Module Identifier AH31010  
Module Title CONTEMPORARY ART 2: POSTMODERNISM  
Academic Year 2005/2006  
Co-ordinator Professor John Harvey  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Course delivery Lecture   x 16  
  Seminars / Tutorials   4 x 1hr  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam (seen paper)  50%
Semester Assessment Essay  50%

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module the student should be able to:
1. demonstrate knowledge of the salient traits and evolution of international art during the last twenty years, and the multivalent nature and reflexivity of the art product within a cultural context (Aims: A,B,D)
2. analyse particular art works in order to show an informed awareness of their formal precedence and character, and significance (Aim: C)
3. articulate, assess, and substantiate (orally and in writing) personal opinions, as well as the views of authors and artists dealt with in the module, regarding the nature, issues, and problemmatics of recent art and its dissemination (Aims: C, F, G, H)
4. critique specific modes of textual and artefact-based discussion with a view to demonstrating an intelligent and critical appreciation of modes of contemporary art-discourse.(Aims: C, F, G, H)
Relation to Assessment
Outcomes 1 & 3 will be assessed through an essay that aims to assess a particular and in-depth comprehension of one aspect of the module curriculum;
Outcomes 2 & 4 will be examined through a seen paper that aims to assess a broader comprehension of curriculum content

Brief description

The module is a study of current British, European, and American art from the late 1970s to the present. It proposes that, at the close of the twentieth century, western culture is experiencing a period of heightened historical consciousness. In the visual arts this is expressed in terms of a revival, revision, and commentary upon historical styles. This preoccupation with the past, it is suggested, is indicative either of a time of taking stock as a prelude to the emergence of a new period in art, or of a crisis of direction in contemporary art. The module deals with art as objects resulting from a technical, a stylistic, and an imaginative process, as repositories of value-systems or ideology, and as the subject of issue and debate. It aims to describe some of the definitive characteristics and developments of art today in order for you to understand their position and convictions in relation to it. You will also be examining and comparing ways in which art is discussed and written about in order to comprehend the current critical apparatus and criteria by which it is evaluated, and to sharpen your powers of judgement and debate.

Aims

The module aims to:
A. study British, European, and American art since the late 1970s
B. examine the hypothesis that western culture is undergoing a period of heightened consciousness expressed in terms of a revivalist phenomenon and a crisis in direction
C. deal with art as formal propositions, repositories of value, as the focus of critical writing
D. describe the major definitive characteristics and developments in recent art
E. encourage students to develop convictions regarding the debates surrounding art today
F. cultivate an ability and confidence to examine and compare ways in which art is discussed and written about
G. comprehend the current critical apparatus and criteria by which it is evaluated
H. sharpen students powers of judgement

Content

Recent Figurative Painting
1. Lecture: Beyond the Crisis in Late-Modernism: The New Spirit
2. Lecture: The Postmodern Condition: a Cultural Overview
3. Lecture: Revivalism and Contemporaniety: The New-Classicism
4. Seminar: New-Classicism: Distinguishing Traits
5. Lecture: Tradition and Innovation: British Realism from Sickert to Freud
6. Lecture: 'Neo-Mannerism': Figurative Expressionism
Art Education
7. Lecture: An Academic Question: Artistic Training at the Close of the Twentieth century.
8. Seminar: Designing a Curriculuum for Today
Art-Writing
9. Lecture: Writing about Contemporary Art: Preparing the Module Essay
10. Lecture: Beyond Criticism: The New Art History
11. Seminar: Francis Bacon: Composing a Rejoinder To Paul Johnson
Abstraction
12. Lecture: The New-Modernism: Abstract Painting since 1970
13. Lecture: Beyond Abstraction: Case Study
14. Lecture: 'Off the Wall': Neo-Minimalist and New-Conceptualist Sculpture
15. Lecture: Beyond Minimalism - The New Music
Contemporary Issues
16. Lecture: `Pop Goes the Easel' (Reprise): The `Brit Art' Sensation
17. Seminar: Art or Painting?
18. Lecture/Seminar: Case Study 1: A Contemporary Artist talks about Their Work
19. Lecture/Seminar: Case Study 2: A Contemporary Artist talks about Their Work
20. Lecture: Beyond the Crisis in Post-Modernism: Some Speculations

Transferable skills

Reading Lists

Books
Victor Burgin (1986) The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Post-Modernity London: Macmillan,
Herschel B. Chipp (1968) Theories of Modern Art Los Angeles/London: University of California Press,
Thomas Crow et al, (1987) Endgame: Reference and Simulation in Recent Painting and Sculpture, Boston:ICA
Francis Franscina and Charles Harrison (1984) Modern Art and Modernism: Critical Anthology first published 1982, London, The Open University/Harpers and Row
Francis Frascina, Pollock and After (1985) The Critical Debate, London: Harper and Row
Peter Fuller (1980) Beyond the Crisis in Art London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative
Tony Godfrey (1986) The New Image: Painting in the 1980s Oxford: Phaidon
Charles Jencks (1987) Post-Modernism: The New Classicism in Art and Architecture London: Academy Editions,
Edward Lucie-Smith (1985) American Art Now Oxford: Phaidon
Edward Lucie-Smith et al, (1985) The New British Painting Oxford: Phaidon
Corinne Robins (1984) The Pluralist Era, Icon Editions, New York, Harper and Row
Brandon P. Taylor, (1987) Modernism, Post-Modernism, Realism: A Critical Perspective on Art Winchester School of Art Press

Journals
Artforum, Artscribe, Art Monthly, Block, Flash Art, Modern Painters

Articles
Andreas P. Papadakis (ed.), (1987) Abstract Art and the Rediscovery of the Spiritual Art and Design, 3, nos. 5/6
Andreas P. Papadakis (ed.), (1992) Contemporary Painting Art and Design, 7, nos. 3/4
Andreas P. Papadakis (ed (1988) The New Modernism: Deconstructionist Tendencies in Art Art and Design, 3, nos. 3/4,
Andreas P. Papadakis (ed.), (1987) The Post-Avant Garde: Painting in the Eighties, Art and Design, 3, nos 7/8,

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6