AH 144 -World Art IV
Visual Culture of the Modern and Contemporary World
Instructor: Dr. Sarah Linford
[email protected]
Hours/place: MW 3:00 PM 4:15 PM (note makeup Fridays)
Classroom: tbd
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: none
OFFICE HOURS:
Wednesday after class and/or by appointment.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This survey course focuses on the art of Europe and the Americas from the 1700s to the present.
Special attention will be given to the new aesthetic languages, techniques, philosophical background and historical context of modern and contemporary art. The course will also assist students in cultivating basic art-historical skills, in particular description, stylistic analysis, and iconographic and iconological analysis. The course is organized chronologically and, throughout, will probe what modernism means and it relates to over three centuries’ revolutions in the organization of daily life, of social organization, commercial development, political and cultural identity, and how art both reflects and impacts this evolution Through an analysis of the art, artists, and critical discourses in question, the course will consider the fundamental questions: what is art’s relationship to the larger culture? What is the artist’s role in society? What do aesthetic concerns have to do with life? While these questions are always pertinent, they demand particular attention in these centuries increasingly defined by the ideology of art’s autonomy, pure creativity, and individual expression. Extensive visual analysis will be accompanied by attention to the critical discourses with which modern and contemporary aesthetics were defined or contested, giving students the chance to develop an understanding of key modern and contemporary art movements but also to learn how these styles are part and parcel of our history.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
-Recognize key works and issues in modern and contemporary art.
-Develop an understanding of the chronology and development of art since the 18th-century.
- Recognize and reason about the contributions of influential artists and art historians
-Exercise critical thinking while looking, reading, writing and speaking about modern and contemporary art.
-Identify, analyze and interpret significant aspects and themes in the history of art within different social and historical contexts.
-Evaluate the ways that art as is shaped by dynamic social and cultural interactions.
-Develop technical vocabulary appropriate to the field of art history, communication and, more generally, to our image-based culture.
-Learn to visually analyze works in relation to other genres and other bodies of knowledge — scientific, political, economic, intellectual
-Formulate and develop critical and rigorous arguments, especially in essays and presentations; find and evaluate pertinent, high-quality sources and information.
-Structure and effectively communicate ideas and information orally and in writing; understand how to convey ideas and information visually.
-Develop an aptitude at visual analysis and the contextualization of works in different histories.
-Formulate an interpretative argument and draw out observations on the cultural outlook, norms and histories that influenced the production, creation and reception of the works under discussion.
Week 1.1: Course introduction: scope, issues, requirements.
Week 1.2: Histories of modern art — on evolution and teleology.
Week 2.1: Academies and the Grand Tour: norms, rules and networks
Week 2.2: Revolution!
Week 3.1: Neoclassicism (1)
Week 3.2: Neoclassicism (2)
Week 4.1: Romanticism (1)
Week 4.2: Romanticism (2)
Week 5.1: Naturalism and Realism
Week 5.2: Academic and “independent” art
Week 4.2: Impressionism
Week 5.1: Post-Impressionism
Week 5.2: Fauvism
Week 6.1: Expressionism
Week 6.2: Cubism
Week 7.1: Futurism
Week 7.2: Midterm review and paper workshop
Week 8.1: Midterm examination
Week 8.2: Constructivism and Suprematism
Week 9.1: Dada, Duchamp and Art between the two World Wars
Week 9.2: Surrealism
Week 10.1: Abstract Expressionism
Week 10.2: Pop Art
Week 11.1: Minimalism and Conceptual Art
Week 11.2: Site-Specific and Environmental Art
Week 12.1: Happenings, Performance art and the politics of institutional critique
Week 12.2: The Return of Painting and Figuration
Week 13.1: Post-modern practices (1)
Week 13.2: Post-modern practices (1)
Week 14.1: The Cutting Edge - Contemporary trends
Week 14.2: Course Review
Week 15: Final Exam