MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Art & Design Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

GVA3551

Theories of art

K E Bensley

Objectives By the completion of this subject students are expected to have demonstrated that they have an understanding of how other forms of knowledge, especially those dervived from psychology, social theory, philosophy and aesthetics, and contemporary critiques of these forms of knowledge, have a bearing on the production and evaluation of contemporary art; that they can confidently produce appropriate critical analyses of contemporary art, including their own, by locating artworks correctly within the context of relevant theory; that they can use conceptual and critical language with accuracy and facility.

Synopsis This subject will examine a range of theoretical and critical approaches to art. The subject will include topics selected from among the following, not all of which will be offered in any given year: classical theories of aesthetics and philosophy of art; contemporary philosophy of art; methodologies of criticism; psychoanalysis and art; the psychology of visual pleasure; the deconstruction of visual pleasure; issues in modernism and postmodernism, including formalism, anti-art and radicalism, feminism and art, the institutionalisation of art, and mass culture. Intending students should consult one of the subject advisers prior to the commencement of the subject for information on the current year's selection of topics and texts.

Assessment Two written papers (one of which may be a seminar paper in the case of internal students) 3000 words each: 50% each

Prescribed texts

• Bryson N and others Visual theory: Painting and interpretation Polity Press, 1991
• Frascina F and Harris J (eds) Art in modern culture: An anthology of critical texts Phaidon/Open University, 1992

Recommended texts

• Alperson P (ed.) The philosophy of the visual arts OUP, 1992
• Appignanesi L (ed.) Postmodernism (ICA documents) Free Association, 1989
• Burger P Theory of the avant-garde, U Minnesota P, 1984
• Foster H (ed.)The anti-aesthetic: Essays in post-modern culture Bay, 1983
• Grosz E Sexual subversions Allen and Unwin, 1989
• Hertz R and Klein N M Twentieth-century art theory: Urbanism, politics, and mass culture Prentice-Hall, 1990
• Lyotard J-F The post-modern condition: A report on knowledge Manchester UP, 1984
• Pollock G Vision and difference: Femininity, feminism and the histories of art Routledge, 1988
• Rees A L and Borzello F (eds) The new art history Camden, 1986
• Rose M The post-modern and the post-industrial: A critical analysis CUP, 1991
• Wallis B (ed.) Art after modernism: Rethinking representation New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984