Art History R1B, Section 5
Aesthetic Revolutions in the History of Art
Fall 2008
TTh 2-3:30
104 Moffitt Library
Instructor:
Meredith Hoy
Email: dragngrl@hotmail.com
Mailbox: Art History Department Office, 416 Doe Library. M-F 8-12, 1-4.
Please note that handouts and other materials distributed from me to you will be located on the shelf OUTSIDE of the Art History Department office on the 4th floor of Doe Library. Students may submit materials to my mailbox, which is located INSIDE the office to the right of the entrance. Please note the Art History department hours above. I will not check the shelves outside the office so if the door is locked please do not leave materials for me there.
Office Hours: Tuesdays 3:30-4:30, or by appointment.
Location, subject to change, is the Free Speech Movement Café, just next to Moffitt Library.
Course Description:
This course will examine moments of revolution in the history of art. Our recognition of “images,” “pictures,” or “works of art” is dependent upon convention. We must understand the kinds of images we see in artworks not as direct copies of the world, but as mediated interpretations. Interpretations, through repetition, become solidified into pictorial norms that govern the shape and content of images and artworks. However, these norms change according to the historical, geographical, cultural situation of the artist and of the viewer. This course mobilizes the notion of revolution to illustrate how drastic changes to accepted representational norms not only reveal the deeply encoded nature of images, but also expose the infrastructure of images that have come to seem “natural”. Periods of revolution destabilize or even overturn our notions about what counts as a picture, and more generally, what counts as art. If constant repetition of familiar codes of inscription has led us to believe there is one natural or correct way to make images, moments of aesthetic revolution show us that constructed images, ostensibly transparent copies of the world, appear familiar to us only because they reference and draw from existing pictorial conventions.
Throughout the semester, we will draw our source material from a variety of artifacts—paintings, photographs, films, and installations—representative of a series of revolutionary moments and avant-garde movements in art. Although the selections are arranged in a loosely chronological order, this course is not meant to be an exhaustive survey. Rather, I have selected a few movements, including Renaissance Perspectivalism, Impressionism, Cubism, Expressionism, Dada, Pop, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, and Digital Art, that altered viewers’ “ways of seeing” by changing the norms and expanding the boundaries of visual representation.
Over the course of the semester, students will develop the skills to read, interpret, and analyze both texts and artworks. Papers will range from short, descriptive analyses to close readings, to longer exegeses, and will culminate in a research project on a topic of the student’s choosing due by the end of the semester. Frequent blog postings and collaborative group discussions will encourage students to develop effective spoken and written arguments.
Course Requirements:
Participation:
Attendance:
Attendance in this class is absolutely mandatory. The course readings are provided as a jumping-off point for discussion, but they are best understood in relation to one another, and that relationship will require work on my part, as your teacher, and on your part, as textual mapmakers, to trace out through careful analysis. The texts do not stand alone—I will be supplementing the reading with a variety of visual material which will only be covered in class, so you will more successfully avoid frustration and/or cluelessness by attending each discussion.
N.B. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. If a student walks in after attendance has been completed, this will count as a tardy. 3 tardies equals one absence, and 3 absences (unexcused by a doctor’s note or other relevant documentation) will result in a failing grade for participation. If you are going to miss classes or examinations because of religious holidays or extra-curricular scheduling (i.e. you are on a sport team or in the band) you must notify the instructor by the second week of class of all conflicting dates and to recommend a solution, with the understanding that an earlier deadline or date of examination may be the most practicable solution. The student is responsible for informing him or herself of all missed work and assignments. This situation must be discussed with the instructor immediately. This is University policy. An excused absence for any unforeseen conflict must be discussed with me at least one class prior to the class in question. Please note that class participation counts towards 20% of your grade, so failing to attend class will affect your grade adversely.
Reading:
Reading the assigned material for each class meeting will be essential to your understanding of the individual art historical moments covered in this course as well as the complex relationship between these moments. Coming to class unprepared will leave you unable to submit blog posts, to participate effectively in class discussion, or to write interesting and nuanced papers. On the flipside, doing the reading will reveal a host of interesting facets about the topic you might not otherwise pick up in class. In addition, keeping up with the reading will allow you, the students, to direct the discussion to the themes and issues that YOU find most compelling.
Group Discussion:
Discussion in each class session will focus equally on the reading for that day and on relevant artworks and artifacts. I expect each student to engage fully and actively in the dialog each day. Writing blog posts and reading your fellow students posts should set the wheels turning in your head. You might want to come in each day with questions about the reading or about other students’ interpretation of the reading. If you think of questions or issues you want to address after you submit your blog post, I encourage you to jot down a few notes so you remember to raise your point(s) in class.
I also encourage both the discussion leader/presenter and other students in the class to bring in examples of artworks or artifacts they might discover online, in magazines, in newspapers, or simply walking down the street that seem to relate (even loosely) to the topic at hand or topics we’ve already covered. You are welcome to submit these on the blog, to bring in handouts to the class session, or even just to jot down a hyperlink for me to pull up on my computer in class. E.g., you might see a mural that strikes a chord in you during your daily travels between classes or to meals. You could feel free to snap a picture of it with your phone and post it to the blog. In another scenario, you might see an artifact image that seems cool and relevant on another blog or newsfeed. You could either post the link online or just tell me what it is the day of class.
Be sure to ALWAYS ask questions—you may feel like your question is off-point, or that it’s a stupid question. But, I am a firm believer that there are no stupid questions. If you are unclear about some aspect of the reading or discussion, chances are another student in the class is having the same problem but also feels reticent to voice his or her confusion.
My basic policy regarding class etiquette is mutual respect: if you are someone who talks incessantly, keep tabs on this and check yourself if you find that you are always talking before or over other students. Wait for others to formulate their own thoughts before you start talking. Conversely, if you are a very shy person, try saying something every class—you don’t have to recite the Iliad or give a 10 minute exegesis on why Heidegger is a more important philosopher than Kant, but you will find that the more you try to contribute the easier it will be to know that you are capable of offering insight and/or clarifying questions to the rest of the class (and to me!).
Student-Led Discussion:
Once per semester, each student will be responsible for reading the blog posts from the night before and offering a synthesis of the both the assigned reading and the overall trajectory, strengths, and weaknesses of the collected student responses. This is also a perfect time to force yourselves to bring in outside resources and examples that you find in your day-to-day life. Presenting the material in this fashion is, again, a way to focus on the aspects of the topic that strike you rather than waiting for me, the instructor to always take the lead. The grade for this presentation exercise will be factored into the participation grade for the semester.
Blog Posts/Homework:
The night before each class meeting, students will be required to submit a post to our class blog. These posts do not have to be very long, and can range from 2 paragraphs to 2 pages, but I want to see evidence in them that you are not only making a sincere effort to understand the overall trajectory of the reading for that day, but that you are grappling actively with the issues brought up by these texts and artworks. I.e., don’t simply regurgitate, but see this as an opportunity to enter into a dialog with the text, the artworks, your peers, and me. You may feel free to ask questions in your post—I do not expect that these assignments will demonstrate mastery, but rather that the blog will give you a forum to start asking questions and to begin talking to each other. This will be an exercise for you to develop your inquisitiveness about new issues that you may have never considered before. You don’t have to worry about constructing a formal argument, as you would in an essay. Instead, this writing can be quite free-form, and is assigned with the goal that it will exercise your thinking-speaking-interpreting brain BEFORE class begins that day.
The blog URL is:
http://aestheticrevolutions.blogspot.com/
Here are some guidelines for blog posts:
* You may focus your response on the text for the day, on the artworks included in the text, or, ideally, on a combination of both.
* This is not a paper. You may be informal, if you wish, but this does not mean you can sacrifice grammar or structure. Write about your reactions and feelings about the piece. These are a good reference for when you are brainstorming for paper topics.
* The essays should be approximately 1 page in length (a little less or more is fine - if you want to write more, go ahead, but writing more doesn’t necessarily make your response better).
* Do not just describe the piece; try to analyze it. Underscore the central issues at hand—for example, how does political/economic/social context inform the artwork or even produce a certain type of art? What are some of the formal qualities of the artworks that make this moment different from preceding ones? How might one genre of art be responding to or conversing with older models?
* Don’t dismiss the work. If it is “boring” think about why it is boring. What might the function of boredom be in the piece? (This goes for other judgments as well as pretty, violent, disgusting, etc.)
* Try to make an argument.
* Post your response no later than midnight of the Monday or Wednesday before class. You may respond to the postings by your classmates, but do not simply copy them. Rather, think of this written interaction as form of conversation and/or dialog.
Papers:
The written work for this class will consist of, essentially, six papers—three drafts and three final revisions, the due dates for which are listed in the syllabus below. Each of the three papers will go through an extensive revision process. On the day the first draft is due, we will workshop the papers in class, so that you can not only find out the approach your peers are taking to the material, but also receive feedback and suggestions from more than one reader. To that end, each time a paper is due, please bring two copies, one for me and one for a peer editor.
Peer editing can be an extremely useful exercise; articulating the strengths and weak links or gaps in a peer’s argument not only helps him/her construct a coherent, thoughtful, and interesting essay, but it can also aid your own development as a writer to see the evolution of texts written by students at your level. Published academic papers are not produced out of a vacuum—everyone from college freshmen to distinguished professors must revise, rethink, and receive external feedback to produce the kind of polished document you see in the authoritative texts you read for class. On the days selected for peer editing, we will also spend time as a group discussing how to write a successful paper about visual material and the theoretical analysis of this material, and we will work on strategies for constructing a watertight argument.
After you discuss the first drafts of each paper with your peers and receive your graded draft from me, you will be expected to rewrite the first draft and to turn in a streamlined, polished final draft, each of which will be one page longer than the first draft to allow for additions and further thinking on your chosen topic. Rewriting does not entail a scan of my corrections and alterations of a few words here and there. You might need to start from scratch, or select the most promising sections of the paper and build them into a larger argument. It can be scary to jettison writing or to restructure in its entirety an essay in which you’ve invested valuable time and effort, but it is good to learn early on to take a more distanced approach to your writing so that you can recognize the assets and weaknesses of a paper, and revise accordingly.
The final paper will consist of an eight-page research project on a topic of your choosing, to be approved in advance by me. Your topic should (of course) be related to the narratives and questions covered in the course, but the most important quality I look for in my students’ work is excitement and interest in their argument(s). If you approach writing as a boring exercise, and write simply “what you think I want to hear”, you will be irritated and lackluster, and this will show up in your writing. Conversely, if as you read and participate in class discussion you find yourself mulling over a particular question, or if you find one small piece of information compelling, you might find yourself becoming at least somewhat enthusiastic about your research, and as a result, you’ll be happier, your readers will be happier, and then everything just goes better for everyone.
N.B. You must complete all assignments to pass this course. Failure to complete any portion of an assignment will result in failure of the entire course.
Late Papers:
Papers are due at the beginning of class on the day they are due. Late papers will not be accepted. If you need an extension this must be worked out with me at least a week in advance of the due date.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarizing on any paper is grounds for expulsion from UC Berkeley. Be aware that any student who plagiarizes will automatically fail the course. For information about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult UC Berkeley resources. Here is an external link to a webpage discussing plagiarism: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/plagiarism.html
Grading:
Homework assignments/Blog Posts: 15 points (1 pt. each)
Papers:
Paper #1 Draft 4 pts
Paper #1 Final 6 pts
Total: 10
Paper #2 Draft 8 pts
Paper #2 Final 12 pts
Total: 20
Paper #3 Draft 15 pts
Paper #3 Final 20 pts
Total: 35
Participation 20 pts
Required Texts:
Rosenwasser, David and Stephen, Jill. Writing Analytically. (Marked TB in schedule).
A course reader will be available starting the first day of class at University Copy, located in the ugly orange parking structure on Channing at Telegraph. Selections from the course reader are marked (CR) in the schedule of readings.
Schedule:
Week I:
Thursday, August 28
Intro, Hand Out Syllabus
Week II: What is an Image?
Tuesday, September 2
E.H Gombrich: “Pygmalion’s Power.” From Art and Illusion. (CR)
Thursday, September 4
Whitney Davis: “Beginning the History of Art.” (CR)
Homework: Response #1
In Class: Student Led Discussion #1
Week III: Renaissance Perspective
Tuesday, September 9
Erwin Panofsky: Perspective as Symbolic Form. (Selections) (CR)
Thursday, September 11
Martin Jay: “Scopic Regimes of Modernity.” From Vision and Visuality. (CR)
Homework: Response #2
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #2
Week IV: Impressionism
Tuesday, September 16
David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen: “Chapter 1: Analysis: What it is and What it Does.” From Writing Analytically. (TB)
Homework: Art Analysis Paragraphs (Post on Blog)
In-class exercise: Discuss what works and what doesn’t in student writing samples.
Thursday, September 18
Paul Smith: “Defining Impressionism.” From Impressionism: Beneath the Surface. (CR)
Homework: Response #3
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #3
Week V: Cezanne
Tuesday, September 23
Richard Shiff: “Seeing Cezanne”. From Cezanne and the End of Impressionism. (CR)
Homework: Response #4
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #4
Thursday, September 25
Rosenwasser and Stephen: “Chapter 4: Interpretation: What It Is, What It Isn’t, And How To Do It.” From Writing Analytically. (TB)
Essay #1 Draft Due: 2pp Descriptive Argument
Week VI: Neo-Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism
Tuesday, September 30
Meyer Schapiro: “Seurat.” From Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries. (CR)
Stephen Eisenman: “Mass Culture and Utopia: Seurat and Neoimpressionism.” From Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. (CR)
Homework: Response #5
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #5
Thursday, October 2
J.M. Nash. “Cubism, Futurism, and Constructivism.” From Modern Art: Impressionism to Post-Modernism. (CR)
Homework: Response #6
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #6
Week VII: The Readymade and Abstract Expressionism
Tuesday, October 7
Pierre Cabanne: Duchamp &Co. (excerpts). (CR)
Essay #1 Final Due: 3pp (incorporating lessons from Writing Analytically).
Thursday, October 9
Anthony Everitt: “Abstract Expressionism.” From Modern Art: Impressionism to Post-Modernism.
Homework: Response #7
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #7
Week VIII: Photography
Tuesday, October 14
Rosenwasser and Stephen. “Chapter 7: What Evidence is and How it Works.” From Writing Analytically. (TB)
Thursday, October 16
André Bazin: “The Ontology of the Photographic Image.” From What is Cinema? Vol. 1 (CR)
Siegfried Kracauer: “Photography”. From The Mass Ornament. (CR)
Essay #2 Draft Due: 4pp Analytic Essay/Close Reading
Week IX: Pop and Painting
Tuesday, October 21
David Hopkins: “Blurring Boundaries: Pop Art, Fluxus and their Effects.” From After Modern Art: 1945-2000. (CR)
Homework: Response #8
In Class: Student Led Discussion #8
Thursday, October 23
Frank Reijnders: “Painting: A State of Utter Idiocy?” From Painting Pictures: Painting and Media in the Digital Age. (CR)
Homework: Response #9
In Class: Student Led Discussion #9
Week X: Research and Writing Skills
Tuesday, October 28
Research Day in Doe Library
Thursday, October 30
Rosenwasser and Stephen. From Writing Analytically. (TB)
“Chapter 9: Making a Thesis Evolve.”
“Chapter 12: Recognizing and Fixing Weak Thesis Statements.”
Essay #2 Final Due: 5pp Analytic Essay/Close Reading
Week XI: Minimalism and Conceptual Art
Tuesday, November 4
David Hopkins: “Modernism in Retreat: Minimalist Aesthetics and Beyond.” From After Modern Art: 1945-2000. (CR)
Homework: Response #10
In Class: Student Led Discussion #10
Thursday, November 6
David Hopkins: “The Death of the Object: The Move to Conceptualism.” From After Modern Art: 1945-2000. (CR)
Homework: Response #11
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #11
Week XII: Research Week
Tuesday, November 11
HOLIDAY!! NO CLASS
Thursday, November 13
Research Proposals Due, Individual Meetings
Week XIII: Contemporary Art
Tuesday, November 18
Briony Fer: “Introduction” and “Infinity.” From The Infinite Line: Remaking Art After Modernism. (CR)
Homework: Response #12
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #12
Thursday, November 20
Rosenwasser and Stephen. “Chapter 10: Structuring the Paper: Forms and Formats.” From Writing Analytically. (TB)
Essay #3 Draft Due: 6pp Research Paper
Week XIV: The Digital Image
Tuesday, November 25
William J. Mitchell: The Reconfigured Eye. (Selections) (CR)
Homework: Response #13
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #13
Thursday, November 27
THANKSGIVING BREAK!! NO CLASS!!
Week XV: Digital Image Cont’d
Tuesday, December 2
Bernard Stiegler: “The Discrete Image.” From Echographies of Television. (CR)
Homework: Response #14
In Class: Student-Led Discussion #14
Thursday, December 4
Matthew Fuller: “The Camera That Ate Itself.” From Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture. (CR)
Homework: Response #15
Student-Led Discussion #15
Week XVI: Wrap it Up!
Tuesday, December 9
Last Day of Class!! Hand in Final Papers, Evals Etc
Essay #3 Final Due: 7-8pp Research Paper
