ARTH Fall 2017 Modern Art:

Transcription

1 ARTH Fall 2017 Modern Art: Jump to Today Edit Monday and Wednesday: 9:40-11:00 am. ART 158. Sarah Hollenberg: Art Building, Room 151a. TA: Chandler Keeling, Course Description: The class examines a range of American and European art from the 1940s to the 1970s. Lectures and readings cover the period's major movements - including Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Process and Performance Art - as well as the critical debates over modernism, mass culture, gender and sexuality, and the nature of artistic production. Grading will be based on class participation and written assignments. Course Objectives: At the end of this course, students will be able to conduct visual and historical analyses of artworks discuss the relationships between artworks and their historical contexts in an informed and thoughtful manner clearly articulate their observations and discoveries critically read and assess primary and secondary texts conduct effective research write a thesis-driven essay Teaching and Learning Methods: The format of this course includes lecture supported with visual images, critical reading, student participation (in the form of presentations, group work and discussion), and analytic and research-based writing assignments. Evaluation Methods and Criteria: Reading Analysis Worksheets: Guided Essay: 20% (ongoing) 20% (October 15th) Research Paper: 30% (November 1, December 10) Participation: 30% (ongoing) Reading Analysis Worksheets and Reading questions: You will complete a Reading Analysis Worksheet (RAW) for ten assigned readings (links to the worksheet will be next to the reading in question). Any student who receives three A's (94% or higher) on this assignment may stop submitting the full worksheet, and may simply submit a question for the reading in question. For every required reading for which you have not been assigned a worksheet, you will come to class with a question, written down on a piece of paper which you will submit to the TA at the end of class. You may be called on and asked to share your question during class discussion. NB: The visual analysis assignment and reading worksheet are meant to develop foundational skill sets, so I assign them in almost all of my courses. I have no interest in wasting your time by forcing you to do an assignment that develops skills you already have. If you have taken classes with me in the past, have successfully completed one or both of these assignments, and feel confident in your grasp of relevant strategies, I would be very happy to speak with you about an alternative assignment. Guided Essay: You will be provided with number of questions, and a selection of artworks, the latter organized into three groups. Choose one question, and then one work from each of the three groups. You will write an essay that addresses your question, using the three works you have chosen as the basis of your inquiry. For each of the three works, find one relevant scholarly source to help you to develop your argument (see Research Guide in Pages for support in making your selection). Your essay should take into account formal qualities, historical contexts, and critical readings. Research Paper: This assignment has two parts: a short proposal and annotated bibliography, and the research paper. If you have limited experience writing research papers, it may be helpful to follow a format similar to that in the guided essay, though you are not required to do so. For this paper, you will develop your own question, and select your own works. As in the first paper, you will need to find scholarly sources (in this case, at least 8). This paper is very open, and you are encouraged to follow your own interests in developing your topic as long as your topic is relevant to the course, examining artworks created between I encourage you to come and chat with me about your topic during office hours. Many students wait until they have done a lot of research before they come in for this meeting, but if we have a conversation about your interests early on, I might be able to help you to identify helpful materials or focus your thinking before you have invested lots of time and energy into something that won t work, or that you aren t really excited about. Late assignments will be docked 10% per day late. Extensions must be negotiated privately (preferably via or during office hours) with Chandler. Attendance and Participation Students are expected to arrive to class conversant with assigned readings, and ready to participate in class discussion. You may be assigned presentations or group work. If you think that consistent participation may be a problem for you, please come and speak with me. A significant portion of your participation grade will be based on your reading questions. These questions, which you will post before class, about readings for which you have not completed a worksheet, will help to guide our discussion. You will not receive points for questions submitted on days when you have not attended class, nor for late submissions. Please note that cell phones and other wireless-enabled devices (laptops, tablets, etc.) must be turned off and put away for the duration of the lecture unless cleared with me beforehand. Student and Faculty Responsibilities: Students and faculty are expected to maintain professional behavior in the classroom setting and in all course-related interactions with faculty and fellow-students. The Student Code specifies proscribed conduct (Article XI) that involves cheating on tests, plagiarism, and/or collusion, as well as fraud, theft, etc. Students should read the Code carefully and know they are responsible for the content. I take this very seriously. Students who hand in material that they did not write, or containing passages written by anyone other than the student without appropriate citation will receive a failing grade on the assignment, without the possibility of a rewrite, and may receive a failing grade in the class. Additionally, academic dishonesty such as plagiarism must be reported to the Chair of the department and will go on your permanent record. If you don't know the rules, you need to familiarize yourself with them. You can get help with this from me, from the TA, from the writing center, or from this helpful blog: ( Pretty much the whole world wants to help you do it right, so there are no excuses for doing it wrong. I am responsible for enforcing responsible classroom behaviors, beginning with verbal warnings and progressing to dismissal from class and a failing grade. Students have the right to appeal such action to the Student Behavior Committee. The faculty member will strive to maintain an environment in the classroom conducive to thinking and learning. Students are not permitted to share any course materials online or through other means. The uploading of any materials taken from this canvas site, recordings of lectures, or any other sharing of material I provide in class constitutes copyright infringement, and a breach of academic honesty. Americans with Disabilities Act Statement: The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services and activities for people with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in the class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the Center for Disability Services, 162 Union Building, (V/TDD). CDS will work with us to make 1/6

2 arrangements for accommodations. Accommodations Policy: Some of the readings, lectures, films, or presentations in this course include material that may conflict with the core beliefs of some students. Please review the syllabus carefully to see if the course is one that you are committed to taking. The University of Utah s complete accommodations policy may be found at: I am happy to work with students to make the course accessible whenever possible, however, if you think you might require accommodations, you must meet with me in the first two weeks of class. I am very unlikely to negotiate content accommodations at any point after September 7. If you need more support than I am able to offer, or than you are comfortable asking for, please review the resources available on campus to help you succeed. Note on Assigned Readings Rather than using a textbook, we will engage with readings from a variety of sources, all of which be hyperlinked on the syllabus. You must print out the required readings and bring them to the classes to which they are assigned. I realize that this volume of printing isn't cheap, but it is significantly less expensive than textbooks or a pre-printed course-pack would be. In addition to required reading, I have included links to supplementary readings for those who are particularly interested in the day's topic. For those of you who would like further background in particular areas, I recommend the following texts. If we were using textbooks, these are the books we would use. If you are interested in the field of modern art beyond just this class, I would strongly recommend that you purchase copies of the first three for your library, and if you feel like you need more background in the general developments of the period, the Hopkins or Crow may be helpful. Also, we sometimes rely on primary texts in this class, which means that you may not be provided with an overview of the issues before class. If, for example, you are not familiar with Minimalism as a movement, the readings on this topic could be difficult to put in context. If this happens, a little bit of online research will help you to fill in the gaps before class. In most cases, websites such as Wikipedia or Smarthistory ( will be adequate for this purpose. For those who want to dig deeper, I have, in most cases, included a number of supplementary readings on the topics we'll cover in class. Francis Frascina, ed. Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, 2 nd Edition, (London and New York: Routledge, 2000). This is an excellent collection of key primary texts exploring the shift from modernist to post-modern criticism, with a strong grounding in social and political contexts. Harrison and Wood, eds. Art in Theory: ( is also fine, and probably cheaper), (Blackwell, 2003). Also a collection of primary texts, but lots of them, cut to the bare bones, instead of the in-depth exploration of one set of problems in Pollock and After. Endlessly useful. Rosalind Krauss, The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, (MIT Press, 1983). This collection of essays, written in the 1970s and 80s is split into two parts: Modernist Myths and Toward Postmodernism. While most of the essays in the first part address material that predates our period of study, the arguments that Krauss builds are exemplary of the critical turn of the 1970s, and enormously helpful to understanding changing ideas about art. These essays are challenging, but worthwhile. David Hopkins, After Modern Art: , (Oxford University Press, 2000). A survey-style overview of post-war movements, with pretty good balance of art & theory. Not perfect, but not bad. Thomas Crow, The Rise of the Sixties, (Yale UP, 1996). Good overview of the 60s, with an unusually substantive discussion of activities outside of New York (West Coast and Europe, mostly). SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND ASSIGNMENTS August 21: Introduction: Guernica Required: Andre Breton, Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky Toward a Free Revolutionary Art in Art in Theory, , Harrison and Wood eds, Supplementary: The Social Bases of Art Meyer Schapiro (1936) in American Artists Congress: Artists Against War and Fascism. ( ) Supplementary: T.J. Clark, "Mural," Picasso and Truth, (Washington, DC. 2013), August 23: International Modernism In Architecture Required: Alan Colquhoun, "From Le Corbusier to Megastructures: Urban Visions " Modern Architecture, (2002), Supplementary: Arthur Drexler, "Post-War Architecture " Built in the USA: Post-War Architecture (MoMA, 1952), * Supplementary: "US Architecture: " Progressive Architecture, (January, 1950). (excerpts) August 28: Modernist Abstraction (Painting) Required: Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman Statement 1943, in Art In Theory, * Required: Harold Rosenberg, The American Action Painters, in The Tradition of the New, (McGraw Hill, 1960), August 30: Modernist Abstraction (Sculpture) Required: David J. Getsy, "Tactility or Opticality, Henry Moore or David Smith 2011), * " Anglo-American Exchange in Postwar Sculpture, , ed. R. Peabody (Los Angeles, September 4 is Labor Day. No Class. No Homework! September 6: Modernist Criticism Required: Clement Greenberg, Avant-Garde and Kitsch, `1939. Supplementary: Hal Foster "Critics in Extremis," Design and Crime (and Other Diatribes), (London and New York, 2002), * Supplementary: Clement Greenberg, Toward a Newer Laocoön, (1940) in Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, Vol 1: , ed. John O Brian (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1986), September 11: Critical & Historical Revisions: Required: Thomas Crow "Fashioning the New York School " Modern Art and the Common Culture, (Yale UP, 1996).* Supplementary: Eva Cockroft, "Abstract Expressionism: Weapon of the Cold War " Supplementary: Amy Sillman, AbEx and Disco Balls: In Defense of Abstract Expressionism Artforum, (Summer 2011): Supplementary: Amelia Jones, The Pollockian Performative in Body Art: Performing the Subject (University of Minnesota Press, 1998), Supplementary: Allan Kaprow, The Legacy of Jackson Pollock September 13: Cold War Propaganda 2/6

3 Required: Oliver Johnson, "The Stalin Prize and the Soviet Artist: Status Symbol or Stigma " Slavic Review, Vol. 70, No. 4, (Winter, 2011), * Supplementary: Max Rieser, "The Aesthetic Theory of Social Realism " The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 16, no. 2 (December, 1957), Supplementary: Boris Groys, "The Culture of the Stalin Era in Historical Perspective " The Total Art of Stalinism, (Princeton, 1992), September 18: Expanding the Object of Art Required: Claes Oldenburg I Am For an Ar t, (1961), in Art In Theory. Required: Jiro Yoshihara The Gutai Manifesto (1956), in Art In Theory. Supplementary: Leo Steinberg "Jasper Johns: the First Seven Years of his Art " in Other Criteria, September 20: Expanding the Action of Art Required: Allan Kaprow, "A Statement" and "18 Happenings in 6 Parts " in Happenings, ed. Michael Kirby, (New York, 1965), Supplementary: Moira Roth, "Allan Kapro's Tree: A Happening " Archives of American Art Journal, vol. 47, no. 1/2, (2008), Supplementary: Frances Dyson, "The Ear that Would Hear Sounds in Themselves : John Cage " Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio, and the Avant-Garde, eds D. Kahn and G. Whitehead, September 25: Pop: Mass Culture Required: Richard Hamilton, "For the Finest Art, Try Pop " in Art in Theory, Required: Umberto Eco, "Lowbrow Highbrow, Highbrow Lowbrow " originally in The Times Literary Supplement, (October 8, 1971).* Supplementary: Cecile Whiting Shopping for Pop in A Taste for Pop: Art, Gender and Consumer Culture, (Cambridge, 1997), Supplementary: Cecile Whiting, "Introduction " Art and the City in the 1960s, (Berkely, Los Angeles, London), September 27: Warhol & the Factory Required: Andy Warhol Interview with Gene Swenson Art News, Supplementary: Thierry de Duve, "Andy Warhol, or The Machine Perfected " October, vol. 48 (Spring, 1989), 3-14.* Supplementary: Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp (1964) in Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject A Reader, Fabio Cleto, ed. (U Michegan Press, 1999), NB, this should be available online through google books. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing it. October 2: Avant-Garde Film Required: Michael O'Pray, "The 1940s: American Mythology " Avant-garde Film : Forms, Themes and Passions, (London, 2003), * Required: Shirley Clarke & Storm de Hirsch, "'Female' Film-Making: Transcending Subjectivity " in Arts Magazine, (April, 1967), Supplementary: Jonas Mekas, "A Few Notes on Maya Deren " October 4: Minimalism Required: Frank Stella Pratt Institute Lecture 1959, Art in Theory. Required: Michael Fried Art and Objecthood, (all in Art in Theory, )* Supplementary: Donald Judd Specific Objects, Supplementary: Robert Morris Notes on Sculpture 1-3 FALL BREAK October 9&11 Guided paper due October 15th, 9:00pm. October 16: Minimalism in Hindsight Required: Rosalind Krauss, "Overcoming the Limits of Matter: On Revising Minimalism " in American Art of the 1960s, 1991, * Supplementary: Anna C. Chave, "Revaluing Minimalism: Patronage, Aura, and Place " The Art Bulletin, vol. 90, no. 3 (Sep., 2008), Supplementary: David Raskin, "The Shiny Illusionism of Krauss and Judd " Art Journal, vol. 65, no. 1 (Spring, 2006), October 18: New Monuments Required: Tony Smith, New Jersey Turnpike excerpt from Wagstaff interview, Artforum, (Just the second page the one that s in English). Required: Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels Stiles, K. and Selz, P. Theories and documents of contemporary art : a sourcebook of artists' writings, Stiles, K. and Selz, P. Berkeley, 1996 ( ).* Supplementary: Yve-Alain Bois "Threshole " Formless: A User's Guide, October 23: Materiality, Process, and Meaning Production Required: Gene Ray, "Joseph Beuys and the After-Auschwitz Sublime " Joseph Beuys: Mapping the Legacy, ed. Gene Ray, (2001), * Supplementary: Germano Celant Art Povera, 1969, in Art in Theory, * October 25: Conceptual Art Required: Adrian Piper, The Logic of Modernism, in Conceptual Art, a Critical Anthology, Alberro and Stimson, eds. (MIT, 1999). Required: Sol LeWitt, Sentences on Conceptual Art Supplementary: Marcel Broodthaers, "Interview with Jürgen Harten and Katharina Schmidt, 1972 " in Archive, (London, 2006) Supplementary: Rosalind Krauss, "LeWitt in Progress ", The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, * October 30: The Photographic Document Required: Martin A. Berger, "The Formulas of Documentary Photography but about 20 of those pages are pictures).* " in Seeing Through Race: A Reinterpretation of Civil Rights Photography, (2011), (yes, it is long, November 1: Dance Required: Yvonne Rainer, "A Quasi Survey of some 'Minimalist' Tendencies in the Quantitatively Minimal Dance Activity Midst the Plethora, or an Analysis of Trio A," Work , (Halifax, 1974), Required: Yvonne Rainer, "Trio A ( " from The Mind is a Muscle, 1966 (short video). Supplementary: Sally Banes, "The Birth of the Judson Dance Theater " Dance Chronicle, vol. 5, no. 2 (1982), Supplementary: Carrie Lambert-Beatty, "Mediating Trio A " Being watched : Yvonne Rainer and the 1960s, (2008) Supplementary: Steve Paxton, "Steve Paxton: Speaking of Dance ( 3/6

4 </iframe>) " 1996 (11 minute video, requires sign-in to library). Proposal and bibliography due. November 6: Performance: The Body in Public and Private Required: Adrian Piper Food for the Spirit in Out of Order, Out of Sight, Volume 1: Selected Writings in Meta-Art, , (MIT, 1996), * Required: Julia Bryan-Wilson, "Remembering Yoko Ono's Cut Piece " Oxford Art Journal, vol. 26, No. 1 (2003), * Cherise Smith, "Re-Member the Audience: Adrian Piper's Mythic Being Advertisements " Art Journal, vol. 66, no. 1 (Spring, 2007), November 8: Performance: Labor and Social Engagement Required: Vivien Green Fryd, "Suzanne Lacy's Three Weeks in May: Feminist Activist Performance Art as 'Expanded Public Pedagogy '" NWSA Journal, vol. 19, no. 1 (Spring, 2007), Reccomended Helen Molesworth, "House Work and Art Work" Art After Conceptual Art, November 13: Counterculture in Europe Required: Watch Jean Luc Godard, Tout va Bien ( (1972), (you will need to sign in using your unid). Required: Guy Debord, Toward a Situationist International in Report on the Construction of Situations and on the International Situationist Tendency s Conditions of Organization and Action, (June, 1957) trans. Ken Knabb, at Situationist International Online. November 15: Post-Colonial Voices and Global Negritude Required: Elizabeth Harney, "The Ecole de Dakar: Pan-Africanism in Paint and Textile " African Arts, vol. 35, no. 3 (Autumn, 2002), * Supplementary: Jody Blake, "Cold War Diplomacy and Civil Rights Activism at the First World Festival of Negro Arts " Studies in the History of Art, vol. 71, (2011), Supplementary: Hannah Le Roux, "Modern Architecture in Post-Colonial Ghana and Nigeria " Architectural History, vol. 47 (2004), November 20: The Television War: Reactions to Vietnam Required: GAAG Manifesto for the Guerrilla Art Action Group in Art and Social Change: A Critical Reader, Bradley and Esche eds., Afteral Books and Tate Publishing, (2007), Required: Poppy Johnson, "Statement" June, Supplementary: Tom Wilson Paper Walls: Political Posters in an Age of Mass Media, in West of Center, * Supplementary: Francis Frascina, "Meyer Schapiro's Choice: My Lai, Guernica, MoMA and the Art Left, " Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 30, no. 3 (Jul. 1995), November 22: Race in America Required: GerShun Avilez, "The Claim of Innocence: Deconstructing the Machinery of Whiteness " Radical Aesthetics and Modern Black Nationalism, (Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield, 2017), Supplementary: Erica Doss, "'Revolutionary art is a tool for liberation': Emory Douglas and protest aesthetics at The Black Panther " New Political Science, vol. 21, no. 2 (1999), * Supplementary: Shifra M. Goldman The Iconography of Chicano Self-Determination: Race, Ethnicity, and Class Art Journal, Vol. 49, no. 2 (Summer, 1990): * November 27: Electronic Media: Open Circuits Required: Marshall McLuhan Introduction and The Medium is the Message Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (McGraw-Hill, 1964) Required: Phyllis Gershuny and Beryl Korot The Alternative Television Movement Radical Software, Vol. 1 No. 1., (1970), 2. Supplementary: Douglas Davis, "The Radical Shift: Technology as Creative Force," Art and the Future, (New York, 1973), Supplementary: Sarah Hollenberg, "Televisual Process: Bruce Nauman's Flour Arrangements at KQED-TV " American Art, (Summer, 2016), November 29: Electronic Media: Closed Circuits Required: Lucinda Furlong, "Tracking Video Art: 'Image Processing' as a Genre " Art Journal, (Fall, 1985), Supplementary: Barbara London, "Time as Medium: Five Artists' Video Installations" Leonardo, vol. 28, no. 5 (1995), ). Supplementary: William Kaizen, "Steps to an Ecology of Communication: Radical Software, Dan Graham, and the Legacy of Gregory Bateson " Art Journal, vol. 67, no. 3 (Fall, 2008), Videos to watch before class TBA. December 4/6: Wrap-up Final Papers Due December 10 at 9:00 pm. Course Summary: Date Details Mon Aug 21, 2017 Question: Breton et al. ( Wed Aug 23, 2017 Question: Colquhoun ( Mon Aug 28, 2017 Questions: Gottlieb et al, "Statement" and Rosenberg "The American Action Painters" ( 4/6

5 Wed Aug 30, 2017 RAW 1: David J. Getsy, "Tactility or Opticality, Henry Moore or David Smith ( Wed Sep 6, 2017 Question: Clement Greenberg, Avant Garde and Kitsch ( Mon Sep 11, 2017 RAW 2: Thomas Crow "Fashioning the New York School" ( Wed Sep 13, 2017 Question: Johnson ( Mon Sep 18, 2017 Questions: Oldenburg "I am for an Art" and Yoshihara, "Gutai Manifesto" ( Wed Sep 20, 2017 Question: Kaprow ( Mon Sep 25, 2017 Questions: Hamilton, "For the Finest Art..." and Eco, "Lowbrow, Highbrow..." ( Wed Sep 27, 2017 Question: Warhol ( Mon Oct 2, 2017 Questions: O'Pray "The 1940s..." and Clark "Female Film-making..." ( Question: Clarke ( Wed Oct 4, 2017 RAW 3: Michael Fried, "Art and Objecthood" ( Question: Stella ( Sun Oct 15, 2017 Guided Essay ( due by 9pm Mon Oct 16, 2017 RAW 4: Rosalind Krauss, "Overcoming the Limits of Matter: On Revising Minimalism" ( Wed Oct 18, 2017 Questions: Smith "New Jersey Turnpike" and Holt, "Sun Tunnels" ( Mon Oct 23, 2017 RAW 5: Gene Ray, "Joseph Beuys and the After-Auschwitz Sublime" ( Wed Oct 25, 2017 RAW 7: Adrian Piper, "The Logic of Modernism" ( Question: LeWitt ( Mon Oct 30, 2017 RAW 6: Berger, "The Formulas of Documentary Photography" ( Wed Nov 1, 2017 Questions: Rainer (both text and video) ( Proposal and Bibliography ( due by 9pm Mon Nov 6, 2017 Question: Piper ( Wed Nov 8, 2017 Question: Vivien Green Fryd, "Suzanne Lacy's Three Weeks in May: Feminist Activist Performance Art as 'Expanded Public Pedagogy'" ( RAW : Julia Bryan-Wilson, "Remembering Yoko Ono's Cut Piece" ( Mon Nov 13, 2017 Questions: Godard, Tout va Bien and De Bord, Toward A Situationist International ( Wed Nov 15, 2017 RAW: Elizabeth Harney, "The Ecole de Dakar: Pan-Africanism in Paint and Textile" ( Mon Nov 20, 2017 Questions: GAAG, "Manifesto" and Johnson, "Statement" ( Wed Nov 22, 2017 RAW: GerShun Avilez, "The Claim of Innocence..." ( Sun Dec 10, 2017 Research Paper ( Participation in Class Discussion ( due by 9pm Questions: McLuhan "The Medium is the Message" Gershuny and Korot, "The Alternative Television Movement" ( 5/6

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