ARTH 374: “ART NOW” Summer Session A, 2007
MTWTh 12:00-2:15 Fine Arts Building B110 Professor: Heather Bowling e-mail: hbowlin1@gmu.edu (best way to reach me) Office Phone: (703) 993-3479 Office: Robinson B 371 D Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 2:15-3:30, and by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course surveys the major movements, figures, and critical structures in American and European art after World War II. We will look at practices that confront the conventional boundaries of the art object and challenge its traditional audiences and institutions. Along the way we will examine new concepts and media such as sitespecificity, conceptualism, performance, earthworks, video, and street interventions alongside new incarnations of painting, photography, and sculpture. We will pay particular attention to the intersection between fine art and popular culture, representations of sexual and racial identity, collective memory and memorialization, and the commodity status of art. Classroom discussion will emphasize formal and aesthetic strategies as well as social context; readings will include critical theory, artists’ writings, and period criticism. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: To understand the historical, social, political, and institutional contexts in which contemporary art is produced and defined To become an educated consumer of contemporary art and visual media To develop analytical and interpretive skills and use them to discuss and write about works of art IMPORTANT NOTE: This course does NOT fulfill the General Education Fine Arts requirement for graduation. A NOTE ON CONTENT: In this course and in your books you may encounter material that offends you. Many contemporary artists from different social and cultural backgrounds take difficult perspectives on the first amendment, race, gender, class, sexuality, violence, religion, global imperialism, colonialism, and conceptions of beauty. In many ways, artists have always addressed such issues; be prepared to address all of the subject matter that we cover together in an objective manner, knowing that to like or dislike something is only one aspect of a critical response to the work that will be discussed.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Attendance and Participation: Students are expected to attend each class meeting and must complete the assigned readings for each day, before the class. If a reading is listed under June 8, for example, it should be completed before class on the 8th. Three absences are grounds for an automatic failure of the class. Participation: (15% of your grade). Participation refers to both the content of your verbal contributions as well as your attention and response to others’ comments. We will also have in-class discussions and activities that will go toward class participation. In-Class Presentation: (15% of your grade). Students will work in groups to present a few major works of a single artist in a 15-minute oral presentation. In this presentation, you will summarize any relevant readings and address critical issues raised by the work. For the class discussion, you must prepare a list of 3-5 questions that will contribute to a more thorough understanding of the artist. In-Class Writing Assignment: (15% of your grade). You will be asked to write about a work or works of art, drawing on lectures, class discussion, and the readings. You will be able to use your notes and books for this assignment. Paper: (30% of your grade). Students will write one 3-4 page focused analysis of a work of art that was made in 1945 or later. Specifics of this assignment will be handed out in class at the end of the first week. Final Exam: (25% of your grade). The exam will include slide identifications, short answers, and essay questions. Questions asked on the exam will presume familiarity with the course lectures, discussions, and readings.
GRADING STANDARDS: C is the average expected performance of a college student. To receive a C you must complete all readings and assignments on time, demonstrate a basic knowledge of the material and write clearly and competently (all assignments must be well organized and follow the rules of correct spelling and grammar). To receive a B your work must be substantially better than average and to receive an A your work must be truly exceptional. “A” work is meticulously researched, well-written, and imaginative, and goes above and beyond the assignment. Grades will be calculated as follows: A AB+ B = 100% to 93%, or 4.00 = 92% to 90%, or 3.67 = 89% to 87%, or 3.33 = 86% to 83%, or 3.00 BC+ C C= 82% to 80%, or 2.67 = 79% to 77%, or 2.33 = 76% to 72%, or 2.00 = 72% to 70%, or 1.67 D = 60% to 66%, or 1.0 F = below 60% and receives no credit
Please note that to receive a passing grade for this course, all work must be completed and handed in. If you fail to turn in papers or exams, do not complete the in-class writing assignment, or do not give a class presentation, you will not receive a passing grade no matter what your other grades have been throughout the course. CLASS POLICIES: Students are responsible for all material covered in class (announcements, lectures, discussions) whether you are present or not. Late assignments are not acceptable. Any work turned in late without a valid written excuse (i.e. a doctor’s note) will be graded down one grade per day late. If an assignment is not turned in by the last day of class you will be given a 0 for that assignment. If you are having difficulty completing an assignment please see me well before it is due so that we can work together. Make-up exams or extensions will be granted only in the case of documented emergencies. GMU operates according to an Honor Code. It is clearly defined in the catalogue (http:///www.gmy.edu/mlfacstaff/findex.html). Plagiarism (presenting someone else’s ideas or words as your own without proper acknowledgement) violates the Honor Code. I will notify the Honor Committee concerning possible infractions. All work must be submitted in hard copy, at the beginning of class on the date it is due. E-mailed assignments will not be accepted. GMU requires you to activate your GMU e-mail account to receive official campus communications. If you prefer to use another address, please activate the email forwarder. Cell phones, pagers, etc. must be turned off during class. Talking to friends during discussions, wandering in and out, and eating food are all badly distracting to everyone else. Chronic chatters and latecomers are disruptive, and will be asked to leave the classroom. Accommodations will be made for students with documented disabilities, in accordance with the law and university policies. Students requiring special accommodations must register with the University’s Disability Resource Center and produce documentation. Please do this well before the exam or presentation in case alternate arrangements need to be made. If English is your second language, I encourage you to turn in a rough draft of your paper at least one week before it is due. If needed I will recommend that you work with the Writing Center. All papers must be in good standard English. IMPORTANT DATES: Last day to add course: Friday, May 25th Last day to drop course: Thursday, May 31st Graded in-class writing assignment: Wednesday, June 6th Final Paper Due: Thursday, June 14th (in class) Last day of class: Tuesday, June 19th Reading Day: Wednesday, June 20th Final Exam: Thursday, June 21st 12:00-2:15
REQUIRED TEXTS (Available for purchase in the Bookstore, Johnson Center): Paul F. Fabozzi, Artists, Critics, Context: Readings in and Around American Art Since 1945 (Prentice Hall, 2002). David Joselit, American Art Since 1945 (Thames and Hudson, 2003). ________________________________________________________________________ Schedule of Classes: (lectures and readings are subject to change): WEEK ONE May 21 Introduction: What Is Contemporary Art? Course Issues and Themes; Discussion of Syllabus, Course Requirements; Defining Modernism and Postmodernism; What is the “Canon?”, Writing and talking about art: formal and critical analyses May 22 The New York School and the “Triumph” of American Art: Abstract Expressionism (1950s) Readings: Joselit (pgs. 9-32) Fabozzi: Pollock, Greenberg, Rosenberg, and Barr (pgs. 2-3, 10-37) Artists: Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Hans Namuth, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Adolph Gottlieb, Helen Frankenthaler, Cy Twombly, Willem DeKooning, Norman Lewis, Elaine de Kooning May 23 Dada and Marcel Duchamp; Responses to Abstract Expressionism: Neo-Dada, Happenings, Fluxus, The Beats, Funk, Conceptualism, and Assemblage Readings: Joselit 4 (pp. 96-106; 117-127) Fabozzi: Kaprow and Nauman (pp. 60-68, 225-233) Artists: Yves Klein, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Mel Bochner, Robert Barry, Peter Campus, Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner, Yoko Ono, Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik, Joseph Cornell, Romare Bearden, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, John Cage, Bruce Conner, Robert Arneson May 24 Pop Art Readings: Joselit 2 and 3 (pp. 33-95) Fabozzi: Solomon; “What Is Pop Art”; Alloway; and “A Symposium on Pop Art” (pp. 76-85,102-138)
Artists: Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Tom Wesselmann First Class Presentation: TOM WESSELMANN WEEK TWO May 28 (no class, Memorial Day) May 29 Minimalism and Its Legacies Readings: Joselit pgs. 106-115, and 5 (pp. 129-159) Fabozzi: Stella, Judd, Rose, Greenberg, Morris, and Tucker (pp. 168-180, 186208 216-219, 235-243) Artists: Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Donald Judd, David Smith, Tony Smith, Frank Stella, Barnett Newman, Ellsworth Kelly, Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith Second In-class presentation: DAN FLAVIN May 30 Earthworks, Site-Specificity, and Installation Readings: Fabozzi: Smithson, Holt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and Krauss (pp. 247-268, 283-291) Artists: Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, James Turrell, Nancy Holt, Alice Aycock, Mary Miss, Gordon Matta-Clark, Walter de Maria, Richard Serra, Christo and JeanneClaude, Edward Kienholz, Joseph Beuys video: Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty May 31 Performance and Identity Art I Readings: Joselit 6 (pp. 161-191) Fabozzi: Chicago, Piper, Burden, Lippard, and Ghent (pp. 318-346) Artists: Chris Burden, Vito Acconci, Ana Mendieta, Louise Bourgeois, Eleanor Antin, Carolee Schneemann, Laurie Anderson, On Kawara, Adrian Piper, Mary Kelly, Hannah Wilke, , David Hammons, Faith Ringgold In-class presentation: Louise Bourgeois WEEK THREE June 4 Feminist Art and Black Art: Deconstructing Ethnic and Sexual Stereotypes
Reading: Linda Nochlin, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” handed out in class Artists: Judy Chicago, Joan Semmel, Hannah Wilke, Carolee Scheemann, Miriam Schapiro, Guerilla Art Action Group, Betye Saar, Susan Frazier, Vicki Hodgetts, Robin Weltsch,, Ana Mendieta, Yolanda López, Faith Ringgold, David Hammons, Robert Colescott, T.C. Cannon, Judith Baca, Larry Rivers, Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, Romare Bearden, Raymond Saunders, Glenn Ligon June 5 The 1980s Readings: Joselit 7 (pp. 193-240) Fabozzi: Murray; “Expressionism Today”; Rose; Kristol (pp. 381-417) Artists: Philip Guston, Eric Fischl, Leon Golub, Nicholas Africano, Julian Schnabel, Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Keith Haring, Jean Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Chris Ofili, Elizabeth Murray, Jennifer Bartlett, Christian Boltanski, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer June 6 Art Institutional Critiques Readings: Fabozzi: Haacke, Burnham (pp. 308-318, 346-355) Artists: Hans Haacke, Daniel Buren, Louise Lawler, Richard Prince, Sherrie Levine, Fred Wilson, Robert Colescott, Gorilla Art Action Group (GAAG), Mark Dion, Fred Wilson, Ann Hamilton Graded in-class writing assignment June 7 Photography, Commodity Culture, and the Anti-Aesthetic Readings: Fabozzi: Baudrillard, Rey (pp. 484-499) Artists: Weegee, Jeff Wall, Ed Ruscha, Allan Sekula, John Baldessari, David Salle, Martha Rosler, Jenny Holzer, Robert Longo, Richard Artschwager, Gehrard Richter, Haim Steinback, Jeff Koons, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Sophie Calle, Andrea Zittel, Raymond Pettibon, Scott Grieger, Hubert Duprat, Marco Maggi, Victoria Vesna, Gregory Green, Betsy Damon, Xu Bing, Linda Benglis In-class presentation: Diane Arbus WEEK FOUR June 11 Queer Theory online reading: Björn Fritz, “Queerifying Art History” http://www.arthist.lu.se/konstvet/projekt.php?fID=13 Artists: Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Wojnarowicz, Holly Hughes, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Barbara Kruger, Gran Fury, Act Up, Pierre et Gille, Wolfgang Tillman
Fifth In-class presentation: Yasumasa Morimura June 12 Public Art: Politics and Controversy; Memory and Identity reading: Erika Doss, “Contemporary Public Art Controversy: An Introduction” to be handed out in class Artists: Maya Lin, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Rachel Whiteread, Barbara Kruger, Guerilla Girls, Richard Serra, Andres Serranno, Edgar Heap of Birds, James Luna, Amalia MesaBains, Chris Ofili, William Kentridge, Wenda Gu, Mariko Mori, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Pipilotti Rist, Shirin Neshat, Pepon Osorio, Ilya Kabakov, James Hampton June 13 Gender and Identity Politics 2: The Body Artists: Lorna Simpson, Jeanine Antoni, Kara Walker, Nan Goldin, Tony Oursler, Bill Viola, Cindy Sherman, Gilbert and George, Robert Mapplethorpe, Marina Abramovic, Kiki Smith, Damien Hirst, Jake and Dino Chapman, Mike Kelley, Vanessa Beecroft, Robert Gober June 14 The Postmodern Body Artist: Matthew Barney In-class video: Matthew Barney’s Cremaster I, discussion Final Paper due! WEEK FIVE June 18 Revisiting the Real Artists: Chuck Close, Malcolm Morley, Gerhard Richter, Vija Celmins, Richard Estes, Thomas Kinkade, Komar and Melamid June 19 Summation and Final Exam Review June 20 Reading Day: NO CLASS, however I will be available to answer questions from 12-3:30 June 21 Final Exam, 12:00-2:15 Please bring 2 blue books