A complete bibliography for the course will be provided at the start of the semester. For a core (in-progress) selection of bibliographic works see below.
Specific required reading assignments will be communicated weekly, together with further reading suggestions that will enhance and enrich the students' understanding of the course material.
Course Bibliography:
Als, Hilton. White Girls. 2013.
Altshuler, Bruce. Biennials and Beyond. Exhibitions that Made Art History, Volume II: 1962-2002. 2013.
Ault, Julie. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. 2006.
Barney, Matthew, Nelson, Maggie, Spector, Nancy. Matthew Barney: Otto Trilogy. 2016.
Bourriaud, Nicolas. Relational Aesthetics. 1998.
Broackes, Victoria, Marsh, Geoffrey. David Bowie is. 2013.
Cornell, Lauren, Halter, Ed. Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century. 2015.
Elger, Dietmar. Felix Gonzalez-Torres Catalogue Raisonne. 1997.
Enwezor, Okwui, Basualdo, Carlos, Fisher, Jean. Documenta11_Plattform5: The Catalog. 2002.
Foster, Hal, Krauss, Rosalind, Bois, Yve-Alain, Buchloh, Benjamin H.D. Art Since 1900: Modernism Antimodernism Postmodernism. 2004.
Goldberg, RoseLee. Performance: live art since the 60s. 2004.
Goldberg, RoseLee. Performance Now: Live Art for the 21st Century. 2018.
Green, Charles. Biennials, Triennials, and documenta: The Exhibitions that Created Contemporary Art. 2016.
Kelley, Mike. Foul Perfection: Essays and Criticism. 2003.
Kocur, Zoya, Leung, Simon (eds). Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985. 2007.
Laing, Olivia. Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency. 2020.
Muir, Gregor. Lucky Kunst: The Story of the YBA. 2009
Nelson, Maggie. The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning. 2011.
Obrist, Hans Ulrich. Matthew Barney: The Conversation Series 27. 2012.
Rosenthal, Norman, Adams, Brooks, Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain). Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection. 1998.
Spector, Nancy. Maurizio Cattelan: All. 2016.
Spector, Nancy, Neville Wakefield. Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle. 2002.
Stallabrass, Julian. Contemporary Art. A Very Short Introduction. 2006.
Stiles, Kristin, Selz, Peter (eds). Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art. 2012.
Sussman, Elisabeth, Golden, Thelma, Hanhardt, John, Phillips, Lisa. 1993 Biennial Exhibition (Whitney Biennial). 1993.
Sztulman, Paul. Documenta X: Short Guide. 1997.
Welchman, John C. Mike Kelley, Interviews, conversations, and chit-chat (1986-2004). 2005.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week 1:
1. Monday, January 17
Introductory lecture and course presentation, scope and requirements
2. Wednesday, January 19
The art of the times: an overview of contemporary art practice from 1990 to today
Week 2:
1. Monday, January 24
Shifts, issues and trends in art from 1990 - 2000
We will begin week 2 by exploring more thoroughly issues and trends from 1990 – 2000, a decade bookended by two indelible events: the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11.
2. Wednesday, January 26
The Brash, the Garish, the Notorious: Young British Artists
This class will focus on the loosely affiliated group of British artists who came into prominence in the late 1980s-early 1990s and went on to define an era.
Week 3:
1. Monday, January 31
Postcolonialism, politics of identity and the vision of “self”
Exhibition case studies that elucidate the burgeoning urgency in art to address, investigate and critique socio-political complexity through aesthetic enquiry.
Exhibitions in focus: Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, 1993; Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum, 1994
2. Wednesday, February 2
Artists in focus: Matthew Barney, Mike Kelley
Week 4:
1. Monday, February 7
Reclaiming the Political Project of the Avant-garde
In this case study, we will examine prescient shifts in an exhibition’s traditional spectrum, from presentation and display to critical assessment and discussion.
Exhibitions in focus: Documenta X, Kassel, 1997; Documenta 11, Kassel, 2002
2. Wednesday, February 9
Artists as facilitators, viewers as participants: Relational Aesthetics
This class will address the practice of making art based on interpersonal relations and their social context, a tendency that framed the art of the decade.
3. Friday, February 11 – make-up day for Monday, April 18
Artists in focus: Felix Gonzalez Torres, Cady Noland
Week 5:
1. Monday, February 14
Biennial focus: The Biennial Boom
The 1990s was the decade when biennials, from Dakar to Johannesburg to Rotterdam, became central nodes in artistic production and transmission.
2. Wednesday, February 16
Shifts, issues and trends in art from 2000 to 2010
In this class we will explore the major issues and trends that came to the fore in the new millennium.
3. Friday, February 18 – make-up day for Monday, April 25
New Directions in Exhibition Making: the discursive and the flexible versus the immersive and the experiential
This class will consider the engagement of the viewer, as experienced in apparently opposing trends in exhibition making.
Week 6:
1. Monday, February 21
Once More, With Feeling: Performance and re-enactment
We will discuss the resurgence of performance art as one of the most vibrant, topical, and discussed arenas in the arts.
2. Wednesday, February 23
Artist focus: Marina Abramović
Week 7:
1. Monday, February 28
Midterm review
2. Wednesday, March 2
Midterm Exam
Week 8:
1. Monday, March 7
Artists in focus: Maurizio Cattelan, Ai Weiwei
2. Wednesday, March 9
The Center Will Not Hold
An exploration of transnational connections and themes: geography, formal concerns, and collective aesthetic and political impulses.
Exhibition in focus: WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, MOCA, Los Angeles, 2007
Week 9:
1. Monday, March 14
Art fair focus: the curatorial turn
More art festival than art fair, it becomes a breeding ground for research, discovery and activation, not necessarily originating from the market.
2. Wednesday, March 16
Shifts, issues and trends in art from 2010 to today
In this class we will explore the most recent issues and trends of the now.
Week 10:
1. Monday, March 21 – no class, Spring Break
2. Wednesday, March 23 – no class, Spring Break
Week 11:
1. Monday, March 28
Post-Internet art: the techno sublime
We will discuss the purview of art being made in the context of digital technology.
2. Wednesday March 30
Artists in focus: Hito Steyerl, Zanele Muholi
Week 12:
1. Monday, April 4
Medium appropriation or immersive art forms?
The growth of visual culture into an interdisciplinary field of study.
Exhibitions in focus: Tim Burton, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2009; Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011; Bowie is, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013
2. Wednesday, April 6
The long overdue: readdressing the canon with late-in-life retrospectives of women artists
Through a constellation of exhibition examples, we will examine how the traditional artistic canon is being reevaluated and rewritten through the inclusion of once marginal practices.
Week 13:
1. Monday, April 11
Guest lecture: Donatella Saroli on fiber arts
2. Wednesday, April 13
On-site visit to an exhibition in Rome (exact date TBC)
Week 14:
1. Monday, April 18 – holiday, no class
2. Wednesday, April 20
Artists in focus: Theaster Gates, Arthur Jafa
Week 15:
1. Monday, April 25 – holiday, no class
2. Wednesday, April 27
Final Exam review and final research paper due
Week of May 2-6th Final Exam (date and time TBA)