ART 119.02

Latin American Women Artists: (1900 to the present)

Mondays: 7:00-9:30 PM

DYCA, Lecture Hall 106

Lisandra Estevez, Adjunct Lecturer

Office Location:DYCA, 113B

Office Hours:Mondays, 5:00-6:00 pm

Email:

Course Description:

This course focuses on the contributions made by Latin American womenartists to modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, andinstallation art in major centers in Mexico, Central and South America,and the Caribbean and the United States from the early twentieth century

to the present. Major artists include Frida Kahlo, Tina Modotti,Remedios Varo, Maria Izquierdo, Amelia Pelaéz, and Ana Mendieta.

Course Goals:

This course will provide a survey of paintings, sculpture, photographs, and installations by major Latin American women artists(from Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, the Caribbean, and United States). We willfocuson theoretical issues such as gender, marginality, cultural identity/politics, the “high art/low art” dichotomy, and the subversion and thequestioning of prevailing conventions of European art.

Each week you will receive a list of required works, readings and vocabulary that will be discussed in class; the suggested bibliography provided in these lists will also be a useful reference as you prepare your research papers.

Class Format & Course Requirements:

This class will consist primarily of lectures as well as in-class discussions and short, group presentations on the reading. A midterm, a research paper (6-8 pp. typed) and a final exam will be required. There will also one short response paper (2-3 pp. typed) based on your reading assignments. Suggested topics for the paper will be provided and an outline and annotated bibliography will also be required before the paper is due. Active, intelligent, enthusiastic class participation is strongly encouraged.

In order to contribute to class discussion, you must complete the assigned reading before every class. You can retrieve each week’s images by going to theK: //drive on Drew’s NetStorage system.

Methods of Assessment:

* Annotated bibliography & outline for research paper (due Mon, Oct. 27th)10%

* 1 response paper (due Mon, Nov. 10th)10%

* 1 research paper (due Mon, Nov. 24th)20%

* 1 midterm exam (due Mon, Oct. 20th)20%

* 1 final exam (date to be announced)30%

* Class participation & presentation10%

TOTAL: 100%

Assessment and Grading: The method of grading is A - F. Numeric equivalents for letter grades are: A (100-94); A- (93-90); B+ (89-86); B (85-83); B- (82-80); C+ (79-77); C (76-74); C- (73-71); D+ (70-68).; D (67-64); D- (63-61); F (60 and under). Your work will be assigned both a letter and numeric grade.

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Attendance:

This course meets once per week (one lecture period). Consistent and punctual attendance is expected and will be recorded at the beginning of each class. Two, undocumented absences and/or excessive tardiness will result in the lowering of your final grade by one half of a letter grade; three unexcused absences warrant automatic failure.NB: Three tardies (over 15-20 minutes late) count as one absence. A make-up will be given only for an exam missed due to a medical or other serious problem documented in writing by a physician or other relevant professional. Late assignments will receive reduced grades (grade lowered by a full letter grade each day that it is late).

Academic Accommodations: Should you require academic accommodations, you must file a request with the Office of Educational Affairs (BC 114, extension 3327). It is your responsibility to self-identify with the Office of EducationalAffairs and to provideme with the appropriate documentation from that office at least one week prior to any request for specific course accommodations. There are no retroactive accommodations.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Date Assignment/Topic

9/8Introduction; Nineteenth-Century Latin American Women Artists

Reading:**Stacie Widdifield, “Modernity and tradition: strategies of representationin Mexico,” (245-263) in Local/Global: Women Artists in the NineteenthCentury(London: Ashgate, 2006)

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9/15Modernism in Brazil and Cuba: Anita Malfatti, Tarsila do Amaral, and Amelia Peláez

Reading:Lucie-Smith, Chapter, 37-48

Barnitz, Chapter 2, 42-75

Oswald de Andrade, “Anthropophagite Manifesto,” in Frank, 24-26

“Manifesto of the Grupo Minorista, 7 May 1927,” in Frank, 28-33

+Carol Damian, “Tarsila do Amaral: Art and Environmental Concerns of a Brazilian Modernist,” Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1999), 3-7

+Juan Antonio Molina, Narciso G. Menocal, Renato E. Perez and Helen L. Kohen,

“Estrada Palma 261 Still Life with Dream about Amelia Peláez,” The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 22, Cuba Theme Issue (1996), 221-239

______

9/22Social, Ideological, and Nativist Art

Surrealism, War, Time, and New World Imagery – Part I

GUIDELINES FOR THE RESPONSE PAPER &

RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS TO BE DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS

Reading:Lucie-Smith, Chapter 6, 96-119

Barnitz, Chapter 3, 75-102; Chapter, 4, 103-112

Baddeley/Fraser, Chapter 3, 79-98

“Painting in the Shadow of the Big Three,” 58-94 in Vaughan/Lewis

Marta Zamora, “Frida Kahlo’s Bus Accident,” in Frank, 79-80

Frida Kahlo, “I Paint My Own Reality,” and “From Her Journal,

From Surrealist Women: An International Anthology, edited with introductions by Penelope Rosemont (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1998) (in-class handout)

Adriana Zavala, “The India Bonita: Contest: Gender, Tradition and Modernity in Mexico City, 1921,” 276-305, In Seeing and Beyond: Essays on Eighteenth- to Twenty-First Century Art in Honor of Kermit Champa,” edited by Deborah J. Johnson and David Ogawa (New York: Peter Lang 2005).

+Dina Comisarenco Mirkin, “Aurora Reyes's ‘Ataque a la Maestra Rural’: The First Mural Created by a Mexican FemaleArtist,”

Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Autumn, 2005 - Winter, 2006),

19-25

+Oriana Baddeley , 'Her Dress Hangs Here': De-Frocking the Kahlo Cult

Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, (1991),10-17

+Janice Helland , “Aztec Imagery in Frida Kahlo's Paintings: Indigenity and Political Commitment,” Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2, (Autumn, 1990 - Winter, 1991), 8-13

+Maria A. Castro-Sethness, “Frida Kahlo's Spiritual World: The Influence of Mexican Retablo and Ex-voto Paintings on HerArt

Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 25, No. 2, (Autumn, 2004 - Winter, 2005), 21-24

+Sharyn R. Udall, “Frida Kahlo's Mexican Body: History, Identity, and Artistic Aspiration,” Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2, (Autumn, 2003 - Winter, 2004),10-14

______

9/29Surrealism, War, Time, and New World Imagery – Part II

Reading:Barnitz, Chapter 4, 112-126

**Baddeley/Fraser, Chapter 4, 99-118

Marie Pierre Colle, “Leonora Carrington,” in Frank, 81-85

Leonora Carrington, “The Sand Camel,” “Down Below,” “Comments on the Temptation of St. Anthony,” “On Magic Art: A Conversation,”

“What is a Woman,” and “A Cabbage is a Rose.”

Remedios Varo, “A Recipe: How to Produce Erotic Dreams.”

From Surrealist Women: An International Anthology, edited with introductions by Penelope Rosemont (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1998) (in-class handout)

+Whitney Chadwick, “Leonora Carrington: Evolution of a Feminist Consciousness,” Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1, (Spring - Summer, 1986), 37-42

+Deborah J. Haynes, “The Art of Remedios Varo: Issues of Gender Ambiguity and Religious Meaning,” Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, (Spring - Summer, 1995),26-32

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10/6, 10/13Abstract Art

Reading:**Edward J. Sullivan, “Abstraction in Mexico and Beyond,” in LAWA, 49-73

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10/20MIDTERM EXAM& PAPER DISCUSSIONS/IN-CLASS CONSUTATIONS

______

10/27Concrete and Neoconcrete Art and Their Offshots

OUTLINE & ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

Reading:Lucie Smith, 121-143

Barnitz, Chapter 9, 215-235

Luis Pérez Oramas, “Gego and the Analytic Context,: 255-263; Paulo Herkenhoff, “The Hand and the Glove,” 327-344; Lygia Clark, “The Death of the Plane,” “A Modern Myth in the Now as a Form of Nostalgia for the Cosmos,” “We Refuse” and “We are the Ones Proposing,” (524- 526) In Ramirez/Olea

Lygia Clark, “Bichos,” in Frank, 176

Excerpts from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s “Phenomonology of Perception”(in-class handouts)

______

11/3Neofiguration, Representational Art, Pop, Happenings and Environmental Art

Reading:Barnitz, Chapter 10, 236-268

Marta Traba, “Furniture as Frame,” 149-155 in Ramirez/Olea

+Michael Kirby, “Marta Minujin's ‘Simultaneity in Simultaneity’,” The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 12, No. 3, Architecture/Environment (Spring, 1968), 149-152

______

11/10 Political Art, Graphic Art, Painting, and Conceptualism

RESPONSE PAPER DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS

Reading:Barnitz, Chapter 11, 269-297

**Nelly Richard, “Chile, Women, and Dissidence” (137-44) and “Women’s Art Practices and Critique of Signs,” (145-151) in Mosquera

Mari Carmen Ramirez, “Tactics for Thriving on Adversity: Conceptualism in Latin America,” 425-442 in Ramirez/Olea

+Mary Beth Tierney-Tello, “Testimony, Ethics, and the Aesthetic in Diamela Eltit,” PMLA, Vol. 114, No. 1, Special Topic: Ethics and Literary Study (Jan., 1999), 78-96

______

11/17 Trends of the 1980s

Reading: Barnitz, Chapter 12, 298-314

**Mary Sabbatino, “Ana Mendieta: Identity and the Silhueta Series,”

(135-165); Ana Mendieta, excerpts from “Personal Writings,” in Ana Mendieta, edited by Gloria Moure (Xunta de Galicia: Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporanea, 1999)

______

11/24 Trends of the 1990s

RESEARCH PAPER DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS

Reading:Elizabeth Armstrong, “Impure Beauty,” 1-18, and Catalogue, 19-110 in Armstrong/Zamudio-Taylor

Edlie Wong, “Haunting Absences: Witnessing Loss in Doris Salcedo’s Atrabilarios,” 173-188, In The Image and Witness: Trauma, Memory, and Visual Culture, edited by Frances Guerin and Roger Hallas (New York and London: Wallflower Press, 2007).

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12/1 Latin American Women Photographers

Reading: Erika Billeter, “The Gaze of Women,” 39-42, In A Song to Reality: Latin American Photography 1860-1993 (Mexico: Lunwerg, 1998)

+Carol Armstrong, “This Photography Which Is Not One: In the Gray Zone with Tina Modotti,” October, Vol. 101 (Summer, 2002), 19-52

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FINAL EXAM (Date and time to be announced)

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Class Policies:

  • Turn off cell phone, IPOD, and any electronic devices before class begins.
  • No food. We will have a 15-minute break during class.
  • No walking in or out. Do not leave before class is over.
  • No distracting behavior, e.g. conversation, reading newspapers, doing crosswords, computer games or homework for other course.
  • No cheating on exams. Instant failure for that exam.
  • No plagiarism on papers. Instant failure for that paper.

NB: The syllabus is occasionally subject to change.

Selected Bibliography:

Reading assignments will be made from the following titles. A single asterisk designates books on order for purchase at the Drew Bookstore. Many of these titles are also available for purchase online via Amazon.com or Abebooks.com. A plus-sign in the syllabus designates readings that are posted as PDFs in the K:// drive.Double asterisks next to an article or a boo indicate it is on reserve in the Rose Memorial Library.

**Armstrong, Elizabeth and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, eds, Ultra-Baroque: Aspects of Post Latin American Art. exh. cat., San Diego: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2000 (Armstrong/Zamudio-Taylor)

**Ades, Dawn. Art in Latin America: The Modern Era, 1820-1980.New Haven and London:Yale University Press 1989. (Ades)

Baddeley, Oriana and Valerie Fraser. Drawing the Line: Art and Cultural Identity in Contemporary Latin America.London and New York: Verso, 1992. (Baddeley/Fraser)

Biller, Geraldine P. Latin American Women Artists 1915-1995: Artistas Latinoamericanas. Milwaukee: Milwaukee Art Museum, 1995. (LAWA)

**Barnitz, Jacqueline. Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. (Barnitz)

**Basilio, Miriam et al. Latin American and Caribbean Art: MOMA at El Museo. New York: El Museo del Barrio and The Museum of Modern Art, 2004. (Barrio/MOMA)

**Frank, Patrick, ed. Readings in Latin American Modern Art. New Haven and London: YaleUniversity Press, 2004. (Frank)

*Lucie-Smith, Edward. Latin American Art of the 20th Century. Second Edition. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. (Lucie-Smith)

**Mosquera, Gerardo, ed. Beyond the Fantastic: Contemporary Art Criticism from Latin America. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996. (Mosquera)

**Ramirez, Mari Carmen and Héctor Olea. Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America. New Haven and London: YaleUniversity Press, 2004. (Ramirez/Olea)

Sullivan, Edward J., ed. Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century.London: Phaidon Press, 1996. (Sullivan)

------. Brazil: Body and Soul.Exh. cat. New York: SolomonR.GuggenheimMuseum, 2001. (BBS)

**Traba, Marta. Art of Latin America: 1900-1980. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, 1994 (Traba)

Vaughan, Mary Kay and Stephen E. Lewis, eds. The Eagle and the Virgin: Nation and Cultural Revolution in Mexico, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006 (Vaughan/Lewis)

Selected Electronic Resources for Studying Latin American Art:

The Association for Latin American Art

Museo del Barrio (Please note the museum is closed for renovation and will reopen in Fall 2009).

Museum of Latin American Art

Museum for Modern Art - Latin American Art Bibliography

(**This online source will be especially useful in conducting research for your paper.**)

Survey of Archives of Latino and Latin American Art

New York Public Library

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