Art since 1945
K E Bensley
6 points * One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week * Second semester * Gippsland * Prerequisites: GVA1553 and GVA1554, and prior completion of GVA2553 (Modern Art 1900-1940s) is strongly recommended * Prohibitions: GVA1552
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 visual arts of the Western European tradition from the second half of the twentieth century; that they have developed the capacity to identify, discuss, compare, and appraise examples of the several schools and movements of late modernist and postmodernist art, and that they can demonstrate an understanding of the social, cultural, and theoretical issues and problems relating to prevailing and emerging movements; and that they have an understanding of how twentieth-century art and modes have shaped present-day artistic theory and practice, , and how their own artistic practice is formed and informed by developments in art particularly since 1945.
Synopsis This subject examines developments in international art since World War II, beginning with the New York School and the European School, and proceeding through discussions of pop art, contemporary realisms, recent abstraction, minimalism, kinetic art and conceptualism, to new image and neo-expressionism. Issues such as the `death of modernism', the rise of popular culture, the production of neo-dada and kitsch, the institutionalisation of the `art-world', and problems of regionalism and centrality will be included.
Assessment Two essays (1500 words): 50% * One 2-hour examination: 50%
Preliminary reading
Hughes R The shock of the new: Art and the century of change Thames and Hudson, 1991
Prescribed texts
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
Wheeler D Art since mid-century: 1945 to the present Thames and Hudson, 1991
Recommended texts
Atkins R Art speak: A guide to contemporary ideas, movements and buzzwords Abbeville Press, 1990
Battcock G (ed.) Minimal art. A critical anthology Dutton, 1968
Fineberg J Art Since 1940: Strategies of being Laurence King, 1995
Hertz R Theories of contemporary art Prentice-Hall, 1985
Jencks C Post-modernism: The new classicism in art and architecture Academy, 1987
Norris C and Benjamin A What is deconstruction? Academy, 1988
Sandler I American art of the 1960s Harper and Row, 1988
Wallis B (ed.) Art After modernism: Rethinking representation New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984
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