FA165 Contemporary Art 2017
Prof Peter R. Kalb MW 3:30-4:50 G11 Office Hours: Mandel 208 MWTh11-12:30 and by appt.
Course Description: This course addresses art at the turn of the 20th century with attention to intersections of art and identity, politics, economy, and history. It will begin with discussions of art in the United States as New York City established itself as the capital of contemporary art and then move to consider art communities around the world that have become prominent as the art world, like politics and the economy, have become increasingly globalized.
Textbooks and Readings: 1. Peter R. Kalb, Art Since 1980: Charting the Contemporary, Upper Saddle River, NJ :Pearson,2014, 2. Articles on LATTE.
Course Requirements:
2 Artist talks. Artist talks will be posed on LATTE and announced in class. Attend 2 and submit brief report (no more than 350 words) on LATTE by Dec. 10.
Quizzes: There will be 4 in-class quizzes. For each you will be asked to ID 3 works of art from the previous sections and make a brief note of their significance in terms of form, content, and context. You will also be asked to relate at least one of the works to the readings. The quizzes are not cumulative and the lowest quiz grade will be dropped. Quiz dates: 9.27, 10.23, 11.20, and date of final.
Paper: An 8 to 10-page Analysis addressing one of the prompts below. These papers prioritize your ability to examine art in the context of its production. This will mean looking at how a work is formed in relation to the issues that compelled the artist to make it – in every case it will require you to be fully informed about the artists and to research the issues and context that mattered to that artist. In some cases you will be making an argument about what aspects of an artist’s context matters, even if the artists doesn’t say so. Though formal and textual analysis are the primary tools to discuss the art and writings, some research will be necessary to make sense of what you discover. The class does not provide enough information for you to write a complete paper for any of the prompts. Online sources such as Wikipedia, The Artstory, Grove Art Online, or any Museum websites should be used only to get started. As part of your research, use LTS One Search and data bases available through the web pages below and include footnotes:
LTS Basic Electronic Resources for Art History; World Cat Book Finding Guide;
Brandeis Scholar Data Base Search.(select for Art and Architecture)
Paper Due Dec. 16th at the end of the day (11:59)
- What’s it About and How’s it Made?: Look a few works by an artist that address the same topic. Research the content and discuss what it is, and what the artist has to say about it. Discuss how relevant the topic was at the time. Use the artists words and the writings of their critics. Then discuss in detail what the artworks are: how they are made, what they look like, how they are exhibited, etc… (this is formal analysis.) Then relate what the work is about to how it is made. What does the way the work is made suggest about the content, how do certain formal choices suggest different points of view, or help us come to certain conclusions, are there changes in the different works you chose that suggest developing ideas. Check in with me as you are selecting your artist and topic.
- Same Subject Different Shapes: For this prompt find two different artist working on a similar issue. The issue may be very focused, like a particular group identity or more general like sensation. Then research the problem and find what the artists and their critics have to say about it. After that write a detailed discussion of the works themselves being sure to draw our attention to the differences you find important. Then discuss and analyze how these different formal choices relate to the points of view each artist prioritizes. Check in with me as you are selecting the artists and issues.
- What have we learned since the last time we did this?: For this prompt examine two artists dealing with a similar topic from different contexts – this might mean artists engaging questions of gender in the 1980s vs. the 2000s, or it might mean artists thinking about globalism in Russia v. in China. Research and discuss the topic and the context and what the artists and their critics had to say about it. Then discuss in detail the art works they made in response to this topic and compare the results thinking about how much we learn about the different contexts through the work, or how much the context seemed to effect the work. Check in with me as you selecting the artists and be sure to confer with the Art research librarian as you are researching the paper.
Conversation Assignment – Choose one of the sections from the syllabus, select a couple issues or questions raised in it and with a partner record a 30-minute conversation addressing how two artists dealt differently with those issues. In preparation for the conversation prepare a briefly annotated bibliography on your chosen artists of at least 5 articles, 1 of which must be an interview(2 or 3 sentences per entry). In addition, write up a short outline of topics, quotes and artworks to guide your conversation. Then record it. Topic ideas are listed on a separate instruction sheet for this assignment. You can use the prompts or addressing your own interests. The conversations must not rehash what we talked about in class, these are designed to be an opportunity to think deeper into the art and how it functions. You will be asked which week’s topic you want to talk about on sept 6. The recordings are due at the end of the week in which your topic is discussed.
Participation: this course is designed to be a combination of lecture and discussion. There is ample opportunity to discuss the art, and to raise questions in class. I will often invite questions, and am also happy to let the interests of the class guide the course. As much I hope everyone will feel comfortable and interested enough to talk, I also understand that for some people talking in class is just not their thing. There will be a discussion board on latte where you can post observations and raise questions for participation credit. Virtual or analog contributions count for credit, just don’t make the virtual contributions during the analog portion of class, Thanks.
Extra Credit Exhibition Reviews
For 5 points added to a quiz grade write and exhibition review of anexhibition you see this semester of art produced since 1980. The review should be between 500-700 words.It should be primarily descriptive, telling the reader what was on view but do provide some historical or biographical context. You do not need to judge the quality of the show. Use the back page reviews in Art in America or Artforum as your model. You may do this assignment twice. All extra-credit reviews due December 8.
Grade Breakdown
Artist Talks2 x 510
Quizzes 3 X 1030
Paper 25
Conversation10
Final20
Participation05
Schedule of Topics and Readings. (Subject to change.)Date / Topic / Artist List / Readings: Essays & Pages in AS80
08.30 / Intro: Questions of the Contemporary / Warhol, Oldenburg, Beuys, Baselitz, Jarrell, Chicago, Kelly / Pollock, “Feminist Interventions in the History of Art.” (1988)
Oldenburg, “I am for an art…” (1961)
Jones-Hogu, “The History, Philosophy and Aesthetics of AfriCOBRA,” (1973) / Intro &
Ch. 1
09.04
09.06
09.11 / Appropriation and the Politics of Representation / Levine, McCollum, Prince, Sherman, Kruger,GranFury, Holzer, Weems, Durham, / Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” (1975)
Solomon-Godeau, “Suitable for Framing: The Critical Recasting of Cindy Sherman,” (1991)
McCollum, “In the Collection of…” (1985)
hooks, "Carrie Mae Weems: Diasporic Landscapes…" (1994)
Griffin, “Elements from the Actual World,” (2017) / Ch.2
09.13
09.18 / Neo Expressionism and the Anxiety of History / Schnabel, Salle, Richter, Polke, Kiefer, Penck, Immendorf, Wu Tien-Chang, Basquiat,Wong, Kelley, Ocampo, / Ricard, “Julian Schnabel,” (1979)
Joachimides “A New Spirit in Painting.” (1981)
Kelley, “Statement for Prospect 89,” (1989)
Scarborough, “Ocampo: One-Man National Movement,” (1994).
Power, “Manuel Ocampo: Rough Gathering…” (1997).
hooks, “Altars of Sacrifice: Re-membering Basquiat,” (1993)
Chen, “Photo Salon of Counterfeit Youth,” (2012) / Ch. 3
Ch. 9 (218-225
09.20
09.25 / Collective Actions and Interactive Installations / CoLab, Group Material, Ahearn,Wojnarowicz, Haring, Hammons, Wodiczko, Osorio
Hung Su-chen / Ominous, “Sex & Death & Shock & Schlock,” (1980)
Crimp, “Mourning and Militancy,” (1989)
Wojnarowicz Close to Knives (excerpt) 1991
Deutsche“Krzysztof Wodiczko's Homeless projection…”(1986)
Sholette,“Counting on Your Collective Silence,” (1999) / Ch. 4
09.27 / Quiz 1
10.02
10.04 / Commodities and Consumerism / Halley, General Idea, Koons, Steinbach, Bickerton, Fleury, Trockel, Kosolapov, Moshiri, Radboy / Foucault, “Panopticon,” in Discipline and Punish, (1975)
Baudrillard, “The Precision of the Simulacra,” (1983)
Halley, Peter, “The Crisis in Geometry,” (1984)
Koons, The Jeff Koons Handbook (1992)
Kosolapov, “Art and Ideology: Interview,” (1990) / Ch. 5
10.09
10.11
10.16
10.18 / History, Memory, and Public Space / Lin, Gerz, Boltanski, Attie, Whiteread, Lovell, Wilson, Walker, Salcedo, Kentridge, Raad, Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Tayou / Kleeblatt, “Persistence of Memory,” (2000)
Merewhether, “Naming Violence,” (1993)
Young, “The Counter-monument: Memory against Itself in Germany Today,” (1992)
Enwezor, “Truth and Responsibility: A converstation with William Kendtridge,” (1994)
Walker, “Extreme Times Call for Extreme Heroes,” (1997)
Sadek, “A Matter of Words,” (2002) / Ch. 6
Ch.10 (269-71)
10.23 / Quiz 2
10.25
10.30
11.01 / Culture, Body, Self / Piper, Orlan, Abramovic, Emin, Smith, Gonzales-Torres, Hatoum, Antoni, Margolles, Sierra, Barney, Wiley / Fusco, “Unbearable Weightiness of Art After NAFTA,” (2001)
Said, “The Art of Displacement,” (2000)
Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics (excerpts) (1998)
Margolles,“Santiago Sierra,” (2004)
Siegel, “Nurture Boy,” (1999) / Ch. 7 &
Ch.10 (267-75)
11.06
11.08 / Capitalist, Communist, Former Communist: Soviet, Russia, Cuba & China / Kabokov, Bulatov Moukhin, Mikhailov, Kulik, Brener, Bedia, Elso, KCHO, Wang Guangyi, Huang Yong Ping, Xu Bing, Wenda Gu, Zhang Huan, Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaodong,Zhang Xiaogang, Cao Fei Yang Fudong / Kabokov, Ten Characters, (1989)
Kulik, “Why I have bitten a man,” (2000)
Brener & Schurz, “Anti-technologies of Resistance,” (2000)
Gao et al. China Avant-Garde, (1989)
Zhou, F*** Off, 2000
Liu, notebook, (2012)
Cao, “A Wild Side of Guangzhou,” (2003) / Ch. 8
11.13 11.15
11.20 / Quiz 3
11.27 11.29 / Experience and the Global Present / Neshat, Sikander, Shonibare, Murakami, Mori, Chen Chieh-jen, Yuan Goang-ming, Collins, Jacir,Akunyili Crosby, Anatsui, Wang Jun-Jieh, Dion, Alsoudani,
Hirschhorn, Elahi, Paglen, Bowers, Orta / Daftari, “Shahzia Sikander in Conversation,” 2008)
Said, “Emily Jacir,” (2003)
Murakami, “A Theory of Super Flat Japanese Art.” (2000)
Rhee, “From Goddess to Cyborg…” (2004)
Kerr, “… Mariko Mori’s Techno-Spiritual Vision…” (2015)
Enwezor, “El Anatsui in Conversation,” (2011)
Heck, “Interview with Cory Arcangel,” (2009)
Ranciere, "The Paradoxes of Political Art," (2010)
Hirschhorn, “Where do I Stand, What do I Want?” (2007).
Akunyili Crosby. I Refuse to be Invisible. (2016) / Ch. 9
12.04
12.06 / Ch.11
Ch.10 (275-79)
The ID portion of Quiz 4 will be during Exam Period; Monday Dec 18 at 11:00 or Mon Dec. 11 at 4:00
General Class Policies: Alternative Test Needs: Should you require alternative test format for any reasons, with or without official medical paperwork talk to me at the beginning of the semester. We can find a format to meet your needs. Missed Quizzes/Exams: Alternative dates for exams must be approved and scheduled in advance. Should an emergency prevent you from attending an exam, please come with documentation and we can discuss options. Late Work: Assignment grades will be reduced 1/3 grade per day late. Cell Phones: Please turn the ringers of your cell phones off. Academic Honesty: Unless stated otherwise, you are encouraged to share ideas and information as you write and study. You must, of course, write your own essays, no two papers to be identical in part or whole. When using the writings and thoughts of others cite your sources in footnotes. Internet sources may be used for primary sources only – ie interviews artists writing and need to be footnoted. The Honor Code, “I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this exam/essay” signed, is required on all tests and papers.
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.
You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. The University policy on academic honesty is distributed annually as section 5 of the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Instances of alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential Sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the University. If you have any questions about my expectations, please ask.