AH327 F11: Themes in Modern and Contemporary Art

AH327 F11: Themes in Modern and Contemporary Art

M-W 4:20-5:45 Myers

Adrian R. Duran

aduran@mca.edu

901.272.5129

Office Hours: M 2-4pm (MCA Library) & T 12:35-1:35 (Nesin Grad Center)

Class syllabus @ http://theduranarthistoryblog.blogspot.com

Notice: Some of the content of this course may disturb the sensibilities of some students.

If you need to discuss this situation, please contact me.

Notice: Students who are entitled to considerations under ADA guidelines are asked to contact me immediately.  Every situation is unique and warrants specific consideration.  Thus, notifications made in close proximity to exams and/or other due dates may cause complications.  The greater the amount of available time, the more appropriately and successfully these matters can be addressed.

Student Learning Objective: Students will engage 20^th century art thematically, through a loosely chronological structure. Students will learn to identify works by artist, date, movement, and style. Students will learn to synthesize the ideas that support the art and create new conceptual bridges between works of art.

Communication: I can be contacted by both phone and e-mail. E-mail is preferred and, most likely, will result in a quicker response. I will contact you via your MCA e-mail account. If you are having any problems with your e-mail account, please contact Ian Sterling. isterling[at]mca.edu It is your responsibility to monitor these accounts actively and consistently. Students’ individual choices regarding the maintenance and awareness of MCA e-mail will not be acceptable as excuses for missing e-mails.

Attendance: Attendance is mandatory and will be monitored. Expecting to pass this course without constant, attentive attendance is not realistic. Missed classes will have a negative effect on your final grade. Upon your fourth absence, you will receive an F grade in the course. Punctuality is likewise expected. For every two late arrivals, you will be assessed one absence.

Class Materials on Server: Class materials will be available on the MCA server (Dali). Students will be responsible for these materials, which will be eligible for inclusion on exams.

Readings: Please complete ALL readings prior to class. They will provide important background and will be directly addressed in class. There will be a copy of the course text on reserve at the MCA library. It is your responsibility to obtain these readings. The course textbook is available at the Christian Brothers University Bookstore and/or via internet retailers.

The course textbook is:

· Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, eds. Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas (listed as AiT—on reserve in the MCA library)

Exams: This course will involve three (3) essay exams. Students will be given a selection of topics on which to write. The content and format of these exams will be explained in further detail as the exam approaches.

Paper: Students will write a paper. This will be in the form of an exhibition proposal and introductory essay. Students will first submit a proposal [1 page double-spaced], followed by a bibliography. These will lay the groundwork for the final paper, which will be an essay of 6-10 pages [12pt font, double-spaced, 1” margins]

The paper will be properly formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style. The Chicago Manual of Style can be found on reserve in the MCA library.

Students should begin by visiting the MCA Library and consulting the college’s online resources, which are collected at www.delicious.com/mcalibrary. Do not overlook the Grove Dictionary of Art, in the library’s reference section. MCA students have library privileges at the University of Memphis and Rhodes College and should not neglect these collections.

Plagiarism: The Memphis College of Art’s policy on plagiarism can be found on page 32 of the MCA Student Handbook:

http://mca.edu/attachments/-01_FINALmca_handbook_10_11.pdf

Students are expected to be familiar with this policy and adhere to it.

Grade Breakdown:

25% Per Exam (75% Total)

25% Paper

Safety: This class will follow the standards detailed in the "EPA Material Handling Protocols - September 2007," as issued by MCA.

Course Schedule:

M Aug 22 Intro & Background

W Aug 24 Authors & Objects Redefined **Convocation @ 10:30am

M Aug 29 Authors & Objects Redefined

W.Aug 31 Authors & Objects Redefined

F Sep 2 Last Day to Drop a Course w/o a W

M Sep 5 NO CLASS – LABOR DAY

W Sep 7 Authors & Objects Redefined

M Sep 12 Abstraction/Realism

W Sep 14 Abstraction/Realism ***Paper Proposal due***

M Sep 19 Abstraction/Realism

W Sep 21 Abstraction/Realism

M Sep 26 Exam #1

W Sep 28 War

M Oct 3 War

W Oct 5 NO CLASS

M Oct 10 Space

W Oct 12 Space

M Oct 17 NO CLASS – FALL BREAK

W Oct 19 Bodies ***Bibliography Due***

F Oct 21 Advising Day

M Oct 24 Bodies

W Oct 26 Identity

F Oct 28 Last Day to Withdraw from a Course

M Oct 31 Identity

W Nov 2 Performance

M Nov 7 Performance

W Nov 9 NO CLASS

M Nov 14 Exam #2

W Nov 16 Cameras

M Nov 21 Language

W Nov 23 NO CLASS--Thanksgiving

M Nov 28 Repetition

W Nov 30 Repetition ***Paper Due***

M Dec 5 Land/Nature

W Dec 7 Medium: What is it good for? or Painting: Dead or Alive?

M Dec 12 Exam #3

Course Readings By Topic:

Authors and Objects Redefined

Marcel Duchamp. ‘The Richard Mutt Case’ 1917 252

Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova. ‘Programme of the First Working Group of Constructivists’ 1922 341-43

Alexei Gan. from Constructivism 1922 343-44

Clement Greenberg. ‘Avant-Garde and Kitsch’ 1939 539-49

Asger Jorn. ‘Detourned Painting’ 1959 707-10

Pierre Restany. ‘The New Realists’ 1960 724-25

George Maciunas. ‘Neo-Dada in Music, Theater, Poetry, Art’ 1962 727-29

John Cage. ‘On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist, and his Work’ 1961 734-37

Claes Oldenburg. from Documents from The Store 1961 743-47

Robert Morris. ‘Notes on Sculpture 1-3’ 1966-67 Part I 828-30

Sol LeWitt. ‘Sentences on Conceptual Art’ 1969 849-51

Robert Morris. ‘Notes on Sculpture 4: Beyond Objects’ 1969 881-85

Lawrence Weiner. ‘Statements’ 1969-72 893-94

Joseph Beuys. ‘I Am Searching for Field Character’ 1974 929-30

Michel Foucault. ‘What is an Author?’ 1969 949-53

Leo Steinberg. from Other Criteria 1968-72 971-76

Abstraction (Realism)

Wilhelm Worringer. from Abstraction and Empathy 1908 66-69

Henri Matisse. ‘Notes of a Painter’ 1908 69-75

Wassily Kandinsky. from Concerning the Spiritual in Art Section A I Introduction 83-84 & B V Effects of Color 87-89

Piet Mondrian. ‘Dialogue on the New Plastic’ 1919 284-89

Kasimir Malevich. ‘Non-Objective Art and Suprematism’ 1919 292-93

Abstraction-Creation. Editorial Statements 1932 and 1933 374-76

Alfred H. Barr Jr. from Cubism and Abstract Art 1936 381-83

Clement Greenberg. ‘Towards a Newer Laocoon’ 1940 562-68

Clement Greenberg. ‘Modernist Painting’ 1960-65 773-79

Jules Olitski. ‘Painting in Color’ 1967 795-96

War

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. ‘The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism’ 1909 146-49

Richard Huelsenbeck and Raoul Hausmann. ‘What is Dadaism and what does it want in Germany?’ 1919 259-60

André Fougeron. ‘The Painter on his Battlement’ 1948 661-63

Space

Guillaume Apollinaire. ‘The New Painting: Art Notes’ 1912 187-88

El Lissitsky. ‘A. and Pangeometry’ 1925 317-21

Tony Smith. ‘from an interview with Samuel Wagstaff Jr.’ 1966 760

Yves Klein. from ‘The Evolution of Art towards the Immaterial’ 1959 818-20

Robert Morris. ‘Notes on Sculpture 1-3’ 1966-67 Part II 830-33

Michael Fried. ‘Art and Objecthood’ 1967 835-46

Richard Serra. from The Yale Lecture 1990 1096-99

Bodies

Umberto Boccioni et al. ‘Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto’ 1910 150-52

Francis Ponge. ‘Reflections on the Statuettes, Figures and Paintings of Alberto Giacometti’ 1951 625-26

Lea Vergine. from ‘The Body as Language’ 1974 906-10

Identity

Franz Marc. ‘The “Savages” of Germany’ 1912 93-94

Adolf Hitler. Speech Inaugurating the ‘Great Exhibition of German Art’ 1937 439-41

Jean Dubuffet. ‘Crude Art Preferred to Cultural Art’ 1949 605-08Valie Export. ‘Woman’s Art’ 1973 927-29

Edward Said. from Orientalism 1978 1005-08

Mary Kelly. “Re-Viewing Modernist Criticism’ 1981 The Crisis of Artistic Authorship 1060-62

Performance

Allan Kaprow. from Assemblages, Environments and Happenings 1959-65 717-22

Cameras

Osip Brik. ‘Photography versus Painting’ 1926 470-73

Walter Benjamin. ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ 1936 520-27

Laura Mulvey. from ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ 1973/75 982-89

Language

Hugo Ball. ‘Dada Fragments’ 1916-17 250-51

Tristan Tzara ‘Dada Manifesto’ 1918 252-57

Repetition

Andy Warhol. Interview with Gene Swenson 1963 747-49

Eva Hesse. Interview with Cindy Nemser 900-03

Land/Nature

Robert Smithson. ‘A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects’ 1968 877-81

Robert Smithson. ‘Cultural Confinement’ 970-971

Painting-Dead or Alive?

Gerhard Richter. ‘Notes 1964-65’ 757-60

Michael Fried. from ‘Shape as Form: Frank Stella’s New Paintings’ 1966 793-95

Donald Judd. ‘Specific Objects’ 1965 824-28

Robert Morris. ‘Notes on Sculpture 1-3’ 1966-67 Part III: Notes and Nonsequiturs 833-35

Gerhard Richter. from ‘Interview with Benjamin Buchloh.’ 1988 1147-57