Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Synopsis Current issues and figures in art will be discussed with the intention of addressing both the practice and criticism of recent art. Areas of study will include: neo-expressionism and figurative art in the 1980s (with discussion of the Zeitgeist exhibition of 1982); the related focus on Neo-primitivism; feminist practice and criticism in the 1980s; the shifting centres of the 1980s - Germany and Italy; theoretical positions in the 1980s with reference to Lacan, Baudrillard, Derrida, and others; institutions and their critics; the role of the museum and private gallery; the stance of Post-modernism - political and social critiques of arts; a consideration of shifts in practice from the 1970s to the 1980s will focus on the reputation of such artists as Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer and American artists Robert Morris and Frank Stella and Cindie Sherman.
Assessment Class paper (1500 words): 40% + Research essay (4500 words): 60%