Modern art 1900-1940s
K E Bensley
6 points * One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week * First semester * Gippsland * Prerequisites: GVA1553 and GVA1554 * Prohibitions: GVA1551
Objectives By the completion of this subject students are expected to have demonstrated that they can recognise key formal and conceptual characteristics of the varieties of modernism in the visual arts of the Western European tradition from the first half of the twentieth century; that they understand the concept of `modernism'; that they can relate the various movements and schools of modern art, and that they are capable of drawing conclusions about the critical influences which informed and produced the various avant-garde styles; and that they have developed such analytical, writing, and communication skills as are necessary for them to engage with key examples of the artworks relevant to the subject on a formal and aesthetic level, as well as discuss a work's content and meaning, and its place and function, within its specific artistic, historical, social, and theoretical context.
Synopsis This subject builds on the idea of modernism introduced in GVA1554 and deals with themes, modes, styles, ideas, and techniques in the European art of the first half of the twentieth century. Issues introduced for critical analysis include new modes of representation, expressionism, abstraction, formalism, and art and ideologies. Particular art movements discussed will include fauvism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, dada, and surrealism. The subject will also consider the modern art which arose in the USA and Australia in the same period.
Assessment Two essays (1500 words): 50% * One 2-hour examination: 50%
Preliminary reading
Hughes R The shock of the new Thames and Hudson, 1991
Prescribed texts
Hamilton G H Painting and sculpture in Europe 1880-1940 Penguin, 1985
Harrison C and Wood P (eds) Art in theory 1900-1990: An anthology of changing ideas Blackwell, 1992
Moszynska A Abstract art Thames and Hudson, 1990
Recommended texts
Golding J Cubism: A history and an analysis Faber, 1986
Goldwater R Primitivism in modern art Harvard U P, 1986
Haese R Rebels and precursors Penguin, 1988
Lipsey R An art of our own: The spiritual in twentieth-century art Shambhala, 1988
Smith B Australian painting rev. edn, OUP, 1990
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