FA 56Art and History, Cultureand Politics inNorth America 1675-1935

Prof. Kalb. MWTh9-9:50 Mandel G10 Office hours MW10-12 and by appointment - Mandel 208

Course Description An examination of painting and sculpture in the United States from the Colonial period to World War II. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between artistic production and the prevailing social and political conditions. Issues to be explored include: art as the expression of personal and national identity, the artist’s role and status in society, international aspects of US art, and formal interests of US artists.

Readings David Bjelajac,American Art: A Cultural History, Second Edition, 2005 and John W. McCoubrey ed., American Art 1700-1960: Sources & Documents, 1965. A limited number of additional readings will be put on LATTE.

Written Assignments (submit all written assignments on LATTE)

One Formal Analysis Paper. 2-3 pages. Due: 02.11

  • Chose a work created before 1940 in the American Galleries of the MFA by any artist discussed in class or in the text. The work must be accessible to you in person.
  • Write a 2-3 page formal analysis of the work describing its physical properties, media, composition (how the shapes are arranged on the canvas or in the sculpture), color, use of light and dark, relationship to its environment and audience, treatment of figural and/or abstract motifs, size, scale (not all of these pertain to every work). Include no history, biography, or discussion of content.

One State of the Research Essays: annotated bibliography (7 entries) and 2-3 page essay, Due: 04.07

  • Choose an artist, movement, genre, or subject matter. Use JSTOR, Arts & Humanities Citation Index,Bibliography of the History of Art to find 4 articles about your subject in academic art history journals. Access these from theBrandeis Scholar page.
  • Then use Louis,and WorldCat (on LTS find Databases page)to find 3 books that are either about your topic or, more likely, have sections that relate to your topic.
  • Write an annotated bibliography of your 7 sources. This is the heart of the assignment. Annotations should summarize the contents of the source and place it in the context of the scholarship. Grades will be based largely on the quality of the bibliography.Annotations should run around 250 words each. The description of this assignment is 287 words.
  • Write a 2 – 3 page essay summarizing the state of the research on your topic: what do art historians have to say about your topic, what attitudes do the writers seem to share, how are the issues framed, what seems to be important, are there aspects of the subject left out of the articles, are there points that seem controversial. In your conclusion both note issues the articles raise, and questions left unaddressed.This is not a research paper, it is a paper about existing research
  • The subject of these papers is the art historical literature and the answer to two questions: 1) how have are scholars approached a given topic and 2) What might we explore next? It is important not to choose too large or small a topic; “Thomas Cole” or “The Civil War in Art” would be too big, one painting would be too small. Everyone should make an appointment to talk to me about your topic.

One Close Looking Close Reading Essay 4-5 pages, Due: 05.04

Chose one of the prompts below and write a 4-5 page response with detailed formal analysis and close reading of at least one primary source. These essays are intended to provide the opportunity to write about art based only what the artist provided. No secondary research necessary.

Topics: (Choose one)

  1. Examine one or more drawings and one or two paintings by the same artist and discuss how he or she treats the two media. Ask what changes occur when an idea expressed in drawing is worked up into a painting. What information or emotions are gained or lost in the transition? Artists for whom you can see both drawings and paintings at the MFA include Cole, Heade, Cropsey, Duncanson, and others. Appointments can be made to see drawings and paintings at the Rose by Davis, Marin, and Weber. You may use an artist for whom you can see the painting and can only get good reproductions of the drawings.
  2. Consider the treatment of light by a painter. Using one or two works, describe the character of the light he or she paints, discuss how light is used in the pictures, how it relates to narrative and content. Speculate based on the artwork and the writings as to what the artist might have felt light meant. This question clearly applies to landscapes, but also applies to other genres.
  3. Discuss the use of narrative in one or two works by a single artist. This may mean examining history or genre paintings or sculptures that clearly tell stories, but it could just as well be an opportunity to look at portraiture, still life, or landscapes that you feel relies on narrative for some of its meaning. Artists’ writings might speak directly to questions of narrative or questions about specific works of art or you will find that in the way an artist tell stories in his or her writing reveals things about how narrative appears in the work.
  4. Compare how an artist writes to how he or she paints or sculpts. Examine a couple examples of an artist’s writing with a couple works of art, not to find explanations for the art in the writing, but to ask what can be learned by comparing two very forms of expression. (For instance, if a controlled precise painter is effusive or emotional in letters that tells us something, or if an abstract painter invents words...)

Quizzes and Exams

ID Quizzes: There will be 4 short quizzes for which you will need to identify a given image by artist and date (within 5 years) and then provide a brief summary of its significance noting issues of form (the physical qualities of the work), content (what the work is about), and context (historical, political, intellectual, biographical… as relevant). The quizzes will include only artists we have discussed but will have images that are new to you (more or less). These unknowns will be stylistically the same as examples we have discussed in class. The IDs are timed and the lowest quiz grade is dropped.

Final Exam: The final will consist of several essay questions that you will receive in advance. The questions will be cumulative and answers should be drawn from lectures, texts, and the art. Further explanation will be provided as the final approaches.

Grade Breakdown

Formal Analysis 10%

State of the Research15

Close Looking/Close Reading15

ID Quizzes10% x 3 (lowest grade dropped)30%

Final25%

Participation05%

General Class Policies: Attendance: Absences in excess of three class periods will be considered grounds for a 5% reduction of final grade. Alternative Test Needs: The Quizzes and Final are timed tests. Should you require alternative test format for any reason, talk to me at the beginning of the semester so we can find a test to meet your needs. Cell Phones: Please turn the ringers of your cell phones off. Late assignments: Paper grades will be reduced 1/3 grade per day late. Academic Honesty: Unless stated otherwise, you are encouraged to share ideas and information as you write and study. You must, of course, complete your own quizzes, write your own essays, and I expect no two papers to be identical in part or whole. When using the writings and thoughts of others cite your sources in footnotes. Start any research you do with the bibliography in the text book. Then head toLouis, Brandeis Scholar, and WorldCat (on LTS find Databases page). Internet sources need to be footnoted with full notation of the name of the essay found and the website on which you found it. If I can’t get to it, it doesn’t count Honor Code To establish in a formal manner that your work has been completed in accordance with all codes of academic honesty please write and sign, “I have neither given nor received un-authorized aid on this exam/essay” at the end of all tests and papers.

Lecture Topics, Readings and Assignments (subject to change)

Dates / Topics and Selected Artists / Readings: /

Assignments

  1. .
/ 01.13
01.14 / Inventing America:
Stradanus, White, de Bry, Hesselius, West / Bj: Intro, Ch. 1
Williams LATTE
  1. .
/ 01.18 no class
01.20
01.21 / Portraits of Colonial Culture:
Freake Limner, Duyckinck, Feke, Smibert, Copley / Bj: Ch. 3 +, 44-45, 67-72
McC: 6-8, 10-18
01.25
01.27
01.28 / Quiz 01.28
02.01
02.03
02.04 / Revolution - Anticipation & Reflection:
Copley, West, Jefferson, Peale, / Bj: Ch. 4 +36-37, 51-53
McC: 18-25, 26-27, 35-39, 40-43
02.08
02.10
02.11 / Trumbull, Stuart, Latrobe / Formal Analysis on 02.11
02.15, 02.17, 02.18 no class
02.22
02.24
02.25 / The Culture of Nature – Antebellum 19th Century: Peales, Vanderlyn, Allston, / Bj: Ch. 5
McC: 43-44, 53-56, 57-60, 63-70, 70-80,
02.29
03.02
03.03 / Cole, Cropsey, Durand, Gifford, Church, Bierstadt / 95-97, 98-110, 110-115
03.07
03.09
03.10 / Leutze, Catlin, Kane, Bodmer, Mount, Spencer, Bingham, Lane, Heade, Duncanson / 93-95, 116-121, 148-150 / Quiz 03.10
03.14
03.16
03.17 / Civil War to the Gilded Age – Matter And Spirit
Powers, Hosmer, Lewis, / Bj: Ch 6
McC: 85-89
03.21
03.23
03.24 / Brady, Gardner, O’Sullivan, Homer, St. Gaudens, Eakins, Tanner, Cassatt, Hassan, / McC:150-155, 155-156, 156-162
03.28 no class
03.30
03.31 / Chase, Sargent, Innes, Dewing, Ryder,Whistler / McC: 121-122,169-173, 181-186, 186-188
04.04
04.06
04.07 / Chaos and Crisis and the New Century:
Henri, Luks, Sloan, Bellows, / Bj: Ch. 7
McC: 173-178, 188-196 / Quiz 04.04
State of the Research 04.07
04.11
04.13
04.14 / Weber, Stella, Steiglitz,Marin, O’Keeffe, Hartley, Dove, Strand, Sheeler, Demuth / See LATTE for writings by these artists.
04.18
04.20
04.21 no class / Douglas, Hayden, Davis, Schamberg, Wood, Curry, Benton / McC: 201-207, 207-208.
See LATTE.
  1. 0
/ 04.25, 04.27, 04.28 no class
05.02 / Summary and Review / Quiz 05.02
Close Looking Essay 05.04
Final Due TBA

Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.