UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL Department of Cultural Studies Spring Monday and Wednesday 2-3:30

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1 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL Department of Cultural Studies Spring 2011 Course Title: Post Modernism (Contemporary Art) Course and Section: Course 350, Section 201 ( ) Instructor: Class Meetings: Professor Kathleen Smith Office Hour: Mon, 5-6PM, Coburn 300 and by appointment Coburn Hall, Room 300, South Campus Monday and Wednesday 2-3:30 General Education Requirement: Historical Studies, Aesthetics, Cultural Diversity and GENED Required Text: Available at University Book Store Irving Sandler, Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s (Westview Press); ISBN-13: *Additional required readings will be uploaded to the course website. Recommended Text: Find it on Amazon.com etc. Terry Barrett, Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary (McGraw-Hill Companies); ISBN-13: REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS COURSE DESCRIPTION/COURSE GOALS: Following the Second World War, artists and architects transformed the avantgarde tradition of their European predecessors to establish a dialogue with the mass media, consumer culture, and the art history and art world context itself that has resulted in a wide array of movements. Issues ranging from multiculturalism and gender to modernism and postmodernism will be grounded in a study of the movements of abstract expressionism, pop, minimalism, neo-expressionism and investigated in the diverse media of contemporary video, performance, installation and photography, as well as painting, sculpture, and architecture. This course will cover art and architecture from the 1960's to the present, examining particular artists, movements, and critical concepts related to the expansion of artistic practice and the "post-medium" condition. The critical and cultural context for both Modernist and Postmodernist art and architecture will be investigated. The course has four parts: I. Defining Modernism, Towards a Definition of Postmodernism; II. Postmodern Beginnings; III. Postmodernism's Expansions: The Framers, Artists, and Architects of Postmodernism; III Continued. Postmodernism's Expansions: The "Other" and Globalization; IV. Is Postmodernism Over? 1

2 - Identify the artists and titles of major works, including dates or approximate dates, medium(s) used, movements to which the work belongs, sometimes the work's location or place, and the significance of the works. - Respond to assigned readings by architects, artists, and art critic-historians in short essays based on my prompts. Discuss these assigned readings in class, in the context of the course's textbook readings and lectures page research paper. LEARNING OUTCOMES OF THE COURSE: Please read carefully The Art History Position Statement and The Objectives of Art History. I. To provide to the student with BREADTH OF KNOWLEDGE of History of Art by demonstrating familiarity with several different areas of knowledge and several different modes of inquiry in art history. II. To provide to the student The CRITICAL THINKING by demonstrating the ability to synthesize information, discover connections, differentiate between facts and opinions, assess evidence, draw conclusions, construct arguments on both sides of a debate using the best available evidence, solve problems, develop and test hypotheses in art history. III. To teach the student CLEAR COMMUNICATION by demonstrating the ability to communicate effectively: to articulate, support, and defend a position using appropriate modes of communication regarding art history. IV. To teach the student CULTURAL DIVERSITY by demonstrating the ability to compare and contrast different types of artistic developments in different cultures. CLASS COMPORTMENT: Since this is a professional presentation at the university level, you are not permitted to eat, converse on cellular phones and receive phone calls during class lectures and discussion. Cellular phones must be turned off at all times. Text Messaging is not permitted during classtime. Students are not permitted to tape the lectures without my permission. LAPTOP USE: All students who wish to use his/her laptop in class to take notes must sign a statement that ensures that the student is using his/her laptop to only take notes. ACCOMMODATIONS: Students must see me as soon as possible if you have a documented need or learning disability so that we can make arrangements for you. REQUIRED READINGS: There is one required textbook for this class. There is one recommended textbook. You are also required to read scholarly articles written by architects, artists, and art critic-historians that are not in either of the textbooks; I will post scanned pdfs of these articles to the course website which you will have to download. Reading assignments are due on the date that they appear in the syllabus. Your class participation depends upon your having completed the reading for each class. RESPONSE PAPERS: You are required to respond in one-page papers to articles posted to the course website. You must answer all of the assigned prompts in these papers. These articles and their prompts will be provided about one week before each paper is due. These papers are due on Wednesday, February 9; Monday, February 21; Monday, March 28; Monday, April 11. 2

3 ATTENDANCE: Class attendance is mandatory. More than one unexcused absence from class will result in a reduced grade. An excused absence will only be granted for a documented illness or emergency, discussed with me in advance in person or via . PARTICIPATION: While a portion of each class will take the form of lectures, classes will have time devoted to discussion. These discussions will use the required readings as their point of departure. The spirit in which both the readings and lectures are presented is intended to provide students with multiple approaches for considering both the art objects themselves and the ways artists, architects, and art critic-historians have approached the art of the period. EXAMINATIONS: There will be two in-class examinations, on Wednesday, March 2 and Wednesday, April 20, and a Take Home Final Exam due Monday, May 16. Examinations are based on specific material covered in class and on the required readings. Examinations missed without prior written excuse from the instructor or written excuse for medical or other emergencies cannot be made up. No electronic mail, fax, telephone, or voice mail is acceptable. RESEARCH PAPER ASSIGNMENT: There is one 6-8 page research paper assigned during the semester and due on Wednesday, May 4. More details forthcoming. *NOTE ON PLAGIARISM*: Be careful never to copy directly or directly adapt from another author without crediting the source. General sources must be listed in a bibliography; any direct quotation or paraphrase must be footnoted. Any unacknowledged copying will receive and F for the course. GUIDELINES ON PLAGIARISM or ACADEMIC DISHONESTY FOR THIS COURSE: Since this is a professional presentation at the university level, collegiality and honesty must be honored. Please read careful the information regarding Academy Dishonesty and Etiquette Comportment. Students at UMASS Lowell are expected to be honest and to respect ethical standards in meeting academic assignments and requirements. A student who cheats on an examination or assignment is subject to administrative dismissal. The following definitions are provided for the information of all students and constitute official notice of prohibited academic practice and behavior. 1. Cheating is defined as: a) misrepresenting academic work which has been done by another as one's own efforts, whether such misrepresentation has been accomplished with or without the permission of the other individual; b) providing or utilizing prohibited assistance (whether in the nature of a person or a resource) in the performance of assignments and examinations; c) copying of another person's work or the giving or receiving of information or answers by any means of communication during an examination; d) utilization of the services of a commercial term paper company; and e) the unauthorized or fraudulent acquisition and/or use of another's academic property. 2. Plagiarism is defined as a) direct quotation or word-for-word copying of all or part of the work of another without identification or acknowledgment of the quoted work; 3

4 b) extensive use of acknowledged quotation from the work of others which is joined together by a few words or lines of one's own text; and c) an abbreviated restatement of someone else's analysis or conclusion, however skillfully paraphrased, without acknowledgment that another person's text has been the basis for the recapitulation d) downloading information from the internet without direct quotation and reference, name of author, title of article or text and date. COURSE WEBSITE: All assignments and handouts distributed throughout the semester will also be uploaded to the course website. Some required readings and other important material will also be uploaded to the website, which I will announce throughout the semester. EVALUATION: The following percentages are intended as an approximate guideline to help students understand how grades are assessed in this class. The actually weight given each assignment may be altered somewhat depending on individual circumstances. Examinations: Each in-class examination will count for 12.5% (total 25%) Reading Response Papers: Each paper will count for 5% (20%) Research Paper: 25% Take Home Final Exam: 20% Attendance and participation: 10% SCHEDULE of CLASSES, READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS: (N.B. SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE) I. Defining Modernism, Towards a Definition of Postmodernism Week 1 M, Jan. 24 Introduction: Scope of the course. Goals and requirements of the course. Defining Modernism, Towards a definition of Postmodernism W, Jan. 26 Defining Postmodernism: In response to Modern Architecture and the International Style focus on: -Ludwig Mies van der Rohe -Skidmore, Owings and Merrill -Philip Johnson Week 2 M, Jan. 31 Defining Postmodernism: In response to Abstract Expressionism and formalist painting focus on: -painter Jackson Pollock -painter Barnett Newman -art critic Clement Greenberg Article (website): "1960b," from Art Since 1900, Volume 2 W, Feb. 2 Defining Postmodernism: In response to Pop art focus on: -Andy Warhol -James Rosenquist 4

5 -Roy Lichtenstein -Ed Ruscha -Richard Hamilton Article (website): "1960c," from Art Since 1900, Volume 2 *Research Paper Assignment Distributed and Posted to Website Week 3 M, Feb. 7 Defining Postmodernism: In response to Minimalism focus on: -sculptor Donald Judd Textbook: Introduction, pp Article (website): "Introduction," pp , from New Art in the 60s and 70s, Redefining Reality II. Postmodern beginnings: Critiques of art-as-object from the 1960s through the 1970s A Postmodern beginning: Postminimalist sculpture and process art focus on: -Robert Morris -Eva Hesse -Louis Bourgeois -Yayoi Kusama Textbook: Chapter 1, pp W, Feb. 9 RESPONSE PAPER 1, due at the start of class One-page typed, double spaced, 12 pt. font Response Paper Article 1 (website): Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (excerpts) and Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas (excerpts) Class Discussion A Postmodern beginning: Postmodern architecture's return of history through myth, play, and context focus on: -Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown Week 4 M, Feb. 14 PRESIDENTS DAY HOLIDAY, NO CLASS W, Feb. 16 A Postmodern beginning: Site-specific works return to nature, myth, and urban history focus on : -the Earthworks of Robert Smithson -and their urban counterparts by Gordon Matta-Clark Textbook: Chapter 1, pp Postmodern beginning: Conceptual Art as critique of art-as-object focus on: -John Baldessari -Sol Lewitt -Joseph Kosuth Textbook: Chapter 1, pp

6 Week 5 M, Feb. 21 RESPONSE PAPER 2, due at the start of class One-page typed, double spaced, 12 pt. font Response Article 2a (website): Allan Kaprow, "The Legacy of Jackson Pollock" Response Article 2b: (website): "Subject as Object," from New Art in the 60s and 70s, Redefining Reality Class Discussion A Postmodern beginning: Happenings, Fluxus, and Performance art's critique of art-as-object focus on: -Allan Kaprow -Nam June Paik A Postmodern beginning: Body art as critique of art-as-object focus on: -Bruce Nauman -Vito Acconci -Richard Serra -Chris Burden Textbook: Chapter 1, pp W, Feb. 23 A Postmodern beginning: Performance art's critique of the context of art focus on: -Carolee Schneeman - Hannah Wilke -Joseph Beuys Textbook: Chapter 3, pp (Carolee Schneeman and Hannah Wilke, First Generation Feminism), pp (Judy Chicago, First Generation Feminism); Chapter 2, pp (Joseph Beuys) Week 6 M, Feb. 28 Review for Exam #1 W, March 2 EXAM #1 Part III. Postmodernism's Expansions: The Framers, Artists, and Architects of Postmodernism Week 7 M, March 7 Photography, its Strategies of Appropriation and its Critiques of Originality: The Pictures show focus on: -Sherrie Levine -curators Douglas Crimp and Craig Owens -Richard Prince also: -Louise Lawler -Cindy Sherman Textbook: Chapter 10, pp W, March 9 Postmodernist Art Theory: French Critical Theory and the journal October focus on: - art critic Clement Greenberg redux -theorist Jacques 6

7 Derrida and Deconstruction -theorist Roland Barthes and the Death of the Author -art critic-historian Rosalind Krauss' Use of Structuralism and Poststructuralism -theorist Jean Baudrillard and the Simulacrum Textbook: Chapter 11, pp Week 8 M, March 14 SPRING RECESS, NO CLASS W, March 16 SPRING RECESS, NO CLASS Week 9 M, March 21 Postmodernist Art Theory: Consumer Society and Deconstruction Art focus on: -theorist Walter Benjamin -theorist Frederic Jameson -Baldesseri redux -Sherrie Levine redux Textbook: Chapter 11, pp ; Chapter 12, pp , W, March 23 Consumer Society and Deconstruction Art continued focus on: -Baudrillard redux -Andy Warhol redux Textbook: Chapter 15, pp *Research paper proposal due in class Week 10 M, March 28 RESPONSE PAPER 3, due at the start of class One-page typed, double spaced, 12 pt. font Response Article 3a (website): Art Since 1900's "1964b" on Andy Warhol Response Article 3b (website): Art Since 1900's "1970" on site specific work Class Discussion Architectural Sculpture: Site-Specific land art and public art focus on: -Richard Serra redux -Robert Morris redux -Robert Smithson redux -Christo and Jeanne Claude Textbook: Chapter 5, W, March 30 The Art World of the 1970s: the art market part I 7

8 Textbook: Chapter 7, pp The Art World in the First Half of the 1980s: the art market part II Textbook: Chapter 13, pp Introduction to The Return to Painting: American Neoexpressionism focus on: -Elizabeth Murray -Robert Longo Textbook: Chapter 8, pp Week 11 M, April 4 The Return to Painting Continued: American Neoexpressionist Painting focus on: -Julian Schnabel -David Salle -Eric Fischl -Susan Rothenberg Textbook: Chapter 8, pp , W, April 6 East Village Art Scene: Beginnings of Street Art and its Commodification focus on: -The Times Square Show -Jean-Michel Basquiat -Keith Haring -Swoon -art dealer Jeffrey Deitch Textbook: Chapter 14, pp ; Commodity art, focus on: -Jeff Koons Textbook: Chapter 15, pp (re-read) Week 12 M, April 11 RESPONSE PAPER 4, due at start of class One-page typed, double spaced, 12 pt. font Response Article 4a (website): Craig Owens, "From Work to Frame, or, Is There Life After "The Death of the Author"? Response Article 4b (website): "Painting at Issue After 1965," pp , 68-69, from New Art in the 60s and 70s, Redefining Reality Class Discussion The Return to Painting: German Neoexpressionist Painting focus on: -Gerhard Richter's faux expressionism? Textbook: Chapter 9, pp W, April 13 Review for Exam #2 Article (website): "Postmodernisms," from Art Since 1960 Week 13 M, April 18 PATRIOT'S DAY HOLIDAY, NO CLASS W, April 20 EXAM #2 8

9 Part III Continued. Postmodernism's Expansions: The "Other" and Globalization Week 14 M, April 25 Postmodernist Art Theory: Second-generation feminist art, the politics of representation, and an introduction to art of the marginalized "other" focus on: -the Guerilla Girls -Mary Kelly -Cindy Sherman Textbook: Chapter 11, pp ; Chapter 12, pp (Mary Kelly); Chapter 12, pp (Cindy Sherman) The "Other": From the Marginal Into the Mainstream; Identity Politics Textbook: Chapter 16, pp W, April 27 Into the 1990s: "The Decade Show," Multiculturalism, and Identity Politics Continued Textbook: Chapter 17, pp Globalization of Art, Globalization in Art: Postcolonial Cultural Theory Article (website): "Chapter 6: Globalization and the Post-Medium Condition," from Art Since 1960 Globalization of Art Week 15 M, May 2 Globalization of Art, Globalization in Art continued The "Post-Medium" Condition in art today Article (website): "Chapter 6: Globalization and the Post-Medium Condition," from Art Since 1960 Part IV. Is Postmodernism Over? W, May 4 Research paper due in class! It will NOT be accepted via . *Take Home Final distributed Beyond Postcolonial Cultural Theory and Identity Politics Deconstruction and Neo-Modernism in Architecture Week 16 M, May 9 Conclusions and Final Review Week 17 M, May 16 Take Home Final due to me in Coburn 201 from 12-2pm! 9