SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
This course examines many varieties of religious and spiritual expression in modern art. The course is comparative, interdisciplinary, and in a sense nearly anthropological. There is no standard method or standard text. This is why it is preferable to examine “case studies” in which the language of spirituality is also appropriate in talking about art.
Certain questions and issues will be present throughout the course, for example: What are some of the universal concerns of religion? What connections exist between “religious” emotions, and “esthetic” emotions? (Newman), how ideas of religious ritual have entered modern art? (Pollock), religious Kitsch (Jeff Koons), mythology, art, and religion (Picasso, Beckmann), spiritual space (Fontana), modern Icons (Warhol, Rouault), Video and Film as religious expression (Bill Viola), the absurd, ugly (Bacon), or blasphemous in art (Hrdlicha, Redon, Max Ernst), light as religious motif (Dan Flavin), exorcism of “demons” (Basquiat), the spirit symbolized in color (Rothko), emotion in front of a work of art, anthropological spirituality (Beuys), the spirit of the line (Modigliani), the existential and the sacred (Giacometti), suffering (Damain Hirst), transcendence in art, and so on.
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Weekly class schedule:
13.1 Review of Syllabus and Introduction Isn’t all art spiritual? Reasons for studying art and spirituality today; some historical considerations; definitions of essential terms; discussion of traditional methods for studying the transcendental; sublime, religious and sacred aspects of art.
Reading: ROGER LIPSEY, An Art of our Own, The Spiritual 20th Century, Boston, London 1997.
15.1 The theology of the image
Reading: HANS BELTING, Likeness and present: a history of the image before the era of art, 1997
20.1 Color and spirituality in the Early Renaissance
Reading: MARCIA HALL, Color and meaning. Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
22.1 The five schools: The aesthetic differences of color in Giotto, Van Eyck, Leonardo- Titian- Bronzino
Reading: MARCIA HALL, Color and meaning. Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
27.1 1. Color and Disegno: Poussin and Rubens
Color involving the observer in the Baroque
Reading: LIONELLO VENTURI, The history of Art Criticism, New York 1936.
29.1 2. Color and disegno: Rembrandt and Vermeer
Reading: LIONELLO VENTURI, The history of Art Criticism, New York 1936.
3.2 2. Romantic: Delacroix and Ingres
Reading: LIONELLO VENTURI, The history of Art Criticism, New York 1936.
5.2 3. Romantic: Goya
Can color be a carthartic force?
Reading: Goya and the spirit of enlightenment / ALFONSO E. PÉREZ SÁNCHEZ and ELEANOR A. SAYRE, co directors of the exhibition ; with contributions by GONZALO ANES ... [et al.]. Copy by Goya, Francisco, 1746-1828. Bulfinch Press, c1989.
10.2 Romantic: Turner
Reading: SIMON SCHAMA, The Power of Art, New York 2006. HAROLD ROSENBERG, The Tradition of the New, New York 1994. ROBERT ROSENBLUM: Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975
12.2 Romantic: C. David Friedrich
Reading: ROBERT ROSENBLUM: Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975
17.2 Munch
Reading: ROGER LIPSEY, An Art of our Own, The Spiritual 20th Century, Boston, London 1997. ROBERT ROSENBLUM: Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975.
19.2 Van Gogh and Expressionism
Reading: SIMON SCHAMA, The Power of Art, New York 2006. HAROLD ROSENBERG, The Tradition of the New, New York 1994. HERSCHEL B. CHIPP, Theories of Modern Art. A Source Book by Artists and Critics, University of California Press 1996. ROBERT ROSENBLUM: Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975
MID TERM 24.2
3.3 MEXICO Make-up class: Cezanne Reading: HERSCHEL B. CHIPP, Theories of Modern Art. A Source Book by Artists and Critics, University of California Press 1996
5.3 MEXICO Make up-class: Gauguin Reading: HERSCHEL B. CHIPP, Theories of Modern Art. A Source Book by Artists and Critics, University of California Press 1996
10.3 Impressionism
Reading: LIONELLO VENTURI, The history of Art Criticism, New York 1936. HERSCHEL B. CHIPP, Theories of Modern Art. A Source Book by Artists and Critics, University of California Press 1996.
12.3 Kandinskij
Reading: The spiritual in art; Abstract painting 1890-1985, ed. MAURICE TUCHMAN, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. N.Y. London, Paris 1986. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction. The Early Twentieth Century, C. HARRISON, F. FRASCINA, G. PERRY, Yale Univerity Press 1993. ROBERT ROSENBLUM: Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975.
17.-21-3 Spring Break
24.3 Mondrian
Reading: The spiritual in art; Abstract painting 1890-1985, ed. MAURICE TUCHMAN, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. N.Y. London, Paris 1986. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction. The Early Twentieth Century, C. HARRISON, F. FRASCINA, G. PERRY, Yale Univerity Press 1993. ROBERT ROSENBLUM: Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975.
26.3 Malevich
Reading: The spiritual in art; Abstract painting 1890-1985, ed. MAURICE TUCHMAN, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. N.Y. London, Paris 1986. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction. The Early Twentieth Century, C. HARRISON, F. FRASCINA, G. PERRY, Yale Univerity Press 1993. ROBERT ROSENBLUM: Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975.
31.3 Newman
Reading: Theories and documents of contemporary art. A sourcebook of artists writings, ed. by KRISTINE STILES, PETER SELZ, London 1996. ROBERT ROSENBLUM, Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975
Dohna, article.
2.4 Rothko
Do “religious” and “aesthetic” emotions become mixed in certain color experiences? What connections exist between “religious” emotions and “aesthetic” emotions? (Rothko)
Reading: SIMON SCHAMA, The Power of Art, New York 2006. HAROLD ROSENBERG, the Tradition of the New, New York 1994. ROBERT ROSENBLUM, Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Thames and Hudson, Leipzig 1975. Y Dohna, - Rothko and the iconography of color, in Ikon. Journal of Iconographic Studies, 4 (2011), pp. 167-189.
4. 4. Make-up day Pollock
The sacred implies the mysterious, the shrouded. Since creation and death are shrouded in psychodramatic mystery, religion as a language for interpreting these fundamental themes also relies on mystery. The sacred cannot be exposed. Ritual, esoteric language, incense, and authority all belong to religion. Are there parallels in the way color functions?
Reading: The spiritual in art; Abstract painting 1890-1985, ed. MAURICE TUCHMAN, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. N.Y. London, Paris 1986
7.4 Contemporary Matisse
What formal aspects of color, if any, characterize art that addresses spiritual concerns? Have color and lines certain spiritual implications? Is it possible to create with lines a metaphysical tension? (Matisse, Modigliani)
Reading: Meyer, Jeffrey, Modigliani, . - Art in Theory 900-1990: An anthology of changing Ideas, (ed. by C. Harrison, P. Wood) Oxford 1993
HERSCHEL B. CHIPP, Theories of Modern Art. A Source Book by Artists and Critics, University of California Press 1996
9.4. Contemporary Yves Klein
Reading: Theories and documents of contemporary art. A sourcebook of artists writings, ed. by KRISTINE STILES, PETER SELZ, London 1996.
14.4 Contemporary Francis Bacon
How are colors and the idea of suffering related in art? Does color elicit pathos? (Bacon, Hirst)
Reading: ERNST VAN ALPHEN, Francis Bacon, and the Loss of Self, London 1992. Theories and documents of contemporary art. A sourcebook of artists writings, ed. by KRISTINE STILES, PETER SELZ, London 1996. The philosophy of Francis Bacon / by F.H. ANDERSON (Fulton Henry), 1895- Octagon Books, 1971, [1948]
16.4 Contemporary James Turell
Can colored light be a sculptural-physical reality? (James Turrell)
Reading: Nancy Marmer, "James Turrell: The Art of Deception," Art in America, May 1981, pp. 90–99. Theories and documents of contemporary art. A sourcebook of artists writings, ed. by KRISTINE STILES, PETER SELZ, London 1996.
21.4 Contemporary Bill Viola
Film and video are well adapted to express an imaginary realm, which is by definition a metaphysical one. Which role does color play in connecting modern life to primordial religious and spiritual concerns?
Reading: The Art of Bill Viola: a Theological reflection, in F. SPARROW, Bill Viola: The messenger, 1996. Bill Viola. Visioni Interiori, ed. KIRA PEROV, Palazzo delle Esposizioni (21.10.2008-6.1.2009) Rome. His writings! Theories and documents of contemporary art. A sourcebook of artists writings, ed. by KRISTINE STILES, PETER SELZ, London 1996. HANS BELTING, Bill Viola: the passions, a conversation between HANS BELTING and Bill Viola, 2003
23.4 Contemporary Alexander Mc Queen
Reading: Thesis
24.4 last day Preparation
26.4-2-5 Exam
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