Art criticism and theory in the 20th century
2 points * One 1-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week * First semester * Caulfield
Objectives On successful completion of this subject students will have a clear understanding of the evolution of Western art and its critical evaluation post 1940; an appropriate skills in research and communication through the preparation of an individual research project; the ability to integrate concepts gained from this study into the process of individual creative development.
Synopsis The subject provides a study of the development of the visual arts and their critical evaluation in the USA, West, post-1940. The major part of the subject is concerned with the development of modern art criticism with a focus on recent and contemporary issues. The critical evaluation of innovative and radical tendencies in the writing of critics such as L Steinberg, C Greenberg, J Canaday and R Hughes will be discussed in relation to the primary evidence of the visual image. Students are encouraged to study contemporary criticism and to relate the content of the subject to their own creative interests.
Assessment Research project (3000 words): 60% * Seminar paper (1500 words): 40%
Prescribed texts
Arnason H H A History of modern art Thames and Hudson, 1985
Lucie-Smith E Late modern: The visual arts since 1943 Praeger, 1976
Recommended texts
Burger P Theory of the avant-garde U Minnesota P, 1984
Burn I Dialogue Allen and Unwin, 1991
Canaday J Culture gulch Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1969
Gablick S Has modernism failed? Thames and Hudson, 1985
Hughes R Nothing if not critical Collins-Harvill, 1990
Steinberg L Other criteria: Confrontations with twentieth century art OUP, 1972
Wallis B (ed.) Art after modernism: Rethinking representation New Museum of Contemporary Arts, 1984
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