ART 13 Introduction to Modern Art History Summer 2019 (July 12-August 8) Instructor: Marta Becherini

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1 ART 13 Introduction to Modern Art History Summer 2019 (July 12-August 8) Instructor: Marta Becherini Course hours This course meets every day from Monday to Friday for two hours each day, for a total of 20 classes (4 credit hours). Course description ART 13 introduces the major developments, key figures, and significant works of modern art, covering a period from the last decades of the 19 th century upto the 1980s, with a brief excursus on contemporary art. Starting with the beginnings of the modern tradition in 19 th -century oppositional art, we will trace the unfolding of modernism in the various avant-garde practices of the 20 th century and its evolution into post-modernism. The narrative presented throughout the course is necessarily selective, privileging those movements that have had a most decisive impact on the development of contemporary art. For each movement under discussion we will examine the historical context political, social and technological that shaped its development, and look closely at its most representative artworks. The course is designed to enable students to engage critically with works of art, by teaching them how to articulate the formal and conceptual aspects of an artwork as well as its historical context, and to gain acquaintance with the main aesthetic developments that shaped the course of modern art. Course requirements * Attendance and participation: This course is based largely on discussion. As such, your attendance and participation in class are essential, and you are expected to get involved in discussions about the topic at hand. To best do so, you should complete the assigned readings before each class. In order to better engage in class discussion, you are also asked to refrain from using laptops and other electronic devices while in class. * Readings: As a basic reference source I recommend Fred S. Kleiner s textbook Gardner s Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective (Vol. 2), Fourteenth edition, International Edition. You can use this book to get background information and an overview of the topics covered in this course. Most of the assigned readings come from this textbook; the ones that don t can be found on reserve. The assigned readings are listed under each section of the class schedule below. NOTE: The current list is tentative and subject to modification until the beginning of the course, but gives you a good idea of the workload. Two other textbooks that you might find useful are: - Hal Foster et al., Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism, 2 vols., 3 rd Revised Edition (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2016); - H.B. Chipp et al., Theories of Modern Art: A Sourcebook by Artists and Critics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984). 1

2 * Presentations: Throughout the course, each student will be asked to present an artwork assigned beforehand by the instructor to the rest of the class in a 10 minutes presentation. The presentations will be given either by a single student or by two students together, depending on the number of students in the class, and they will take place each day of class starting from the third day of the course onwards. I will provide detailed instructions about the presentations at the beginning of the course. * Final exam: The final exam will test how well you understand and analyze the topics presented in class and discussed in the readings. The exam will consist of three parts: 1) identification and comparative analysis; 2) artwork attribution; 3) essay question. The exam s content is detailed below, but additional information will be provided in class. In Part 1 of the exam you will be shown 2 slides juxtaposing two different artworks discussed in class. You will be asked to identify the period/culture in which the works were produced (i.e. Italian Futurism) and their approximate date. Then, you should discuss the differences and similarities that are raised by their comparison. In Part 2 you will be shown 2 artworks that were not discussed in class but were produced by one of the artists we studied. You are expected to identify the artist who produced each work, providing specific reasons that justify your attribution. Moreover, you should discuss the works formal aspects and subject matter based on what you know about the artist s life and career. In Part 3 you will be shown an artwork discussed during the course along with a question that relates to it but is also more generic, which you will have to answer in a short essay. This part of the exam checks your ability to think about the material that we have covered in class in terms of broad themes and to formulate connections between works that were created in different historical contexts. In order to prepare for this part of the exam, try to think about common themes shared by the works that we have dealt with in class. Grading * Class participation and readings 25% * Presentation 25% * Final exam 50% Code of academic integrity According to the Code of Academic Integrity in the Beijing Jiaotong University, activities that have the effect or intention of interfering with education, pursuit of knowledge, or fair evaluation of a student s performance are prohibited. It is your responsibility to ensure your behavior does not violate this code. Inappropriate activity during exams (e.g. consulting notes, looking at or copying from other student s exam) may result in a failing grade and will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. If you have questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty, please consult the guidelines about the Code of Academic Integrity provided by the Beijing Jiaotong University. 2

3 COURSE CALENDAR (* indicates required readings to be completed by the date under which they are listed) July 13 Introduction to the course * What is Art History? (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, pp. 1-13) July 15 New ways of seeing: Realism and the painting of modern life * Courbet on Realism (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, p. 664) * Charles Baudelaire, excerpt from The Painter of Modern Life July 16 Impressionism * Academic Salons and Independent Art Exhibitions and Japonisme (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, pp. 690, 696) July 17 Post-Impressionism * Pontillism and 19 th -Century Color Theory and The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, pp. 701, 702) July 18 Art around 1900: Art Nouveau, the Vienna Secession, and the rise of expressive art * 1900: Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams: in Vienna, the rise of the expressive art of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka coincides with the emergence of psychoanalysis (Hal Foster et al., Art Since 1900) July 19 Early 20 th -century avant-gardes: Fauvism and Die Brücke * Matisse on Color (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, p. 726) July 22 Picasso and Les Demoiselles d Avignon * Gertrude and Leo Stein and the Avant-Garde and Primitivism and Colonialism (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, pp. 732, 734) 3

4 July 23 Deconstructing reality: Analytic to Synthetic Cubism * Picasso on Cubism (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, p. 737) July 24 Towards abstraction: Futurism and Der Blaue Reiter * Futurist Manifestos (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, p. 742) July 25 Reacting to WW1: Dada and the Russian avant-garde * Marcel Duchamp, The Richard Mutt Case July 26 Geometric abstraction and the birth of modern design: De Stijl and the Bauhaus * Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, p. 773) July 29 The triumph of the subconscious: Surrealism * Max Ernst, What is Surrealism? July 30 Art in the Americas between the two World Wars * The Armory Show and Art Matronage in the United States (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, pp. 751, 753) July 31 Art in post-wwii Europe * Jean Dubuffet, Anticultural Positions Aug 1 American art after WWII: Abstract Expressionism and the New York School * Jackson Pollock, Two Statements Aug 2 Confronting consumer culture: Pop Art * Roy Lichtenstein on Pop Art (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, p. 803) Aug 5 Minimalism and Post-Minimalism 4

5 * Donald Judd on Sculpture and Industrial Materials (Gardner s Art Through the Ages, p. 799) Aug 6 Conceptualism, Earthworks, and Performance Art * Marina Abramović, What is Performance Art? (video interview) Aug 7 Postmodernism and Contemporary Art Trends Aug 8 FINAL EXAM 5