MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

VSA2230

Australian art: 1880s to the present

L Astbury

Synopsis A study in major issues in Australian art from the 1880s to the present. After some discussion of relevant issues in the nineteenth century, the subject will concentrate on selected themes in twentieth-century art. Themes include the landscape as subject matter and the changing attitudes towards nature; the search for an Australian identity through art practice; the emergence of particular Australian myths; the influence of American abstract art in the 1960s; the manifestation of pluralism and the appearance of feminist art in the 1970s and the return to figuration in the 1980s; and the rise of contemporary Aboriginal art.

Assessment Seminar paper (1500 words): 25% + Essay (3000 words): 50% + Visual test (1.5 hours): 25%

Prescribed texts

• Burn I and others The necessity of Australian art: An essay about interpretation Power, 1988
• Haese R Rebels and precursors Penguin, 1988
• Smith B Australian painting rev. edn, OUP, 1991
• Smith B The critic as advocate OUP, 1989
• Smith B The death of the artist as hero OUP, 1988
• Sturgeon G The development of Australian sculpture, 1788-1975 Thames and Hudson, 1978
• Taylor P (ed.) Anything goes: Art in Australia, 1970-1980 Art and Text, 1984
• White R Inventing Australia: Images and identity 1688-1980 Allen and Unwin, 1981