[Working Draft / Sample Syllabus] ARTH 113: Survey of Modern Art Art Dept., Queens College CUNY. Fall 2015 Mon., 1:40-4:30PM Klapper Hall, 403

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1 [Working Draft / Sample Syllabus] ARTH 113: Survey of Modern Art Art Dept., Queens College CUNY Fall 2015 Mon., 1:40-4:30PM Klapper Hall, 403 Dr. Edward Powers powers_edward@yahoo.com Learning Goals The primary learning goal for this course is for students to acquire familiarity with major artworks by preeminent artists from the late 18 th through the mid-20 th Century. (The first part of this course will focus on the late 18 th through the 19 th Century; the second part will focus, equally, on the first and second halves of the 20 th Century.) Students will develop an understanding of the kinds of subject matter that artworks incorporate; their range of symbolic and contextual meanings; the difference between figurative, abstract and nonobjective art, which becomes increasingly important in the late 19 th and early 20 th Centuries; the criteria according to which we judge an artwork, and whether it succeeds according to its given criteria; and the vocabulary art historians use to analyze color and form, systems of spatial organization, and composition and design. Students will also develop an understanding of the larger contexts in which these artists and their artworks developed. In particular, emphasis will be placed on specific, period movements and styles including Neo- Classicism and Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art and Minimalism, among others, as well as on the aesthetic and philosophical bases that define each of these movements and styles as coherent and distinct from the others. Finally, because it is vital for students to understand the historical, political and social contexts in which these artworks were created, special attention will be paid to the intellectual, philosophical and technological changes that characterize the modern period, as it developed out of the American and French Revolutions in the late 18 th Century; the rise of industrialization and urbanism in the 19 th Century; and the dramatic changes in mass production that shaped the course of the visual arts in the first half of the 20 th Century, and in the mass media, along with questions of institutional critique and identity politics, that continue to shape the evolution of the visual arts. Grading Plan 60% of your final grade will be based on two in-class exams, which will be noncumulative, and will count equally. 1. For in-class exams, you are only responsible for images we have seen in class, which are reproduced on the image website: a. Identification questions will require you to give the last name of the artist, the full title of the artwork and its date (+/-3 years). b. Short-answer and essay-format questions will test your familiarity with important ideas and themes as well as significant questions of style and subject matter, artistic and historical context and influence. 2. The only acceptable excuse for missing an exam is a doctor s note specifically certifying that you were medically unable to attend class on the date of the exam. 30% of your final grade will be based on a research paper, which is due in class on [ ]. 1. All late papers will be downgraded one full grade for each week (or part thereof) they are late. Only if you will be absent from class on the date the paper is due, you may it to me before class, so long as you Page 1 of 6

2 also submit a hardcopy of it at the next class. (If I do not you to confirm my receipt of your paper, I did not receive it.) Otherwise, all late papers must be handed to me in person. Late papers that are ed to me, or that are left in the Art Dept. for me, will not be accepted. 2. No late papers will be accepted once the final exam has begun. 10% of your final grade will be based on class participation, including attending class lectures, keeping up with assigned readings, and actively and effectively participating in class discussions. Course Materials Required textbooks for this course are: 1. Petra Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art (Prentice-Hall, [3 rd Ed.]) [ISBN: ]. 2. TBD: one or more of the following 20 th Century anthologies: a. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, eds., Art in Theory, : An Anthology of Changing Ideas (Blackwell, 2002 [2 nd Ed.]) [ISBN: ]; b. Herschel Chipp, ed., Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics (Univ. Calif. Press, 1968) [ISBN: ]; c. Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, eds., Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists Writings (Univ. Calif. Press, 2012 [2 nd Ed.]) [ISBN: ]. All other required readings in the syllabus may be downloaded from the document website, where they are listed alphabetically by author s last name: Copies of all required textbooks are for sale at the QC bookstore, and on reserve at the QC library. (A file that lists their call numbers, labeled Course Reserves, may be downloaded from the document website.) Office Hours My office hours, in Klapper 164, are: Mon., 11:00-1:00PM. Class Meetings, Reading Assignments, Important Dates Class 01: Class 02: Class 03: Class 04: Class 05: Neoclassicism. Textbooks: read Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, pp , 22-26, 31-67, , Romanticism. Textbooks: read Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, pp , , , , Website: read Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Géricault s Severed Heads and Limbs: The Politics and Aesthetics of the Scaffold, Art Bulletin, vol. 74, no. 4 (Dec. 1992). Realism. Textbooks: read Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, pp , , , Website: read Nochlin, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, Art News, vol. 69, no. 9 (Jan. 1971); Nochlin, The Imaginary Orient, Art in America, vol. 75, no. 1 (May 1983). Impressionism. Textbooks: read Chu, Nineteenth-Century European Art, pp , Website: read Lipton, Images of Laundresses: Social and Sexual Ambivalence (1980), in her Looking Into Degas: Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life (Univ. Calif. Press, 1985). Post-Impressionism. Textbooks: read Chu, pp , Website: read Solomon-Godeau, Going Native, Art in America, vol. 77, no. 7 (July 1989). Page 2 of 6

3 Class 06: Class 07: Class 08: Class 09: Class 10: Class 11: Class 12: Class 13: Class 14: Class 15: [Museum and / or Gallery Visit: TBD.] Midterm Exam. [Following the exam, there will be a discussion of research methods and scholarly apparatus.] Expressionism(s) and Fauvism. Textbooks [TBD]: read Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911), pp [Chipp], pp [Harrison and Wood]. Website: read [selection (TBD) from] McBreen, Matisse s Sculpture: The Pinup and the Primitive (Yale Univ. Press, 2014). Cubism, Futurism and International Style(s). Textbooks [TBD]: read Marinetti, Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism (1909), pp [Chipp], pp [Harrison and Wood]; Boccioni, Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto (1910), pp [Chipp], pp [Harrison and Wood]; Boccioni, Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture (1912), pp [Chipp]. Website: read Poggi, Frames of Reference: Table and Tableau in Picasso s Collages and Constructions, Art Journal, vol. 47, no. 4 (Winter 1988). Dada and Surrealism. Textbooks [TBD]: read Duchamp, Richard Mutt Case (1917); Duchamp, Painting at the Service of the Mind (1946); Duchamp, Creative Act (1957); Duchamp, Apropos of Readymades (1961). Website: read Camfield, Marcel Duchamp s Fountain: Aesthetic Object, Icon, or Anti-Art, in Thierry de Duve, ed., The Definitively Unfinished Marcel Duchamp (MIT Press, 1992). Abstract Expressionism. Textbooks [TBD]: read Newman, The First Man Was an Artist (1947), pp [Harrison and Wood]; Newman, The Sublime Is Now (1948), pp [Harrison and Wood]. [Also: Chipp.] Website: read Greenberg, Modernist Painting (1960), in John O Brian, ed., Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism: Modernism with a Vengeance, : Volume Four (Univ. Chicago Press, 1993); Rosenberg, The American Action Painters, Art News, vol. 51, no. 8 (Dec. 1952). Research Papers Due Today In Class. Neo-Dada and Pop art. Textbooks [TBD]: read Warhol, Interview with Gene Swenson (1963), p [Harrison and Wood]; Warhol, Warhol in His Own Words ( ), pp [Stiles and Selz]. Website: read Steinberg, Jasper Johns: The First Seven Years of His Art (1962), in his Other Criteria: Confrontations with Twentieth-Century Art (Univ. Chicago Press, 2007); Meyer, Warhol s Clones, Yale Journal of Criticism, vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1994). Minimalism and Post-Minimalism. Textbooks [TBD]: Judd, Specific Objects (1965), pp [Harrison and Wood]; Stella and Judd, Questions by Bruce Glaser (1966), pp [Stiles and Selz]. Website: read Chave, Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power, Arts Magazine, vol. 64, no. 5 (Jan. 1990). [Museum and / or Gallery Visit: TBD.] Final Exam. Page 3 of 6

4 Research Paper 1. Select one of the following pairs of artworks. All artworks are presently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is located at 82 nd St. and 5 th Ave. in Manhattan. (Except for group visits, MMA admission is free with a valid CUNY ID for the current semester.) You should visit the MMA and select your pair of artworks as soon as possible, as the galleries are frequently reinstalled, and artworks that are on view now might not still be on view later. a. Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Self-Portrait with Two Pupils (1785) [Gallery 613] with Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Princesse de Broglie ( ) [Gallery 957] OR with Édouard Manet, Mademoiselle V... in the Costume of an Espada (1862) [Gallery 810]. b. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Workshop, Odalisque in Grisaille (ca ) [Gallery 801] with Edgar Degas, Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub (1885) [Gallery 817] OR with Edgar Degas, Dancers, Pink and Green (ca. 1890) [Gallery 816]. c. Gustave Courbet, Young Ladies of the Village ( ) [Gallery 812] with Georges Seurat, Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884) [Gallery 826]. d. Rosa Bonheur, Horse Fair ( ) [Gallery 812] with Horace Vernet, Start of the Race of Riderless Horses (1820) [Gallery 801] OR with Ernest Meissonier, 1807, Friedland (ca ) [Gallery 800]. e. Édouard Manet, Dead Christ with Angels (1864) [Gallery 810] with Jules Bastien-Lepage, Joan of Arc (1879) [Gallery 800]. f. Gustave Courbet, Woman with Parrot (1866) [Gallery 811] with Alexandre Cabanel, Birth of Venus (1875) [Gallery 827]. g. Claude Monet, Garden at Sainte-Adresse (1867) [Gallery 818] with Paul Cézanne, Gulf of Marseilles Seen from L Estaque (ca. 1885) [Gallery 825]. h. Claude Monet, La Grenouillère (1869) [Gallery 818] with Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire (ca ) [Gallery 822]. i. Édouard Manet, The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil (1874) [Gallery 818] with Auguste Renoir, Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children (1878) [Gallery 824]. j. Édouard Manet, Boating (1874) [Gallery 818] with Paul Gauguin, Siesta (ca ) [Gallery 823]. k. Georges Seurat, Circus Sideshow ( ) [Gallery 826] with Caspar David Friedrich, Two Men Contemplating the Moon (ca ) [Gallery 807] OR with Edgar Degas, Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (1874) [Gallery 816]. l. Paul Cézanne, Card Players ( ) [Gallery 825] with Édouard Vuillard, Green Interior (1891) [Gallery 962]. 2. Once you have selected your pair of artworks, you will need to research them and the artists who made them. If there is no specific research on the exact artwork(s) that you chose, then research similar works by the artist(s): for example, from the same period, or on the same theme, or using the same media, style and techniques, etc. a. By research, this assignment does not include: i. Items that are only published online: for example, museum websites, Wikipedia, etc. ii. Items that are not published at all: for example, museum wall labels, audio-guide tours, etc. iii. Items that do not contain endnotes or footnotes: for example, New York Times, Time or Taschen s popular series of artists biographies, etc. iv. Items that you have been assigned to read in the syllabus: you may use them, of course; however, they do not count as research that you did for this assignment. b. By research, this assignment only includes articles and essays, books and exhibition catalogs, which contain endnotes or footnotes. i. For info on research services available through the QC Art Library: 1. ii. For finding articles and essays: 1. [Then select Find Databases from the Quick Links menu on the left side of the screen. The three leading databases for art-history research, which this website lists alphabetically, are: Academic Search Complete; JSTOR; ProQuest Databases.] iii. For finding books and exhibition catalogs: Page 4 of 6

5 1. [Then select Find Books and Media from the Quick Links menu on the left side of the screen.] c. If a third or more of your research is thirty to fifty years old, or even older, then you re probably focusing on the first items that appear, regardless of their relevance or quality. Finding any research a fifty-year-old book on Matisse, an article in the Journal of Endocrinology on Picasso, a passing reference to Matisse in an essay that s basically about Picasso is not the same as finding the best and most relevant research for your comparison. 3. Once you have completed your research, you will need to write a typed, double-spaced paper, of about 1,500 words (about 5 pages, although length can vary considerably depending on font, margins, etc.), which uses the analyses and arguments, factual and interpretative information that you uncovered in your research to compare and contrast your pair of artworks with respect to important ideas and themes they share; significant questions of style and subject matter that they share, or that differentiate them; similarities and / or differences with respect to their artistic and historical context and influence, etc. a. It is essential that you write about the pair of artworks in relation to one other, and that you do not simply discuss the first artwork, full stop; then discuss the second artwork, full stop. The point is to compare and contrast them issue-by-issue and point-by-point, using researched information, personal observations that are supported by researched information, and careful close and specific visual analysis. b. A good way to structure your paper is to begin with a thesis statement (a summary of your argument); then proceed to a detailed discussion of researched information and visual analysis that support your thesis; then end with a conclusion. Be sure to avoid the following: i. Thesis statements / conclusions that merely state the obvious: Despite their similarities, there are many differences in the pair of artworks I selected ii. Unhelpful historical, political or sociological generalizations: The 20 th Century was a time of great political uncertainty and social upheaval iii. Extraneous personal observations: I have always loved this artist, and was happy to see a painting by her that I had never seen before The colors in this painting are sad or happy or so forth. iv. Encyclopedia-style papers that merely repeat generalities of when and where the artist was born and died, where she lived and studied, general descriptions of the artistic movement or style to which she belonged, etc. c. Overall, be very selective about what researched information you discuss, and only discuss ideas and issues that are directly relevant to your pair of artworks. 4. You must carefully edit and proofread your paper for grammar and style before turning it in. Awkward phraseology, careless grammar, spelling errors, etc. will adversely affect your grade. a. For info on tutoring services available through the Writing Center: i Your paper must include not only citations to, but also a bibliography of, sources; failure to do so will adversely affect your grade. a. The two standard styles for citing sources are: (1) Chicago, which uses footnotes or endnotes (you may use either) that follow the text; and (2) MLA, which uses in-text parenthetical citations. You may use either style. b. Only if you are unfamiliar with either style: i. Here are examples of proper footnotes / endnotes for: 1. An article or essay from a scholarly journal; 1 2. An exhibition catalog; 2 3. A single-author book; 3 4. An individual essay from a multi-author anthology or collection of essays. 4 ii. And here is a proper bibliography Generally speaking, bibliographies must include an alphabetical list by author s last name of all sources that you consulted (even ones that you do not cite in your paper). Unlike footnotes / endnotes, never number the individual, alphabetical entries in your Page 5 of 6

6 bibliography; and always include the full page-ranges for articles and essays from scholarly journals. c. If they re not your own ideas or words, you must clearly cite in a note whose ideas or words they are. If your paper in any way relies on any source that is not clearly and explicitly documented in your citations and bibliography, it will be failed. 6. Finally, a few technical requirements: a. Your name, the title of your paper, and my name must all appear on your cover page. b. Your pages must be consecutively numbered and stapled. c. The total word count of your paper must appear at the end of the last page. d. Keep a copy of your paper for your records. 1 Only the first time you cite an article or essay, you should fully cite it: for example, James Sweeney, Eleven Europeans in America, Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art, vol. 13, nos. 4-5 (Winter 1946), p Then, the second and each subsequent time you cite it, you should abbreviate it: for example, Sweeney, Eleven Europeans, p First time: Anne d Harnoncourt and Kynaston McShine, eds., Marcel Duchamp (New York and Philadelphia: Museum of Modern Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973), p Second and each subsequent time: D Harnoncourt and McShine, Marcel Duchamp, p First time: Arturo Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp (New York: Delano Greenidge Editions, 2000), p. 25. Second and each subsequent time: Schwarz, Complete Works, p First time: Marcel Duchamp, Painting at the Service of the Mind (1946), in Herschel Chipp, ed., Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics (Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press, 1968), p. 75. Second and each subsequent time: Duchamp, Painting at the Service of the Mind, p Sample Bibliography (based on the foregoing): Anne d Harnoncourt and Kynaston McShine, eds., Marcel Duchamp (New York and Philadelphia: Museum of Modern Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973). Marcel Duchamp, Painting at the Service of the Mind (1946), in Herschel Chipp, ed., Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics (Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press, 1968). Arturo Schwarz, The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp (New York: Delano Greenidge Editions, 2000). James Sweeney, Eleven Europeans in America, Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art, vol. 13, nos. 4-5 (Winter 1946), pp Page 6 of 6

JEFFERSON COLLEGE COURSE SYLLABUS ART107 MODERN ART. 3 Credit Hours. Prepared by: Blake Carroll. Revised by: Blake Carroll May 2016

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