Topics in Modern & Contemporary Art 116
Glory Days: The Art of Greater Sacramento in the 1960s and ‘70s

Wednesday 3-5:50 pm
Kadema Hall 170
Professor Elaine O’Brien
Office Hours: TuTh 3-4:30 pm; W 6-7 pm (and by appt.)
Office: Kadema 190

Graduate Teaching Assistant: Nancy Wylie

Course Description:
This topics seminar focuses on the art of the Greater Sacramento region in the 1960s and ‘70s when Civil Rights Movements– with a major centerat UC Berkeley - led to demands for equity hiring and admission practices in California’s massive higher education system.
A new kind of artist - populist, feminist, African-American, Native American, and Chicano – came to teach in the state’s art departments, and the art they made and taught was at the cutting edge of the postmodern art world wide as it entered the contemporary era of decolonization. In Europe and the United States what we have had is internal decolonization: the so-called Rise of the Rest. Readings focus on the situation for artists in our own region in the sixties and seventies, the work of individual artists, art schools and art institutions like Sac State and UC Davis, the early Artforum magazine,the Candy Store and Belmonte Galleries, and Pacific Western Traders. We will host guest artists from the period and take field trips to regional museums, including the Oakland Museum to see Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California. The seminar research project is to work directly with artwork in the Sacramento State University collection. Each student selects an artwork from the collection and writes an art historical catalog essay about it to be published in the online catalog.

Course Prerequisites: Upper-division or graduate status; completion of the University’s Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement; completion of Art 1B, Art 1C or equivalent; and an upper-division course in a related subject area or instructor’s permission.

Required Readings:
There is no textbook. All required readings (listed on the syllabus schedule) will be available on the course website for you to download. Please print them out, mark and annotate for discussion, and bring them to class with your reading response paper, described below.

Note on course costs: We are taking three class trips to museums: The Crocker, The Di Rosa and The Oakland Museum, which will cost gas money as well as the admission fees. We can arrange car pools.

Grading:

15% // Participation:Being there with good attitude. The success of the seminar depends on your preparation and team work. Each person must be prepared, practice engaged listening and responding,respect the opinions of fellow seminarians, make eye contact with everyone when you speak, and ask questions of speakers that might help clarify and develop their thought. Do not monopolize class discussion, but don’t hold back either. Good participation can raise your course grade by as much as a whole letter; poor participation can lower it proportionately.

  • Attendance policy:
  • Illness (yours or the illness of someone you are responsible for) and family emergencies are excused. To be excused tell me in person what happened within a week of your return to school.
  • Each unexcused absence reduces your grade by half a letter. Three unexcused absences result in failure.
  • Work, transportation problems, and any scheduled (non-emergency) appointment are not excused.
  • Repeated lateness and/or leaving early can reduce your grade by as much as a whole letter.
  • No matter how valid your reasons for missing class, however, after four absences, excused or unexcused, you will be asked to withdraw from the course.

If you have a disability and require accommodations, you need to provide disability documentation to SSWD, Lassen Hall 1008 (916) 278-6955. Please discuss your accommodation needs with me after class or during my office hours early in the semester.

45% //200-word (one page) RResponse (reading response) papers: double space, 12 font. For each
of the readings indicated “RResponse” on the syllabus:

  1. On top of the page write your name, the date, full title of the reading, the author’s name and expertise (you might need to search online for the expertise).
  2. Find and quote the author’s thesis statement (put the page number in parentheses after the quotation)
  3. Paraphrase the author’s thesis statement.
  4. Find three key points (one or two sentences each) and quote them. Put the page number for each, and select key points from the beginning, middle, and end of the reading. NOTE: “key” points are not merely interesting. They are points of persuasion (i.e. evidence) that the thesis is valid and are usually facts.
  5. After each quotation, write a paraphrase of it (put it in your own words). Your paraphrase should be about the length of the quotation and include all the points made in the quotation. Try to select quotations that make one point only.
  6. Conclude with what you learned about regional art of the sixties and/or seventies from the reading.

Each RResponse is graded on a 1-10 scale based on 1) thoughtfulness and 2) evidence of time spent reading to understand the author’s thesis/argument, 3) how well the required format is followed, 4) completeness, 5) grammar and spelling
NOTE: RResponse papers are not accepted late except with an excused absence. Attach the medical excuse or a note to the paper to remind me that you talked to me about your absence.

40% // Catalog entry (1000-1200 words)Write a professional-level catalog essay for one artwork from the 1960s or ‘70s in the Sacramento State art collection, including public art on campus, and present your work to the class. Use art collection catalog essays as models. Early in the semester you will select an artwork from the catalog to study and write about.

  • September 17: submit artwork selection with a bibliography of three sources in correct Chicago style. List artist’s name, title, date, medium on top of the page and the three citations below.
  • Catalog essay
  • Begin your essay with a 200-word description and analysis of the artwork from direct examination of it.
  • Research the historical contexts of the artwork and artist’s relevant experience, the artist’s intentions and related works.
  • Include footnotes and a select bibliography in correct Chicago style.
  • We hope to get access to university records for information about who donated the work and when. If the information is made available, include it in the essay.
  • Your research will be both primary (interviews and original documents) and secondary (interpretive essays and reviews). There may be little written about your specific piece, in which case you will need to extrapolate from information you find about related works by that artist created around the same time.
  • December 10: Turn in catalog entry and give a 10-minute PowerPoint class presentation of your research

Opportunity: Provost’s Student Research Showcase
October 28th, 9am to 3pm, Redwood Room, University Union

The inaugural Provost’s Student Research Showcase offers undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to present their research activities to the campus community in poster format.

Showcase participants will have the opportunity to gain speaking and presentation experience and get feedback from attendees, without the pressure of being formally judged. This event also allows students to test run their presentations in preparation for the campus-wide Student Research Symposium on Friday, March 6, 2015 (where top students are awarded the Provost’s Award for Research Excellence and awardees’ faculty mentors are granted professional development funds.)

Posters will be grouped in rotating sessions of 90-120 minutes with mixed cohorts of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. Those interested in participating should register at by 5:00pm on October 1st. If you have questions, please contact the Office of Research Affairs at 278-3667 or .

Schedule (subject to changes announced in class)
Note: All readings below are available on the Art 116 “Readings” webpage.Follow the directions for *RResponse papers on p. 2 of the syllabus.

September 3: Introduction / Review of the Sac State Art Collection Catalog by Nancy Wylie / Screening of 1990 award-winning film by Mark Kitchell, Berkeley in the Sixties
*RResponse: Susan Landauer, “Countering Cultures: The California Context (An Overview),” from Peter Selz, Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, 2006 (this and all readings below are available on the Art 116 “Readings” webpage)

September 10:“Glory Days” (lecture)/ Video:“Revolutions of the Wheel, part 5: Robert Arneson and the Davis Group”
*RResponse: “DQU: Their Own Place in the Sun,” Peter Janssen, 1973; and Peter Selz, “The Native American Experience,” from chapter “Racism, Discrimination and Politics of Identity” in Art of Engagement 2006 (available on the Art 116 “Readings” webpage). Watch: Interview of Frank LaPena by Carlos Villa: Use this interview to prepare two substantive questions for Frank LaPena on September 17. Write the questions down and attach to your response paper. Note: Carlos Villa was an Associate Professor in the Sac State Art department from 1969-79.

September 17:Artist visit: Frank LaPena
Important: Class meets in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at 3 pm.
Due:Proposal for catalog essay with three-source bibliography
*RResponse: Peter Selz, “Funk” catalog essay, 1968; Susan Landauer, “Having Your Cake and Painting It Too,” from The Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration, 2000

September 24: Laurence Campling and Maija Peeples
*RResponse:Robert Morris, “Anti Form” (1968); Marcia Tucker and James Monte, Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials (Whitney MA catalog, 1969), available at this website: (NOTE: if the syllabus link fails, do a search using the authors’ names and exhibition title to get the document on your own from The Internet Archive.)

October 1:Ellen van Fleet
Watch “Judy Chicago & the California Girls” DVD 000764
*RResponse:Gail Levin, “Becoming Judy Chicago,” abridged essay from Jill Fields,Entering the Picture Judy Chicago, the Fresno Feminist Art Program, and the Collective Visions of Women Artists, 2012

October 8:Vicki Hall
*No RResponse assignment

Extra Credit opportunity: Thursday, October 9, 6:00-7:30 p.m., Mariposa 1000: Artist Panel: “Cuentos de Arte: the Chicana Artists of Our America: Judithe Hernandez and Ester Hernandezwith Tere Romo”

October 15: Visit to the CrockerArt Museum 3:30-5:30 pm – $8 per person
*RResponse: George Lipsitz, “Not Just another Social Movement: Poster Art and the Movimiento Chicano,” from Just another Poster? 2001

October 22:Esteban Villaand the Royal Chicano Air Force
Important:seminar meets in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives 3-4:30
5-6 pm: return to Kadema 170 to watch film, “Pilots of Aztlan flights of the Royal Chicano Air Force,” Steve LaRosa, DVD 001064
*RResponse: John Fitzgibbon, “Irving Marcus: A Way With MayHem,” and Jack Ogden, “Irv Marcus: Romance and Disaster,” 2006

October 29:Irving Marcus
*RResponse: Christine Giles and Katherine Plake Hough, “Bill, Bob, and Bill,” from Collaborations: William Allan, Robert Hudson, and William Wiley, exhibition catalog, 1998

November 5:Visit to the Di Rosa Collection, Napa
*Di Rosa Assignment:Take two photographs of yourself with the art (if permitted). Note information about the art you photographed from the wall texts and do some online research about it. Write 200 words about the one that interests you the most. Fully identify the artwork (artist’s full name, birth and death dates, title, date, medium, movement if relevant, and donor). Briefly describe it and what you learned about it from your research.

November 12:Peter Saul and The Hairy Who in Sacramento: Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, Karl Wirsum
*RResponse: Holland Cotter, “Provocateur: The Peter Saul Manifesto” ; Jonathan Fineberg, “Chicago and Points West,” “West Coast Pop,” and “Robert Arneson”: selections from Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being (available as a pdf on the “Readings” page of the course website)

November 19: Visit to Oakland Museum to see Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California, September 20 - April 12, 2015.
Note: We will decide in class whether to arrange to go together to see this show or make individual visits and not meet on November 19.
*Oakland Museum assignment: Have someone else take a picture of you with your favorite artwork made in the sixties or seventies in Northern California. Write a 200-word (typed, 12-font, double space) review of the exhibition with one paragraph explaining how the artwork you selected supports the thesis of the show.

November26: No Class

December 3: Discussion of Oakland MAexhibition Fertile Groundand seminar research projects

December 10: Catalog entry due in print and digital format (email the latter to me).Student PowerPoint presentations of selected artwork

NO FINAL EXAM

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