HARC E-190: ART SINCE 1940 (22908)
Spring 2016
Dr. Cynthia Fowler
Phone: 617-989-4246
Email: fowlecy@emmanuel.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday, 7:30 PM; or by appointment
Course Description: This course examines the major art movements spanning the time period from 1940 to the present. After a consideration of modern abstraction, exemplified in paintings by artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, we immediately begin to consider the serious and consistent challenges to modern art. By 1970, a full-fledged attack on modernism was well under way; we will consider the shifting perspectives on art that motivated this attack. Movements for consideration will include minimalism, process art, pop art, and appropriation art to name a few. The course will end with an examination of emerging art movements of the twenty-first century, particularly in relation to the impact of globalization on art and the predominance of socially engaged art as a new art practice.
Course Objectives:
- An introduction to major art movements from 1940 to the present and the key artists associated them.
- An examination of key works of art from these movements informed by formal, cultural and historical analysis of them.
- A consideration of the various methodologies used by art historians to evaluate works of art through the assigned readings.
Required Text:
Fineberg, Jonathan. Art Since 1940: Strategies for Being. Third edition. New York: Harry Abrams, 2011.
Required Online Reading:
Becker, Carol. "Microutopias: Public Practice in the Public Sphere." In Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011. Nato Thompson, ed. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2012.
Belisle, Brooke. "Felt Surface, Visible Image: Lorna Simpson's Photography and the Embodiment of Appearance." Photography & Culture 4, no. 2 (July 2011): 157- 78.
Chave, Anna. "Minimalism and Biography." In Reclaiming Female Agency: Feminist Art History After Postmodernism. Norma Broude and Mary Garrard, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Folland, Tom. "Robert Rauschenberg's Queer Modernism: The Early Combines and Decoration." The Art Bulletin 92, no. 4 (December 2010): 348-365.
Jaskot, Paul. “Gerhard Richter and Adolf Eichmann.” Oxford Art Journal 28.3 (2005): 459-478.
Katz, Jonathan. "'The Senators Were Revolted': Homophobia and the Culture Wars." In A Companion to Contemporary Art Since 1945. Amelia Jones, ed. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester, 2006.
Kunimoto, Namiko. "Tanaka Atsuko's Electric Dress and the Circuits of Subjectivity." Art Bulletin 95, no. 3 (Sept. 2013): 465-487.
Lauzon, Claudette. "What the Body Remembers: Rebecca Belmore's Memorial to Missing Women." In Precarious Visualities: New Perspectives on Identification in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture. Olivier Asselin et al, eds. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008.
McLean, Ian. "Post-War Poetics: Postmodern Appropriation Art in Australia." Art History 37, no. 4 (Sept. 2014): 628-647.
Ravenal, John. "Shirin Neshat: Double Vision." In Reclaiming Female Agency: Feminist Art History After Postmodernism. Norma Broude and Mary Garrard, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Roberts, Jennifer. “Landscapes of Indifference: Robert Smithson and John Lloyd Stephens in Yucatan.” Art Bulletin 82.2 (Sept. 2000): 544-567.
Course Requirements
Undergraduate Course Requirements
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Exams: Midterm Exam, March 9; Final Exam, May 11
- Response paper (2 pages)
- For one of the online reading assignments from before the midterm, you must provide an analysis of the argument presented by the author. First, do a very close reading of the article. What is the main argument? What evidence is provided to support this argument? Are you convinced of the author’s perspective based on the evidence presented?
- Students should be prepared to discuss each article in class on the assigned day for the reading.
- Due: On the assigned day for the reading (no late papers accepted)
- Review of the exhibition Walid Raad at the Institute of Contemporary Art
- Your paper should be a review of the Walid Raad exhibition.
- Additional instructions on writing an exhibition review are attached with this syllabus
- For information on the exhibition, go to: http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/walid-raad
- Exhibition opens of February 24
- Paper should be 3 double-spaced pages
- Paper due: March 23
- Research Paper
- Paper should be 5 double-spaced pages
- The subject of your paper should be a single work of art that is of interest to you
- Your paper should include:
- Formal Analysis
- Your paper should include a full description of your selected work based on your own observation
- Scholarly Research
- Your research should include at least 2 scholarly sources published since 1990 that provide with a better understanding of your selected work.
- At least one of your sources should be a book.
- Your source article should be at least 10 pages long.
- Discussion and Analysis
- Your paper should discuss and analyze the ways in which your research has enhanced your understanding of your selected work
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Thesis statement and annotated bibliography due: March 30
- Indicate the artist and work you have selected.
- Describe your thesis in one paragraph (i.e. explain what you plan to argue in your paper).
- For each of your sources, provide a two to three sentence description of how this source will aid you in exploring your thesis.
- Paper due: April 27
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Class Attendance and Participation: Students are required to attend all class meetings and take notes on lectures, since not all material covered in class will be in the course text. Students should have assigned readings completed before class meetings so they will be able to ask questions about the readings and participate in class discussions.
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Undergraduate Grading: Midterm, 25% of grade; final, 25%; response paper, 5%; 3-page exhibition review, 15%; annotated bibliography, 5%; and 5-page research paper, 25%.
Graduate Course Requirements
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Exams: Graduate students are not required to take the exams.
- Review of the exhibition Walid Raad at the Institute of Contemporary Art
- Your paper should be a review of the Walid Raad exhibition.
- Additional instructions on writing an exhibition review are attached with this syllabus
- For information on the exhibition, go to: http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/walid-raad
- Exhibition opens of February 24
- After viewing the exhibition, do some research on the artist. Based on your own research, does the way that the artist is discussed in the show seem appropriate to you?
- Your paper should include:
- An examination of the curator's thesis
- Your own evaluation of the appropriateness of this thesis based on your own research.
- Paper should be 5 double-spaced pages
- Paper due: March 23
- Response papers (2 pages each)
- For two of the online reading assignments from before the midterm, you must provide an analysis of the argument presented by the author. First, do a very close reading of the article. What is the main argument? What evidence is provided to support this argument? Are you convinced of the author’s perspective based on the evidence presented?
- Graduate students especially should be prepared to discuss the articles in class on the assigned day for the reading.
- Due: On the assigned day for the reading (no late papers accepted)
- Graduate Research Paper
- Graduate students will be required to complete a 15-page paper on a topic to be determined in collaboration with me.
- All graduate students must schedule at least one meeting with me to discuss their paper topic.
- The paper must include primary sources and original analyses of your selected topic as well as comprehensive, scholarly research on your topic.
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Annotated Bibliography Due: March 30
- Your annotated bibliography should include: a preliminary thesis statement on your selected topic; at least 10 scholarly sources published since 1990; and two to three sentences for each source that explain the value of this source for understanding your topic.
- Paper due: May 4
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Class Presentation: Graduate students must do a 15-munute instructional class presentation geared toward the undergraduates in the course. Topics must be related to the course content for the week of your presentation. Ideally, your presentation will be related to your research topic, but this is not a requirement. A sign-up sheet will be available beginning on the first day of class.
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Class Attendance and Participation: Graduate students are expected to participate in class discussions more actively than undergraduates. With this in mind, I will look to graduate students particularly for comments on assigned readings, so please come to class having read the assigned reading for the day. Overall, I will expect graduate students to demonstrate a commitment to the course content through their comments and insights during class.
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Graduate Grading: 5-page exhibition review, 15%; response papers, 5% each; annotated bibliography, 5%; 15-page research paper, 40%; class presentation, 20%; and class participation, 10%.
Academic Honesty and Plagiarism:
Duplicate Assignments: Students are expected to submit work that is done solely for each course in which they enroll. Prior written permission of all instructors is required if students wish to submit the same or similar work in more than one course.
Inappropriate collaboration: Collaboration on assignments is prohibited unless explicitly permitted by the instructor. When collaboration is permitted, students must acknowledge all collaboration and its extent in all submitted work.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work. It is the incorporation of facts, ideas, or specific language that are not common knowledge, are taken from another source, and are not properly cited.
Whether a student copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly acknowledging the source, the theft is the same. In the preparation of work submitted to meet course requirements, students must take great care to distinguish their own ideas and language from information derived from sources. Sources include published and unpublished primary and secondary materials, the Internet, and information and opinions of other people.
Extension School students are responsible for following the standards of proper citation to avoid plagiarism. Two useful sources are Writing with Sources: A Guide for Harvard Students and Writing with Internet Sources, prepared by Harvard’s Expository Writing Program. Writing with Sources: A Guide for Harvard Students is available in the Research Help section of the Grossman Library website. (Log in with your Harvard ID number, and select “Research Help” from the menu on the left.) Hard copies of both of these publications are available at 51 Brattle Street and are on reserve at Grossman Library. For more information, see the Expository Writing Program’s Writing Resources.
Assignments: Late papers will be accepted only if students have received prior approval for late submissions. Make-up exams will only be given for reasons of ill health and personal emergency. Except in case of emergency, students must give 24-hour notice if they will miss an exam.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Jan. 27 Introduction—Abstract Expressionism and High Modernism
Reading: Fineberg, Chs. 4, 5 & 6
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Feb. 3 Pop Art in England and America
Reading: Fineberg, Ch. 7 & 9
Online reading: Folland, "Robert Rauschenberg's Queer Modernism"
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Feb. 10 Minimalism—Process Art—Conceptual Art
Reading: Fineberg, Ch. 10
Online reading: Chave, "Minimalism and Biography"
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Feb. 17 Postmodern Art—The Roots of Performance Art
Reading: Fineberg, Ch. 8
Online reading: Kunimoto, "Tanaka Atsuko's Electric Dress and the Circuits of Subjectivity"
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Feb. 24 Earth Art—Installation Art
Reading: Fineberg, Ch. 11
Online reading: Roberts, "Landscapes of Indifference"
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Mar. 2 Feminist Art—The Culture Wars
Reading: Fineberg, Ch. 12
Online reading: Katz, "'The Senators Were Revolted'"
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Mar. 9 MIDTERM EXAM (undergraduates)
DISCUSSION GROUP (graduate students)
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Mar. 16 Spring Break—No class
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Mar. 23 The Return of Painting in the 70s and 80s
Reading: Fineberg, Ch. 13
Online reading: Jascot, “Gerhard Richter and Adolf Eichmann”
Graduate presentation: Becca
Due: Review of Walid Raad at ICA (undergrads and grad students)
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Mar. 30 Performance Art
Online reading: Lauzon, "What the Body Remembers: Rebecca Belmore's Memorial to Missing Women."
Due: Thesis statement and annotated bibliography (undergrads and grad students)
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Apr. 6 Appropriation and NeoConceptual Art
Reading: Fineberg, Ch. 14
Online reading: McLean, "Post-War Poetics"
Graduate presentation: Justine
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Apr. 13 Street Art/Video Art and Digital Photography
Online reading: Ravenal, "Shirin Neshat: Double Vision"
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Apr. 20 Pluralism in the 1990s
Reading: Fineberg, Chs. 15 & 16
Online reading: Belisle, "Felt Surface, Visible Surface"
Graduate presentation: Martina
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Apr. 27 Globalization and 21st Century Art
Online reading: Becker, "Microutopias: Public Practice in the Public Sphere"
Graduate presentation: Erica
Due: Undergraduate research paper
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May 4 The 21st Century Continued
Graduate presentation: Louise
Artist presentations
Undergraduate study group
Due: Graduate research papers
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May 11 FINAL EXAM
Review of Walid Raad at the Institute of Contemporary Art
Guidelines for the Review
For more information, go to: http://www.icaboston.org
When curators put together an exhibition, they are usually trying to convey a message to the viewer about the selected works on display. To review this exhibition successfully, try to determine the main point(s) presented by the curators (the museum staff that put together the exhibition) and the success with which the curators have conveyed this point to the viewer through selection of art work on display, the text on the walls, the layout of the exhibition, supporting materials related to the art, and anything else that you consider to be relevant in making your assessment.
When visiting the exhibition, ask yourself the following questions?
(NOTE: Use these questions as a guide. Your paper should be organized as an essay, rather than arranged around answering each question specifically.)
- How is the exhibition organized overall?
- How much text is on the wall as a guide for the viewer?
- What kinds of issues are being discussed in the text?
- In addition to the art, what other objects are being used to enhance your museum experience?
- Based on the evidence you examined at the exhibition, what do you believe are some of the central points that the curators want you to take away with you?
Try to be as specific as possible in documenting how this information is being conveyed to you.
When writing your paper, be sure to assess the success of the curators in conveying information to you and in presenting their arguments:
- Were the curators clear in conveying what they wanted you to know?
- Did the curators succeed in accomplishing their stated purpose?
- Overall, what did you learn about the subject as a result of the exhibition that you consider to be important in your understanding of art, art history, and/or significant issues for today?
Finally, don't forget to pay close attention to the works on display. Your paper should include a discussion of a few of the specific works included in the exhibition. So when walking through the exhibition be sure to write down the titles of works and the years that they were made. That being said, this paper is an evaluation of the success of the curator in conveying a message about these works rather than an evaluation of the works themselves.
Enjoy!