TAD2205*

Women, art and social context 2A

6 points - 2 hours lectures/tutorials per week - First semester - Caulfield - Prerequisites: TAD1101 and TAD1102 - Prohibitions:TAD2215, VSA2150, VSA3150 - Elective

Objectives On successful completion of this subject, students should appreciate the significant contribution women have made to the cultural production of the past and continue to make, as artistic producers, agents and consumers; understand the various factors that affect women's social and professional position as both artists and women and consider them in the context of contemporary feminist theory; have developed the capacity to identify, compare and appraise examples of works of several women artists; recognise particular stylistic characteristics and formal modes, as well as iconographic and thematic concerns of individual women artists and consider the social pressures acting to promote them; be able to discuss the work of women artists in historical, artistic and socio-political contexts and theorise the basis for their historical marginalisation.

Synopsis By focusing on key figures from various periods and countries, their family and social contexts, careers, material conditions of their artistic practice, patronage networks and critical reception, this subject examines how social, political, economic and ideological factors have impacted on women's art production and artistic success. This interdisciplinary, contextual approach analyses the specific historical determinants and material conditions that structure the social position of these subjects both as artists and as women. Issues concerning the relationship between women's artistic practice and the dominant (male) tradition are considered: education and training; access to, and membership of, official institutions such as academic guilds and art life schools; life drawing and the relevance of artistic discourse and theory to their practice; workshop practices and organisation (structural, logistic, economic); social position and the role of women; class and gender; and female aesthetics and imagery.

Assessment Tutorial paper: 20% - Essay: 40% - Visual test: 40%

Prescribed texts

Berger J Ways of seeing Penguin, 1979
Broude N and Garrard M (eds) Feminism and art history: Questioning the litany Harper and Row, 1982
Chadwick W Women, art and society Thames and Hudson, 1990
Chadwick W and Cortivon I (eds) Significant others: Creativity and intimate partnerships Thames and Hudson, 1993
Greer G The obstacle of race 1979
Nochlin L Women, art, and power and other essays Thames and Hudson, 1989
Pollock G Vision and difference: Femininity, feminism and the histories of art Routledge, 1988
Pollock G and Parker R Old mistresses: Women art and ideology Pantheon, 1982
Sutherland-Harris A Women artists 1500-1975

Back to the 1999 Art and Design Handbook