US.
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LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Students who conscientiously apply themselves will become familiar with the key artists and movements of 19th century American art and with the critical debates of the period as well as those in our modern historiography. They will also develop skills for visually analyzing and recognizing forms and competently assessing stylistic differences with an understanding of how such styles communicated historically. They will begin to grasp the complex role of art in society and the ideological bases for 19th century American art.
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TEXTBOOK:
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REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
| Book Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN number | Library Call Number | Comments |
| Making American Art | Pam Meecham and Julie Sheldon | Taylor and Francis | xxxx | | |
| American Painting of the Nineteenth Century | Barbara Novak | Oxford University Press | xxxx | | |
| Citizen Spectator: Art, Illusion, and Visual Perception in Early North American Art | Wendy Bellion | University of N. Carolina Press | xxxx | | |
| American Iconology | David Miller | Yale University Press | xxxx | | |
| Empire of the Eye: Landscape Representation and American Cultural Politics | Angela Miller | Cornell University Press | xxxx | | |
| Early Years of Native American Art History | Janet Berlo | University of British Columbia press | xxxx | | |
| Sisterhood of Sculptors: American Artists in Nineteenth-Century Rome | Melissa Dabakis | Penn State Press | xxxx | | |
| On Racial Icons | Nicole Fleetwood | Rutgers University Press | xxxx | | |
| The West as America | William Truettner | Smithsonian Institute | xxxx | | |
| Winslow Homer and His Critics | Margaret Conrads | Princeton University Press | xxxx | | |
| American Encounters | Bryan Wolf, Angela Miller, et. al | Pearson | xxxx | | |
| Companion to American Art | John Davis, et. al | Wiley Blackwell | xxxx | | |
| Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum | Bridget Cooks | University of Massachusetts press | xxxx | | |
| Transatlantic Romanticism: British and American Art and Literature, 1860-1920 | Alan Wallach and Andrew Hemingway | University of Massachusetts press | xxxx | | |
| African American Art | Sharon Patton | Oxford University Press | xxxxx | | |
| Inventing the Modern Artist: Art and Culture in Gilded Age America | Sarah Burns | Yale University Press | xxxx | | |
| The Civil War and American Art | Eleanor Harvey | Yale University Press | xxxx | | |
| American Genre Painting | Elizabeth Johns | Yale University Press | xxxx | | |
| Making Race: Modernism and Racial Art in America | Jacqueline Francis | Univerisity of Washington Press | xxxxx | | |
| Sight Unseen: Whiteness and American Visual Culture | Martin Berger | University of California Press | xxxxx | | |
| Anatomy of Nature: Geology and American Landscape Painting, 1825-1875 | Rebecca Bedell | Princeton University Press | xxxx | xxxx | |
RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
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GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
| Assignment | Guidelines | Weight |
| midterm exam | essay exam | 30 |
| final exam | essay exam | 35 |
| term paper and presentation | 10-15 page paper; class presentation of paper topic | 20 |
| reading summaries | short abstracts of selected assigned readings | 15 |
-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance is mandatory.
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ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic
dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred.
In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment,
may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of
academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student
who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from
the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation
to the President, who will make the final decision.
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STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap.
Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning
of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
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SCHEDULE
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The course outline will be distributed in class. Below are the topics that will be covered.
Looking
for Origins: J.S. Copley and B. West
Native
genius vs. foreign influence. Late 18th Century cont.
Art and Invention: C.
W. Peale, T. Jefferson
Identity and Place: Hudson River School Landscape Painting
The Material World
and the Ideal: Transcendental Nature
Sculpture: Figurative art, its foreign roots and expatriate artists
Genre
Painting and stereotyping Americans
Identity and Gender: Genre
Painting and domesticity in the Civil War Era
Identity and Race:
contemporary thoughts on imaging race
Representations of the Civil War and Slavery
The
Diffusion of National Imagery: The American Art-Union, Mid-CenturyPainting
Images
of the Frontier and Native Americans:
Frontier cont.,
Manifest Destiny, Geographic surveys, Photography
Western Landscape and
Eastern Enterprise: A. Bierstadt, T. Moran, C. Russell
Reformers and Non-Conformists in Art1: The American Pre-Raphaelites and“Truth in Art
Reformers
and Non-Conformists 2: The “ideal” in Art: W. M. Hunt, G. Inness, E.Vedder, A. Ryder
The European Trained
Generation: J. La Farge, F. Duveneck, J.A.M. Whistler
Modern Visions: T.
Eakins, W. Homer
American
Modernity, Painting, and the Cultures of Display: W.M. Chase, J.S. Sargent
Anti-Modernism
and Aestheticism: K. Cox, T.W. Dewing
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