Brief description
The restructured Part 1 history course has been designed in the form of two 20-credit thin modules: a core 20 credit lecture module and a 20-credit seminar module available in 10-credit options where students can select either two or four of the special topic seminar options. Students registered for all degree schemes in the School of Art will normally take both courses. The course offers an up-to-date approach to art hsitroy suitable for students from studio practice, art history or otehr subjects and offers a varied learning experience via lectures, seminars, one-to-one, and Computer Assisted Learning, with corresponding forms of assessment.
Aims
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Provide the foundation for all art history modules in the degree scheme and offer a framework of theoretical and historical context for course in studio studies.
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Introduce the basic principles of art hsitroy and visual culture through a syllabus that deals with the general issues through case study and specific subjects.
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Consider how the notion of art and artist has been constructed through specific practices, throguh institutions such as academies of art, and through writing about art.
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Develop an awareness of other models of visual culture outside that of western art traditions.
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Develop a critical understanding of the way periodisation and classificaiton are used in the study of art
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Develop an awareness of different styles of writing on art including popular art history, academic writing and art criticism in newspapers and journals of contemporary art.
General description
Course overview
The course is delivered through one lecture a week in four 5-week sections based on themes that span World Art and make links between the past and very recent work. The module is initiated by a lecture introducing the problem of periods and style categorisation in art history. These issues will be followed up in the four main themes: the Artist, the Body, Landscape and Environment and the Art of the `Other?. Each lecture will focus on a specific issue and each of the four sections will cover a range of historical periods coming up to contemporary art. Each block will be tested at the end of the 5-lecture section (CAL or slide test). There will also be one hour of non- assessed CAL work relating to each section.
Tutorials
Each student will have 2 half-hour individual tutorials to discuss their assessed work. Students should bring with them to the tutorial their portfolio of work including essays, and exercises. These tutorials will also give some feedback on progress in the seminars in Module AH 10220.
Study Skills
There will 2 study skills workshops associated with university CAL provision of study skills
Module Outline
Lectures
First semester
Introductory lecture on periods, styles and 'isms' - core issue modernism MV
The Artist
1. Why Do People Make Art? MV
2. Giorgio Vasari and the Construction of Genius MV
3. The Romantic Temper: Artists' Self-Perception in 19th C. Europe JH
4. The Woman Artist MV
5. Sharks: Public Perceptions of the Modern Artist - Duchamp to Hirst JH
The Body
1. Official Bodies: The Academy and Anatomy SP
2. Ideal Bodies: Venus and her Daughters JD
3. British Bodies: Lucien Freud to Jenny Saville SP
4. Dead Bodies: Photography CW
5. Alternative bodies: Picasso to Louise Bourgeois MV
Second semester
Introductory lecture on the art exhibition - to relate to critical writing exercise MV
Landscape and environment
1. 18th Century Landscape: Picturesque Views and Sublime Prospects SP
2. Heaven on Earth: Spiritualising the Landscape in the Romantic Period JH
3. Far off lands SP
4. Photography and the land CW
5. Shaping the World: Garden Design to Land art JR
The Art of 'the Other'
1. Primitivism and Modernism MV
2. Orientalism and Representations of the Other MV
3. Carpet Trading: Rugs around the World MV
4. Angels and Aliens: Visualising the Celestial and Extra Terrestrial in Religion and Science Fiction JH
5. Exploring Identity: Other artists MV
Reading Lists
Books
Blazwick, I & Wilson, S. (2000)
Tate Modern: the Handbook. London: Tate Publishing
Meecham, P & Sheldon, J. (2000)
Modern Art: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge
Honour, H & Fleming. (1982)
A World History of Art. London: Mcamillan
Fernie, E. (1995)
Art History and its Methods, a critical anthology. London: Phaidon
Schneider Adams, L. (1996)
Methodologies of Art, and Introduction. Oxford: Boulder and Westview
Buck, L & Dodd, P. (1991)
Relative Values. London: BBC Books
Berger, John. (1972)
Ways of Seeing. London: BBC Books
Vasari, Georgio (ed Bull). (1965)
Lives of Artists. London: Penguin Books
Chadwick, W. (1990)
Women, Art and Society. London: Thames and Hudson
Godfrey, T. (1998)
Conceptual Art. London: Phaidon
Martin, PW & Jarvis, R. (1992)
Reviewing Romanticism. Basingstoke: Macmillan
Licht, F. (1980)
The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art. London: J Murray
Thompson, K. (1991)
Angels and Aliens: UFOs and the Mythic Imagination. New York: Fawcett Columbine
Brennan, M. (1987)
Wordsworth, Turner and the Romantic Landscape: A Study of the Traditions of the Picturesque and the Sublime. SC, Camden House
Andrews, M. (1999)
Landscape and Western Art. Oxford University Press
Hill, Susan (ed). (1991)
The Myth of Primitivism, Perspectives on Art. London: Routledge