THE
of THE
SPRING 2005 - COURSE DESCRIPTIONS &
PRELIMINARY
If you
purchase your books through http://www.gc.cuny.edu/bookshop, you
will have these discount prices (through arrangement with Amazon.com and other
retailers) and the Mina Rees Library will receive a 15% donation for the
purchase of library books. Most of
these books, of course, are also available to borrow from the
N.B. The Methods
of Research course is limited to 15
students, other lectures are limited to 20 students and seminars are limited to
12 students. Three overtallies are allowed in each class but written
permissions from the instructor and from the Executive Officer and/or the Deputy
Executive Officer are required.
ART 70000 -
Methods of Research
GC: Wed.,
This course
will examine a variety of methodological approaches associated with the practice
of art history in the twentieth century.
Beginning with formalist interpretations, we will proceed to discuss
iconographical, social/political, psychoanalytic, post-structuralist, feminist, and post-colonialist
approaches. Among those to be
discussed will be Adorno, Barthes, Benjamin,
Preliminary
Clement
Greenberg, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch" (1939) and
"Towards a Newer Laocoon" (1940) in Art in Theory,
1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, 2nd ed. Charles Harrison and Paul
Wood (
Susan Platt,
Art and Politics in the 1930s: Modernism, Marxism, and Americanism (New
York: Midmarch Arts Press, 1999), 219-224,
246-250.
ART 73000 -
Topics In Medieval Art and Architecture: Romanesque Architecture and
Sculpture
Art and the
Formation of Western Identity
GC: Wed.,
This course
explores the powerful architecture, sculpture and monumental painting styles
that lie at the heart of the creation of
ART 75050 -
Topics in Baroque Art and Architecture to 1950: Vermeer and Dutch
Genre
GC: Tues.,
Dutch Genre
Painting is one of the cruxes of the history of art and art history. First
theorized by G. W. F. Hegel as a transition from objective subject matter to
subjective form, elaborated in turn by theorists of aesthetics and art history
including Marcel Proust and Aloïs Riegl, the rise of genre
painting, or scenes of everyday life, landscapes, and still life arguably
embodies the birth of modern art. More recent iconographic scholarship has
focused on ostensible disguised moral messages, whereas Svetlana Alpers has rejected such approaches as incongruously
transferred from Italian history painting (or more pertinently Netherlandish religious themes) to secular scenes of
everyday life, a debate that remains unresolved. Exhibitions have paid
increasing attention to the broad range of genre painting, and the unsurpassed
popularity of Johannes Vermeer has provoked examination of his relation to his
peers, including Carel Fabritius, Gerard Ter Borch, Pieter De Hooch, Gerrit Dou
and Frans Van Mieris. The
latter artists nevertheless remain poorly understood and lamentably
under-researched. This lecture course will trace the origins of genre in Netherlandish painting to its full flowering in the Dutch
Golden Age, address the major debates about its interpretation, and attempt to
formulate a coherent and convincing account of genre painting in all its
diversity and its most powerful expression in Vermeer. The gist of the course
will reside in the intersection of nitty-gritty tasks of establishing the
oeuvres of individual artists (connoisseurship, chronology) and their
interaction (influence) and larger questions of aesthetics: the meaning and
significance of genre painting. Auditors permitted.
Preliminary
Svetlana
Alpers, The Art of
Describing. Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century
(
Albert
Blankert et al. Vermeer (New York,
1988).
An easy read and good introduction to Vermeer
scholarship. A newly revised edition appeared this year and should be
ordered for GC Library.
Sutton,
Peter. Masters of seventeenth century Dutch genre painting
(New York, 1984).
Familiarize
yourself with the painters and their work.
ART 76010 -
Topics in Late 18th and 19th Century Art and Architecture:
Themes from the Fin-de-Siècle
GC: Mon.,
Ill-defined
as neither style nor movement, Symbolism, like Surrealism, which it anticipates
in key ways, warrants new thematic approaches. Topics to be covered include
theories of degeneration; representing genius and madness; classical allegory
and its modernist revision; gender politics and difference; nationalism as
secula
Preliminary
readings:
Elaine
Showalter, Sexual Anarchy, New York, 1990; Daniel Pick, Faces of
Degeneration, New York, 1989; Debora Silverman, Art Nouveau in Fin-de-Siècle
France, Berkeley, 1989.
Text
book: Henri Dorra, Symbolist Art Theories: A
Critical Anthology, Berkeley, 1994.
If possible,
students should see the Fernand Khnopff show currently on view at the
ART 76020 -
Topics in Modern Art: Rêve/Revolution:
Surrealism
GC: Tues.,
This
lecture course will consider Surrealism, mainly French Surrealism, under every
possible aspect. Surrealism and the spell of psychoanalysis; Surrealism and the
urban uncanny; Surrealism’s so-called “techniques”: the dream-image, automatism,
paranoia, mimicry, informe, urban drift, object trouvé; Surrealism and/after the death of painting,
Surrealism’s films; Surrealism and politics (fascism/colonialism/its bodypolitics); Surrealism’s (counter)-exhibitions;
Surrealism in exile; the demise of Surrealism post-WWII. We will be reading André Breton, George
Bataille, Michel Leiris,
Louis Aragon, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Theodor
Adorno, short pieces by Dali, Magritte, and secondary
literature by Rosalind Kraus, Jacqueline Chénieux-Gendron, Susan Suleiman, Hal Foster, Denis Hollier.
ART 76040 -
Topics in Contemporary Art: Issues
of Identity in Contemporary Art
GC: Mon.,
Explores
what is at stake, and for whom, in the decision--by the artist, as well as by
the critic or historian--to enunciate, or not, a distinct subject position,
especially as marked by gender, sexuality, and/or 'race' and ethnicity. Addresses problems surrounding essentialism and the
stereotype. Organized on a case study basis, and taught as a colloquium,
rather than as a traditional lecture course. Auditors are
permitted.
ART 77000 -
Topics in Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture: Mesoamerican
Art
GC:
Wed.,
This course
provides an overview of the diverse arts of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
(
GC:
Thurs.,
African-American
art is a cornerstone in American art enriched by western and nonwestern
influences. From African
cultural retentions evident in the material remnants of enslaved
19th-century Africans in America to the modernisms and postmodernisms
of the 21st Century that reveal multi-textured black cultural
identities, this course investigates the lives and art of African-American
artists significant to the evolution and revolutions of African-America in the
fine arts. Time will be allotted for student
presentations on approved topics. Four (4) auditors
allowed.
Preliminary
Sharon F.
Patton, African-American Art (1998)
Michael
Harris, Colored Pictures: Race &
Visual Representation (2003)
ART 77300 -
Topics in American Art and Architecture:
The Figure in American Art
GC: Wed.,
Difference,
it has been said, is the one thing Americans have in common. Images of the
human figure, whether in painting or sculpture, became a major arena in which
those differences were played out. In this course we examine in depth a series
of key visual documents from Winslow Homer to Duane Hanson which exemplify the
myriad ways in which pictures of men, women, and children acted as lightning
rods for the deepest cultural concerns, surfacing even in the least receptive of
times. At a moment when most Americans wanted to forget about the national
legacy of slavery, for example, sculptors pushed the slave to the forefront of
public sculpture. And in the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, Jacob
Lawrence, Grandma Moses, and Louise Nevelson all
remained preoccupied with the figure in distinct ways. This course
proceeds chronologically, focusing on key works in context.
Requirements: participation in class discussions, examination, and a
research paper. This lecture class is intended as preparation for oral
exam in the field. Five (5)
auditors permitted.
Preliminary
readings:
Frances Pohl,
Framing
ART 79500 -
History of the Motion Picture:
History of Cinema II: 1930s
to the Present
GC: Wed.,
This course
will outline and investigate main trends in world cinema since the 1930s. The course will use a number of case
studies in national cinemas to explore how new aesthetics, technologies,
ideological perspectives, and modes of production and reception have reshaped
and enriched storytelling in feature films. Of particular interest will be the ways
the new cinemas challenge and alter the notion of classical
The course
will emphasize the close reading of films by such major directors as John Ford,
Vittorio de Sica, Stanley
Donen, Agnes Varda, Federico
Fellini, Alain Resnais and
David Lynch. In addition, the
course will pay attention to filmmakers such as Wong Kar-wai (
A number of
recurrent questions will inform the course. What is the role of “authorship” in the
cinema? Why and how do film styles
change? How are films shaped by
their contexts of production and reception? Why do particular film movements or
national cinemas become influential?
How does
Students are
expected to attend all screenings and lectures, to prepare the readings on time,
to be ready to participate in classroom discussions, and to hand in assignments
on the designated dates. There are
two main assignments: a five page
exercise in close textual analysis and a longe
of assigned
materials.
Preliminary
readings:
David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson, Film History: An Introduction,
2nd Ed. (Mcgraw-Hill Education,
2002).
Leo Braudy & Marshall Cohen, eds., Film Theory & Criticism,
6th Ed. (
ART 80020 -
Seminar: Selected Topics in the Art
and Architecture of
GC:
Thurs.,
This course
is an introductory overview of West and Central African, Native American, and
South Pacific Art and Architecture.
About 35 artistic traditions will be covered focusing on both formal
stylistic and contextual analyses of the varied arts from these three
regions.
Requirements: All students are required to attend
class lectures, to write a selected one-page Annotated Bibliography of an
important scholar in the field (50 points possible), to write a ten page
Museum Research Paper (100 points possible) and to take a
Comprehensive Final Exam (150 points possible) during Finals Week in
May. Required Textbook: Native Arts of
ART 85000 -
Seminar: Selected Topics in
European Art and Architecture, 1300-1750:
Classical Mythology in Renaissance and Baroque Art
GC: Thurs.,
This course will examine the myth and literature of classical antiquity as a
primary iconographic component of the visual arts in Renaissance Europe.
Beginning with its literary revival by Boccaccio in
the 14th century, we will trace its rise to visual predominance in the 15th to
17th centuries -- mostly in
Preliminary
reading:
Thomas
DaCosta Kaufmann, The School of Prague: Painting
at the Court of Rudolf II (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1988), chap. 3 part
1, "Allegorical, Mythological, and Religious Painting in Prague," pp.
55-66.
Jean
Seznec, The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The
mythological tradition and it place in Renaissance humanism and
Art (Princeton Univ. Press/Bollingen,
1953 and reprints), Book 1, part 2, chap. 2, "The Reintegration of the
Gods," pp. 184-215.
ART 86040 -
Seminar: Selected Topics in
Contemporary Art: Modern and
Contemporary Memorials: Artistic
Strategies and Audience Response
GC: Wed.,
This course
will consider the history of modern and contemporary memorials since WWII in
terms of commissioning methods and intentions, built solutions (both works by
artists and entire museums), and audience response (including spontaneous
memorials and issues of controversy). There will be meetings with directors of
public art programs who commission memorials. Students will observe actual memorials
in the city, engage their immediate audience, and analyze the range of
responses. Throughout the course we
will be considering the way memory is framed and experienced. Auditors permitted
(up to 5) but will be required to do some work.
Preliminary
reading:
Daniel L.
Schacter, The Seven
Sins of Memory (Houghton Mifflin, 2001)
Constructions
of Memory, Harvard
Design Magazine, Fall 1999
issue
ART 86050 -
Seminar: Selected Topics In
Contemporary Architecture, Urbanism, and Design: From Reconstruction to
Deconstruction: Post-World War II
Architecture
GC: Thurs.,
The course
will explore the redefinition and renewal of Modernism after the war in
Preliminary
readings:
Kenneth
Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical
History (1997) [for those without much background in
architecture].
Joan Ockman, ed., Architecture Culture 1943-1968: A
Documentary Anthology (1993).
K. Michael
Hays, ed., Architecture Theory Since 1968
(1998).
ART 87300 -
Seminar: Selected Topics in American Art and Architecture: Abstract Expressionism
GC: Thurs.,
This course
focuses on the origins and development of Abstract Expressionism in
Preliminary
readings:
Stephen Polcari, Abstract
Expressionism and the Modern Experience,
Ann
Gibson, Abstract Expressionism, Other Politics,
Michael Leja, Reframing
Abstract Expressionism, Subjectivity and Painting in the 1940s,
ART 89000 -
Seminar: Selected topics in the History of Photography: What is
Photography?
GC:
Tues.,
Participants
in this seminar class will seek to define photography's identity through a close
examination of the various attributes considered to be peculiar to it.
Photography has been described by Roland Barthes as
"an anthropological revolution in man's history," a "truly unprecedented" type
of consciousness. "It is the advent of the Photograph," he postulates, "which
divides the history of the world." This seminar aims to test that proposition by
exploring what,
exactly,
photographic consciousness consists of. A history of this consciousness must
consider the specific physical and conceptual characteristics of the
photographic medium as well as the shifting economic, social and political
contexts that have informed the potential meanings and effects of individual
photographs and practices. Accordingly, our seminar will involve an
investigation of the circumstances of photography's emergence into modern
culture, but will also question this investigation's own historical assumptions
(its concepts of identity, origins and essence). The seminar will be an
opportunity to visit archives to examine early examples of daguerreotypes and
paper prints but it will also systematically
address
the basic components of all photographic representation: time, space, indexicality, subjectivity, and reproduction. This will
involve a critical study of related photographic literature, much of it
canonical to the field. As a final project, students will be asked to argue for
their own definition of photography.
Preliminary
*
Geoffrey Batchen, Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography (Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1997).
*
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on
Photography (Hill and Wang, 1980).
ART 89400 -
Seminar: Special Topics in the History of the Motion Picture: Seminar in Film
Theory
GC:
Wed.,
This course
will provide an overview of classical and contemporary film theory. Writers, whose contributions to the
field will be examined, include Eisenstein, Arnheim,
Epstein, Balazs, Bazin,
Merleau-Ponty, and Kracauer,
among the earlier figures, and such contemporary theorists as
Questions
about the structure and function of the filmic “text,” the nature of cinematic
representation and film spectatorship raised by various schools of thought,
including phenomenology, Marxism, semiology,
psychoanalysis, and feminism will be considered.
ART 89400 -
CONT’D
Although
attention is largely on primary theoretical writings, secondary texts and films
that help to contextualize specific theories will be used as well. In addition to participating in class
discussion, students will write several brief essays responding to the readings,
lead discussion of selected readings, and prepare a research project,
culminating in a 12-15 page paper and a seminar
presentation.
SEE
ALSO
FSCP 81000 -
Pageantry and Power: Film as
Historical Narrative
GC:
Thurs,
This 3 credit
course will focus on the role of filmmaker as historian. The historical film links the spectator
to the past in the present. This
course will examine questions associated with the production of meaning in the
historical film narrative, in particular, how do spectacle, performance, and
simulation generate a text that is more than an exercise in symbolic realism or
factual reproduction? We will
examine the process and product of interdisciplinary intersections in
representative films, from the turn-of-the century actualités of Méliès and the
Edison Studio, to Mullan’s The Magdalene Sisters
(2002).
Students will
engage related disciplines, such as psychology, political science, and
literature, among others, while specifically focusing on traditional historical
research and practices in relationship to film history and
theory.
We will
analyze issues involving historical figures, eras, and movements, in
relationship to diverse film genre, the studio “blockbuster,” the traditional
dramatic narrative, and the independent film production. I have not included documentary
film. Films to be
studied, whole or in part.
GC:
Mon.,
Realism is a
key aesthetic and critical category in film studies. This course examines a number of realist
films from the post-war to the present, alongside major theoretical and critical
texts. We will consider films and
realist theories historically. We
will start with a discussion of the question of indexicality in cinema; Andre Bazin’s formulations on the realist vocation of cinema and
how his realist aesthetics accommodates Jean Renoir, neorealist cinema, Orson
Welles and William Wyller. The
second half of the course considers historical representation and the relations
of cinema to extra-textual referents; cinema verite
and its relations to post-war existentialism; the notion of social representativeness and type in Godard and Akerman. The course ends with a discussion of
contemporary forms of realist cinema, in particular Abbas Kiarostami’s reflexive
realism in his Kolker Trilogy--Where is my Friend’s House Life and Nothing But, and Under the Olive
Trees.
Requirements
and grades: two page proposal for
the final paper. Due on the 7th week of class. (15%); Final Paper: Due a week after the last day of class
(20 double spaced pages). You may
use any of the class required o