American and European postwar art, 1945 to the present
Proposed to be offered next in 1996
8 points * 3 hours per week * Second semester * Clayton * Prerequisites: Two visual arts subjects at first-year level
The subject offers a thorough critical introduction to the major avant-garde tendencies in visual art practice following World War II. While the lectures will trace a sequential logic from abstract expressionism in the later 1940s and early 1950s, through happenings, pop, minimalism, conceptualism and neoexpressionism, to neo-geo and the so-called `commodity art' of the 1980s and early 1990s, key issues in critical and social theory and in art critical/historical methodology will be introduced as appropriate. These include questions around modernism/postmodernism; popular culture, contemporary feminisms, psychoanalysis; the theory of the avant-garde; multiculturalism; and centre-periphery debates in relation to Australia. Students should ensure that they have a working knowledge of the more significant developments in modern art and modernism up to the mid-twentieth century (see Stangos [ed.] below). They might also begin to engage one or more of the critical issues outlined above. Reading in important contemporary magazines and journals including Art Forum, Art News, Art in America, Art and Text, Block, etc. is encouraged.
Assessment
Seminar paper (2000 words): 35% * Essay (3000 words): 40% * Visual test (1.5 hours): 25%
Prescribed texts
Dougherty J (ed.) Postmodernism: A reader Columbia UP, 1993
Frascina F and Harrison J (eds) Art in modern culture: An anthology of critical texts Phaidon, 1992
Hiller S The myth of primitivism: Perspectives on art Routledge, 1991
Stangos N (ed.) Concepts of modern art Thames and Hudson, 1981
Varnedoe K and Gopnik K High and low: Modern art and popular culture MOMA/Abrams, 1991
Wheeler D Art since mid-century: 1945 to the present, Prentice-Hall, 1991