Course Syllabus

JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "AH/GDR 284"
COURSE NAME: "Radical Women: Pioneers in 20th-century Art"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2025

SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Adrienne Drake
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS: MW 8:30 AM 9:45 AM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES:
OFFICE HOURS:

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course focuses on trailblazing women who contributed in extraordinary ways to the shaping of art in the 20th century, from the invention of experimental techniques to the championing of new movements, from radical exhibition making to visionary approaches to institutions and education. It places emphasis on women who broke traditional molds and confines, defied gender roles, and both created and participated in some of the most avant-garde artistic and intellectual communities of their time. The course situates their production and achievements within cultural, social, and political contexts, and in relation to art-historical frameworks that reflect the multiple trajectories of twentieth-century art.

SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

While some of the women to be discussed in the course are already well known, little scholarly attention has been devoted to situating their production within cultural, social and political contexts. Others are remarkably absent from art-historical narratives of the period, despite their significant impact on artistic expression. Through a critical framework, the course will subvert the dominant, canonical art history to concentrate on the extraordinary contributions each of these women have made to the field of art, through their experimentation, institution-building, and active, radical engagement in their time.

The course is structured loosely, according to interconnecting “groupings” or categories: artists, curators and museologists, critics and scholars, patrons and collectors, gallerists, all essential, though by no means exhaustive, instigators of the development of modern art, leading to the art of today.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

· Cultivate an understanding of the development, chronology, and complexity of material culture in the twentieth century.
· Recognize key women cultural figures and both their contributions to the making of modern art and to their upending of gender norms.
· Identify, analyze, and evaluate significant aspects and themes within different social, political, and historical contexts.
· Formulate interpretative arguments and draw out observations on the cultural outlook, norms and histories that influenced the production, creation and reception of artworks.
· Develop skills in the critical analysis of visual culture.

TEXTBOOK:

NONE

REQUIRED RESERVED READING:

NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:

NONE

GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:

Assignment	Guidelines	Weight
Attendance and participation	Contribution to class discussions, sharing of ideas, evidence of reading assigned texts.	10%
Midterm exam	Short answer questions regarding specific historical figures and issues discussed, both in class and in the assigned readings; a short essay that addresses general themes discussed in the first half of the course, which must include specific examples taken from the course material and issues discussed.	20%
In-class presentation	A 10-minute, research-based presentation on a noteworthy figure in the arts of the 20th century. The choice of subject should be one not already been discussed during the course.	20%
Research paper	A research paper of c. 1500-2000 words on a specific figure, cultural milieu, or body of work of an artist discussed in class. The paper must address precise research questions, and contain complete captions if images are included, in addition to a full bibliography (not included in word-count).	30%
Final exam	The format for the final exam will be the same as the midterm. It will be cumulative but weighted with material from the second half of the semester.	20%

-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 REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY
You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________

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.

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.

SCHEDULE

Schedule:

Week 1:

Class 1. Course presentation, scope and requirements

Class 2. Readdressing the traditional twentieth-century canon of Western art history

Week 2:

Class 1. Leonora Carrington and Surrealism

Class 2. Artists and the visual document

With their brief history and no connection to traditional fine arts disciplines, photography and film became true modernist instruments. In this section we will imagine a history of photography in which the female contribution is taken seriously, and look at how women artists used photography as a tool for resistance.

Tina Modotti

Week 3:

Class 1. Lucia Moholy

Class 2. Leni Riefenstahl

Class 3. Women artists and the Harlem Renaissance

Augusta Savage

Week 4:

Class 1. Women artists and Black Mountain College

Ruth Asawa

Class 2. Museum-makers and curatorship

We will focus on trailblazing museum directors who, with ground-breaking exhibitions, visionary collection-building, and innovative approaches to arts education, helped forge the modern museum.

Cornelia Bentley Sage Quinton

Week 5:

Class 1. Palma Bucarelli

Class 2. Anne d'Harnoncourt

Week 6:

Class 1. Radical pedagogy, scholarship and criticism

We will look at key feminist scholars whose critical writing, curatorial projects, and political engagement helped to redefine art criticism, exhibition-making, and the viewing experience.

Toni Maraini

Class 2. Lucy Lippard

Week 7:

Class 1. Midterm review

Class 2. Midterm Exam

Week 8:

no classes, Spring break

Week 9:

Class 1. In-class presentations / Forum discussion

Class 2. In-class presentations / Forum discussion

Week 10:

Class 1. Mavens of Modernism: patronage and the Bohemian salon

Women play a dominant role in the historiography of salons as theatres of conversation and exchange. We will examine the activities of radical women who, through their patronage and mentorship, were crucial to the establishment of the artistic and intellectual avant-garde.

Peggy Guggenheim

Class 2. Mabel Dodge Luhan

Week 11:

Class 1. Pauline Gibling Schindler

Class 2. Championing the emergent: new gallery practices

In the aftermath of the Second World War, women were making a definitive impact on the display, promotion and sale of 20^th-century art.

Erica Brausen

Week 12:

Class 1. Betty Parsons

Class 2. Virginia Dwan

Week 13:

Class 1. Artists, creativity in isolation and domesticity

What does it mean when women artists abandon key centers of artistic production? What are the possible advantages of being distant from where the “battle” is taking place?

Georgia O’Keeffe

Class 2. Agnes Martin

Week 14:

Class 1. Monday, April 21 – no class, holiday

Class 2. Andrea Zittel

Week 15:

Class 1. Guest Speaker: Further extending the traditional cannon through feminist inquiry - Modernism in India

Class 2. Final Exam review

Final Exam Week May 5-9

OVERVIEW OF KEY BIBLIOGRAPHIC WORKS FOR THE COURSE

Specific required reading assignments will be communicated weekly, together with further reading and viewing suggestions that will enhance and enrich the students' understanding of the course material.

Altshuler, Bruce. Salon to Biennial. Exhibitions That Made Art HIstory, Volume I: 1863-1959. Phaidon, 2008.

Bach, Steven. The Puzzle of Leni Riefenstahl. The Wilson Quarterly, Autumn, 2002, Vol. 26, No. 4. Wilson Quarterly.

Bell, Quentin, Nicholson, Virginia. Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden. White Lion Publishing, 2018.

Bey, Sharif. Augusta Savage: Sacrifice, Social Responsibility, and Early African American Art Education. Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research in Art Education v58 n2 (2017): 125-140.

Bystryn, Marcia. Art Galleries as Gatekeepers: The Case of the Abstract Expressionists. Social Research, Summer 1978, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 390-408

Celant, Germano. Virginia Dwan and Dwan Gallery. Skira, 2016.

Chadwick, Whitney. Leonora Carrington: Evolution of a Feminist Consciousness. Woman’s Art Journal, Spring-Summer, 1986, Vol. 7, No. 1.

Chadwick, Whitney. The Militant Muse: Love, War and the Women of Surrealism. Thames and Hudson, 2021.

Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society: World of Art Series: 1. Thames and Hudson, 6th edition 2020.

Chase, Marilyn. Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa. Chronicle Books, 2020.

Dawson, Jessica. Virginia Dwan Los Angeles. Archives of American Art Journal, 2007, Vol. 46, No. 3/4 (2007), The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Davis, Angela. Women, Race & Class. Random House, 1981.

Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter. Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Giorgia O'Keefe. W W Norton & Co Inc, 2004.

Flores, Tatiana. Strategic Modernists: Women Artists in Post-Revolutionary Mexico. Woman's Art Journal, Fall - Winter, 2008, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 12-22. Old City Publishing, Inc.

Foster, Hal, Krauss, Rosalind, Bois, Yve-Alain, Buchloh, Benjamin H.D. Art Since 1900: Modernism Antimodernism Postmodernism. Thames & Hudson, 2004.

Gardner-Huggett, Joanna P. Margaret Gardiner: Collecting as activism. The British Art Journal, Autumn 2005, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 76-82.

Grad, Bonnie L. Georgia O’Keeffe’s Lawrencean Vision. Archives of American Art Journal, 1998, Vol. 38, No. 3/4, pp. 2-19. The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Greer, Germain. The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979.

Hall Mitchell, Marilyn. Sexist Art Criticism: Georgia O’Keeffe: A Case Study. Signs, Spring, 1978, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 681-687. The University of Chicago Press.

Harrison, Charles, Paul, Wood. Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Blackwell Pub, 2002.

Haworth-Booth, Mark. On the Art of Lee Miller. Aperture, Spring 2007, No. 186, pp. 50-57. Aperture Foundation, Inc.

Haworth-Booth, Mark. The Art of Lee Miller. V&A Publications, 2009.

Higa, Karin. Inside and Outside at the Same Time. east of borneo, July 16, 2014 (originally published in The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air, ed. Daniell Cornell (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006).

Higgie, Jennifer. The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution and Resilience: 500 Years of Women’s Self-Portraits. W&N, 2022.

hooks, bell. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Pluto Press, 1987.

Horne, Victoria, Perry, Lara. Feminism and art history now: radical critiques of theory and practice. I.B. Tauris, 2017.

Kirschke, Amy Helene. Women artists of the Harlem Renaissance. University Press of Mississippi, 2014.

Kraus, Rosalind E. Bachelors. MIT Press, 1999.

Kunny, Clare. Leonora Carrington’s Mexican Vision. Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 1996, Vol. 22, No. 2, Mary Reynolds and the Spirit of Surrealism, 1996.

Laing, Olivia. Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency. W W Norton & Co Inc, 2020.

Lippard, Lucy. A Documentary Herstory of Women Artists in Revolution. Primary Information, 2021.

Lippard, Lucy. From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women's Art. Plume, 1976.

Lippard, Lucy. Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object. University of California Press, 1997.

Lonzi, Carla. Self-portrait. Divided Publishing, 2021 (English translation).

Martin, Agnes. Writings. Hatje Catz, 1998.

Morgan, Barbara. Alive in Light. Aperture, 1964, Vol. 11. Aperture Foundation, Inc

Nochlin, Linda. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists. Art News, 1971.

Obrist, Hans Ulrich. A Brief History of Curating. Jrp Ringier Kunstverlag Ag, 2008.

Penrose, Antony. The Home of the Surrealists. Frances Lincoln, 2001.

Plagens, Peter. Sunshine Muse: Art on the West Coast, 1945-1970. University of California Press, new edition 2000.

Prose, Francine. Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern. Yale University Press, 2015.

Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography. Abbeville Press, 1984.

Salvio, Paula M. Uncanny Exposures: A Study of the Wartime Photojournalism of Lee Miller. Curriculum Inquiry, Sept. 2009, Vol. 39, No. 4, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Sennett, Alan. Film Propaganda: Triumph of the Will as a Case Study. The Journal of Cinema and Media, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Spring 2014), Drake Stutesman; Wayne State University Press.

Souter, Gerry. Georgia O’Keeffe. Parkstone International, 2011.

Wade, Francesca. Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars. Faber & Faber, 2000.

Wilson-Goldie, Kaelen. Productive Tensions. Artforum, May, 2022.

Vail, Karole P. B., Peggy Guggenheim: The Last Dogaressa. Marsilia, 2020.

Villa, Angelica. Photographer Lee Miller’s Subversive Career Took Her from Vogue to War-Torn Germany. Art in America, March 19, 2021.

Wells, Liz. Photography: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015 (5^th edition).

Wilson, Frances. Burning Man: The Trials of D.H. Lawrence. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2021.

Zox-Weaver, Annalisa. Women modernists and fascism. Cambridge University Press, 2011.