European art 1900-1940
Proposed to be offered next in 1996
8 points * 3 hours per week * First semester * Clayton * Prerequisites: Two visual arts subjects at first-year level
The major movements of the European avant-garde 1900-1940 will be discussed and assessed in relation to questions of social history, national identity, technical developments in painting, sculpture and exhibition design, and the history of technology. The subject will be responsive to significant issues and debates that in part constructed the conditions of visual modernism: formalism versus materialism; autonomy; war; modernist utopias; the communicative potential of abstraction; the rappel à l'ordre; industrial production and the machine, with reference to American modernism and design; revolutionary socialism; the unconscious. Movements discussed will include fauvism, cubism, futurism, vorticism, expressionism, dada, surrealism, orphism and neue sachlicheit. Students are advised to familiarise themselves with a good outline of the main developments in visual art 1900-1940 (see Stangos [ed.] below) so that they can better understand the relative complexity of the issues at stake.
Assessment
Seminar paper (2000 words): 35% * Essay (3000 words): 40% * Visual test (1.5 hours): 25%
Prescribed texts
Chadwick W Women, art and society Thames and Hudson, 1990
Chipp H B (ed.) Theories of modern art U California P, 1968
Frascina F and Harrison J (eds) Art in modern culture: An anthology of critical texts Phaidon, 1992
Goldwater R Primitivism in modern art Harvard UP, 1986
Hertz R and Klein N Twentieth century art theory: Urbanism, politics and mass culture Prentice-Hall, 1990
Stangos N (ed.) Concepts of modern art Thames and Hudson, 1981