Postwar to postmodern: American and European art
Annette Van den Bosch
8 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
*
Prerequisites: Two visual arts subjects at first-year level
Objectives At the completion of the subject students should be able to read and interpret current theoretical texts and methodological debates in art history and theory in relation to their own practice.
Synopsis The subject offers a thorough critical introduction to the major tendencies in visual art practice following World War II. While the lectures will trace a sequential logic from abstract expressionism in the later 1940s and early 1950s, through happenings, pop, minimalism, conceptualism and neoexpressionism, to neo-geo and the so-called `commodity art' of the 1980s and early 1990s, key issues in critical and social theory and in art critical/historical methodology will be introduced as appropriate. These include questions around modernism/postmodernism; popular culture, contemporary feminisms, psychoanalysis; the theory of the avant-garde; multiculturalism; and centre-periphery debates in relation to Australia. Students should ensure that they have a working knowledge of the more significant developments in modern art and modernism up to the mid-twentieth century (see Stangos [ed.] below). They might also begin to engage one or more of the critical issues outlined above. Reading in important contemporary magazines and journals including Art Forum, Art News, Art in America, Art and Text, Block, etc. is encouraged.
Assessment second year Seminar paper (2000 words): 35%
* Essay (3000
words): 40%
* Visual test (1.5 hours): 25%
Assessment third year Seminar paper (2000 words): 35%
* Essay (3000
words): 40%
* Visual test (1.5 hours): 25%
* Third-year students will
be expected to read more widely and work at a higher level than second-year
students.
Prescribed texts
Dougherty J (ed.) Postmodernism: A reader Columbia U P, 1993
Fineberg J Art since 1940: Strategies of being Laurence King, 1995
Frascina F and Harris J (eds) Art in modern culture: An anthology of critical texts Phaidon, 1992
Hiller S The myth of primitivism: Perspectives on art Routledge, 1991
Stangos N (ed.) Concepts of modern art Thames and Hudson, 1981
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