Module Outline

MODULE OUTLINE

Modern Liberal Arts

University of Winchester

Semester 1 2015-16

LA 2003 Athens and Jerusalem

Thursdays 09.00 in Holm Lodge 6

Tutor: Jess Wood

Module Learning Outcomes

Show engagement with primary sources

Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works

Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives

Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as appropriate

Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with Greek and Judaic traditions

Introduction

Subject-Matter: Embodying the Self

In this module, we will explore painting as a form of thinking about the world, theologising and philosophizing (metaphysics). We will trace how images reflect the self and its sense of unified identity and also the collectivity. We will examine loss of identity and the fracturing the self and communities. We will think about how the ways we respond to nature (landscapes) and ourselves (portraits) in painting carry within them certain geographic, culturally and historically conditioned ways of thinking. In an age where the concept of the Subject is deconstructed and identity is often multiple and fragmented, theologians, elders, painters and philosophers will help us to unravel the often mysterious negotiations we make between self and image, nature and our reflection of it.

Weekly sessions

Week 1

Identity and Its Fragmentation

In the first session, we will introduce the module and look at some key texts and paintings which address deconstruction. We will see how differing concepts of the self, the tribe and its unity/fragmentation impact on how we visualise ourselves and the world. We will look at paintings of faces by Titian, Rembrandt, Kahlo and Picasso.

Reading:

Miles, M. Image as Insight (Beacon Press Boston 1985) p146-149

Handout: portrait images

Handout 1: Athens to Jerusalem: Underlying Principles

Handout 2: Standpoint

Burckhardt, T. Sacred Art in East and West (Perennial Books 1986)

Week 2

Symbols versus images: icons

We will trace the development of Christian icons. Why did Christians stop using symbols to represent their faith and start making portraits–icons of holy figures and faces in particular? We will make a formal analysis of how icon painters create their images and how they visualise exemplary Biblical stories. What image of the potential for the self is being shown here? We will see how this differs from portraiture in Late Antiquity.

Reading:

Handout: Early Christian art of the catacombs

Beckett, W. Sister Real Presence (Continuum London 2010)

Ouspensky, L. Theology of the Icon (St Vladimir Press 1978)

Handout: Image/Divine Image

Temple, R. Icons (Saqi Books, London 2004)

Sendler, E. The Icon (Oakwood 1988)

Additional Reading:

Williams, Rowan Icons Lecture given to RA London 2009

http://rowanwilliams.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/834/royal-academy-of-arts-byzantium-lecture-icons-and-the-practice-of-prayer [Consulted 21/7/14]

Hetherington, P. Ed. The Painters Manual of Dionysius of Fourna (Mount Athos 1730-1734) (no details)

Week 3

Christian Incarnation and Jewish transfiguration

Continuing the theme of the intersection between the Eternal and the Human in the Face, we will study iconic images of the transfiguration, photographs of the face of St Therese of Lisieux, and the speculations of the early church fathers on how the divine and the human, spirit and flesh can meet in a holy person.

Reading

Hebrew Bible (Christian: ‘Old Testament’): Exodus chapter 34 (Jewish Publication Society or RSV or AV versions)

New Testament: according to Matthew: ch. 17, according to Mark: ch.9 and according to Luke: ch.9

Handout: Images of the Transfiguration

Handout: Theories of Christian Incarnation

Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon (St Vladimir Press 1978)

Week 4

Everything is Already Divine: Chinese Landscape Painting and Taoism

We will study Taoist and Mahayana doctrines of Oneness and the doctrine that Samsara is Nirvana – the multiplicity of the world as it is in its mundane form is already transformed and unified – the goal is to ‘realise’ this. We shall examine the key concepts of non-dualism: no-self (anatta) and Emptiness (sunyata) and pantheism (lit.all is ‘god’/divine). We will look at Chinese landscape painting and the still-life and paintings of Gwen John and Cezanne.

Reading:

Yang, l. Fantastic Mountains (Art Gallery NWS, Australia 2004)

Burckhardt, T. Sacred Art in East and West: Landscape in Far Eastern Art (Perennial Books 1986)

Watts, A. What is Zen? (New World Library Books California 2000)

Basho, On Love and Barley (Penguin London 1985)

Week 5

The Self beneath the Surface: Rothko, Newman

We examine the work of the Jewish Abstract Expressionist painters, Rothko and Newman who abandon representations of the human figure. We will look at Newman’s exploration of Biblical themes and Mark Rothko’s ‘gateway’ paintings, using the artists’ writings and images.

Reading:

Handout: Bible, Rothko, Newman

Handout: Space and perspective

Levinson, J. Looking at Barnett Newman (August London 2002)

Tuchman, M. The New York School (T&H no date)

Handout: Images Newman MOMA and TATE

Week 6

2nd Generation: Frankenthaler and Blow

We explore two abstract painters of the second generation. How does their vision and use of colour develop?

Bird, M. Sandra Blow (Lund Humphries 2011)

Collings, M. Helen Frankenthaler 1959-2002 (Bernard Jacobson Gallery 2008)

Frankenthaler, H. Frankenthaler (The Gallery, 1997)

Lynton, N. Sandra Blow (RA 1994)

Rowley, A. Helen Frankenthaler: Painting History, Writing Painting (I.B.Tauris 2007)

Week 7

The body without soul: pure matter in Freud and Auerbach

Using the paintings of two German Jewish immigrants to the UK, Frank Auerbach (whose parents were murdered in Auschwitz), and Lucien Freud, of the so-called London School, we will see how these painters squeeze the spirit out of matter and create a post-Holocaust vision of the tormented self.

Reading:

Rothchild, H. Interview Frank Auerbach [taken from interview with him by Hannah Rothschild Sept 2013 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/10336972/Frank-Auerbach-An-interview-with-one-of-our-greatest-living-painters.html]

Tate, Frank Auerbach Biography taken from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/frank-auerbach-676 [consulted 21.7.14]

Hoban, P. Lucian Freud (Icon Series, Amazon 2014)

Week 8

Tribal Metaphysics: Aboriginal Peoples

We will explore the art of tribal living where all of life is infused with art and religion. At-one-ness/unity means that individual identity is inextricably entwine-ed with both the land and with certain animals and plants. Traditional arts and craft are not seen as separated from their connection to the sacred and the land. The body is sued as a ground for painting and the decorative/symbolic arts. We will explore this theme using pictorial languages of selected ‘Aboriginal’/First Australian tribes and Native American peoples.

Reading:

Quaill, A. Marking Our Times (National Gallery of Australia 1996)

Durkheim, E. & Mauss, M. Primitive Classification (Cohen and West, London 1963)

Morphy, H. Aboriginal Art (Phaidon, no date)

Tomkins, W. Indian Sign Language (Dover, Canada, 1969)

Week 9

Walking in the Sacred Country: Aboriginal Australian Painting

Our theme continues with Australian ‘Aboriginal’/First Australian painting: using images and scriptures, we will explore how walking through The Land/The Country - tracing the paths (songlines) - is a sacred activity.

Reading:

Caruana, W. Aboriginal Art (T&H 1996)

Quaill, A. Marking Our Times (National Gallery of Australia 1996)

Handout: Aboriginal painting and symbols

Reed, A.W Aboriginal Stories of Australia (Reed New Holland 1998)

Chatwin, B. The Songlines (Vintage 2005)

Week 10

Multiplicity of Nature and Unity of G-d: the sacred garden in Islam

We will look at Islamic sacred arts and examine the spiritual meaning behind the interplay of highly ornate exterior and interior surfaces and the large empty interiors found in the mosque. We will explore the concept of the oasis/sacred garden/paradise and trace the desert influence on the importance of water therein.

Reading:

Stoddart, W. The Essential Titus Burckhardt (World Wisdom 2003)

Frishman, M. & Khan, H-U. The Mosque (T&H 1994)

Clark, E. The Islamic Garden as Sanctuary in Cadman, D. & Carey, J. Sanctuary (Temenos 2006)

Nigosian, S. Islam (Crucible 1987)

Additional Reading:

Clark, E. Underneath which Rivers Flow The Symbolism of the Islamic Garden (P of W Institute of Architecture 1996)

Week 11

Landscape and body: the art of Anna Mendieta

The Cuban artist, Anna Mendieta, engaged in a ‘dialogue between the landscape and the female body’ (Hayward Gallery Traces 2013). She used her own body and images of the female body in a revolutionary and yet deeply traditional way so that her work seems highly contemporary and yet ancient and immortal at the same time. We will study her most important works and trace how the self is imagined through the landscape.

Reading:

Handout: Images by Mendieta

Blocker, J. Where is Ana Mendieta (Duke University Press 1999)

Week 12:

Tracey Emin: Me, my body and art

Tracey Emin uses her life – in minute detail – as the subject matter of her art. In doing so, she reminds us of the question famously poses by the philosopher, Arthur Danto concerning what makes an object Art, posed as an exposition of the difference between Andy Warhol’s plywood Brillo Soap Pads Box, (1964)and a pack of Brillo pads. We will explore how she transforms the commonplace and herself through by making everyday objects and events in her life, the subject-matter of her work.

Reading:

Handout: Images by Emin [www.saatchigallery.com/artist]

Emin, T. My Life in a Column (Rizzoli 2011)

Emin, T. Strangeland (Sceptre 2005)

Danto, A. The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (Harvard University Press 1981)

Warhol, A. The Philosophy of Any Warhol (Penguin 2007)

Assessment

Assessment 1: (50%)

Using materials from weeks 1-6, describe the relationship between image and subjectivity.

(2000-2250 words; deadline: Week 7 (Thursday 5th November) given to Catherine in the Office by 3.30pm).

Assessment 2: (50%) Choose a title from one of the following:

How does the landscape relate to the self?

Describe ways in which painters relate to Nature?

What do you understand by the transformation of the commonplace?

(2000-2250 words; deadline: Week 1 semester 2 (Thursday 14th January) given to Catherine in the Office by 3.30pm).

Use Harvard Referencing

We attempt always to return work within 3 working weeks (15 days working days).

We want you to be very clear about how we will mark your work and that means you must know with each assessment what you are expected to do. We hope that this does not mean you will feel that you have to write to a formula. We are trying to build in considerable freedom to your assessments; but as the term ‘liberal arts’ conveys, in every freedom there is a discipline, and in every discipline there is a freedom; together, we hope, they constitute the struggle of learning.

There are (often but not always) two types of essays in MLA: the first assessment title in a module will most often be set by the tutor and will be restricted to texts explored in the first weeks. The second assessment title can be tutor-led, or chosen from a list of titles, or can be negotiated individually; this varies according to the tutor and the module. This assignment can explore wider issues, employ wider reading, or explore a single issue in depth. Students will bear some responsibility for the references consulted in the second essay, increasing through years 1, 2 and 3.

Note the difference between essays 1 and 2: the first one is marked only on your understanding of texts; the second one is marked on understanding, on your own reading, and your emerging critical voice. Be careful here; being critical does not mean just giving your opinions. It means making a case based on evidence from your reading, using ideas and concepts from texts. It does not mean you have to fight for one side of an argument or another… ambivalence will be treated with great respect. But for every essay, remember this: if we (and you) get the title right, then by answering the question you will be doing exactly what is required. Over years 1, 2 and 3 the levels of your work are raised by using increasingly challenging texts, ideas, concepts and writers, and by the way you are able to employ ideas, concepts and writers from other modules across the degree in increasingly sophisticated ways.

For all essays, then

Depending on the question you will need to

·  Demonstrate reflection on module material and the wider contexts from across the degree which might impact upon it

·  Communicate experiences of texts and ideas as appropriate

·  Show knowledge and understanding of specialist terminology

·  Demonstrate requisite research skills in gathering, summarizing and presenting evidence including proficiency in referencing and academic conventions.

For essay 1

Depending on the question you will need to

·  Show careful reading of primary sources

·  Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works

·  Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives

·  Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as appropriate

·  Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with issues raised in the module.

For essay 2

Depending on the question you will need to

·  Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues

·  Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate

·  Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools

·  Therein, to develop a critical voice informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as critique.

·  Sustain a critical relationship to ideas related to the module

It is often hard to explain in generic terms how any particular essay could have been improved. But, cautiously, we can say the following:

In general,

a 3rd (40-49%) may have ignored the question, may have not given much evidence of reading, may have clumsy sentence structure, but will still have made a bona fide attempt at the work.