VSA2130

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 To enable students to understand the transitions between modernism and postmodernism that are represented in the art practices and theoretical concerns of artists in the major metropolitan centres. For students to develop concepts and critiques of the major aesthetic tendencies and their relationships to the metropolitan artworld and market; to identify the pressures and resistances to the commodification of the art object, and influence on artforms; to recognise the cultural convergence of art and media practices, and the implications for an analysis of the postmodern; to critique corporate and institutional effects on artworks and artists; to debate concepts of the postmodern in critical theory.

Synopsis The subject offers a critical introduction to the major artistic movements and tendencies in visual arts practice in the post war period. The topics for lectures and tutorials will not follow a strict chronological sequence. Topics cover important historical tendencies from when they emerge to the present. The focus is on introducing new forms of art practice and the critical concepts as they developed in particular countries, making comparisons with other related movements and examining the basis of contemporary critical issues. Central questions are modernism/postmodernism, the art world and the art market, artist's careers and reputations, feminist art practice, the institutions of the international art world, art writing and criticism, postcolonial debates, marginalisation and appropriation in contemporary culture.

Assessment Seminar paper (2000 words): 35%
* Essay (3000 words): 40%
* Visual test (1.5 hours): 25%

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